Posts in Category: The Generous Eye
Water dancer. Happy Sunday!
Snowy Egret, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
Snowy Egrets dance on the water when hunting fish. They lift off just enough so they can flit from spot to spot, just touching their feet on the water to pursue fish across a pond…and then pounce when they catch up. It is a fascinating and beautiful action to watch, the white birds with bright yellow feet (yellow slippers we birder’s call them), slim and graceful, dancing across the water.
Walking on the water is, of course, one of Jesus’ more famous miracles. He did it in a storm on the Lake of Galilee while his disciples in a boat feared for their lives. The gospel says “walked”, but I wonder, with the Snowy Egret in mind, if “danced” might be closer. I wonder if Jesus danced with the waves of the storm. I hope he did, graceful and wonderful as the Snowy Egret.
One of things about the generous eye is its willingness to believe in miracles when they happen, “right before our eyes,” and the tendency to see the miracles in even in the common happenings in this world. Isn’t the Snowy Egret dancing on water a miracle in its own right. I certainly can not analyze the physics behind it, or image how it is done from a mechanical and aerodynamic stand-point. I am amazed every time I see it. Amazed and delighted. I like living in a world where Snowy Egrets dance on water. It is good to remember, when the politics and stormy troubles of life in the world get to be too much, that once upon a time Jesus walked on water in the storm, and somewhere, even now, there is an Egret dancing on the waves.
Happy Sunday!
Cherry Chickadee. Happy Sunday!
Black-capped Chickadee, Kennebunk Maine
Just yesterday I posted about the acrobatic Chickadees at the feeder, and yesterday they were back, along with Titmice, Goldfinches, Nuthatches, Juncos, and Bluebirds, to continue their show around the back deck feeders. There is nothing more cheerful than a Chickadee. They are bold enough so my presence on the deck while they are feeding does not disturb them and it certainly seems as though nothing can get them down. Always busy. Always active and alert. Always poised and confident. Always, to all appearances, cheerful.
With all that is going on in the world right now, I feed the need to channel the chickadee’s cheerfulness. In fact, I woke this morning full of hope…full of good cheer. I don’t know exactly why, but I am certainly thankful. My Day Poem yesterday was about the Woman’s March protests that took place all across the country, and, while I do not agree with some of the things espoused (Choice is much too complex and troubling an issue to put up on a placard), I did and do appreciate the energy…the “pro” in protest, and the testimony to good will and generosity that the movement exemplifies.
If I were to make a protest sign it would be something like this.
I choose life
(and life for all that lives)
I choose hope
(hope that carries us all toward good)
I choose joy
(in service to my fellows and all that lives)
I choose love
While that might be a bit heavy, philosophically, for a chickadee to carry, it is what I imagine the chickadee’s sign might also say. It is a cheerful message. Poised and confident. It is a “pro” message, not an anti message, and is, therefore, right in the spirit of true protest.
I woke with that sign, if not in my hand, at least in my heart and mind. I woke to the realization that no one can take my faith in life, my hope, my joy, or my love. They are my creator’s gift to me, knit into my bones, renewed by faith in Jesus Christ. And I woke to realize that, no matter what they had on their signs, there are a whole lot of other people in this country and this world who share that generosity of spirit (whether they share my faith or not) and that generosity can not, and will not, be put down. My hope for the next four years is that the movement that embraces Bernie Sanders Revolution, Occupy, the Woman’s March, the Obama legacy, and so much more, will find a clear voice…a pro voice, never an anti voice…that affirms life, hope, joy, and love. If that comes to pass, then what people will remember about the next four years is not Trump and his silver spoon henchmen, but the way people of good will rose up to take our country, and our lives, back.
And it begins with the cheerfulness of the Chickadee. Happy Sunday!
That tree… Happy Sunday!
Pine Plantation, Alwive Pond Reserve, W. Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light.” Jesus
Sometimes it is hard to the that tree, and sometimes it is just too hard not to be.
To the generous eye it is all one. God is a the God of infinite variety. We treasure each tree in its difference, and treasure the difference in each tree.
Happy Sunday!
Birds of a feather. Not. Happy Sunday! Happy New Year.
American Robin and Cedar Waxwing, Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I went looking for Eagles at Roger’s Pond Park in Kennebunk Maine yesterday, New Year’s Eve. I saw one there last New Year’s, and, since we had had heavy snow the night before, I had high hopes. Of course, all I found were American Robins and Cedar Waxwings…plenty of both…feeding in the many berry bushes along the edge of the parking lot. Since they were after the same berries, it made for some close encounters. 🙂 Perhaps because there are still plenty of berries to go around, though the species are about as different as different allows, there was no conflict. They were just busy feeding, close together.
So I begin the new year and this Sunday morning with a reflection on “just all getting along”. If Robins and Cedar Waxwings can do it…certainly we humans can, don’t you think? I know, that is pretty simplistic and we are a much more complicated species, but still, the principle is sound. And in the end, as the birds know, it takes a lot more energy to fight, than it does to feed…and while you are fighting no feeding is getting done. First things first. As long as there is plenty to go around, good bird sense says we just get along.
And there’s the rub. Birds do not have the capacity (we think) to imagine a future where there is not enough to go around. They are supremely confident, each day they find food, that tomorrow there will be food as well…or actually, they probably don’t think in terms of today and tomorrow…they live in the now. Anyway, it is our lack of faith that there is, and will be, enough to go around that drives us to conflict…not, certainly, the actual shortage, but the fear. There are so many stories that testify that when there is actually not enough to go around, very often our better nature kicks in, and we share what little there is. No, it is the fear of not having enough tomorrow that drives most conflict, not hunger but the fear of being hungry. In other words, the lack of faith. I shared recently Jesus’s example of the birds of the air, and how we should be like them, and not doubt that God will take care of us. And, again, the birds can teach us…this time to just get along. And it is based on the same faith. If I know that God will take care of me tomorrow and forever, then there is no need to covet what my neighbor has…there is no need for conflict. We can just all get along.
Yes, that is simplistic, and I might have another attitude if I were actually hungry (though I can hope I would not), but it is a place to start. Have faith. Trust in a good and loving God above all. Like the birds feeding in berry bushes, lets make it our business this new year to just get along.
Happy Sunday!
Under the winter pines. Happy Sunday!
Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. Wells, Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
It snowed all day yesterday. After clearing the drive (lunch and a rest) I decided to brave the snow covered roads at least as far as Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters where I was pretty sure I could get in to park and walk in the snowy woods. I was all suited up for the adventure…longjons base layer to high snow boots and a fleece lined parka. I took my umbrella as I hoped to take some pictures and I wanted to keep the camera relatively dry.
The woods were quiet. I was the only one foolish enough to brave the roads and the unplowed Rachel Carson driveway. The light was subdued. Snow fell steadily, in big flakes, to continue to fill the wood. Every tree and bush carried its burden of white. It was…I am tempted to say “magical”, but I don’t, on principle believe in magic.
We hear a lot about “magical thinking” today. Many people seem to believe that results can be achieved without effort if you just know the right thing to say. And many more seem willing to believe that our leaders will be able to achieve what they want, and have promised, just by saying it so and waving a hand (or wand as the case may be). And apparently there are those who want to be deceived by slight of hand, for the entertainments’ sake. They find it amusing, and admire the skill of the trickster. If you stop to think about it, magical thinking explains a lot about what has happened recently in American politics.
So “magical” is out as a way of describing the silent woods with the snow falling. Even this slightly other-worldly “under the snowy pines” scene. We need another word for what the generous eye sees. It has to catch the sense of awe…wonder…the sense that we are experiencing something out of the ordinary, beyond ordinary…the sense we are glimpsing the work of forces and intelligence larger than we are. It has to imply that we are touching the divine. And yet none of the words suggested: awesome, wonderful, extraordinary, supernatural, divine…at least in common usage, quite catch my meaning either. Maybe all of them together, but no one alone. If I were writing this in German I could just string them all together into one long unpronounceable word…or in English I could hyphenate them, or use the modern “/” (as in awesome/wonderful/extraordinary…which basically says I don’t know which word to use.) Though it still is not quite right, as it depends on this contrast with “magical” for part of the meaning, “blessed” or “full of blessing” comes close. The silent snowy woods with the snow still falling in big flakes was full of blessing.”
But then, everything we see is if we look with the generous eye. Happy Sunday!
Titmouse. Happy Sunday!
Tufted Titmouse, back deck feeding station, Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
Yet another shot from my productive moments with the mixed feeding flock at the back deck feeding station the other day. The Tufted Titmouse is the Eastern and New England variety of the Titmouse clan, and a common bird at our feeders all year long. Titmice are perky birds at the worst of times…alert, apparently cheerful, and active. The crest helps with the impression, but there is no disguising the attitude. This bird, small as it is, appears ready to take on whatever comes…confident and hopeful at the same time.
Jesus, as he is recorded in the Bible, only rarely used wildlife in his teachings. But he did use birds…as an example of the attitude toward life we, as children of God, should adopt. And it is exactly the Titmouse brand of confidence and hope, cheerful expectation, that Jesus taught his deciples to value. We should, he said, take a lesson from the birds, who do not worry, but have a cheerful expectation that God will take care of them. He is not teaching, so much, about birds, or about us, but about God. God takes care of the birds. Surely God will take care of God’s sons and daughters…of the children made in God’s image. That is something we can believe, absolutely. It can, and should be, the ground for confidence and hope to take us through our days without anxiety or worry.
Easily said, and so hard to do! So, today, when you find yourself challenged by all that does not seem to be going well…or dwelling on the potential for disaster this year, and every year, displays…turn your inner, and most generous eye, on the Titmouse. Remember this image, and this attitude. I sincerely hope it will ease your way, and make the day more enjoyable. Happy Sunday!
Found on the forest floor. Happy Sunday!
Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Wells Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
Photography is essentially the art of putting the world in frames. All the technical stuff matters…exposure, white balance, focus, image quality, etc…but it does not matter nearly as much as what is and is not inside the frame, and how the elements inside the frame work together to fill the frame. The frame is our focused attention…it says “look at this and see what I am seeing.” The only talent a photographer has is his or her vision…the rest is skill, and can be learned with enough teaching and practice…but the ability to see what needs framing, and how it fills a frame…that is the gift that sets the photographer apart from the casual snapshot shooter. (And the world being what it is, even those who consider themselves casual snapshot shooters may have the gift, and many who consider themselves very skilled in the techniques of photography may, apparently, lack it.) It is a gift…it can be developed like any talent…but it can not be acquired or learned.
Dr. Suzuki, creator of a well known system of music education, believed that musical talent is a gift that is given to all children, and that it only needs to be developed from an early age, to allow every person to enjoy and to make beautiful music. To him, hearing music is equivalent to seeing beauty…to seeing how the world fills the frame of our attention…and the skill of actually playing an instrument can be taught and learned. It only requires practice.
I believe photography is the same. Everyone, as part of his or her birthright, has the ability to see beauty, to appreciate the harmony and energy of the world, and if given a frame can place it effectively it to say “look at this and see what I am seeing”. Being a man of faith, I believe that gift is part of our birthright as children of God…part of the “created in God’s image” truth that can and should shape our lives. It is part of the generous eye…part of the light within us. And, again, looking with a generous eye, I see evidence of the gift of God at work in people around me, whether they are aware of it or not, in every effective photograph. Whether on Facebook, or Google+, or Instagram (or wherever you look) the digital stream today is full of images that testify to the light within us.
It is a common complaint among “skilled photographers” that today, anyone with a phone thinks they are a phtographer. Isn’t it rather, that today everyone has a frame, and more and more people are discovering that if they put it around the the things they see and value, others can share that value. And isn’t that something to celebrate…and to enjoy?
I saw this apparently random arrangement of sticks and leaves on the forest floor, on a wet fall day. The textures, the colors, the angles formed by the white birch branches caught my eye, so I took the frame of my camera and put it around what I saw, being careful to fill the frame so that you could see what I saw. That is my only gift. And now it my gift to you. Happy Sunday!
Serenity. Happy Sunday!
Canada Geese, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge,Socorro New Mexico
The Generous Eye: “If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
Early morning light, and two groups of Canada Geese on the Boardwalk Pond at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge south of Socorro New Mexico. (Actually, now that I look at the image more carefully, there appear to be a few Cackling Geese in that far flock as well.) The light, the Geese, both still and gently moving, and the reflections make this, to my eye, a very peaceful image. I have cropped it to accentuate that feeling.
Peace is among the hardest human emotions to achieve. Joy is often thrust gladly upon us by events. We are overwhelmed with sadness. Pain is something we afflict and endure in about equal measures, but peace we have to work at, we have to strive for, we have to surrender to. Peace rests behind every heartbeat, but too often, just out of our reach.
Part of the reason we have such difficulty with peace, I think, is a misunderstanding about its nature. We think peace is stillness…the absence of motion…the absence of trouble. But just as in this image, peace is motion in balance, the harmonious relation of forces. Peace is the untouchable center which moves through the troubles of this world, and is not altered by them. Peace is not a rock in the stream…it is a twig floating at one with the current.
This image, while it has a painterly look, is not lifted out of time. It is not a still-life. It is peaceful because of the dynamic it captures, the second when things are just so, that will, if we let it, flow into the next and the next, without disturbing our equilibrium, our balance, our sense of peace. Peace is in the light, is and inseparable part of the light, in our beings when our eyes are Generous Eye. May peace be with you and yours this Happy Sunday!
Geese rising… Happy Sunday!
Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro New Mexico
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
Though it is the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR near Socorro New Mexico, it is probably the Snow Geese that keep people coming back. Standing beside a field of Geese when they startle and rise all at once is an experience that inspires wonder and delight in almost everyone who sees it. The Geese are beautiful. The action is spectacular. The sound of the calls and the wings is overwhelming. The energy is undeniable. Once experienced it wakens the appetite for more. I talked to one couple, originally from Cincinnati Ohio, who moved to Albuquerque in part because of their experience at Bosque del Apache. It is that impressive. Impressive enough to change the course of a life.
And of course, the generous eye is always looking for experiences like the Geese rising…life-changing experiences. Experiences that speak directly to the spirit in us…and speaks the greatness of the Spirit that creates all in love. Awe inspiring experiences. If your eye is generous you will find them everywhere. Bosque del Apache is just a very obvious, and accessible, example.
So, happy Sunday, and may you find your Geese rising experience today! It just may change your life.
(I caught this image with the Sony RX10iii and processed it in Photo Mate 3 on my Android tablet.)
Carol and Anna at Taos Pueblo. Happy Sunday!
Carol and Anna, Taos Pueblo, New Mexico
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
My wife Carol and I are in Santa Fe, New Mexico visiting our daughter Anna, who is finishing up her masters in Art Therapy / Counseling here. Yesterday we took a drive to Taos and Taos Pueblo, taking the National Scenic Byway called the Taos High Road, which winds up through the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, offering a series of memorable views of the upland landscape…as well as passing through some interesting mountain towns. It is off the beaten path in the truest sense of the word, but a certainly a wonderful drive. Then we spent the afternoon at Taos Pueblo. This is Carol and Anna in the main plaza of the Pueblo, where they hold religious ceremonies (fiesta) and dances several times a year…some of them as old as the buildings behind my wife and daughter…going back 1000 years. Unlike most remaining Pueblos, Taos has large communal dwellings that are more like the architecture of the Anasazi ruins in the area, than they are like the more southern Pueblos, which feature more individual family homes. Taos is still a living community. Though only 4 or 5 families still live year round in the Pueblo, every home and apartment is full around the fiesta days and celebrations, and the Pueblo is still the heart of the community, even if members have a home in the one of the newer areas where they have access to electricity and indoor plumbing, not to mention wifi and the internet.
As with all the Pueblos, the history of Taos since the Spanish Invasion and the American Conquest is bittersweet to say the least. Taos was the leader in two Revolts, one against the Spanish which actually drove the invaders back down into Mexico for 12 years, and another, this time allied with the Hispanic settlers in the area, against the American forces, which resulted in the death of 150 women and children who had taken shelter in the church, when the Americans turned canons on it and destroyed it. But Taos is still a strong community. Taos was the first tribe to force (or convince) the US Government to return native lands, and now holds over 100,000 areas of sacred land above the Pueblo in the mountains, which includes Blue Lake, the source of Willow Creek that is the heart of the community (Taos means “place of the willows”.) They have a strong sovereign government and have their affairs well in hand. They welcome visitors to the Pueblo and many of the Pueblo homes have been turned into cafés (fry bread and chili) or shops that feature a wide range of Pueblo arts and crafts.
It is always a challenge for me, as a descendent of the invaders and conquerors, to visit a living community like Taos. It is a reminder of the pain that has been inflicted by my people in the name of religion and manifest destiny. But it is also a testimony to the best in human nature…to the strength of the spirit that lives in us all…that not only survives but thrives in this world. It is a testimony to the light that lives in us all. It is a testimony that peace, even if tentative and tainted by the past, is possible among us. And I need that reminder this week…after we appear to have elected a old style manifest destiny Conqueror as our president. The last few days have certainly been a challenge to my generosity. I can only hope that our community is strong enough to reign him, and his forces, in for the next 4 years, and that we can emerge, as the community of Taos has, stronger and more alive for the experience. Happy Sunday!