Tag Archives: nature

Being near water

I meet my uncle on Zoom every Monday morning. We usually start the meeting at 6am on work days but over the summer break we have been meeting at 6:30am, (9:30am for him in Ontario). This morning I was up on time, but on holiday mode I ignored the calendar reminder that popped up without reading it, and so was late, only getting online after a text reminder. We are in a campground and so as not to wake anyone, I headed down to the beach for my conversation.

Our friends are up here, one campsite over, and also wake up early. They saw me and took a few photos.

What a wonderful location to hold a meeting! There are times that I wish I had a job that I could do from anywhere in the world. If I had such a job, I’d do my best to be near water often.

Yesterday I shared this 16 second video on Twitter from the same location, taken at dusk:

I love being near water, be it an ocean, a lake, a river, or even a tiny babbling brook. It seems like a mixed metaphor, but I feel grounded around water. I feel calm and centered. It’s always a good day when I can spend some time near water.

What’s an environment that comforts you?

Sitting Under a Large Tree

Sitting under a large tree, staring up at the branches, I can see that wind is a fickle thing. Some leaves and branches lay motionless, while others sway back and forth, while still others dance. The tree doesn’t resist. A larger gust of wind picks up, more of the tree moves this time, it undulates, absorbing the larger force, then settles down again.

Sitting under a large tree, I can imagine my ancestors doing the same. The kind of tree might have varied, but the experience would have been almost the same for hundreds and even thousands of years.

Sitting under a large tree can provide shade, shelter, even food. But more than anything, sitting under a tree provides time for quiet contemplation.

The wind blows, and leaves and branches dance again.

A Dawn Remembered

I wrote this in my late teens, some time before summer, 1986, when I was still in high school.

___

A Dawn Remembered

Early morning I did wake
To gaze across a chilly lake
I then looked to the sky
That dropped a little lonely flake

The cold glistened in my eye
Though the furnace was nearby
My body felt what it saw
It made me shiver where I lie

The morning air, so crisp and raw
In its virginity was not a flaw
So pure and simple the day did start
That for a moment I stood in awe

This admiration is an art
That must come from your heart
This early morning I did wake
To watch this beauty fall apart.

The cry of the bird

I wrote this in my Grade 13 year in Art class (‘Early 1986). It wasn’t an assignment, just something I chose to write near some doodles of a loon.

—

The cry of the bird

The beauty of the bird disguises the pain

But it’s call is not heard anymore

Unless you go north where it is slowly but surely disappearing there too

The pain is not that of the individual bird but that of the species

It cries out but nobody listens

The beauty is lost

Who can find beauty in a world of pain

Goodbye beauty

Goodbye bird

Goodbye pain

There is nothing left to feel the pain

Its life is over

The bird will not sing for our grandchildren

There will be nothing but a flying animal that they may some day read about in a book

An illusion on paper

That sings no songs

Feels no pain

Perhaps it may have beauty

But it is not the same

It is not the same.

_____
*Update: A friend sent this to me. I forgot that this poem was printed in our school yearbook.

The waterfall experience

In March of 2017 I was in Costa Rica and we visited a beautiful waterfall. This was my description on Facebook.

Take 43 seconds out of your day and watch this waterfall in slow motion.

Nature is amazing. There is a reason why we are drawn to the outdoors, and why natural formations like peaks, vistas, and waterfalls become beacons that draw us to them.

But what made this a truly incredible experience was that it was felt as well as seen. It was a full body experience.

Shovelling Snow

I remember I time when I didn’t know what snow was. Sure, I’d seen it on TV, but it didn’t make any sense. I grew up on a tropical island and a party-sized block of ice was the largest concept I had for something cold that didn’t sit inside of a fridge or freezer.

My first snowfall (except for a spattering of sleet) was a cartoonishly slow snowfall of giant flakes that made me question how real the world was.

That was Grade 5. By Grade 9 I was absolutely done with snow and knew I was not going to live in Toronto the rest of my life. When I came to Vancouver as a water polo coach in ’93, I knew that I was going to move here, and leave Toronto and the snow behind.

Well, I didn’t quite leave it behind, and this morning I was shovelling my driveway (for the third day in a row) before 6am. But it was quite enjoyable. I had my headphones in, listening to a book, the only other sound being my shovel against the driveway. At one point my mind drifted to what I was actually doing:

Snow falls and gets in the way of our daily living. We take shovels and move it aside. It then melts away, with no indication that it was ever there. Snow falls…

I’m reminded of this silly gif of a man shovelling water and tossing back into the same puddle.

I’m also reminded of how we are at the whim of nature. This year in BC we’ve had forest fires and torrential rains that have completely affected our lives with road closures and damaged homes, even loss of life. The raw power of the natural forces around us is incredible.

And, in this part of the world, we have snow. White fluffy stuff that falls and gets in our way. Sometimes, like the fires and floods, it can wreak havoc, other times it is a mild inconvenience… and we scurry around moving it out of the way with shovels, then we watch it melt away.

The great outdoors

For the first time since last summer I got on my bike and headed for a ride behind a nearby lake. I forgot how rejuvenating it can be to be in the woods, to hear the rush of water, to see the distant snow covered mountains, and glimpse a waterfall in the distance. All this just a 20 minute drive and 30 minute ride from my house.

I often go for wonderful walks with my wife on the dykes, and in a wooded lot near our house, so it’s not like I don’t ever get out in nature. However today I felt like I was really absorbed into the environment. The world felt so alive.

If you need a pick-me-up, escape into an environment where you are surrounded by nature. Leave you phone in your pocket, and music off. Appreciate the natural world in all its splendour.

Nature is amazing

After 17 years underground, the periodical cicadas are ready to resurface. These insects somehow know that 17 seasons have passed, and will be triggered to the surface by the warmth of a spring day… after skipping, yet counting, 16 other springs.

How is this information passed from one generation to the next? What is written into their DNA to give instructions like this? It’s one thing to hibernate for a winter, still another to sit dormant in the soil for 17 years.

Nature holds many secrets. There are many interesting things that happen in the natural world: salmon leave their birthplace in freshwater rivers and come back to the same location after 2 years of living in the salty ocean; monarch butterflies travel yearly from Canada to Mexico; some frogs can freeze for long periods and come back to life after warming up again.

It’s amazing that even today we are discovering new insects, new scientific anomalies, new discoveries about the world we live in, and the incredible mysteries of life. This year, millions of periodical cicadas are going to awake from dormancy after 17 years, molt, mate, and return to the soil for another 17 years. Incredible!

The sound of a river

Today I found a beautiful little spot to meditate and behind me a river was roaring softly. It drowned out the sound of cars and the hum of civilization. It took over my sense of hearing.

The white noise of a fast traveling river is very soothing. It calms the mind and softens your other senses. When I hear this sound, I am reminded of different places that have set a similar mood for me. My racing mind slows, and I feel calm.

All this from simple sound of running water.

Wind in the canopy

The next time you are out among a cathedral of trees look up at the canopy above you. Watch how the wind moves among the tall trees, pushing on some while others stay still. Height, girth, distribution of branches, and location relevant to other trees, all factor into how the wind plays with them and how they sway.

It’s hypnotic.