Seven days til Christmas - journeys

Journeys - 5 by 7 watercolor

Seven days til Christmas
Journeys ...
In memories
In miles
In years
In people

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

Sacred stillness in a Hafer morning

In the stillness of the morning, you find people like yourself,
finding themselves in quiet time, sacred time. After a rain, as the sun comes up, time to walk, time to read, time to fish, time to be alone, time to think.
Sacred time.


"Let light
Rise from the chambers of the east, and bring
The honey'd dew that cometh on waking day.
O radiant morning..."
--William Blake

"In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait in expectation."
--Psalms 5.

"To everything there is a season..." Ecclesiastes 3

Brown leaves and Thanksgiving thoughts

"All come from dust, and to dust all return."

Most of the color is gone from the autumn leaves. They speckle the ground with infinite shapes of brown as another winter approaches.

Others cling to their trees, as if waiting for another stiff breeze or cold front to sweep in and bare more branches. Those leaves still with some yellow and red and green in them stand out even more before they too turn brown.

It's still and quiet early Thanksgiving Day, skimming white clouds muting the sunlight and the shadows, almost as if the human world is catching its breath and noticing what is important. 

The leaves are a kaleidoscope of memories and blessings... infinite, unique  and unending  relics of lives lived, melting into the ground from when they came. 

On a day of giving thanks, for uncounted blessings,  surely, the lesson of the leaves is to enjoy today, and be thankful for the present. I'm reminded of the words of The Preacher, Solomon, in Ecclesiastes:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Equinox...the wisdom of seasons and Solomon

Dawn, Fajada Butte, in Chaco Canyon, on spring Equinox

Trying to turn the corner on the way to work this morning, I was blinded by the rising sun, almost directly west and making it hard to see oncoming traffic. For the next few days, the earth will move until the sun rises directly down the center stripe of the road, and day and night will be equal in time.
"Ah," I thought, "Equinox is almost here" -- the passing and coming of mankind's seasons, that we so often forget about in urban life. Equinox always makes me think about Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico, where ancient peoples, the Anasazi, erected a stone clock, a "Sun Dagger,"on Fajada Butte to mark the passing seasons, both for religious purposes and for agriculture. I've camped there on equinox, and risen to bitterly cold, clear weather  to watch the sun rise and shadows move through the sun-determined markers in the giant kiva at Casa Rinconada.

"You can literally see time move..."

You can literally see time move with the shadows, marvel at those people's patience and observation and engineering, and at how small we are, in the universe and with the passing of time.
http://www.nps.gov/chcu/index.htm
Other such markers abound on this earth, at Stonehenge in England, at Chichen-Itza in Mexico, elsewhere. And then I thought of a favorite passage in the Hebrew Bible, written perhaps by Solomon. I wonder if he was inspired to write this when he observed an equinox? There is wisdom in watching the seasons slide by.

"There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

       a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot, 

       a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build, 

       a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance, 

       a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

      a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
        a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
       a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

 ^"What do workers gain from their toil?  I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.  He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live."

--Ecclesiastes, 3:1-13

A portion of Ecclesiastes in Hebrew, written thousands of equinoxes ago

The seasons slide by every day. Sunset in Oklahoma