This is a beautiful picture with a great quote. We are all stars in our own ways. When we take time and are present, the stardom is revealed.
Quote of the day – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Voice of The Inanimate
Last night, I pressed Our Grandmother from Eddie Two Hawks. In my comments, I mentioned Wendell Berry and the way I understand place in his writing. Wendell Berry’s work is used by the deep ecology movement which in many ways is not a movement. It is a way of life. For years, I critiqued the environmental movement as a corporate movement with many of the same characteristics of the business they criticized. Wendell Berry, similar to all good farmers, values the land. He speaks about as if it were living. It is not separate from us, but a part of us. When I think about this, it makes local and community environmental work incredibly important. It decries the corporate pillaging that goes on both sides of the equation.
Wendell Berry speaks of the land as a living and animate thing. This makes sense. The plants we grow happen in the healthy, which comes from the same root as whole, ecosystem. When we see ourselves embedded in this ecosystem and not overloads, it changes our relationship with nature. Alex commented the word nature comes from a word meaning birth. When certain parts of the ecosystem are damaged made, unwhole and unhealthy, the birth itself cannot be healthy.
Each contribution we make adds something to the world we live in. It is when we see ourselves as part of the world and nature that we make the greatest contributions to community. We are stewards, serving the world in loving ways. This is another analogy for the thinking of the world as grandmother. We treat our grandmothers with love.
Summer Lovin’
Water, even in waterfalls, has a quieting and calming effect. I enjoy being near water for that reason. The Mark Twain quote summarizes how I end up feeling in that dream and even in the busiest moments alone.
Our Grandmother
This is a wonderful quote. When we think of our grandmothers, we think of someone we want to treat with respect, dignity, and integrity for their wisdom. Mother Earth is the same. She possesses so much wisdom that when we are open and see ourselves as being one with the world we receive that wisdom.
Today, Kathy and I talked about place the Wendell Berry speaks about it. When we feel we live in a place, it means something profound to us. We think of those places not as out there, but very much in us and us in that place. We find community in those places because we have much in common with the others who live, animate and inanimate.
Innocence
We do lose our sense of innocence and wonder at some point. It is hard to bring it back, but not impossible. Going for a walk and just walking, seeing the world through new eyes is a way to explore and recapture that innocence.
At what age did we lose the ability to be exuberant without the fear of what others would think of us? When did we stop being wonderfully expressive in our joy without a care in the world? We’ve become adults who have lost or repressed the ability to feel and express our emotions purely, freely and openly. I love seeing little children show their sweet joy without a care in the world. It’s pure and beautiful. My intent was to take a picture of the little guy sitting on the rabbit but just as I pressed the button I captured a different moment in time; a little boy thrilled about getting ready to go for a ride on the carousel.
Photo taken in Bryant Park, New York.
HIROSHIMA, JAPAN IMAGES: THE SIMPLEST THINGS IN LIFE
HIROSHIMA, JAPAN IMAGES: THE SIMPLEST THINGS IN LIFE.
I mention my favourite poets regularly i.e. Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry and want to mention my favourite prose writer Paulo Coehlo. This post begins with a quote from Manuscript Found in Accra asking we let the simplest things reveal there extraordinary nature. The photography underscores this point.
It is in the ordinary the extraordinary is revealed is one of my favourite quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh. When I am mindful, present, and attentive, I sense the extraordinary I rush past in my haste to get to the next moment.
Tree of poems (1)
This poem about life’s poetry and living as a poem is a beautiful reminder we are writing a free verse with our lives. We never stop writing and editing the work at hand. It is what makes being and becoming human a literary masterpiece.
Trilingual post: English, Italiano, Română
the poem is a mountain,
an ocean, a temple, a hospital,
a tavern,
a hotel, a road, a tree
and never a wall
my life so far
is just a verse
from a poem with too many grammatical typos
and when it will be passed on clean, I will be deleted –
this poem is the name of all people on the planet
the poem is a mountain,
an ocean, a temple, a hospital, a tavern, a hotel …
a cemetery
without pits – here, the lyrics are burnt offering
– the phoenix of sigh, of smile and regrets
Albero delle poesie (1)
il poema è una montagna,
un oceano, un tempio, un ospedale,
un’osteria,
un albergo, una strada, un albero
e mai un muro
.
la mia vita finora
è solo un versetto
da un poema con troppi errori grammaticali
e quando verrà passato…
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The Story of Why the Raven is Black as shared by bear Medicinewalker
The other day I re-blogged the myth of Sedna. Here is another indigenous myth about explaining why the raven is black. I found students loved to hear these stories told as part of the oral tradition by an elder. It added a quality to the story that is not always there in reading.
Walking Meditation
We attended a wedding yesterday and it was late when I got home. I prepared this post in advance and took a few minutes today to post it. After this, I begin or re-begin sabbath, which was largely a Saturday and Sunday event this week.
When the boys were young, we would get up on weekends and go for a walk. The boys wanted to hold our hands. One son always checked my hands out. He often started with my left hand and I felt his fingers checking my palm. Not finding what he wanted he moved to the right side and completed the search. My right hand is scarred from various events and scar tissue built up leaving a bump. As we walked, our son would hold that hand and now and again rubbed the scar and bump. I don’t know if it was that reassured him, he was reassuring me, a combination of those things, or none of the above. In those moments, it was easy to sense being, linked together and holding hands.
In today’s world, we hurry to get somewhere. It is not clear where somewhere is and we are victims to trying to get out of this moment. Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us we should walk peacefully, not thinking of arriving anywhere but here. When we do this, we walk in peace and walking is peace. In holding hands, we touch each moment and kiss Earth with our feet. We feel Earth through and in our feet, its scars and make it safer for us and Earth.
We see commercials with people holding hands singing about making the world a better place. In hand-holding, we are linked physically and united. It is not an abstraction as we feel other people and Earth in linking and walking.
Take my hand.
We will walk.
We will only walk.
We will enjoy our walk
without thinking of arriving anywhere.
Walk peacefully.
Walk happily.
Our walk is a peace walk.
Our walk is a happiness walk.
Then we learn
that there is no peace walk;
that peace is the walk;
that there is no happiness walk;
that happiness is the walk.
We walk for ourselves.
We walk for everyone
always hand in hand.
Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom under our feet.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Print on Earth your love and happiness.
Earth will be safe
when we feel in us enough safety.
Don’t Cry
Dr. Seuss was and remains a great teacher for children and adults alike. There is a gentle reminder in this quote to recall that life is transient, happening one-moment-at-a-time.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 