We Are So Tiny

 

“”Natural boundaries are not evidenced when we view the earth from space.  Fanatical ethnic or religious or national identifications are a little difficult to support when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars.”

Carl Sagan

I worry about our country and our planet these days – especially these days – but am taking time to look at photos of planets in our solar system, reading about the cosmos and listening to Neil Degrasse Tyson, who for me boils down the immensity of Space and Time into something fathomable and understandable to my tiny brain.  Our species has been ruled by despots many times in many places and yet our species lives on.  Some folks better than others, but we live on.  Once our planet’s resources are used up by said despots our planet will pitch a tantrum and our time as a species will draw to a close and the insects will take over.  We are already knee deep into the 6th Extinction, I believe.  It’s an interesting time to be a human.

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Church in Nature

 

 

“We need to find God,

and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness.

God is the friend of silence.

See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence;

see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…

We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

Mother Teresa

 

I’ve always contended that Nature is my Church.  I’ve tried organized religion and rarely find Spirit in the “house of God.”  Instead, I find Him in the silence of my soul when I talk with Him, when I watch His creatures in the wild and I observe the variations of this beautiful natural cathedral He created we call Earth.  However, I must confess that I also find Him in the ancient musics like Georgian chants, Latin hymns of my father-in-laws Episcopalian faith, Native American wooden flutes and the choirs of children.  Music transcends, and there’s something about not being able to understand the words that lend a mysticism.  I think about these things over the Christmas holiday.

 

“Ocean is more ancient than the mountains,

and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time.”

H. P. Lovecraft

Fantastical creatures of the deep ocean are continually being discovered as technological advances are made.  What more may we discover?  At the rate we are clearing rainforests and polluting our oceans and leveling mountains we may lose more species than we’ll ever experience.  Species are growing extinct before they’re even found.  What will it take to make humans stop and think what our presence, our action does to this Earth, our home planet?  I, for one, fear for our planet’s future.

Send Love

 

Spiderwort 2015

Today, sending you all flowers and love through cyberspace.  Please love each other.

The Earth, crying

 

Rill marks, 2015

Rill marks are those rivulets of sea water streaming back into the sea at low tide.  During high tide the ocean is smushed into the beach, filling the spaces between sand and grain with moisture.  The beach, used to this assault takes it all in, as accepting of it as a mother to a insistent child.  The child will not be denied so the mother deals and absorbs.  When the child takes its nap the mother weeps out her frustration as she looks at the child with love.  The Earth weeps tears after the assault only to take it all over again.  Such is the circle of Life.

Peace

 

Soft sunrise 2013

I confess to being fearful these days.  Not worrying about myself but worrying for our planet and our children and grandchildren.  What happens to this planet in the near future will effect future generations and then some.  We no longer have a steward of the earth in the White House.  Our progressive country should be investing in clean energy and planning ahead, not looking behind or in our wallets.  Plan for the people, for the future.  My head is not stuck in the sand and I will fight but my heart is heavy.  I hope these soft beach images help you as much as they do me.  Peace.

We are Part of It

 

 

“Physically and spiritually, we all are woven into the living processes of the Earth.  We take part in – as science now tells us – a planet-sized living system.  Our breathing, our acting, our thinking arise in interaction with our shared world.  Our own hearts constantly beat out the cosmic rhythm within us.  We cannot escape our involvement any more than we can escape breathing the air that has traveled from plants thousands of miles away.

The mountains, I become part of it…

The herbs, the fir tree, I become a part of it.

The morning mists, the clouds, the gathering waters,

I become a part of it.”

 

Source:

Earth Prayers From Around the World; Edited by Elizabeth Robert and Elias Amidon

 

 

 

Love our Earth.

 

Rainbow 2014

“How strange and wonderful is our home, our earth,

with its swirling vaporous atmosphere,

its flowing and frozen climbing creatures,

the croaking things with wings that hang on rocks

and soar through the fog, the furry grass, the scaly seas.

How utterly rich and wild

yet some among us has the nerve,

the insolence, the brass, the gall to whine

about the limitations of our earthbound fate

and yearn for some more perfect world beyond the sky.

We are none of us good enough for the world we have

Edward Abbey

Grandfather

 

Cochina Rocks at Fort Fisher, late afternoon

Look at our brokenness.

We know that in all creation only the human family has strayed from the Sacred Way.

We know that we are the ones who are divided and we are the ones who must come back together to walk in the Sacred Way.

Grandfather,

Sacred One,

Teach us love, compassion, and honor.

That we may heal the earth

And heal each other.

Ojibway Prayer