Nature – Page 3 – Cathy's Blog!

Posted on September 15, 2023 by Cathy Edgett

Rooted with Rock

More than 2000 years ago, the great Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu said: “The True Man breathes with his heels; the mass of men breathe with their throats.”

Walking brings breath to and through our soles, toes, arch, and heels; it brings us down to the ground.

Yesterday at Tennessee Valley beach, I was entranced with stone, with what surrounds, holds, guides.

At one point I walked on chert, and felt the ridges as though I was walking on the tail of a dragon. No wonder we love fairytales and I think now of the book by Kenneth Grahame, The Reluctant Dragon, about a dragon who preferred writing poetry to fighting.

Ilse Middendorf said: “Perceiving our breath as it comes and goes we discover an opening into our unconscious life, and bring about a conscious expansion into the whole of ourselves.” The whole of ourselves, and I feel the breath move in a wave, connected like a Mobius Strip.

Walking on what I imagine it would be like to walk on the strength and challenge of a dragon’s tail.

One rock left on the beach, held in bedrock below like a candle flame in wax.

Posted on May 7, 2023May 7, 2023 by Cathy Edgett

Spring

This morning as I meditate, I feel spring in my heart, the opening scent of flowers, the invitation to unreel the layers of the bud, build a nest, fill it with eggs of creativity, and birth what’s here.

Yesterday, Steve and I decided he needed an x-ray of his arm, swollen and bruised from a fall and so we rushed out of the house even before I could grab a Kindle or book. I waited outside of the medical office and meditated and took photos of flowers lining sidewalks and streets. I realized I was near a library but it closed as I walked up, so I sat on a bench and sat, and felt, and thought of porches with rocking chairs and benches, and how enclosed life can be with ATM’s and self-checking, and everything delivered and left right at the door.

Because I watched and enjoyed The Wizard of Oz with my grandson this week, I came home and watched Pollyanna. Okay these movies are fantasies, very colorful fantasies, escapism, and yet, what is it when so much has left technicolor for a darker view of life? Another shooting – oh, my!

How do we balance what we view, and how we involve and evolve with immersion in the flowers blooming everywhere, except perhaps Tahoe which continues to stay white with snow. Yesterday I appreciated the gift of sitting outside with nothing to do and nowhere to be. Steve is fine, just swollen and bruised, and I feel the opening call of spring even as I more firmly root.

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Paying attention acknowledges that we have something to learn from intelligences other than our own. Listening, standing witness, creates an openness to the world in which the boundaries between us can dissolve.

Outside my window – oak and redwood twine

Posted on May 1, 2023May 1, 2023 by Cathy Edgett

More Photos for May Day

Posted on May 1, 2023 by Cathy Edgett · 2 Comments

May Day

As a child, we made baskets for this day and filled them with candy and flowers, and hung them on our neighbors’ doors. This morning I read that baby swans were just born at the Las Gallinas ponds, so out I head for a May Day celebratory treat.

And then a mother on her nest with four babies. A duck watches nearby.

The wind comes up and dad returns. Mom covers the babies.

A Black Crowned Night Heron rests close by

Posted on April 18, 2023April 18, 2023 by Cathy Edgett

Sausalito

After rain in the night, I rise to go to Sausalito and immerse in the sounds of the bay. I meet some people who’ve come down from Tahoe. After a winter of white, they want to see green. We have green, blue, purple, and pink.

View of San Francisco from the waterfront

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Cathy Edgett

Visit to the Past

Yesterday we went to Felton to ride the Roaring Camp and Big Trees steam train. We went last year, and our three year old grandchild was excited to go again, as were we. What a thrill to go high, high, high into the redwoods and back down to stroll among the trees in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.

Music before the train ride in the camp town

Majesty on a path, sacred steps in the park

One of us is a bobcat hiding unseen, somewhat

Bobcat still resting and hiding in his lair

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Cathy Edgett

Spring

Yesterday I was with family, both four-legged and two, at Muir Beach and on the coastal trail between Muir Beach and Tennessee Valley. Some of us walked further than others, and we all indulged in these words of Vincent Van Gogh.

Don’t just look at the spring, touch it, taste it. Get it inside you.

Looking south toward San Francisco to view the tucked Mooncow Bay

Posted on March 4, 2023 by Cathy Edgett

Ring Mountain

When my youngest started kindergarten, I trained to become a Terwilliger nature guide. My site was Ring Mountain, where I am now. This morning I stepped out and passed two houses to cross a stream and enter the sacred site.

This is Coast Miwok land. The Nature Conservancy bought it when the Tiburon Mariposa Lily was discovered to grow here and nowhere else. There is serpentine at the top surrounded by sandstone so flowers developed and then were caught as though planted to keep this land always open in honor of the native people and plants.

I couldn’t go far today because of the mud but I know there is a midden here and a hole in the rock where the Miwok people ground their acorns. It’s under a buckeye tree which loses its leaves in the winter and grows them back in the spring. Therefore sunlight is moderated, and it’s next to a stream, so acorns are leached so they can be pounded and eaten.

Salem Rice, an expert on Bay area geology, said that there were more different kinds of rocks on Ring Mt. than across half of the country. It’s a paradise of rocks and because there’s no pollution lichen grows luxuriously on the rocks.

In those days, I lead fifth and sixth graders on field trips on the mountain. I showed them how one could survive right here. Everything was provided. The bay provides clams, crabs, fish. Quail run free and can be caught in special traps. Boats can be built from the tule grasses if one wants to venture across the bay. Tule also provides housing, and soaproot provides soap. It’s a paradise and the road below is actually called Paradise.

With the children we also discussed the modern day. People need homes so how do we balance the natural landscape with that? The children understood. They are wise, like owls. Last night, I was entertained by the hooting of an owl.

At the top of the mountain are petroglyphs facing west. This is a sacred place. My photos only give a taste of a small part about 2/3rds up as I couldn’t walk very far along the trail with the mud, but more days come along with rain today.

Crossing the bridge to enter the sacred site

Rocks and water nestle together – change each other’s song

A vision of Lichen on rock – Annie Algae meets Freddie Fungus

Soapwort leaves nibbled by deer – the root provides the soap

Posted on January 30, 2022 by Cathy Edgett

Flow

Yesterday I was by the bay watching the tide go out changing the niches for the birds. Newly exposed mud offered new opportunities to feed. It was like a poem unfolding new places to feed what we already know.

My daughter-in-law’s mother passed away early Friday morning. She and her brother are dealing with the details and I am with how we meet death. How do we rearrange ourselves for this matter to energy exchange, this cloak of the personal opening to the universal?

Ramana Maharshi, was once asked, “How should we treat others?” He replied, “There are no others.”

I sink into knowing that.

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Cathy Edgett · 2 Comments

A Gift

Today I hear romping in the yard below. I look over the side of the deck, and seeing a deer, grab my phone, and trot downstairs – not just one deer – six. Six – a gift shared.

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

Ram Dass