A Band-tailed Pigeon A large swift and handsome bird A wonder to see.
These awesome looking birds are usually seen at a higher elevation. It is the first time I’ve ever seen one at my place. Band-tailed Pigeons can be found in two separate regions in North America: dry mountain forests of the Southwest and wet forests of the Pacific Coast.
Author TTW Gave a talk at the college Grace personified
Terry Tempest Williams was here in Durango this weekend at a Climate Change Summit. I sat up front and was able to grab a cell phone photo of her immediately after her talk. At the end of the day, I showed the photo to her husband. He liked it and I emailed it to him.
She ended her talk with a quote from her 2020 essay “A Burning Testament” about the wildfires out west:
“Grief is love. How can we hold this grief without holding each other? To bear witness to this moment of undoing is to find the strength and spiritual will to meet the dark and smoldering landscapes where we live. We can cry. Our tears will fall like rain in the desert and wash off our skins of ash so our pores can breathe, so our bodies can breathe back the lives that we have taken for granted.
I will mark my heart with an “X” made of ash that says, the power to restore life resides here. The future of our species will be decided here. Not by facts but by love and loss.”
Hand on my heart, I pledge of allegiance to the only home I will ever know.
Today’s photo and haiku are in response to another haiku writer who recommended that I read “The Only Kayak” by Kim Haecox,
Jeanne, I have read The Only Kayak. As a matter of fact, I kayaked Glacier Bay in 1977, about the same time as the book. It was an awesome experience and we (my first wife and I) escaped disaster and,in all likelihood, death by the narrowest of margins. An unexpected act by Mother Nature actually saved us.
It was one of my most intense adventures ever. Talk about mindfulness!!! Our entire lives depended on the weather and the tides and how we read them. It was an exercise in being totally present and immersed in Nature. Our very lives depended on it.
In talking about wild places Kim Heacox wrote: They are disappearing from maps and memories like leaves off trees. By saving or losing wild places we will ultimately save or lose the best parts of ourselves. Amen
Adventures, Animals and Images 