• 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!

  • animals,  natural areas,  poems,  poetry,  Reservoir Ridge Natural Area,  writing/reading

    Your True Self

    A deer at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area

    “It’s not possible to save the world by trying to save it. You need to find what is genuinely yours to offer the world before you can make it a better place. Discovering your unique gift to bring to your community is your greatest opportunity and challenge. The offering of that gift — your true self — is the most you can do to love and serve the world. And it is all the world needs.”

    Thomas Berry
  • quotes,  writing/reading

    Integral

    The Earth is so integral in the unity of its functioning that every aspect of the Earth is affected by what happens to any component member of the community. Because of its organic quality, Earth cannot survive in fragments….The integral functioning of the planet must be preserved.”

    Thomas Berry
  • Avian

    Bluejay

    Bluejay
    Bluejay

    “We see quite clearly that what happens to the nonhuman happens to the human. What happens to the outer world happens to the inner world. If the outer world is diminished in its grandeur then the emotional, imaginative, intellectual, and spiritual life of the human is diminished or extinguished. Without the soaring birds, the great forests, the sounds and coloration of the insects, the free-flowing streams, the flowering fields, the sight of the clouds by day and the stars at night, we become impoverished in all that makes us human.” 

    Thomas Berry