Daily Archives: August 18, 2019
The Generous Eye: Seeding the wind. Happy Sunday.
“if your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I don’t know what roadside flower makes this seed head. I thought maybe Salsify, but checking Google I am still not sure. Whatever it is, it is certainly a furry little thing…not nearly as delicate as a dandelion…more animal looking than anything grown from a plant has any right to be. Still, I assume that, like the dandelion, each of those filaments are designed to eventually catch the wind and sail off in the remote chance that they will fall on hospitable ground and continue the cycle of life.
We humans like to consider ourselves way more intentional than that. We would never trust to what appears to us to be random chance for the future of our families or our species. We do not sow the wind, because the wind is unpredictable and ultimately completely out of our control.
And yet, I have a feeling that, at least were love comes into it, we would be better off seeding the wind. If we could produce as rich a crop of love as this plant does if seed filaments, and sow them down the wind, without regard for where they might land and grow…would’t the world be a better place for it? And isn’t that what we are supposed to do…to be prolific, to be generous, in our love? The wind, Jesus said, comes and goes and we do not know where it comes from or where it is going…and so it is with the spirit. I don’t know about you, but I want to seed the wind today, every day, with love, and trust that the spirit knows where it is coming from and where it is going. I want to do that. I might not be able to do it, but God can, and God can do it in me. Seed the wind, Spirit of the Living God. Seed the wind in me. Happy Sunday!
Andean Potoo (and the Eagle)
This is the resident Manu Road Andean Potoo. Most Potoos are faithful to a perch over several years, and this one is no exception. It has been sitting on this dead branch daily for enough years so that every birding driver, and every birding guide, who works the Manu Road between Wayqecha Lodge and Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge knows just where to find it. There is a little pull out just above the tree. You stop, walk down the road a few dozen yards, look up, and, once your eyes adjust to the cryptic plumage, there it is. This might, however, be the first Potoo I have seen with its eyes open in daylight. It was an accident. Omar, our excellent driver, spotted what turned out to be a Black and Chestnut Eagle soaring against the mountain across from us, and Pepe, my guide played an eagle call to try to draw it closer. The Potoo sat right up for that! From the oblique angle, looking up, you can not see the yellow of the eyes, but you can see the bulge of that big light collecting lens 🙂 Sony RX10iv at 1200mm equivalent (2x Clear Image Zoom). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr. And here, for your further enjoyment is a distant shot of the Black and Chestnut Eagle, again at 1200mm equivalent and heavily cropped.
