• clouds,  landscape,  Mary Oliver,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  poems,  poetry,  sunrises

    Predawn Pinks

    Predawn pinks this morning

    Praying

    It doesn’t have to be
    the blue iris, it could be
    weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
    small stones; just
    pay attention, then patch

    a few words together and don’t try
    to make them elaborate, this isn’t
    a contest but the doorway

    into thanks, and a silence in which
    another voice may speak.

    Mary Oliver, from her book Thirst
  • clouds,  landscape,  quotes,  sunrises

    Sunrise over a lush green meadow

    “Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions.”

    Peace Pilgrim

    I must admit I am possessed by possessions. Not all of them but some. It’s sad at how much stuff I’ve acquired over the years are things I really did not need. Wanted is probably a more appropriate word and still is. However, in recent years I’ve made changes to eliminate possessions that have outlived their usefulness or were never really useful. I have a ways to go before I can say I’m free. It’s a work in progress.

  • clouds,  landscape,  mountains,  Plants,  quotes,  sunrises,  trees

    All a Truth

    Sunrise at Pineridge Natural Area

    “What if everything you have been taught is all a lie and everything you feel is all a truth?”

    Nikki Rowe

    There was a time in my youth when the things I was taught did not seem to fit with my feelings. That feeling came from somewhere within, a place I was not that familiar with, yet. Later I came to know it as intuition, a gut feeling, voice of my authentic self, the ground of my very being or whatever we choose to call it. I am now aware that when I was younger I was not taught the whole truth in school and church while expected to believe what I was taught. A controlling society does that whether it be a parent, a church, a government or an educational system.

    I’m learning the importance of listening and trusting my intuition. There needs to be a connection between what I think, what I’m told to be truth and what my intuition tells me. With so much access to information it is vital for me to listen to the voice within. Connecting these together has given me much better results in knowing my truth, making decisions while not living to someone else’s truth.

  • landscape,  quotes,  sunrises

    Sloth

    Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today.

    Lucius Annaeus Seneca

    For years I lived in sloth, almost a depressive place. A turn around took place about 20 years ago. I now can find the motivation to crawl out of bed before sunrise to drive out and greet today’s sunrise. If I put it off then I cannot expect an image of yesterday’s sunrise today. Can’t say I have the same motivation about cleaning the bathroom but its improved.

  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes,  sunrises

    The New Story

    “We are between stories. The old story is no longer effective. Yet we have not learned ‘the new story.’ We are talking only to ourselves. We are not talking to the rivers, we are not listening to the wind and stars. We have broken the great conversation. By breaking that conversation we have shattered the universe.”

    Thomas Berry

    I talk to birds. I also listen to birds. The above quote made me think about my old story which said I could only talk at birds and they could only talk at me. Having a conversation was impossible. I’m realizing how that story is evolving for me. Although birds and I do not speak one anothers language, I wonder, is there a conversation going on?

    Conversation happens between humans without words. Many will attest to having conversations with their pets. So, can there be a conversation with all of creation, without words? When making eye contact with the cottontail, is that a form of conversation? Can there be a conversation going on between the wind and trees as they dance together. Is the sweet scent of honeysuckle a form of conversation with all who will pay attention? And, could it be that just paying attention and observing creation is a form of conversation? I do not have a solid answer to those questions but at this stage of my life, I am experiencing conversations with creation at new levels, a conversation that goes deeper than human words. Maybe, this is the new story!

  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  reflections,  sunrises

    Predawn Reflections

    About a half hour after taking this predawn image a car arrived in the parking area with four young kids in it. Two of them got out and walked towards the lower parking area and stopped to chat with me. The young man, named Tyler, commented on the nice camera I had then asked what camera I would recommend. I told him to use his phone.

    There was a meadowlark perched on a bush near us, singing away. While, along the water’s edge was a Great Blue Heron getting in some early morning fishing. When I pointed these two birds out to them the young man told me I reminded him of his grandpa. Now, was that because his grandpa is a bird watcher or because I look old enough to be his grandpa? This is a trick question.

  • Avian,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes

    Happy to see me…

    The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness.

    Robin Wall Kimmerer

    Magpies do not sing as a robin or meadowlark, they chatter. Constantly. As soon as I arrive they will land on the fence in front of me while still in my car and jabber away, and sometimes making good eye contact. I’m going with the assumption they are happy to see me. Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July!