Yesterday morning I was having my coffee watching the birds at the feeders, when suddenly, what looked like a Northern Junco, smashed into the patio door and fell to the deck. I quickly went to see how it was but it wasn't doing well at all. I opened the door and brought it into the warm house to see if it would recover. Well after about five or ten minutes it straightened its head and legs and I thought he might be just fine. I went to grab it but it started to fly, all I had managed to do was grab one of its legs and it started to scream so I let go. What followed was a real circus. It was flying all over the kitchen. I was getting close enough but as soon as I tried to grab it would fly away ….
So I opened the patio door and thought he might find his way out. Not so, he was always flying close to the ceiling and wouldn’t find the open door. After about ten minutes of this I closed the door since it was getting cold inside. What to do? It kept flying everywhere. Then it happened, the bird sort of found the patio door and flew all the way down. To my shock my big black cat jumped on the bird and caught it in its mouth. I had forgotten about the cat. I was furious and screamed at the cat to let go. The cat started running and I after it. I just missed the cat and it ran downstairs with me in hot pursuit … finally in the basement I was able to catch the cat by the hind quarters. I squeezed, the cat meowed and let go of the bird. The bird immediately flew to somewhere in the ceiling joists. I couldn’t see it. I looked everywhere, and thought he must be gravely injured and would die somewhere alone.
I came back up and remembered we had a butterfly net. It was a small children’s net but I thought if the bird got out again I might be able to catch it with it. I found the net after about a long while and went back downstairs. I sat there in the middle waiting. Suddenly the bird flew right over my head to another corner. I opened a window. I came close to it, readied the net and made a feeble attempt… it flew away It seemed to avoid the open window on purpose … this went on for quite some time until I finally got it by going over it with the net. I had noticed the bird always flew up a little when it took off so that’s how I approached it with the net over it and it worked … I went to the window and released it. It flew straight up to a very high tree. I felt exhilarated and redeemed.
In trying to do the right thing I had almost got that little bird killed.
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Universe and Nature
To me nature and the Universe is everything. It is sacred, it is the source of my life and it is where I am going after my death. Whether I call it God, Goddess, of simply Nature/Universe it does not matter, it is simply divine and sacred and I am one with it. The Universe is me. I am the Universe. I appreciate everything in it, the beautiful and the not so beautiful. I respect it. Nature/Universe can be extremely harsh. Evolution is harsh, the wilderness food chain is harsh, then there are natural catastrophic events in Nature and destructive events in the Universe such as when a star explodes and goes super-nova. It just makes me more in awe of it. Who among us would survive in nature alone with nothing. To me it is very important to be close to nature. It is a choice. I lived in a big city for a while and it was horribly stifling. I do think however that cities are amazing creation of man and I do like to go there once in a while. I was driving back from the city last evening and was looking at the forest tree line and was wondering what it would feel like to stop the car and just enter the forest. The forest did not seem so inviting as in the day.
As a Pantheist I find just about everything beautiful and connected, my wife, my kids, my cats and dog, my neighbor, my house and yes even a coke can is sacred to me. Can you imagine the ingeniousness it takes to make a coke can at that price. Do you have any idea how much I would charge if I made a single coke can from scratch. No, I'm not being silly. Human inventiveness is beautiful. The Universe made it thus. I sympathize with those that can't decide whether they are atheist, UU or whatever. I feel so lucky to have found pure Pantheism because most of my life I identified God with the Universe without knowing there was a "religion" that felt like me. It is not a personal God I can pray to for favors, because it has already done everything for me.
The Universe from the big bang on was biased to produce sentient beings like us ... from the formation of stars where the atoms that make up our bodies were manufactured and released when they exploded. Our sun is also our God, it made us. Its a third generation star that made Gaia and through evolution and amazing random events, that don't seem random at all, made us humans and all the plants and animals on this wonderful planet. The sun is the direct source and maintainer of our lives.
I don't know whether it's my heart attack in February or my subsequent finding of Pantheism, but normally at this time of year I become depressed ... but not this time. I just revel the different texture that winter brings and I enjoy going outside in the cold just as much as in the summer when it is too hot. Oh, I've had some days where I felt depressed but it didn't grab and take hold of me. I quit drinking nearly three months ago and that was a big positive step. Not that I was drinking a lot but enough to cloud my days and prevent me from reading or doing other things that I enjoy. Now I take care of my body; I exercise 5 times a week and I eat properly.
As I write this I look outside my window in front of me, I see the tree line with tiny bits of snow on the branches and the beautiful blue sky interspersed with pure white clouds, and I feel ... content.
As a Pantheist I find just about everything beautiful and connected, my wife, my kids, my cats and dog, my neighbor, my house and yes even a coke can is sacred to me. Can you imagine the ingeniousness it takes to make a coke can at that price. Do you have any idea how much I would charge if I made a single coke can from scratch. No, I'm not being silly. Human inventiveness is beautiful. The Universe made it thus. I sympathize with those that can't decide whether they are atheist, UU or whatever. I feel so lucky to have found pure Pantheism because most of my life I identified God with the Universe without knowing there was a "religion" that felt like me. It is not a personal God I can pray to for favors, because it has already done everything for me.
The Universe from the big bang on was biased to produce sentient beings like us ... from the formation of stars where the atoms that make up our bodies were manufactured and released when they exploded. Our sun is also our God, it made us. Its a third generation star that made Gaia and through evolution and amazing random events, that don't seem random at all, made us humans and all the plants and animals on this wonderful planet. The sun is the direct source and maintainer of our lives.
I don't know whether it's my heart attack in February or my subsequent finding of Pantheism, but normally at this time of year I become depressed ... but not this time. I just revel the different texture that winter brings and I enjoy going outside in the cold just as much as in the summer when it is too hot. Oh, I've had some days where I felt depressed but it didn't grab and take hold of me. I quit drinking nearly three months ago and that was a big positive step. Not that I was drinking a lot but enough to cloud my days and prevent me from reading or doing other things that I enjoy. Now I take care of my body; I exercise 5 times a week and I eat properly.
As I write this I look outside my window in front of me, I see the tree line with tiny bits of snow on the branches and the beautiful blue sky interspersed with pure white clouds, and I feel ... content.
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