Posts in Category: The Generous Eye
Least Terns in flight: Happy Sunday!
Three Least Terns in flight. Laudholm Beach, Wells Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
To the generous eye, the glory of God is all around us in the natural world. Sunsets and sunrises, the drama of clouds over a sunlit landscape, the energy of a storm, the quite beauty of flowers…God’s glory is all around us. And no where, as I see it, more clearly than in birds in flight. Grace and power, intense purpose accomplished with such ease it looks to us like play…our spirits soar just watching, and it takes a hard heart indeed, or one terribly distracted, not to be driven to praise.
There is only one place where the glory of God is more clearly revealed…and that is, as Paul says, in the unveiled faces of God’s children. May your eye be generous to see the glory of God today, and may your unveiled face reveal that glory to all who see you. Happy Sunday!
Jack-in-the-pulpit. Happy Sunday!
Jack-in-the-pulpit, Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Maine
“If you eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
Until last year I had never seen Jack-in-the-pulpit in the wild. I had seen it at botanical gardens in Boothbay and Bar Harbor (Coastal Maine Botanical Garden and Wild Gardens of Acadia), but never actually growing out of “captivity”. Then they cleared back the encroaching bushes and ferns along the boardwalk through the Red Maple Swamp at Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Center) and last year there were two separate stands of Jack-in-the-pulpit revealed. This year, a fairly careful search only turned up one stand, but they have really razed the vegetation to the ground along the first section of the boardwalk, perhaps in an attempt to eliminate the invasive Japanese Barberry that grows in abundance there.
Considering, if clearing the brush along the boardwalk revealed two clumps of Jack-in-the-pulpit, the there are probably many such clumps, perhaps hundreds, scattered through the surrounding forest of Maple, Birch, and Pine. They grow low, under the cover of ferns and brush, and so go unseen and unsuspected by those of us who obey the rules and stick to the boardwalk. And if they are growing there, at Laudholm Farm, they are very likely growing in similar habitat all through Maine and New England. So probably not a rare plant at all…though one that is seldom seen.
Still, seeing them growing there along the boardwalk fills me with delight. What a wonderful thing it is to know that something so strange as the Jack-in-the-pulpit is growing, out of sight, and unsuspected, all around us. I do suspect, however, that the majority of people who walk the boardwalk every May never see the Jack-in-the-pulpit even though it is now out in plain sight. It is not that their eyes are not open…it is just that they are occupied with other things. Part of the generosity of the eye that Jesus talks about is being open to any and everything…to whatever God puts in front of us…to whatever is waiting our discovery. I can promise that getting your eye off what concerns us as humans, and opening ourselves to what is right in front of us will have its rewards. The delight of discovery first among them. Who knows what else the forest hides. If there are Jack-in-the-pulpits there, there might be anything! Happy Sunday.
Lady Slipper time. Happy Sunday!
Pink Lady Slipper, Rachel Carson NWR, Wells ME
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I have been watching the patches of Pink Lady Slipper at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge and along the Kennebunk Bridle Trail in Wells and Kennebunk for weeks now. There is one patch off a deck at the back at Rachel Carson, overlooking Branch Brook, where the sun comes in all day. Lady Slipper orchids bloom there at least a few days, sometimes a week, before they bloom anywhere else in our area. Yesterday the first blossoms opened fully. I can go back through my archives on my WideEyedInWonder site and find images of this plant going back at least 7 or 8 years, maybe more. I don’t mean this plant as in Lady Slipper, I mean this plant as in this Lady Slipper. It always produces at least two blossoms, sometimes as many as 6. There is a delicacy, a rare beauty in these strange blooms, and I do my best to catch it year by year.
My yearly Lady Slipper vigil is part of what keeps me aware of the constant renewal of the beauty of creation…the cycle of change…no two years the same…but each year with its beauty…that is God’s creative love at work, day by day. It is not that Genesis has it wrong when it says that after God created the heavens and the earth God rested…it is that we have the wrong idea of rest. Rest, in the divine sense has to be creative, radiant…an ongoing action producing peace…an continual outflowing and outworking of love. Rest is not a pause in the dance, or a silence in the music…it is the moment of perfect balance within the motion of the dance…it is the moment when the notes of the music echo in the room…echo in our hearts and minds…and fulfill their beauty. That is a little, a very little, like the rest of God.
When I see the Lady Slippers bloom, in the quiet beauty, I sense the active rest of God, and the notes of God’s love echo and swell in my life to fill it. This is reason enough to love the Lady Slipper, reason enough to watch for its coming, and to celebrate its bloom year by year. Happy Sunday!
Cape May Warbler in Evening light. Happy Sunday!
Cape May Warbler, Magee Marsh, Ohio
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light.” Jesus
Last Wednesday was one of those wonderful days at Magee Marsh, when the late afternoon/early evening light illuminated trees just dripping with warblers…and many feeding at eye-level. It was the first really epic day at Magee Marsh since the Biggest Week in American Birding started on the Friday before. This Cape May warbler is showing its colors, and its attitude, in the golden evening glow.
I ran a Cape May Warbler in last Sunday’s The Generous Eye post…but I had to work for that one. On Wednesday it was just easy! A friend calls the warblers on a good day at Magee Marsh “confiding”, and they are…all around you…busy with there own lives, but approachable…sometimes even curious as to what we humans are up to in their forest. On a day like that it is simply joy to photograph them…joy even to stand and watch them. You get such a sense of life…of vigor…of color and movement in harmony. It is a deeply moving experience. I always come back from Magee in the spring filled with a sense of wonder that propels me into the Maine spring, just beginning compared to Ohio.
And, out there on the boardwalk you sense too, the generosity of the birders and photographers around you. Everyone is caught up in the experience…and everyone is willing and eager to share it (with few enough exceptions to ignore). It is just a good feeling. A blessing to be there and be part of this grand happening.
May you discover a similar blessing today, wherever you are, and whatever you are doing. Happy Sunday!
Cape May Warbler. Happy Sunday!
Cape May Warbler, Magee Marsh, Ohio
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I am blessed again this year to be at Magee Marsh, on the shores of Lake Erie, for spring migration. Every day at the marsh is a new show, as new waves of Warblers and other song birds reach the shores of the lake, and stop for a day (or two) to stock up before crossing the waters. Two days ago it was all Yellow Warblers (resident nesting birds) and Yellow-rumped Warblers, with a few Palm Warblers left over from the previous wave. Yesterday the Cape May Warblers (like the bird pictured here), the American Redstarts, Warbling Vireos, and smaller numbers of the “next wave” birds came in. Today????
Migration has always fascinated human beings, probably since we stopped migrating with the seasons ourselves. We watch the birds flow north in the spring with an appropriate sense of wonder. There is an aspect of renewal…especially with all the birds in fresh spring plumage…and a measure of hope with it. It is good to be alive in the spring when the song birds are moving! The weekend crowds at Magee Marsh and other migration hot-spots along Lake Eire and the other major flyways, attests to just broad the appeal is. Maybe a third of the crowds are birders and photographers, drawn every year, but two thirds are just regular citizens, out for a day to experience something extraordinary. The cries of delight, from children and adults, compete with the songs of the birds. It is good. The generous eye sees only good in these crowds (though the birdwatcher/photographer in me might prefer a less crowed boardwalk to work from :). You can feel the good energy…very similar to what you feel in a really inspired praise service at an “outgoing” church. God is praised in the migration of song birds, and we are privileged to join in the worship.
Happy Sunday!
In-town Black-crowned Night Heron. Happy Sunday!
Black-crowned Night Heron, Factory to Pasture Pond, Kennebunk ME
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I am pretty sure this Black-crowned Night Heron has nested at Factory to Pasture Pond for at least four years. At the very least, I have seen it (or another BCNH) there, spring and summer, for each of those years. Now Factory to Pasture Pond is my own name for the place, and it makes it sound much grander than it is. It is actually just a little wetland caught between Factory to Pasture Road and two paved parking lots…the remnant, perhaps of a more extensive wetland that was bisected by the road and contained by pavement years ago. I visit it regularly for dragonflies in the summer. There are turtles, and, at least arguably, Black-crowned Night Herons, and a variety of other common nesting birds…but it is surrounded by factory buildings on 3 sides. By August, in a hot dry summer, it can shrink by a third, but it is a year round pond. And it is only a few blocks from Main Street Kennebunk…definitely “in-town”…not exactly urban, since we are talking a village of 5612 here, but pretty close. 5612 humans and at least two Black-crowned Night Herons. 🙂
I am always amazed at how resilient the creation is. We can pave it. We can cover it over with factory buildings and our houses. We can till it and plant all manner of intensive crops. We can ditch and drain wetlands. We can channelize rivers. We can rearrange and manage the landscape to meet our needs and purposes. But creation, what we call nature, always finds a way back in. Roots crack pavement. Water seeps under roads. Silt fills channels and willows and cattails grow. Great Horned Owls nest in cemeteries. Black-crowned Night Herons nest in parks and on golf courses…and in tiny remnant wetlands right in town. The generous eye sees all this reclaiming of the space we think of as our own, as human space, as a good thing. Creation refusing to take no for an answer. Creation reminding us, always, that we a part and parcel of all that lives, and that all that lives is essential to our being…to our being filled with light and life and hope.
So, seeing the Black-crowned Night Heron at Factory to Pasture Pond in down-town Kennebunk delights me. It is what the generous eye delights to see. Happy Sunday!
Nuthatch courtship. Happy Sunday!
White-breasted Nuthatch, Kennebunk Bridle Trail, Kennebunk ME
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I had walked a long ways on the Kennebunk Bridle Path yesterday without seeing anything of note. In fact I had turned around and was headed back to the car when a pair of White-breasted Nuthatches flew across and landed in trees off to my right. Camera up! I could only see one of them and he was off deeper into the woods toward the river before I got any good shots, but I stood and waited, and, sure enough, he circled back, foraging 20 to 40 feet up in the trees. That is when I noticed the second Nuthatch sticking out of a hole in a tree trunk 40 feet in. I got lots of good shots of both the foraging male, as he worked his way around the nest hole, and the female with various portions of her body out of the hole looking to see what the male was up to. After maybe 10 minutes the male worked his way down to the nest hole with a bug in his mouth, and there was a little dance all around the hole as he, apparently, teased her with the bug before transferring it to her. This is the best shot from that sequence. I watched them for 20 minutes more, and got some excellent shots of both, but the little courtship dance was the best of the action. They were totally oblivious to my presence on the trail (one of the advantages of a 2000mm equivalent lens), but still, I felt like I should move on and leave them in even more peace to get on with nest building and courtship.
How can anyone not feed privileged, blessed indeed, to get to see something like the courtship of Nuthatches? Just that little intimate moment out of their lives. I would like to believe that there is not a soul so deadened that it can not be moved by such an encounter. But I have seen the damage the world does to human beings…to children most of all…damage that produces such a shell of indifference; such a self-centered, in-grown view; such an active malice toward life and the living…that even the courtship of Nuthatches, should they look up long enough to see it, is as likely to generate anger or mischief as it is to engender love. That is the opposite of the generous eye. That is the stingy eye, that shelters darkness inside. That is so sad. It has to break the heart of a loving God. Which is why God spent the love of God in Jesus…so that the hardened heart, the stingy eye, might be renewed…the deadened soul reborn.
And those who do feel a sense of wonder and privilege in seeing the Nuthatches courting, but who feel as yet no need of God? I can only say…you are just a step away from the Kingdom of God…perhaps even citizens of that Kingdom unknowing. There is no disguising the generous eye…there is no hiding the light within.
Happy Sunday!
Bucks County April Wildflowers. Happy Sunday!
Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, Bucks County PA
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
This is a panel of some of the April wildflowers we found on our unscheduled stop at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve in Bucks County Pennsylvania. We will not see our Maine wildflowers, with the possible exception of Trout Lily, for another 4 weeks at least…six for some of them, so it was a real treat to be in the woods this early with blooming wildflowers. I am certain by the end of April, if Bowman’s Hill is any example, that the woods of Bucks County are carpeted with wildflowers.
We have here, clockwise from the upper left…Bluebells, Marsh Marigold, Bloodroot, Dutchman’s Breeches, Wood Poppy, and Spring Beauty. They were all taken with the Sony HX90V, processed in Lightroom, and assembled in Coolage.
I find it difficult to understand how anyone can look a the abundant beauty of spring wildflowers and not see the work of God who creates in love…who loves to create. Even before Jesus broke into my life and demanded that I take notice, I went in awe of the beauty of spring. Awe must have its origin…if we call it Nature…or if we call it The Universe…we are already attributing intelligence and creative love to something bigger than ourselves…something that is so big that it encompasses all that is, including us. It is only one more step to calling what we feel in awe of “God.” And if God then the author of all that is, who moves by the spirit to give us life. And, in my experience, if God, then the father of Jesus Christ, who gives us new life when the troubles of this world, and our own failings, have dulled and deadened us. I can not see the wildflowers of spring without awe…without praise…without the joyful response of my spirit to the spirit of God moving in love in the world.
May your eye be generous and your being full of light. Happy Sunday!
Goldfinch in the Snow. Happy Sunday!
American Goldfinch, back deck feeding station. Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
We are having a minor spring snow event today and tomorrow. No significant accumulation (well maybe an inch by tomorrow night), and nothing compared to what they got from this storm further west…but still enough to remind us that we don’t put our snow boots and winter coats away until May 1st here in Maine. My wife had to find her mittens to get to church this morning. This American Goldfinch was one of several birds hanging close to the feeders in the snow. I expect we will get lots of traffic on the back deck today and tomorrow as birds try to find enough sustenance to keep warm in the unseasonable weather.
Jesus reminds us that God takes care of the Goldfinch, no matter what the weather does, and that we should take that as evidence that God will care for us…that we should not be anxious for how we will stay alive, but, the implication is, devote ourselves to living in a way that demonstrates our faith in God, our thankfulness for the blessings of God, and a generosity of spirit that embraces our fellows and all that lives.
The Goldfinch in the snow reminds me of God’s blessings in my life…but it also challenges me to take a look at how well I live…how well I embody faith, thanksgiving, and generosity. The answer today is the same as it always is, and always will be…not well enough…or at least not as will as I think I ought to. The hardest lesson of all to learn, far harder than trusting God for our daily bread and shelter, is trusting God for our goodness. If God takes care that I stay alive…surely God will also take care that I live well…with faith, thanksgiving and generosity. Being anxious about how good I am is just as misguided as being anxious about what I will eat or what I will wear.
God is good. Only God is good. We live by faith in God or we do not live at all. When I look at this Goldfinch in the snow, I do not see a trace of anxiety…no fear…no worry…just the impulse to get on with it…to get on with life…no matter what the weather does. Yes, you say, easy for the Goldfinch…that is just the way it is made. But isn’t that what Jesus was saying? That is the way we are made. We only have to let ourselves live that way. By faith. All else follows.
Happy Sunday!
He is risen! Happy Easter Sunday.
floating ice skim on one of the ponds along Rt. 9 in Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
Happy Easter! I am not sure why this is my Easter image this year. I admit it is abstract, and visually challenging (what is it?). But it is also full of life…full of mystery…full of grace and wonder. It is also highly unlikely. It is a super thin patch of floating ice on a pond along Route 9 in Kennebunk Maine. It was above 40 and had been for several hours when I found it, and this pond has been open for weeks, so I was not expecting ice at all. And the sweeping feather like patterns are more like rime ice on a car window than anything I have seen on the surface of water. And then there are the straight lines, the pattern of triangles among the feathers, like the leading in a stained glass window. And it is so thin, so fragile, so unlikely. Altogether strange and wonderful. It challenges my understanding of what is physically possible.
Then you add the colors of the reflected sky and clouds and trees and it really comes alive. It becomes not just an image of floating ice, but a image in its own right, containing a beauty of its own. Looking at it is almost meditative…it puts my mind into a state of open wonder and receptivity…and something very like peace. Something very like hope. Something very like joy. And so, after all, it is not so strange a choice for Easter Sunday!
What is more unlikely than the resurrection? More challenging to our sense of what is possible? More full of grace and wonder? What greater source of hope and joy?
He is risen. Against all odds. Against every expectation. He is risen and with him hope and joy. And though 2000 years of Christian history have not always given testimony to his truth, yet his truth lives on, and is there to be received by every generous eye. Unlikely as rime ice on open water. Unlikely as perfect triangles in floating ice. And more beautiful than the reflected colors of sky and cloud and trees. Jesus is risen! He lives. He lives in me.
Happy Easter!