Natural Grace

There is a natural grace to trees 

in the arch of their branches, 

the grand height of ancient red sequoias, 

the twists and turns of climbing roses, 

the graceful droop of fragile wisteria blossoms and thousands more. On my walk home, the natural grace and simplicity of ordinary leaves against the backdrop of a rumpled tree trunk, caught my eye and slowed my step. 

(Cell phone cameras come in very handy.)

“Grace, like water, flows to the lowest part.”

~ Philip Yancy

A Writerly Friday Afternoon ~ 1

Yesterday’s blog post - An Awakening - was my completed assignment for our November Writer’s Ink group meeting. The topic - ‘the missing month’ - was suggested by one of the members - oh, yes that would be me - as our topic. As usual we each created a different, and entertaining, scenario for this topic.

Yesterday afternoon, our small group of five friends gathered, assignments in on paper or computer, for our November Writer’s group. We wrote just a bit more following our discussion of the upcoming Writer's Festival. Each month, the host of our group chooses a timed writing exercise. My piece, which I’ve edited for the purposes of posting tonight, was written over four minutes with the parameters below:

The required theme for this exercise was 'Nature' with the direction for the use of the following list of five words in the timed piece -
Hard drive
Stapler
Phone
Car
Billboard

Technology and Nature

Morning walks in Beacon Hill park seem to be a thing of the past. The past summer at least. My faithful phone has always come with me. In the beginning it was just to keep track of the time. To set my timer to see how long and how far. If the morning was still dark to turn my flashlight on. No phone calls though. The camera feature I did use - pictures of squirrels, morning fog, deer, playgrounds  - and anything natural came zipping into my phone’s photo albums. Walking home, waiting for cars to pass before I crossed the street, I fed said photo’s onto my hard drive, to be used later on for attachments to letters, notes, and emails. If I sent an actual paper letter to someone, I could print out my pictures and use a stapler to attach them to the letter. Billboards are another issue entirely. I have taken pictures of them on my phone from my car but billboards are the only thing missing from these morning walks, and one not terribly missed at all. There are  the bill boards that line the highways coming into Kelowna, B.C, or on the way home to Victoria from the ferry. The vitality of both nature and technology are mated and married on a walk to the park, down a street or driving in the car from one place to the next. Technology, ever growing, as weeds and flowers in a fertile land, comes with us wherever we go so trips come home with us, whether walking or riding. When will technology bring us the smell of the flowers in spring, or the lovely aroma of curried chicken floating from a kitchen window? I suspect this technology has already been invented, just is not in my hands yet.

“Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories.”

~ Laurie Anderson

Moving with the Weather - Chapter Three

There was a time when, 

powerful animal species

all the fish and fowl of the sea and air

vied with us for our very survival.

With no defenses save our own wits

and truly at a grassroots level

whether cold and wet

or arid and hot

we discovered

fire

weapons

tools

hunted and gathered food

planting from seeds offered us from thriving plants.

sheltering where we could.

We have continued to discover new

tools

weapons

sources of warmth and heat

developing more conveniences

building more advanced shelters

refining what we think would make a better life

for ourselves

our families and

the next generations

for tomorrow.

But for today

how does what we do in

the here and now

connect us to the planet that

so generously provides us with raw material for all of these things?

On a misty cool morning

am I grateful or am I annoyed

about possible discomfort or

a change of plans

I’ll confess

I am often at first annoyed.

Where is sunshine and dry air

so I can have a pretty easy time of it

I won’t have to get

wet and muddy 

or feel cold

On this cool, moist morning

my son and I went to a wonderful Farmer’s Market

where all manner of 

bedding plants (herbs, vegetables, flowers)

organically grown chicken, eggs, and beef

hand made garments and baked goods 

grown by local farmers and brought to the city

were available for all to purchase

Humankind chips and chops away at Mother Earth.

However, this morning at this Farmer's Market, 

I saw and felt something different ~ at a grassroots level.

There are many individuals of humankind who

respect and work with our planet's generosity.

“Humankind has not woven the web of life.

We are but one thread within it. Whatever 

we do to the we, we do to ourselves.  All 

things are bound together. All things connect.”

 - Chief Seattle, 1854