Journey 2008 ...
6 May ... Moose two ...
So, I am walking up this hill along the
edge of a field, and a young moose blasts out into the field right in
front of me. I think, Cool! Out of the corner of my
eye I see another, bigger, coming; ... no doubt `mommy'. She
comes to the edge of the field, sees me, and halts. Mommy is about
fifteen yards away. I am thinking, Cool!. And
then she starts walking toward me. My thoughts have now
gone from `cooI' to `this (big) animal is moving straight toward
me'. ... (A mature female moose is perhaps five times a big as I
am.) She stops about ten yards away. `Baby' (still a huge
animal) is behind me in the field. I am between the
two. They exchange a few noises as the younger one goes
completely around me - they join in in the brush and move off about
seventy-five yards. My camera is now working and I get some (relatively
distant) pics.
I didn't feel in danger, per se, but I do think Mommy wanted Baby
back. It was an `Assisi
moment'.
5 May ... an `Assisi' moment.
I went up to [deleted's] last night
looking for wild turkey. Got into some deer. I could smell
them (a first for me and deer). (Oh, they don't smell all that
great - but it was a cool experience - experiencing the outdoors and
wildlife in a further dimension.) As I was coming out - across a
draw I saw a moose. I didn't have anything else to do - so I
decided to see if I could get closer. I went around and got on
the same draw as he, and as I closed the distance to less than
seventy-five yards or so - he noticed me. I took it slow - and he
seemed non-threatened. So I got closer. I want to say I
`sneaked' - but I was in the open - and he was already aware of
me. On the other hand - it was what I would call an `Assisi'
(Saint Francis of Assisi) ... as I got closer and closer. I
eventually got within about 11 yards - the only thing between us a
slash pile about three feet tall, of which we both stood very much
above.
May 4 ... "and he appeared in another form."
It had been a very hard
night/morning. I went to church very much in need. There is
a kid who often sits behind us in church. I forgot his
name, but my wife says his name is John. But I kind of like him -
and I will at times put my hand on his shoulder and be warm and
friendly and interested. This morning, `out of the blue', he put his hand on my shoulder.
O.M.G. ... now I see it. Jesus said he would never leave us or
forsake us. We don't believe it because we don't see him, or what we think is him. Our `image' of
him. We are waiting for someone to show up who looks like the `Jesus'
we saw in our Sunday School lessons, or in the stained glass in
church. But he can take on any
form he chooses to. He can show up in a child, or as a
`stranger', or maybe in a gentle breeze, or the moment of mist just at
sunrise. How can we pin him down to an `image' - where the
possibilities of how he might show up are infinite.
I thanked him (John) - I said I really needed that.
25 ... (At Bank ... making a deposit)
"I love this stuff ... but true living has no bearing on how much you
have of it. That
(knowledge) is freedom!"
18 ... I went looking primarily for bear and secondarily turkey.
Saw primarily elk and secondarily deer.
17 ... I would have gone after that bear ... but I got attacked and bit
by a dog riding my bike home from campus. Police, Animal Control,
doctor to get cleaned up and for antibiotics and a tetanus shot.
Ughhhhhhh.
16 ... did some work out in the County (Camp Grizzly). On the way
back decided
to hunt `Keith's' ... at sunset saw 2 beautiful toms across a meadow,
with 2 others - but couldn't
close the gap ...
And saw oodles of deer.
15 April, Opening Day of ...
I saw the thing my heart loved today
... a beautiful brown Black bear. I will go after it.
14 ... thoughts on the movie Enchanted
... draft, here
13 ...
Actually, perhaps the two (experiences)
are related. (See 9 April.) I mean, sometimes my wife has
barked, as she scampers away, "Three
times in one day is ENOUGH!"
Time of Love ... (April 1)
... as I was photographing, they went behind a big boulder and
disappeared.
Somehow I felt I shouldn't disturb them. After a minute or so,
the hen came out, [deleted], then the drake. I think they had
just ...
you know.
11 April ... came back with a tick from walk up on the hill.
Amazing ... the snow's not even gone.
9 April ...
I was photographing ducks today.
One hen Mallard
barked like a dog. I had to do a double take. And then a
triple take. Yes. It sounded like one of those little
barky-dogs that old people take on bike trails with a leash ... you
know - the ones that make a pathetic lunge at you as you go by. I
would have thought it to be a dog - but the noise was coming out of the
DUCK!
I am coming to believe IN THIS DAY AND AGE that anything is up for
grabs, really!
8 April ...
My dad a year or so back, talking about
a friend of his, ... he "hunts even more than you do." Well, the
guy is a part time guide - so, go figure. What a crushing thing
to tell a son. :) May I live to see the day that I hunt more than
a part time guide. Maybe I already do.
7 April ... Ashamed of Love ... here
5 April ... Pintail on Richard's pond ... (see pic)
4 April ... Shoveler pair on Richard's pond. Mallards,
also. Been watching some 50 widgeon, with single drake Pintail in
the mix - but no good pics.
31 March ... Several Things ...
For The Beauty ...
The other day my wife and I were
talking about `beauty'. A flower is beautiful for beauty sake. It's not
beautiful for function - as it could function without it. Same
with a sunset. Oh, My! ... I missed it all these years. I
should give my wife flowers - not for the function (because in function
I'll not give at all) - but for the thrill
it brings her heart.
... my wife gets back from a trip tonight. I bought her
some flowers. I can walk through the store day after day, month
after month, year after year, and not turn a head. But walk
through the store with some flowers. OMG! Female heads
turn. Happily married ones. (Maybe especially happily married
ones.) I thought - perhaps it's like this to be a girl and have a
nice bod and walk around wearing a string bikini in a store of
men. (But alas, it was not me toward which they turned - but the flowers.)
Flowers to a woman ... like a beautiful
nude to a man.
One doesn't give flowers to a woman because it's logical; one gives
because they are beautiful.
On writing ...
I gotta write ...I have been hitting brick walls lately - I think it is
because I am not in line with my Destiny.
And ... photography.
On Gardening ...
I am thinking of doing a garden plot - yes, hand tools and hand
care. Consider when you have been swimming or diving in a lake,
and you were underwater when a motor boat went by? ... yikes, the
sound!, the fear! Perhaps so it is with modern farming, and the
`machinery' overhead.
30 March ...
Finished Marianne Willamson's book ... The Age of Miracles ... the
first third - esp. the Intro - is jaw-dropping. Some of the other
stuff I ... yet.
29 March ...O.M.G.!
Gen 4:11 And
now thou art cursed from the earth, which hath opened her
arms to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.
Rev
12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened up her
mouth, and swallowed up the flood ...
We are too used to
thinking of the
earth and creation as `it' ... `matter' - just `material'. That's
not how
the Bible sees `it'. Maybe we would take better care of our
environment if we recognized `it' is a `her'.
Can
we assume the God (or the Bible writers) is (were) careless with
words? Or must we assume there is something MUCH BIGGER here
than we are accustomed to thinking? Perhaps there is more to
the idea of `Mother Earth' than we western civilized people are
accustomed to think.
Maybe it is no
accident that the
world, creation, universe is so BEAUTIFUL.
Maybe, like a woman,
it (SHE) responds
to how she is treated.
Likewise, it may be no accident, that
when we treat her bad, she is nasty
in return.
... marvelous.
28 March ...
That's why Jesus caused so much
furor. People came to him with their `bless me' and `fix my
neighbor, wife, roommate' prayers. And Jesus' response was to
[ignore them and] write in the sand. When Jesus did speak - he
said things like - remove the log from your OWN eye.
Take up your CROSS and follow me. If you want a better
life - EXIT the one you're presently in. Sell all you
have (not get) and give it (the money from the sale) to the
poor. No wonder we think our prayers go unanswered. Answers
like the ones Jesus gives are not on our radar screen, not on our
shopping list.
Earlier ... on
unanswered prayer ...
If I think of all the unanswered prayer I have logged - I start to
laugh. (Or cry.) My prayers of all shapes and sizes seem to
go down range and bounce relentlessly off hardened targets.
Reload - blaze away, same result. My children on the other hand,
pray, and changes in the cosmos of geographic proportions unfold.
Georgia - it's like a single shot rim-fire 22 - shooting off the hip on
the fly as she goes about her day - and they all `hit' - unleashing
beautiful changes or additions to the world around her.
27 March ... For the Beauty!
Gold ... where is it? Buried at
Fort Knox? WTF! Gold is for beauty - and it's buried, hidden?!!! That's
aweful. The Ancients used gold to decorate their palaces and
temples! God has given us so much beauty - and we miss it - or we
get it and bury it. Could a bee find a flower in black and
white? Yeah, probably. God
gave the COLOR, the BEAUTY, to us.
Undated ...
Jesus said, "Come see where I lay my
head." Now I see it. Jesus was inviting them to see his
life of simplicity.
23 ... Easter ... OMG! ... I think I'm becoming an `environmentalist'.
All the sudden I see the
`connectedness' we have to our envirnment. If
we trash the planet we trash our home. In some sense a love for
my
natural world provides a `home' for such thinking - but now it has
expanded, or matured, or progressed - to the next level. My
connection
to it. Our need for `care'. Enjoying recycling.
Sensing the need to
be more modest. It's a `conversion' experience. I feel
crossing into
a whole new life.
22 March ... "It is Good" Bike Ride ... here
And ...
Thin Red Line in the afternoon, with Frank ... 48:30
for me ... 46 for him.
21 ... watching widgeon, recent bike ride ...
16 March, Skunk Route, w/ Georgia ... 47 min.
Totalled 10,000 vertical feet this break.
15 March, Skunk Route, Solo, 40 min.
13 March ... Skunk Route, Solo, in the rain ... 41 minutes.
10 March ... Skunk Route ... with Michelle, Cara, and Jaci ... 50
minutes (for me ... much less for Jaci).
All made it to the top.
9 March ... solo ... Skunk Route, 42 minutes.
1 March ... new route ... and slow.
... pic of storm ... here
16 Feb ...
Skiing today ...
... Perfect `10'.
15 Feb ...
.... the beauty and mystery of my wife's body ... intoxicating.
10 Feb ... Thin Red Line ...
51 minutes (49 for me) ... not too bad.
9 Feb ... On Emergencies ...
I have
been thinking about the idea of `emergencies'. We as Americans
(or we as humans) are too
easily sucked into the thinking that life is an emergency.
Paying bills, homework due, this problem, that problem, and so
on.
Now, don't get me wrong - there are some true emergencies. When
Sue collapsed out jogging - that was an emergency. But I find
that I handle too much of all of life that way. Survival.
Survival of the fittest. Then I read the Bible. Jesus had
`pretty big shoes to fill' ... but I don't get the sense that he
considered it a big emergency - or series of emergencies. Oh,
yes, the people around him were in emergencies - but he seemed
to level everything out. Emergency thinking is a `high' in a
sense - it gives us a false sense of importance - as we are always
rescuing ourselves and others in our `emergency' situations.
But it also keeps us from looking at what is important.
I find that I get all caught up in bills, work, keeping everything
together - and miss how I treat my family, or mistreat, or not treat
at all. Whoa ... wrong! I need to step back and take a
better look. I need to give, and love, instead of just `fix'.
7 Feb ... 1 AM ...
... went skiing on the hill
beside our house. Perhaps the best powder I have ever
skied. DIVINE !!!
2 Feb ... I guess I'll admit we have a lot of snow. I was walking
back from skiing on the hill beside my house I something whacked me in
the head. "WT ... !?" I turned around to see that I had run
into the eave of our garage ROOF. And I am a short person.
... All this snow? I LOVE IT !!!
27 January ... skiing again this weekend ... (video clip ... here)
23 January ... we have run out of wild game meat. The other day I
went to the
store and bought some over-the-counter beef. I cooked it
up. It was aweful. I had my wife return the rest of
it.
Gotta get an elk.
22 January ... Regret isn't about what you did or didn't do ... it's
about how you think and how
you feel about what you did
or didn't
do.
18-21 January ... went skiing this weekend, here ... here
19 January ... Power Climb ... here
