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Draw a circle
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Draw a circle Waawiyebii'an- Ojibwe: Draw it as a circle There’s chaos in nature, and there’s chaos in life. We try to make it seem less chaotic. We look for order and we try to understand it. Why do things happen the way they do? As children, we’re simply in the world, and find joy in it- it’s all miraculous and we don’t understand any of it, but conditioning directs us to try to figure it out as we grow. Language is crucial to this, but it’s a barrier too. A child’s explanation for why life is what it is seems rooted in his own imagination, and many of us see creation myths in the same way, as lovely and imaginative but not rooted in reality. But kids don’t have our training or our language- you can’t expect them to use the language of molecular biology or biochemistry to describe what they see any more than you could expect it of neolithic people or of the Ojibwe. Neither have that specialized technical vocabulary. So we have beautiful and poetic creation myths that are our legacy from our forbears, if we’re wise enough to recall them and credit them. They’re a metaphor for life, not an engineering blueprint. Science teaches us to learn by observation. We accrue empirical knowledge of how nature behaves, and we invent elaborate mechanical devices to help our eyes to see better and help us make more precise measurements. This gives us an intricate picture of how the systems of life interact and intertwine, and we can construct immutable rules for how life behaves in our world. Here is our engineering blueprint. It’s incomplete- to know all and understand all would make us God. But we understand some small systems very well nonetheless. What both methods agree on is that there’s a cycle of life. Ours appears to be a closed system. There is no new thing under the sun. Everything is recycled. I’ll ignore the discussion of antimatter and alternate universes and warps and holes in the space/time continuum. That’s a different kind of post. The ancients knew that life was recycled not just intuitively but by their own empirical observation. Without controlled and extensively notated experiments, they saw it by patient and diligent reflection, by watching and learning. Theirs was the accumulated knowledge of hundreds of generations of oral history, their legacy and birthright from their mothers and fathers from time immemorial. Western philosophy has looked outward for answers and has put its faith in science and empiricism. Eastern thought has looked inward and enlightenment is sought within ourselves. Any knowledge of life and our place in it is arrived at by meditation and a spiritual understanding, not to be expressed in words but in knowing. There is a yearning for understanding in western man that science doesn’t satisfy, and many have looked east for the answers. The chemistry and the physics, the mathematics of life are discoverable by study and by empirical analysis, but we don’t find meaning this way. For meaning we look to our ancestors again. We look to the ancients. But both approaches to the problem look to understand what makes us tick, why we are as we are. I see this on our daily hikes. Seeing may be too narrow a word- I feel it. I know how many of these small systems work. The sun warms plants in spring, and that energy awakes a genetic code that tells them to wake up and grow. The trees sprout leaves that follow a special preordained, programmed in chromosomes, path from bud to blossom to leaf. Each leaf is a photovoltaic cell that draws water laden with nutrients up from the soil, and energy flows back down again to the roots and spurs growth there to supply more raw material to build a tree. A tree is a woven structure of cellulose tubes, blood vessels glued together that transmit the stuff of life to the organism, the living thing that is a tree. All trees are alike, and every one is different. But they all follow this engineering blueprint, and that’s simply miraculous to me. Knowing how and why only adds to my feeling of awe at this marvel of design. It seems pure genius. But time and space are infinite- there was no hurry to design this system. Hurry is for the organisms themselves, for the tree and for me. The cycle and the system go on, reinventing and redefining, constantly evolving. My time, and the tree’s time, are limited. So in the forest a tree will shoot rapidly for the sun, greedily soaking up the sun in the canopy, and then slowly put on girth over the decades or even the centuries. A man is like that. He can’t wait to reach adulthood and from there it’s a constant struggle to put on the brakes and stave off decrepitude, decay and death. A tree topples in the swamp and immediately is beset by fungi and bacteria, breaking it down into its minerals, feeding from its corpse. Turkey tail mushrooms and moss grow on the downed trunk. Insects invade and skunks and raccoons tear apart the rotting wood to get at the insects, and shit them out on the ground. I see these things and not one is marvelous in itself, but it’s all a part of the cycle of life in the forest and the swamp. The system is a miracle. The cycle is marvelous. But this is just the way I perceive it. My own brain works like all the rest of them, sweating hard to find order in the chaos, striving to understand. It doesn’t mean anything- it just is. I understand the order and the working of some small systems, and I’m content that I have some understanding. Gracie does not care, and she’s content too.           Become a member now and get a free tote bag. |
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I love how your camera captures those tiny signs of nature's rebirth! Yes, everything is recycled. A tree dies giving place for other creatures to grow and food for their survival. All living creatures are recyclable in physical sense, but in metaphysical sense, our brains are recyclable too. And that's the cycle of life. Visit my blog It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World of NaughtyInSO, leave a comment, become a watcher. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LIVE AND LET LIVE Be happy! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Most of my adult life I was rushed against my will, and a part of me resented it. As I got older I resented it more, and I found ways to rebel and get around it. I figure I'm lucky that I survived to slow down and look again, and take life slow and easy. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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love your post, so many of us forget about the world around us, and only focus on tech stuff, and we wonder why we are so stress out, if we only remember when we were children and how we enjoyed life without stress, the good days
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I love how your camera captures those tiny signs of nature's rebirth! Yes, everything is recycled. A tree dies giving place for other creatures to grow and food for their survival. All living creatures are recyclable in physical sense, but in metaphysical sense, our brains are recyclable too. And that's the cycle of life. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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love your post, so many of us forget about the world around us, and only focus on tech stuff, and we wonder why we are so stress out, if we only remember when we were children and how we enjoyed life without stress, the good days Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Thank you darling! I was in that kind of mood tonight. I shoulda been an Ojibwe, and I'm a little put out that I wasn't. I think it would have fit me better. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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I cut down 30ft of woven structure of cellulose tubes, blood vessels glued together, 2 weeks ago. It currently lays on the side of the house, I feel like giving back to nature and letting everything feed off of it. I love those dead wood pics, but that tree y'all are walking under looks dangerous. That big oak has more girth than any other one around that I can think of. There was a tulip poplar at Fred Russ Forest that was taller by a lot, but it wasn't as big around. Asylum Lake Preserve has some impressive oaks, but this one is the grandmother of them all. It must be at least three hundred years old. There are redwoods and bristlecone pines that are much older. It kind of humbles you. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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The circle of life.......awesome writing, awesome pictures!!!!!!!   WITHOUT PASSION LIFE IS NOTHING
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Love those little shoots on the moss. So tiny!  And that tree is HUGE!  For a minute there I thought you were going to tell me the meaning of life.  And in a way, I guess you did. 
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The circle of life.......awesome writing, awesome pictures!!!!!!! Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Love those little shoots on the moss. So tiny! And that tree is HUGE! For a minute there I thought you were going to tell me the meaning of life. And in a way, I guess you did. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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As it's April the first, I apprpoached your post with a little trepidation but there was no such need for me to be wary (unless I am indeed the fool!). Nature has a lot to teach us. Sometimes humans would be better off accepting unfathomable chaos than creating an artificial order. 
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contentment comes with acceprance
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Thank you Leo. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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A lot of us forget what it was like to be young, when we were enthusiastic about getting out of bed every day. It's not a bad practice to set aside some time for re-living it. I don't think it's healthy to be so busy that we don't have time for the things that make us human. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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As it's April the first, I apprpoached your post with a little trepidation but there was no such need for me to be wary (unless I am indeed the fool!). Nature has a lot to teach us. Sometimes humans would be better off accepting unfathomable chaos than creating an artificial order. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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I harbor a lasting grudge against social constraints that push us to conform to an unnatural lifestyle, always in crisis and always afraid. I'm not so sure that the gadgets that technology has bestowed on us have made us any happier or really any better. Don't get me wrong- I'm impressed with men figuring out how to land a Jeep on Mars and with kidney transplants, but we seem to have set aside another part of our selves along the way. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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contentment comes with acceprance Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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There do seem to be a lot of exceptions, don't there? Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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I love this post....it took me years to realise that the hustle and bustle of a hectic career meant nothing....I now find immense pleasure in the simple cycle of life...my grandchildren, my garden and the wonderful beauty of the Irish countryside. ~~Anais Nin~~
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I love this post....it took me years to realise that the hustle and bustle of a hectic career meant nothing....I now find immense pleasure in the simple cycle of life...my grandchildren, my garden and the wonderful beauty of the Irish countryside. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Ah Chaos! My old friend. LOL!   Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Nice post. So your not a supporter of Intelligent Design  Vive La Difference
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Nice post. So your not a supporter of Intelligent Design Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Thank you dear! I love the twisting enveloping vines I see in the woods. They can strangle a tree, but I have to admire their tenacity. There are a couple of massive bittersweet vines at Al Sabo. One has taken over three trees. [image] Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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