Chiura Obata’s wisdom

There is a new Ken Burns documentary coming out at the end of the month about our National Parks and the people who were instrumental in saving them for generations to come… I was very lucky to have a sneak preview.

Chira Obata was one of these rare and gifted people and this particular remark (or a portion from it) hit home with me. He was speaking about Yosemite National Park.

… the coyotes howl in the distance, in the mid sky the moon is arcing, all the trees are standing here and there, and it is very quiet. You can learn from the teachings within this quietness. …Some people teach by speeches, some by talking, but I think it is important that you are taught by silence.” I, too, think you can learn a lot from silence…

Chiura Obata

For you poets ;)

Robert Frost said, “Being a poet is a condition, not a profession.” I understand this. Wanting to write…actually, needing to write can feel like a weight that presses upon me until I just give in and pour out my soul. So, tonight when I try to sleep – if I haven’t written some inane thing or another – the words will roll around in my head like marbles…

Today is carry a poem in your pocket day

I carried this one…

If you sit down at set of sun
And count the acts that you have done,
And, counting, find
One self-denying deed, one word
That eased the heart of him who heard,
One glance most kind
That fell like sunshine where it went–
Then you may count that day well spent.

But if, through all the livelong day,
You’ve cheered no heart, by yea or nay–
If, through it all
You’ve nothing done that you can trace
That brought the sunshine to one face–
No act most small
That helped some soul and nothing cost–
Then count that day as worse than lost.

George Elliot 1819 -1880

Solitude in Art

Works of Art are of an infinite solitariness… and nothing is less likely to bring us near to them than criticism. Only love can apprehend and hold them…and can be just towards them.
Rainier Maria Rilke : Poet, Novelist 1875 – 1926

The Caverns

Lots of folks have visited the caverns in New Mexico. This was my first visit, possibly my last, as it was very hard to go down a mile deep. I started my panic breathing when the elevator hit the bottom and went to the restroom to splash cold water on my face. I knew I would make myself stay. I had waited so long to see them and wasn’t about to leave. I stayed underground 5 hours. Mike stayed above. I knew he couldn’t do it and I wasn’t going to ask him to. I can’t say that I’m claustrophobic but there’s something about being in a cave…way down… that can be a terrifying thing.

I wandered around the well marked trails for a little while on my own and then went on a guided tour of the rooms with the most adornment. I can honestly say I’m so glad I was able to make this trip because it was so very beautifully and moving… things nature makes usually are.

The guide took us into an area where there was a low rock border where we could sit…turned off the existing lighting…and then told us this story… I want you to keep in mind a place so dark that I could not see my hand as it touched my nose.

In 1898, a 16-year-old, Texas-born cowhand named Jim White entered the caverns for for the first time in record. He had a kerosene lamp. Jim loved what he saw and kept right on going back. Now remember, this was a rough and tough, don’t make em’ like they used to, real life cowboy. On one of his visits, when he was pretty far into the cave exploring, his lantern went out. He panic and ran…right into a wall. When he woke up, he sat on the floor of the cave in the darkness. Now I can’t even begin to think of the terror I would feel, but at 16, I would have never made it out.

Here’s what Jim did. He sat..and thought…and reasoned. He had 3 matches in his pocket. He decided on the best course of action. He would light his first match to find his lantern. So…he lit the first match…looked and located the lantern. Whew! The second would be used to refill it will oil… He lit the second…and before he could start, the match went out, leaving him once again in total blackness. He was left with one match. In his wisdom, he filled the lamp with the oil without using the last lonely match but he spilled quite a bit on himself and didn’t know what had made it into the lamp. At this point I would have had a coronary…but not ol’ Jim. But I do bet he held his breath as he struck the last match and lit that old lantern. The flame rose and the lantern lit the whole room…and Jim made his way safely out…so that people like me could learn and understand his love for the beauty of these caves.

They say after that he never went inside the caverns without 2 other people from that day on. They also say that was the beginning of the Cave rules still used today. Take 3 people, each with 3 light sources and tell 3 people where you are going. Sounds like a good idea to me…

Precious Memories

Let me run through the grasses
and the wind blow through my hair
Let me leave behind my sorrow
and be a child without a care

When tomorrow comes, I will return
But for now, give me just this day
to pretend I’m never leaving
even though I know I cannot stay

The Wilds

Exert from “only the lonely” by David Gray

I’m raising up my voice
to the walls and to the sky
it seeks no explanation
it waits for no reply
really it is nothing
just a cry to the wilds

I’m delirious with chaos
I’m wonderstruck with awe
in my soul I’m dreaming only
of your velvet shore
when I’m walking there my face
untangles like a child

And only the lonely
only the lonely
lonely could know me

I found it :)

As I stood on the shore, I laughed to myself

Knowing I’d just been granted my very last wish

The skies opened up, right there before me

Revealing the place God takes my Father to fish

Abandon in Iowa

Verse: William Cowper

I am out of humanity’s reach.
I must finish my journey alone,
Never hear the sweet music of speech;
I start at the sound of my own.
The beasts that roam over the plain
My form with indifference see;
They are so unacquainted with man,
Their tameness is shocking to me.

To the waters…

(a small token from Yeats “The Stolen Child”)

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.