Images and Illusions

The other night Susan and I were driving home and there was an enormous "halo" around the moon. They appear every so often, but I have never seen one this large... it extended through half of the sky. Scientifically, it is the refraction of light from the moon, which is light reflected from the sun.  Folklore states that it portends oncoming bad weather... fact and fiction can both be true. We had quite a wind storm blow through. It was a strong enough wind to knock me over when I was mountain biking on the ridge above Aisling.

William Irwin Thompson wrote a book, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light, and here is a quote (from my faulty memory, I read it around 25 years ago):  "Myth is the detritus from which history grows..." There is also a common modern western view: if we don't believe it we won't see it. Science, myth and magic all operate from a concept/belief/hypothesis and moves forward into understanding. Those who are skeptical of science forget that scientists are investigators of a question; they are trying to know and understand. Scientists forget that not everything is explainable, at least not right now (and maybe never).

Can you prove love? How about God? Faith? Black holes? There are a lot of things that we just accept and have faith in- we project based on the result. As human beings, we are meaning makers. The unknown is darkness, uncertainty, chaos, and risk. For those things that are unknown to us we create meaning to explain them. Some people have said that the belief in supernatural beings (God, gods, etc.) came about as a way to explain the unknown: they explained the mysteries based on the human experience. They explained thunder and lightning within the human experience- long before science described it.

There are many things that don't make sense and I wonder if they ever will. What would it be like for us to accept what some native Americans used to call the Great Mystery? That there is some great universal force that is beyond explanation and comprehension. In many religions today that would be called God: a great force that is beyond our comprehension. This can be neither proved or disproved by scientific method. It doesn't mean it isn't "real". Just because something hasn't proven to exist still leaves the possibility that it does exist.

Scientifically, we can explain a halo around the moon in terms of ice crystals and refraction, but why did all of that form? What is the unifying principle of it all? I think we need to sit with the Great Mystery/God/Buddha nature and allow for some faith in our life. Faith that there are things more important than our individual existence and beyond our ability to explain.

Planting

It is the time for planting, pruning and moving.  This is a photo of me and the magnolia tree. We're going to put a wood shed next to the pole barn and the tree had to be moved. The trick is that magnolia's don't easily transplant, so we will see how it does when it starts putting out it's new growth.

Today I planted around 60 native plants. We are reintroducing more native species, especially as Susan so skillfully takes out the blackberries on the east side of the creek. Quite a variety of species went into the soil: Western Red Cedar, Red Flowering Currants, Cascara, Mock Orange, Salal, Pacific Ninebark, Blue Blossom, Alder (Red and White), Hemlock, Tiger Lily... and many more things.

It rained and the sun shone. It is great to be out in the elements. Life is simple, even with a hip/back that is problematic. The electronic world we live in- this place of hyper-pace and connectivity can be a blessing and overwhelming.

I read a report the other day that mentioned with each generation of efficient energy sources we have had an increase of energy consumption. So, with the increase of LED lights and compact fluorescents there is increased consumption. The issue continues to be consumption. The other part of the report mentioned how minuscule some of our efforts are when compared to the carbon discharge by China.

Last night I also planted some more fruit trees: a peach, a persimmon, and two dwarf cherries. That should pretty well complete our mini-orchard... at least for this year. Let's hope the fence stays up and the planting works!

Sunrise a few days ago...