January's Deepest Cold

 

 

       the ice is silent in January's

 deepest cold

 only the geese and shadows foretell

Delicate

Look on this,

the One Great Web of Being,

and know how deeply you and I are connected,

how delicate and flexible the bonds,

how barely visible the threads 

that link us, each to each.

~Rumi~

Change

       As humans we grow to understand that change is inevitable. And with luck, as the years go by, we get a little better at dancing through the inevitable shifts of circumstances. But along with that increasing flexibility comes a paired awareness, that less and less of life is under our control; that all we cling to now may eventually be taken away; that through each change brings a gift, the necessary adjustments may well prove very difficult.
 The board in the above image has been in place for almost forty years. It bridges the gap between our beloved summer home and our neighbors. It was placed there to give a short cut between the two proprieties. It is now gone after being washed away in the September, 2013 flood that ravaged much of the front range of the Colorado Rockies. I realize that change is inevitable, but I will surely miss seeing that old moss ridden board that linked neighbor to neighbor. Notice the quite peaceful stream that quietly lifts the soul to stillness and tranquility, and the raging stream out of control and full of intent. Metaphorically, I see the connection of this stream to our human lives and emotions. I realize nature can bring us into stillness, as well as, plunge us into the depths of awareness that keeps us ever mindful of how fragile life is. Even though my moss ridden board is gone it really is still there. It is still there because it resides in a place of love.

Face of the Week

          How could one not love this happy face!  This is Rusty, a greeter at one of the local shops in Grand Lake, Colorado. I love the expression in his eyes, as well as, the smile I perceive Rusty displays.

Food for Thought

             
      
      When we loosen the grip of conceptual mind on our experience of seeing, all sorts of possibilities for new beginnings arise. The world is full of magical things, patiently awaiting for our senses to grow sharper.  Sometimes I think it is helpful for me to delete my preference file for a while, and begin to see non conceptually. The surreal image above reminds me to be open to what I see, not being weighed down by liking or disliking. To be able to move away from what I expect into the realm of being open to what is. Richard Rohr, a contemplative author and priest, often talks about the dualistic mind in which dualistic thinking is the “well-practiced pattern of knowing most things by comparison. And for some reason, once you compare or label things (that is, judge) you almost always conclude that one is good and the other is less good or even bad. The world almost always presents itself as a paradox, a contradiction. In Ken Wilber's book No Boundary he says, "Most of our “problems of living,” then, are based on the illusion that the opposites can and should be separated and isolated from one another . . .  Liberation is not freedom from the negative, but freedom from the pairs altogether . . . In Western terms, the discovery of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is . . .  the state of realizing “no opposites” and “not-two-ness, but of oneness.

                      

Face of the Week

          A new addition on this blog. Hopefully each week I will feature the face of a precious dog, someone's "precious dog." This sweetie was taken at an intersection while waiting for the light to change. As all dogs do hanging halfway out the window, this pup was enjoying the "ride."

The Beauty of Cold

        Last week as I was going our the side door of the garage this window was the most fascinating and beautiful sight to encounter on a sub zero day. It brings to mind a quote from the book of Job in which Job says, "I heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes have seen thee."
                                              ~Job 42:5~

        We can hear of the hearing, but it is the daily encounters with grace that is at the core of His presence.

Simple Appreciation

 We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. How a simple tub of ice can become a place for appreciation and reflection.
 
  I often think about the way of life hundreds of years ago. How simple, but yet how difficult by today's standards. How do we as a society complain when our way of living is interpreted by storms, inconveniences, or just finding our comfort zone replaced by a sudden disaster by what ever means. Our ancestors relied on ingenuity, self preservation and careful planning. A simple thing as ice was such a precious commodity, and ways of preserving it took careful attention and a lot of work. Often times ice structures needed to be built just to be able to have what we today take for granted. I remember seeing at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello a five foot deep cave  in which ice could be preserved into the early summer by adding straw and blankets to help preservation of the cold commodity. Which at this time in history was a sure luxury. At an 1800's ranch in Colorado, an ice house was built just to be able to have ice tea in spring and early summer! The image below is such a structure just to house blocks of ice.

 

 I must be ever mindful of the gifts that I have, and be grateful for all of the simple things that make life convenient, but most of all to be mindful of the needs of others. 

Sturnus vulgaris

 

 

 

                  "If you stay close to nature, to its simplicity to the small things hardly noticeable they become great and immeasurable."

                                                   ~Rainer Maria Rilke~

 

    Immeasurable is an understatement! The European Starling species number over 200 million in the United States alone. It is a bird that lives in large communal roosts. Seen here in winter plumage. This bird was introduce to North America in the late 1800's. Often an abundant pest in city parks, suburbs, and in my trees!

 

New Year 2014

           Year's end is neither an end or a beginning, but a going on with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Cheers to a new year and another chance to get it right.