Hidden in Plain View

The other day I was talking on the phone and looked out the window. I looked around at the plants growing in the flower beds and noticed a pattern disruption. Something wasn't quite right. What was it? Then the Pacific Tree Frog emerged from its camouflage. It is truly remarkable how this creature could adapt to the color markings of the surrounding vegetation. Even though a scientific explanation exists about how this works, it is still a wonder to see it in action. Have you ever heard a frog croaking outside one of your windows and went out to find the "singer"? I have done that many times and most of the time not been able to find the source. Now, when I'm in the garden I look at these leaves with a new focus; a different type of attention.

This also reminds me of a gift I was able to pass on to my father. Photography has a been a part of my life for so long. I can remember some of the cameras I used as a child and then discovering the science and art of photography in high school. For years I only worked with black and white. At one point my father took a photography course at Skagit Valley Community College in Oak Harbor. Then one day he told me that he was seeing things in a new way- he was seeing birds on wires and patterns on the sides of buildings. He was discovering a new way of seeing the world. It is something that I'm grateful he discovered before he died. His world became larger and more intimate.

There are many things we don't see because we don't know to look and there are other things that we don't recognize because we see them everyday: mission/value statements on a company wall, a mileage marker on the freeway, a loving gesture by a partner. Neuroscience is helping us to understand a number of things about our human-ness. One of the things is that there are so many good things that go on in our everyday life that we don't see them. Love, joy, and compassion are so prevalent that we don't see them. Our systems become high jacked by the intense emotions that stimulate chemicals like adrenalin. These experiences are so intense (and pleasurable) that we see the world from the viewpoint of those things that evoke those wonderful sensations and feelings. Yet, if we measured how much of our time is filled with those intense moments we would have a few examples as compared to the number of times that a person has done us a kindness, that we have experienced the goodness of someone extending a hand, or the fleeting moments of beauty that we actually see in the world. 

This happens around the world and Jeremy Rifkin has written about this in his book, The Empathic Civilization and I'm looking forward to reading his thoughts. It has just landed on my to-read pile.

There are problems in the world and some people deal with horrific conditions. There is no doubt about that. At the same time there are billions of actions each day that bring beauty into the world. The sound of a creek,  the image of a swallowtail landing on a peony, or even that your soccer team won last night... whatever. There are always opportunities when our viewpoint is open.

This morning, after completing my morning meditation, I was reading a passage in the book, The Joy of Living by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. (I highly recommend this book.) Here is the passage for you to consider (p. 111): "... I began to see that when the pace of external or material progress exceeded the development of inner knowledge, people seemed to suffer deep emotional conflicts without any internal method of dealing with them. An abundance of material items provides such a variety of external distractions that people lost the connections to their inner lives."

Finding Privacy

Today I started laying stones for the walkway. I rented a compacter a few days ago to smooth out the rocks and today sand and a few rocks were placed. Doing it brought back memories of my first job out of high school as a hod carrier (bricklayer's assistant). Tapping stones into place, tamping down the sand in the cracks... brought back some memories from a long time ago. However, today my energy reserves don't allow me to work on the path for hours at a time.



Lots of flowers are showing up and here are just a few. Our first day lily came out yesterday.

The first really warm day came this weekend. It reached 81 degrees on Saturday. This whole week will be the first summer day that we've had.

As I look outside our view has become less clear due to some smoke. A neighbor must be burning brush- tomorrow is the last day to be able to do backyard burns.

I picked up a collection of poems called "Good Poems for Hard Times by Garrison Keller. Here is an excerpt from a poem by Robert Morgan Working in the Rain
...I thought he sought the privacy of rain,
the one time when no one was likely to be out...
It's an interesting thought about how inclement weather is a time to find privacy- whether it is rain or snow or intense heat. Many people don't venture out if it causes them discomfort- thereby leaving the bad weather to be enjoyed by those willing to be uncomfortable.

Robert Bly has a poem in the same collection and it too approaches the subject of privacy.
Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter...
It is a cold and snowy night. The main street is deserted.
The only things moving are swirls of snow.
As I lift the mailbox door, I feel its cold iron.
There is a privacy I love in this snowy night.
Driving around, I will waste more time.


Joseph

Rhythms and Patterns

Saw the first Swallowtail Butterfly of the year. In the journal that we keep, last year I wrote down the first Swallowtail sighting only one day later. Is it possible that their rhythm is such that they appear on the similar date due to the amount of light. Last year at this time we were much warmer and having thunderstorms. The day lilies were blooming- they aren't that far along this year. However, the peonies opened about the same time.

There is another part of the property, a place that we call Spiral Mound that is showing lots of color this year, but didn't last year. It is a place that long ago was a garden but had become shaded by taller trees and covered by blackberries. This space is now opened up and lots of different plants are showing themselves: irises, columbines, Sweet William.

This deer kept chasing the turkey. Seemed real strange behavior for a deer but then noticed that it has cataracts in one of its eyes. Who knows what the young buck actually sees. We now have four hens wandering the property. One day I noticed the turkeys eating the dandelion seeds and realized that this must be the reason we haven't had many dandelions showing up this year. The "lawn" had hundreds of dandelions last year. Also noticed that the lawn has a lot of clover this year. Since the lawn mower has been in the shop for a few weeks, the grass got really high. Got to cut it last night and could really see how dense the ground cover had gotten with clover.

We had a visit from a garden consultant- something that was won at a silent auction for a charity. She said that the lowest maintenance (other than just letting things go wild) is to mow it. Weeding, mulching, fertilizer, etc. take a lot of effort and that effort requires a lot of energy. The lawnmower takes just a few hours and a little bit of fossil fuels- it probably is less energy use when it is all added up. At least it is something to think about- then it is always less costly to do nothing.

If you are interested in reading another blog- some friends who live on the west side of the coast range are writing about their land too. They have some cool video on a bobcat that visited their property. You can "Musing on Beaver Creek Marsh" at http://beavercreekmarsh.blogspot.com Good writing and good links to be found there.

It has been wet here. Though the temperature and rainfall haven't been record setting- they have been in the top ten. Apparently, the Willamette River has risen 10 feet over the last week. (Last week we set a rainfall record for a single day in June). Our creek is running strong and has me thinking about getting a water gauge to follow the water flow... for curiosity sake.

For some reason I was thinking about an incident that took place around 30 years ago. I was living in Bellingham (post- undergraduate school). A friend and I were driving in the Fairhaven District when he said, "What a shame this land is going to waste." There were blackberries, trees, rabbits- to me the land was going to good use. But to him it needed to be developed to be useful. In a way it is amazing that we all get along as good as we do with all these different viewpoints, beliefs, and values.