Tag Archives: nature

05.08.21
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What is the dude doing to that tree

I often find myself feeling unnecessarily concerned with people and what I consider sacred nature. As an example, I’m often very irritated when I notice someone on the trail that runs behind our house not respecting the geese. Actually many times I just sit and wait and smile because I’ve seen a mad goose in action.

A couple days ago while trail walking, I was suspiciously eyeing a guy and a small child in the distance pushing something against a tree up ahead. As I got closer he was moving away from the tree with a camera in his hand. As I approached, he told me there were baby raccoons in a hole in the dead tree that he and his son had been checking on and photographing every day. I felt contagious joy and connection to this man and his smiling little boy.

So today as I approached the tree, I looked into the dark hole and saw nothing so I stuck my phone into the hole and started snapping pictures.

It wasn’t until I got home out of the sunlight that I was able to see what the eye of my phone captured. #gratitude #nature

Namaste

12.26.20
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Opinions and perspectives

Just a few days after I assumed the geese were rounding up their belongings and moving on to where ever these geese winter, I wake this morning to…..

In a lesson in perspective this afternoon, I was up on the deck taking this video when the basement door opened and he strolled out to see what the commotion was. I yelled down and said, ya know after watching them sit in the water hour after hour, I actually have no desire to wade into the pond…..I know how much poo a few can leave on the trail per day. He totally flipped it for me…yes, but what about fish food and nutrients. Come to find out goose poo does contain nutrients but too much can actually cause a depletion of oxygen in the water. Who knew!

We see and interpret things from our own thoughts and stories we tell ourselves and assume that everyone sees and interprets the same way we do….but really, everyone perceives their world through the lens of their experiences and what they have been taught by others whether it be teachers, parents, books or life lessons. We absorb the information but interpretation is all on us.

Grateful for the sunshine, blue sky and warm weather and “my” geese.

Namaste

04.28.20
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I have the time to do nature #gratitude

6 years ago when we bought this house, the attraction was the pond out the back window. It was a deal breaker for me, it had to have a view of a lake…I got a beautiful pond with wildlife. Our first spring in the house we realized we had an amazing walking trail around the pond and deeper into treed area in the subdivision.

Being required to shelter in place this spring has been a blessing. The walking trail and hanging out around the pond is a gift! I have the time to just breath and Be. Today I watched turtles playing hide and seek with me. It’s like they knew when I was looking and they would only show me their noses

….and then there are the geese. Last year we had a pair of geese and 4 goslings. We watched this family of 6 all summer as the babies grew up. It was always the group of 6 floating around together….by the end of fall, we had no idea who was the mom and dad and who were the kids but they were always out there together doing their family thing!

Now..this year, we have a couple who hangs out by our bird feeder. They have no fear…they don’t honk, they don’t arrogantly walk away, they don’t flap…I half expect them to speak to me in the mornings, “how did you sleep Mrs Brown?”

But these two have become a problem for the young family who appeared yesterday. The new family has a child.

They are very protective of Jr and actually hissed and started charging me on the trail. I got far enough away to just stop and watch “our geese” walk down to the pond to make their acquaintance….Which caused very loud dispute, flapping and all out dislike. I tell you…”our geese” were just trying to be welcoming and visit the little gosling. Mom and dad were very protective of the baby and would accept no intrusion.

I was seriously overcome with emotion watching nature in action…the instinct of the parents to protect their young.

I hope you have a place to feel nature and the beauty of just being outside. I feel blessed and grounded, I know I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

namaste

04.02.20
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I can’t watch TV to save my life

When I write blogs, I love to get into that place where the words just have a life of their own. When I write, thoughts and words just merge into their own lanes so when I go back to read it for typos….I’m even surprised. Like today’s title….to save my life. I thought WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? Oh ya…from my mother in the 1960’s!

I am embarrassed to think about how much time I have spent binge watching TV in the last few years. The old TV show, Closer, which rolled right into Major Crimes when Brenda aka Kyra Sedgwick left the show was the biggie. He and I watched episodes back to back for months. I thought about the show when I wasn’t watching it..I was consumed. Reruns of Boston Legal was before that. Let’s just say I have a binge history and I’m just not comfortable spilling the details of my varied, crazy, ridiculous addictions *cough Dog The Bounty Hunter.

Now, in the midst of sheltering at home due to the pandemic, I can find NOTHING that grabs my interest on TV. In the back of my mind I want something to sink my teeth into…instead I’ve been spending time online reading articles, I’m reading books, I’m zooming with Unity groups, I’m keeping up with Family with a daily continuous message thread and FaceTime. I’m walking everyday and I’m sleeping like a baby!

I’ve given some lip service about how I think this pandemic could change me, society, the world. Cleaning us up ecologically, forcing us to embrace the “quieting”. We can read, do projects, express ourselves in our hobbies, get out into nature and actually see, feel and hear it. Listen to ourselves in the solitude without the life distractions. When negative thoughts enter, I’m working to stop them when they darken doorway. I am what I think. Negative thoughts will run right into each other in the hallway of fear and panic. Catch them…stop them…I started saying STOP outloud, then I can focus on what is happening right here right now. Ive found it is just as possible to develop positive habits of thinking as it was negative habits of thinking!

Namaste

05.14.19
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Nina Sue want a turtle?

This is a story I cherish.

When I was young and very young, my dad would take me on long walks down the dusty gravel road at Grandmas. Usually we ended up at the little cemetery about 1/2 mile down the road. He would point out headstones of our dead ancestors and share with me the stories about them handed down generation to generation. I’ve often contemplated hypnotism in order to recall these stories….and to relive one last trip down the road with my dad.

Often along the road, we would see turtles and my dad would say ‘Nina Sue want a turtle’ and Nina Sue would politely say No, daddy. I wanted to want a turtle because it seemed important to my dad…but ewwwwww. One day he brought a bucket along with us, scooped up a turtle and carried it back to grandmas…..I’m guessing he thought I would eventually change my mind if I saw the turtle in different habitat! EWWWW. Before we headed back to Des Moines, he released the turtle down by the road.

Walking along the pond this morning, I had a moment of connection with my dad and a few tears..I still think ewww even though I appreciate critters and nature more and more as I age. bit most of all how I would love to hear my dad say, Nina Sue want a turtle!

Until next time….