Late winter noon: slack tide, brilliant sun flashing off the water. An eagle glides in lazy circles above the Strait, around and around, spiraling ever higher, its grace dissolving into a speck, until it melds with the bright blue sky. I know it’s there, ascending, but my eyes can no longer distinguish the shape from its element—bird and air are one. I pull ever-larger volumes of this air into my lungs, as if I might draw into my own body some of this alchemy. As if I might magically lift off from earth with as much ease, as if I might soar as high and also vanish into rarefied strata of light and prayer.
Continue reading...26. February 2009
What is it about freshly fallen snow that is so alluring? Few things in nature are so purely white, so symbolic of beginnings, of things untainted. To a writer it is the blank page beckoning for insights. To a painter, the bare canvas awaiting inspiration. But most of all, it is the real alchemy of snow that delights. To watch moisture-laden clouds release these ice crystals, which then drift down to earth in such dizzying fashion, is to recall the snow days of childhood and my first sled, all shiny red metal and varnished wood and the steep streets of Portland that I dared go down.
Continue reading...25. February 2009
Yesterday was the new moon, though it is never visible on that day. It rises with the sun and arcs above us all day long, then invisibly slips away in the sun’s gaudy shadow. The photo above is a fragment of a rock scallop that I love because its crescent shape reminds me of the new moon, yet is substantial and tangible. I lovingly call myself a Lunatic, because I’m devoted to observing the moon. Fortunately, living so far from city lights I get to witness many lunar spectacles.
Continue reading...24. February 2009
A magical visitor is expected tonight, the Comet Lulin, making it’s last swing by us as it zooms out of our solar system. A green mass of ice and gas, it is due low in the late night sky. While I wait I will meditate on the vast expanse above me. Living as I do so far from cities, my nighttime sky show is dense and glorious. After a spate of cloudy/foggy nights, at midnight it is inky moonless dark and as clear as freshly Windexed windows. The San Juan Islands are dotted with lights, and Anacortes glows in the background. All the usual beacons and lighthouses are on duty—old friends I miss when weather keeps us apart.
Continue reading...23. February 2009
Words to inspire: “I put a capital N on nature and call it my church.” ~Frank Lloyd Wright
Continue reading...22. February 2009
I’ve joined the haiku group on Twitter and it has revived a long held love of the form. Haiku is a Japanese poetry form that traditionally is written in three lines of 5 / 7 / 5 syllables, though many people do not adhere to that rule. Twitter, with it’s 140 character limit is the ideal [...]
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Click on any of the following links for more information:
What Is Meditation?
How To Meditate in 5 Easy Steps
Setting the Mood to Meditate
Benefits of Meditation
Expanding Your Current Meditation Practice
Why I Meditate and How It Affects Me
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where I enjoy personifying various inhabitants and aspects of the natural world. My most recent Tweets are in the box below.
27. February 2009
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