Exploring Ways To Make Peace Within
Ourselves & the World

Join us Saturday afternoons from 12:30pm - 1:30pm, as we stand in silent vigil for peace. Click here to learn more.

Click to Subscribe

Why Do I Write This Blog???

The easiest (and probably the most honest) answer to that question is: I don't know. It all started in the summer of 2005, when I went to Crawford, Texas ( a.k.a. the home of the prez's ranch, a.k.a. the home of Camp Casey) to support Cindy Sheehan. I wanted the world to know that, contrary to what one could read in the mainstream media, the peace movement was alive and well and large numbers of Americans did not support the war in Iraq. I wanted people to know that thousands of Americans were willing to travel to Texas and tolerate the heat, humidity, and bugs in order to support a grieving mother whose new purpose was to shine a light on the lies that led to the war and to bring home our troops so that no other mother would have to know the pain that she felt.

Over time, this blog has become more of an exploration of who I am, my spirituality, and how life works. I love life's complexities, exploring the shades of gray. I want to, as Rainier Maria Rilke said,

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."

Maybe my blog is just one big question about what is needed in order for people to take the time to love and cherish each other and our earth. Maybe someday, I will "live along some distant day into the answer."

In the meantime, thank you for joining me on my journey. I welcome you to share yours with me

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Visitors in the Night

Lying under an acacia tree [in East Africa] with the sounds of dawn around me, I realized ... that the construction of an airplane, for instance, is simple when compared to the evolutionary achievement of a bird; that airplanes depend on an advanced civilization; and that where civilization is most advanced, few birds exit. I realized that if I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes ... Civilization is progress and aviation a boon only if life improves because of them ... [T]he final answer will be given not by our amassment of knowledge, or by the discoveries of our science, or by the speed of our aircraft, but by the effect our civilized activities as a whole have upon the quality of our planet's life -- the life of plants and animals as well as that of man.

Charles Lindbergh,
"Is Civilization Progress?"
Reader's Digest, 1964

Labels: birds, photography

posted by Carol at 3:50 PM

10 Comments:

otowi said...: What great footprints; pigeons maybe?

I get these little sparrow and Junco footprints - but they're not all even like those - they are hoppy all over the place.; 4:41 PM
Carol said...: I don't know who they were. They look like little jets.

Yeah, this guy was definitely a walker, not a hopper. We do have some pigeons this year. And mourning doves and northern flickers...; 5:05 PM
Sometimes Saintly Nick said...: For some reason, I find it amazing that Lindbergh wrote that. I agree with every word.; 5:01 AM
Carol said...: I found it kind of amazing, also, Nick, but I found the quote in several different types of references.

Birds not only fulfill a role in the balance of nature, they feed our souls.; 8:05 AM
Michael Barrow said...: What a great quote! I had no idea that Charles was anything more than a great pilot. His wise words are even more relevant today! A man ahead of his time.; 10:04 AM
Carol said...: Yeah. Now I'm on a quest to learn more about Charles Lindbergh...; 1:31 PM
San said...: Poetic footprints, if you will.

And the fact that those words were uttered by Lindbergh seems to make them all the more profound.; 5:24 PM
Carol said...: Hey San,

Yeah, it was really artful and kind of that bird to take such precise, clean steps in the snow!; 8:35 PM
wayfarer said...: Beautiful prints and pictures!; 5:46 AM
Carol said...: Thanks Wayfarer! The birds are artists...; 8:49 AM

Exploring Ways To Make Peace Within Ourselves & the World

Why Do I Write This Blog???

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Visitors in the Night

10 Comments:

Exploring Ways To Make Peace Within
Ourselves & the World