morning

It was an early morning for me. I woke up at four, because of a barking dog, and decided to go ahead and get up. Falling back to sleep never really works out for me. So, I enjoyed the sunrise, the early morning visit by the junco, the perambulatory raven on the hillside. The latter sparked my attention as I’ve begun a new quest to get some good ravens pictures of my own. Everyone needs a quest in life, and this one is not as easy as it sounds, for ravens are aware, and they are not eager to be near people.

This one flew off and away when I walked out, continuing my developing habit of barefoot hiking. I wandered where it flew, and it flew some more. I wandered there, and… again it flew. So I came back, with some distant pictures from a camera without a good zoom.

Then, I saw it, in the middle of the driveway, along the bank with a stick in its beak. I brought my camera up, and may have taken a picture of it flying, two feet above the driveway down to the street, then up to its tree. We’ll see, when I get the pictures developed.

The morning was spent mostly in writing, pursuing that which gives me light and peace. I feel anxious to get back to the older stuff, the stuff I started seemingly so long ago, but I feel a need to finish the present project first. It is slow going, for distractions abound, and many of them are good ones. I also want to write at my peak times, not wishing to waste the space. This morning I did all of this, and may still continue.

Something curious has happened over the last couple of days. Well, not that curious I suppose, only a change. I’ve become intensely more aware of everything outside. It is easy to become used to the mountain flora and fauna, to expect it, to lose the sense of the beauty of sight and sound and smell. I drift away from this awareness. Not now. I go outside and everything is intensely interesting. I notice the little bees flying around, the larger dragonflies, all the little ants. The many wildflowers are adding color all around, and much of my morning was spent trying to give names to these beautiful blooms. Periwinkle is growing along the stumps, along both sides of the driveway. Mountain wallflower is rising boldly at the top, a shot of bright orange against the light colored dirt. All in this yard ground irises are revealing themselves, light purple with a showy form.

Ravens continue to be busy, a junco continues to visit, jays screech, squirrels forage, finding hidden stores of nuts. Everything is so fascinating to me I feel overwhelmed, each little part an intricate miracle.

The cool breeze makes this a nicer day, bringing the smells of spring inside. And there is no sounds of mechanical equipment, nor construction, nor anything human produced. It is noisy in the way that forests are noisy, a delightful and refreshing, and restorative sound.

I yearn to take this all in, to become a person who can, who understands, whose soul is enlarged enough to walk in this world with a continued sense of amazement. I weary of those thing which bind, and break, and which throw confusion into my life.

And so I continue with my day, finding peace in this moment, as I am called to do.