"A Quiet Light"  copyright 2011, Caris Cerdwyn, All rights reserved.

Isn't nature amazing?  Her endless creativity, the beauty she grows for us, the peace she brings us, all take my breath away most days.  Seemingly ordinary things like trees, have such a sacred presence.  For me, some days it's just enough to sit beneath a tree and breath in the fresh air that the tree helps to make.  What an intricate, interdependent system nature is!  Yes, I'm a tree hugger.  We have lost our old growth forests here in the east, but visiting those places in the west is a gift I hope and pray we give to the children and their children,  and their children...  We have been given the greatest of gifts in the world around us, and it is in our best interest to protect it from ourselves.  We like to put the blame on the big corporations, yadayada, but the truth of the matter is that most people are invested in those big companies.  We support corporate America in ways we are often unaware of.  The care of the earth and it's future depend upon us...each of us, the choices, small and large we make each day will have lasting effects.

Go out and love it today.  Gaze at some beauty.  Breathe some fresh air.  Take a walk and listen to the trees.

Mysterious Gifts

Geese in the Mist    Copyright 2011, Caris Cerdwyn, All rights reserved

Another photo from yesterday morning, and our walk at the reservoir.  When we first came down the path Madeline and I both heard something in the woods to the left.  It sounded like a dog barking at first.  But then I realized it was a goose.  The sounds that came from the forest yesterday were so mysterious.  First the geese, a mystery that resolved itself.  Then there was some loud knocking sounds.  I am guessing it was a woodpecker.  Why do they always surprise me?  And then there were loud, snapping twigs.  That made me a little nervous, though with Madeline there I feel a bit more secure.  The mist made everything feel more mysterious, and maybe even dangerous.  Though what is dangerous about a bunch of geese on the water?

A stream which has run for many years down into the lake, seems to be changing course.  The creekbed was dry yesterday, but I could hear running water upstream, and on the other side of the dry ditch was lots of water and mud.  So we didn't continue past the creek, which we usually do.  There's a delightful path down through tall grass near the water.  (Where I took the dragonfly photo.)  You are completely obscured from everything and everyone else for a while, and then you can go to little clearings down by the water, where sometimes people fish.  And speaking of fish, a large one jumped up from the water yesterday as I was walking.  No, I didn't see it.  Only heard and saw the big splash.  I am never looking in the right place when a fish jumps.  I always wonder how people get those photos.  

Seek out some beauty today and be sure to try and make someone laugh.  And surprise someone with a kindness.  Love this world and the people in it.  Life goes by so quickly.  And when it comes around, enjoy that delicious sense of mystery that gives you goose bumps, and so often reveals some lovely, extraordinary surprise. 

Color

copyright 2011, Caris Cerdwyn, all rights reserved

There is such a theme of diversity throughout nature.  I'm not sure where the term:  "It goes against nature" comes from, but it's really a very rare occurence that something goes against this force which allows for such differences within it.

I love black eyed susans.  They're one of my favorite flowers, and there are places here that they grow wild.  The photo isn't of one of those places, but I have found them, growing alone in the midst of a field.  Or growing with just a few others around.  I wonder if they are a natural wildflower to the area, or if someone brought them here.  They are in the same field out on State Land, where one summer a friend and I walked at dusk and found hundreds of fireflies dancing above it.  It seems to be a special place.  

Color is a natural thing.  I would find it very hard to lose my eyesight, though a loss of hearing would be just as difficult.  One adjusts.  But I would miss seeing the diversity of life around me...the different shades of skin and eye colors, the amazing miracle of wildflowers, and lately I have discovered Hibiscus.  (For some reason I thought they were giant poppies!  Go ahead, you can laugh at me.)  Our lawn person planted a Hibiscus in the back yard, among my beloved zinnias.  It is a dark maroon.  Maybe I'll take a photo of it, and show it to you.  One day there was just the plant there.  I didn't know what it was, though the leaves were large and dark.  And then the other day I went out and the flowers had suddenly appeared.  Isn't nature an amazing thing?  I love color. 

Sleepless night

It is 4:26 am and my brain is jumping with information about the muscles and connective tissues of the knee and thigh.  I've been up since 2:00 am.  Pain in my back and legs refused me sleep.  It's still taunting me.  The pain meds I have are too strong.  I would go through the day in a fog, and probably shouldn't even drive if I took them.  Tylenol doesn't help.  So I guess I will practice some meditation and breathe through it.  That usually eases it to some degree.

The biceps femoris' proximal attachment is to the ischial tuberosity.  (The spell check doesn't approve of these Latin terms.)  But where is the distal attachment?  I know you probably don't care, unless you're another kinesiology student, or you have injured your biceps femoris.  I think it attaches to the head of the fibula.  And it is the muscle that helps you rotate your hip laterally.  It also flexes the knee and tilts the pelvis posteriorly.  Isn't ischial tuberosity a great name?  The three hamstring muscles attach there. 

If one listens, there is a peeper who has been singing most of the night.  It's on and off, and not a strong sound.  But then it is early spring yet.  Just now the haunting sound of coyotes howling nearby pierce the night and send a shiver up my spine.  I go out to the deck to listen for more, but the deep darkness of this time, just before dawn, is now silent. 

Guess I'll go check out the poetry site.  Have you ever been there?  It's called AllPoetry.com.  I recently discovered it, and have been enjoying myself immensely.  Other poets!!!  Some are seasoned, their words rich and expansive, filling me up to saturation.  Others are learning, and I enjoy offering feedback here and there, which encourages but deepens.  Anyway, my handle is cturtle there. 

Hope your day has a more reasonable start to it than mine has had!  Peace.