God, Mother Nature, Or The Higher Power.

Thanks all for the very kind things you have written here. You all touched my heart. I didn’t think this post would get many replies. You folks always surprise me, pleasantly. I am awe struck that you all seem to feel similarly.

Peace to all of you.

Member

VegasBabe

I feel ya Nirek!

Author

Thanks, Babe.

Member

Beatlex

Do I believe in an all powerful being watching over every move we make? No,My higher power is the wonder of the Universe,and all it contains.Like the life we have here on Earth.And mans(and women’s) ability to appreciate it all.

Author

Beatlex, all this time I felt that I was alone in feeling this way. You and all the rest of my friends here at the Planet make me feel good about our world, thanks.

Admin

Thank you for this wonderful post, Nirek, it’s a subject close to my heart that I can relate to every day. A beautiful sunrise and sunset can make me cry. Forests and mountains feel like home. Animals inspire me with their innocence, and watching things grow fills me with awe.

I live in a busy city but never really notice the light blocking from tall buildings. Instead I focus on the trees that three weeks ago had just a few leaves, and now stand majestic in the place they have owned for decades.

Although we don’t see wild animals here, I do have the pleasure of feeding countless strays and an ever increasing number of sparrows who are no longer afraid of me, and fly to the ground together like a velvet, brown blanket when I put out their food. It starts off my morning so perfectly.

My favourite time of the day is Dawn and Twilight, and don’t turn on the lights until it actually gets dark. Whoever designed this beautiful place called Earth, made it so breathtakingly beautiful that sometimes, for a few seconds or even minutes, it can take away the pain we all experience during our lives. They knew what they were doing and I thank them every day.

Here are two poems by William Wordsworth who says it so much better than I ever could.

—-

William Wordsworth

Calm is all nature as a resting wheel.
The kine are couched upon the dewy grass;
The horse alone, seen dimly as I pass,
Is cropping audibly his later meal:
Dark is the ground; a slumber seems to steal
O’er vale, and mountain, and the starless sky.
Now, in this blank of things, a harmony,
Home-felt, and home-created, comes to heal
That grief for which the senses still supply
Fresh food; for only then, when memory
Is hushed, am I at rest. My Friends! restrain
Those busy cares that would allay my pain;
Oh! leave me to myself, nor let me feel
The officious touch that makes me droop again.

—-

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Thanks again, Nirek. Peace.

Author

Kalima, I am in awe of your way with words. The poems are beautiful, thanks for them.
You are right about seeing the beauty around us. All we have to do is open our eyes and minds. There is so much beauty that we overlook every day.
Thanks for just being you, Kalima. Like all the pictures you post on MB. Specially the photos of animals. They inspire me.

Admin

Nirek, you have made me blush, but in a good way. 😳

Thank you for you kind words, they make me want to do better. Will be back with MB on Sunday.

Peace to you and yours.

Member

Lovely words indeed, and quite true, but, let us not forget that when Mama Nature gets riled, holy Jeebus, look out! That is also a part of Nature that leaves me awestruck, even though I could perish in an instant in the midst of such “rath.”

It is poetry indeed to ascribe human qualities to such an awesome force.

Admin

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10900228/Scientists-find-evidence-of-oceans-at-Earths-centre.html

I know KT, we had the disasters in 2011 to prove the “angry earth” theory, and experience her wrath almost every week. So as much as I love her, I respect her power even more.

I posted this on MB over a week ago, and found it fascinating.

Scientists find evidence of ‘oceans’ at Earth’s centre

In a discovery that could explain why water covers so much of our planet’s surface, scientists find evidence of vast underground “oceans” trapped hundreds of miles beneath the Earth’s surface

Member

Kalima, I was actually thinking of what Japan went through even as I wrote what I did. I completely agree. Such power is mind boggling, even when it takes human life, or especially when it takes human life.

I sometimes see it as a reminder to all those who convince themselves that mankind has “conquered,” Nature!

I was in Hurricane Irene, or should I say her tail end. That was incredibly scary, but at the same time, just awe inspiring.

It’s like when we truly look at the universe we live in (greatly buffered by location and time), and we see the immensity of it all, we truly are just grains of sand.

I wouldn’t exactly call the “angry Earth,” a theory. Poetic expression, but surely no theory.

Admin

I agree KT, we can never underestimate her or be foolish enough to say we have conquered her. All we have done is to afford ourselves better protection. Here it’s building stronger foundations that will withstand a direct 7.0 earthquake. Or building stronger and higher tsunami protection walls, but no one really knows until it actually happens, and the news that an expected huge earthquake will devastate the Kanto region, which is also Tokyo, is enough to make the heart pump faster each time we shake.

The angry earth is what I’ve called her since I first came to Tokyo and experienced my first ever earthquake while having a bath. It’s a wonder I’m still around to talk about it because after it was over and my heart stopped pounding, I was thinking of packing my suitcase to move back to sanity. Then I remembered I was married.

Member

Ah, the heart makes us brave. And that is wonderful.

I lived in Southern California in the late 80s and have experienced three earthquakes. They were not huge earthquakes, in the high 5.0s and low 6.0s on the Richter scale, but they definitely give you a brand new perspective on just how solid we think our ground is.

I grew up and now live in the midwest America. Tornado country for sure. I’ve been very fortunate through the years, never to be hurt or lose loved ones in these extreme Natural events. But wow. Just the realization of such immense power is a very humbling thing.

I also lived in Washington State for a year. I could see Mt. St. Helens from my bedroom window, or what was left of it.

Three thousand feet of dirt, rock and solid stone were blown off the top of that mountain in a matter of minutes.

But I’ll take all the flowers and budding trees and passive animals I can get. It’s all one thing. One wondrous, scary, beautiful thing.

Admin

You certainly have seen things, and I too will stay in this shaky land for the sheer beauty of autumn here, the cherry blossom season, the speed at which things grow, and of course to take care of my furry and feathered friends, even if the radiation from Daiichi is in the groundwater and has been discovered here in Tokyo.

This is my home now for better or worse, there is no other place to return to anymore, so I will make the best of it, and hope we survive whatever comes our way.

Stay safe and happy.

Member

I’m pretty sure you have seen the old movie, “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” with James Mason. They encountered an ocean at the center of the Earth. This is what I thought of when I first read of this discovery.

Jules Verne had some amazing flights of fancy, many of them turning out to become reality.

Admin

Yes I did see that film and thought it was a wonderful fantasy. Turns out it was true. How about that? 😀

Author

Kalima, this could be the answer to my question. What happens to the void made when the oil is removed from underground? Water fills that void? Maybe.

Member

cyndibru

Beautiful post, Nirek. I’ll share my favorite poem about nature.

GOD’S GRANDEUR
by Gerard Manley Hopkins

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Admin

kesmarn

A great favorite of Thomas Merton’s.

Author