PCFL's Spirituality in Nature 2007

Interdependence / Interbeing

2007-03-22T04:00:00.000-07:00

Interdependence is a reality to which we may awaken. Without the micro-organisms in the soil, the earth becomes infertile. Without bees many of our plantings will not bear fruit. Without the sun and rain (in proper proportions) we all die.

But it often feels like an intellectual construct--something rather like a piece of dogma that we will ourselves to believe. Another way to express it that might seem at first more artificial is expressed in the made-up word "interbeing." (Even my spell-checker refuses to recognize it!) To say that humans interare with everything else, is to turn a concept (interdependence is a noun) into a living reality (interbe is a verb).

The Center for Peaceful Living calls itself "a non-sectarian center (not affiliated with or limited to any particular religion) where we offer a loving and supportive environment for us all to learn and live from a higher level of peace." Might they represent a "post-religious" practice appropriate to a "post-modern" world? On today's theme, there's a nice article on "Peace with the Earth."

Yesterday in meditation, I thought (I suppose that's a confession) about Gary Snyder's poem "I pledge allegiance" which is dedicated to the earth, called "Turtle Island" in Native American creation mythology. It's a happy expression of interbeing:

I pledge allegiance to the soil
of Turtle Island,
and to the beings who thereon dwell
one ecosystem
in diversity
under the sun
With joyful interpenetration for all.

-Gary Snyder
from No Nature: New and Selected Poems (New York: Pantheon Books, 1992).

Feedback

2007-03-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, on my daily walk along the Ohio River, I heard, then saw, two sandpipers. It was amazing! I didn't know we had them here in Ohio. Took me right back to the many days spent at the Jersey Shore. I had been blessed.
Enjoying the Lenten readings. Blessings to you and the folks at PCFL...

2007-03-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

Our last two days' readings have generated a few comments, responding to the awareness of the darker side of nature.

On Day 19 Robert M. Hamma invites us to "Enjoy the Mess," observing, "Gardens inspire admiration for the way the gardener has crafted and arranged the natural beauty of flowers, shrubs, and trees. A forest inspires something else again -- awe. Amidst the remnants of the storm's chaos, beauty blooms."

One of us commented, "I like this e-course, and like this day's message far and away the best. It is the deepest, and for a forest-dweller, most meaningful so far."

Day 20 looked at the potentially life-threatening side of "Nature," prompting this comment from another reader, "I especially like yesterday's and today's readings. Both expressed the fullness of nature: It can be beautiful and thrilling in it's rotting, chaotic mess and awesome silent powerful vastness. I love that I already know nature that well."

Actually a classic English gardener, Mirabel Osler, has written, "A Gentle Plea for Chaos," in which she seems to undermine the urge to order: “So when I make a plea for havoc, what would be lost? Merely the pristine appearance of a garden kept highly manicured, which could be squandered for amiable disorder. Just in some places. Just to give a pull at our primeval senses. A mild desire for amorphous confusion which will gently infiltrate and, given time, will one day set the garden singing.”

A Resource to Follow Environmental (and other) Issues

2007-03-13T06:02:00.000-07:00

I learned recently about a resource to help us keep track of what our representatives in Washington are doing. It's http://www.opencongress.org

It made it quite easy to discover what my Congressman, Scott Garrett (NJ-5) has done recently on environmental issues, and I recommend that you check it out for yourself!

In the last couple of months, Rep. Garrett voted:

AGAINST the bill to reauthorize the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (H.R.720) (it passed the House 303 – 108)

AGAINST H.R.700 - Healthy Communities Water Supply Act of 2007 (it passed the House 368 – 59)

AGAINST H.R.569 - Water Quality Investment Act of 2007 (it passed the House 367 – 58)

FOR H.R.547 - Advanced Fuels Infrastructure Research and Development Act (it passed the House 400-3)

2007-03-08T03:43:00.000-08:00

The author of today's reading on nature’s secrets and bounties, Annie Dillard describes herself as coming from "lapsed Presbyterian" stock. She grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, where our kind were the dominant life-form. (Some have joked that Presbyterians are "denser" in Pittsburgh than anywhere else. ) She converted to Catholicism in her twenties and now describes herself as a "Hasidic Christian," her meditations on the natural world having led her to unite Jewish mysticism with Christian spirituality.

Each of us is on a "spiritual journey," and we tend to flock with our own kindred. Only when we are feeling secure in our own identity can we move from anxious flapping at every perceived threat to a more patient and observant posture. Like the "die-hard" third wave of red-wing blackbirds Dillard describes, we can watch as things develop and perhaps learn more from observing those who are different from us.

2007-03-07T14:23:00.000-08:00

This photo comes from Barbara Kellam Scott, who found the story memorialized in the snow this morning at the front of her house in Sussex. What proved to be so difficult for many today, coping with roads and weather, also brings beauty and reverence to those who know how to stop and look.

Flowers and Gardens, In Memory

2007-03-06T12:33:00.000-08:00

Given the current chill, we can rejoice that January's shoots stopped short, and most of the plants will recover. Meanwhile, we can revisit flowers in our memory.

Ginny Palmieri sent a link to a past summer's blog: Crowz Nest: Visitors in the garden

And I revisited a place from my childhood: Fortín de las Flores...

When I was sixteen, and my family was living in the steamy port of Veracruz, Mexico, we took a family trip (probably in April, 1963) away from the heat and humidity of the east coast to the mountains of the western part of Veracruz state.
We went to a little town called Fortín de las Flores ("The Little Fort of Flowers") to stay in the hotel "Ruiz Galindo" (later called “Hotel Fortín de las Flores” and now long gone). In the distance you could see El Pico de Orizaba, the snow-capped volcanic mountain that dominated the horizon in western Veracruz. And there was a swimming pool in which hundreds of gardenia flowers were floating. They gave off a smell of fresh and clean but exotic delight. It was magic!

2007-03-03T03:20:00.000-08:00

St. Francis of Assisi
Sermon to the Birds - c - 1220

My little sisters, the birds, much bounden are ye unto God, your Creator, and always in every place ought ye to praise Him, for that He hath given you liberty to fly about everywhere, and hath also given you double and triple raiment; moreover He preserved your seed in the ark of Noah, that your race might not perish out of the world; still more are ye beholden to Him for the element of the air which He hath appointed for you; beyond all this, ye sow not, neither do you reap; and God feedeth you, and giveth you the streams and fountains for your drink; the mountains and valleys for your refuge and the high trees whereon to make your nests; and because ye know not how to spin or sow, God clotheth you, you and your children; wherefore your Creator loveth you much, seeing that He hath bestowed on you so many benefits; and therefore, my little sisters, beware of the sin of ingratitude, and study always to give praises unto God.

Saint Francis of Assisi - c 1220

from http://www.franciscanfriarstor.com/stfrancis/stf_blessing_of_animals.htm

2007-03-02T03:59:00.000-08:00

Wednesday night, Tom spoke of the beauty of the snow on the trees at sunrise. Here's his picture, which says it all. Thanks, Tom!
And thanks to Ginny for the wonderful story of the birds (be sure to click on the comment to the previous post!)

Re: "Day 5: Get Up Close And Personal"

2007-02-27T06:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went out for a bit of showshoeing with my dog, Payton. It was a joy for us both, since she had spent days in the kennel while we were away and it was a special time to go out. I noticed how she stopped to sniff each footprint in the snow. She followed the rabbit who had crossed the yard and rested under the shelter of our former Christmas tree before heading on to protection from the fox and hawk in the warrens to the east. Payton tracked the squirrel who jumped from the ground to the roof of the dog house which belonged to our long-gone beagles and which I relocated to the woods some years ago in the thought that some animal (if only pillbugs) might use it.

I wondered why she does this. She's not a hound, bred for hunting by scent. And she knows she's not going to get to chase the quarry. I suppose she does it for the same reason the joke says dogs do other things: "Because they can!"

When I consider the world from her point of view, I'm amazed at how different it is! The differences would seem to reflect our differing evolutionary origins. Visual acuity in dogs is 0.4 times that of people, 0.67 times that of horses, and twice that of cats. When it comes to smell, things are harder to measure, but dogs have around 220 million olfactory receptors, roughly 40 times the number found in humans. Her chemosensory world is much more alive than mine, particularly when it comes to smelling the volatile organic compounds that indicate "MEAT!"

A recent experiment documented that dogs could correctly diagnose (sniff out?) bladder cancer in urine samples 41% of the time, compared to an expected 14% if the results were random. Janice has noticed that every morning Payton smells our breath. We've decided it's her way of checking to see how we're doing. This rich sensory world also explains the embarrassing (for humans) habit dogs have of going immediately for the crotch of a newcomer in the household. It's just canine homeland security, checking the identity of the visitor!

In yesterday's reading, Barry Lopez says, "The quickest door...leads to the smallest room, by knowing the name each thing is called. The door that leads to the cathedral is marked by a hesitancy to speak at all, rather to encourage by example a sharpness of the senses. If one speaks it should only be to say, as well as one can, how wonderfully all this fits together...." I guess what I'm aiming to say is this: It's a deep privilege to share the world with another being whose experience of it is so different from my own!

Welcome

2007-01-30T04:12:00.000-08:00

During the 40 days of Lent our community will be using "Practicing Spirituality in Nature," an E-course by Frederic & Mary Ann Brussat. (Their www.SpiritualityandPractice.com is a wonderful resource for the journey!)

I will send each day's readings and practice suggestions by e-mail (every day except Sundays) from Wed., Feb. 21, through Sat., Feb. 7. The first day's e-mail is included below, so you can get the flavor.

On Wed. evenings, Feb. 28, Mar. 7, 14, 21, & 28, we'll hold a covered-dish supper at church, 6:30-8:30 PM, to share the practice. If you can join us, please bring a simple casserole, salad, or dessert for the supper. We'll also create a blog so we can share the discussion by e-mail.

Moving into the season of Lent (from the Anglo-Saxon lencthen, referring to the lengthening of the days), we have the opportunity to enjoy and give thanks for the light. It's a wonderful time to practice spirituality in nature. I hope you'll join us, and take part in the daily practice, even if you can't make the Wed. evening suppers. Let's make this an all-community event!

Let me know by e-mail, or phone 201 406-8991, and I'll sign you up. If you can afford a $15 registration fee, send it along and we'll forward that to Spirituality and Practice.