BE STILL

Low Country Stillness, Wrightsville Beach, NC
Kiawah Dawn, Kiawah Island, SC
Palmetto Reflections, Kiawah Island, SC

Be still, and know that I am God.
--Psalm 46:10

" It has been said:
'Stillness is the language God speaks,
and everything else is a bad translation.'

Stillness is really another word for space. Becoming conscious of stillness whenever we encounter it in our lives will connect us with the formless and timeless dimension within ourselves, that which is beyond thought, beyond ego. It may be the stillness that pervades the world of nature, or the stillness in your room in the early hours of the morning, or the silent gaps in between sounds.

Stillness has no form--that is why through thinking we cannot become aware of it. Thought is form. Being aware of stillness means to be still. To be still is to be conscious without thought. You are never more essentially, more deeply, yourself than when when you are still. When you are still, you are who you were before you temporarily assumed this physical and mental form called a person. You are also who you will be when the form dissolves. When you are still, you are who you are beyond your temporal existence: consciousness--unconditioned, formless, eternal."

--Eckhart Tolle, The New Earth

CHIHULY'S AVATAR

Chihuly Avatar Arboretum, Saint Louis, MO

LIFE SAVERS

Life Ring, Wyandotte, MI

I always wince a bit every time I hear an account of a doctor or some brave citizen “saving someone’s life” on the nightly newscast. Not that there’s anything wrong with such a noble and sometimes brave act. And Jesus performed many such miracles in his short three year ministry in the Galilee area. A few of those that were recorded actually related to instances where he brought people back from the dead. We’ve even named the inflated tubes on ships that are tossed into the sea to keep a man overboard from drowning as “life savers”. Modern medical technology can now bring patients back from clinical death and they relate stories of an intense white light through a long tunnel and a sense of absolute peace. Most are reluctant to return from these out of body experiences. But consider that all of these people, including those Jesus brought back from certain death, eventually did or will die and their bodies will return to the dust of this earth. So, how does anybody think that anybody can really save a life?

I guess most of these folks are saved for a while. But in truth and at best, their lives are extended for a bit longer. That’s it. Nobody gets out alive. In our youth oriented society, we have the illusion that we all will indeed just keep on keeping on. Like the guy who stated, “I plan to live forever! So far, so good”. Of course, we’ve all been given life to live to the fullest. And we should! Too many folks waste too much of the time they’ve been given by dwelling on the inevitable. But the clock of life is wound but once and no one knows the hour it will stop. So, we really should pause and be still on occasion to consider our life’s course and purpose. All tail wagging animals fortunately have no clue that their life will not go on forever. May flies and Day Lilies have one day to live—that’s it! Living in the moment is a good thing, but we should also learn from the past and plan for the future. We human beings are the only creatures on the planet that have the benefit of a developed frontal lobe that enables us to ponder the future—and our mortality. Another human doctor or total stranger may extend our mortal life, but only One can save it and only each of us individually can achieve immortal life by acknowledging and accepting His priceless gift of grace and forgiveness.

OLD MILL OF GUILFORD

Old Mill of Guilford, Oak Ridge, NC
Old Millstone, Oak Ridge, NC
Old Mill Stream, Oak Ridge, NC

Take millstones and grind flour;
take off your veil.
Lift up your skirts,
bare your legs,
and wade through the streams.

--Isaiah 47:2

MEADOWLAND FAERIE DANCE

Fairies of the Meadow, Nils Blommer
Faerie Mushrooms I, Jamestown, NC
Faerie Mushrooms II, Jamestown, NC

I spotted the irregular white circle from a distance while enjoying an early morning drive in the cool of the summer’s day. It had formed at the edge of a rather wide expanse of grasses behind a neighboring church yard. It must have sprung up almost overnight after a generous rainstorm quenched the land the previous evening. Modern biologists inform us that the “fairy rings” can start when a single mushroom drops its spores around itself. The spore germinates; a fungus grows and creates mushrooms. Over time, new generations of the faerie shelters grow outwards as the local nitrogen levels are depleted. Rainstorms coax the fruiting bodies of the fungi to poke their heads up from the soil. One of the largest rings ever found is in France and is over 700 years old and 2,000 feet in diameter.

Before people understood fungi, however, they believed that faeries had danced a circle dance in the night which resulted in the formation of mushrooms the following morning. Isn’t that a much more intriguing explanation? These rings are reputed to be gateways into faerie kingdoms. The ring will generally disappear in about five days without a trace, but if you patiently wait for a faerie to return, you may be able to capture it on camera. While we move about in our daily routines, spirits rise and their dance is all around us. The entire cosmos circles in a vibrantly delicate balance at both the micro and macro levels. At the subatomic level of all matter, atoms move in vibrating circles around a centered nucleus and our planet earth delicately circles our life sustaining sun. The days and the seasons also follow the circular dance of life.

J. M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, writes that “When the first baby laughed for the first time, his laugh broke into a million pieces, and they all went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies.” Ancient myth and folklore describe their nature as magical, ethereal creatures. Some have a dark side, but since we’re just speculating, I prefer the more fanciful side. They were reputed to tangle the hair of sleepers and pinch them in the night if they didn’t think that the house was clean enough. Bread is associated with home and hearth, so it was customary to place a piece in your pocket to keep faeries at bay. Other protective charms include cold iron, church bells, St. John’s wort, four-leaf clovers, and wearing clothing inside out.

I returned to the faerie ring this morning with camera in hand only to find that the cold iron of an alien’s mowing machine had destroyed the gateway. But perhaps I’ll return by the light of a full harvest moon after the next life-giving rainstorm and peer from behind a nearby oak tree to witness another circle dance. And I’ll be sure to wear my shirt inside out and have a dry piece of bread in my pocket.

THE PATH OF LIFE

Country Roads, Take Me Home, Central KS


"You have made known to me the path of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence,

with eternal pleasures at your right hand".

--Psalm 16:11

CREPUSCULAR RAYS

Glory, Central KS
Grace, Central KS

One of the spectacular scenes displayed at sunrise and sunset, or for that matter, most any time of the day, is the creation of dramatic shadows or columns of sunlit air that stream into the sky. Smaller clouds blocking the sun create the columns of shadows and gaps in larger cloud formations create the columns of bright light. These rays have the effect of a visible blessing gracefully dispensed down to the earth for our renewal. How many of us have looked heavenward to instinctively receive these blessings?

I recently found it interesting to learn that there is a scientific term for this phenomenon--crepuscular rays. But I like to believe that when I see the rays streaming heavenward, the instinct is to see "glory” and when the rays are streaming earthward, it’s simply "grace".