I only went out for a walk,
and finally concluded to stay out till sundown,
for going out, I found,
was really going in.
--John Muir
Narcissus saw himself in a still pool of water, and fell in love. Snow White's queen asked again and again, "Who's the fairest one of all?"--satisfied with but one answer. Perhaps we should re-think our traditional relationships to nature and reflection. If I grow so still inside and very present, and the I that I know vanishes, the Other filling my sense, what then?
Intelligence with the earth
myself partly leaves
and vegetable mold
--from "Solitude", Ian Marshall, Walden by Haiku
Des identified with the places she'd skied, Diane with the White Tara of Compassion; Steve with David Abrams, Dylan or Jack or Bryan with the native Shoshone songs of his tribe, Brooke with Yoga and the cycles of the moon.
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look
through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.
--Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
Mark identified with charismatic megafauna, no one to my knowledge identified with the wasps; many of us identified with a good beer. I identified with landscapes I call home, and the names and places of stories that have grown dear to me.
The Murie Center
in partnership with Grand Teton National Park
After 30 seconds, a twittering bird is added to the ambience.
I had stopped to rest on a boulder on top of a low butte at the north end of the Elk Refuge. It was one of those fresh-cool days of early spring when you just walk out among the aspen trees, looking for things--anything that confirms what you already know.
--Olaus Murie, Wapiti Wilderness
The whole parade of plants, animals and birds goes on from this date, too fast, too many to count, too many keen impressions to chronicle. Yellowbells and purple phacelia by the garden, green grass, green buds everywhere, first robin, first yellow warbler, first sound of ruffed grouse drumming. Evening is the enchanted time...Suddenly we stand still and listen.
--Margaret (Mardy) Murie, Wapiti Wilderness
Exum Mountain Guides
Jenny Lake, Wyoming
Better to live in the presence of the wild--feel it, smell it, see it--and do something that succeeds, like Gary Nabhan's preservation of wild seeds or Doug Peacock's intimacy with grizzlies...We only value what we know and love...
--Jack Turner, The Abstract Wild
Teton Science Schools
I got to hold a live Great Horned Owl! Roger Smith, a former Teton Science Schools faculty member and founder of the Raptor Fund (based in Wilson, across the valley) visited the graduate students. Roger brought a few friends: Owlie the Great Horned Owl, and Ruby the Red Tailed Hawk. It was an incredible experience to hold these powerful and majestic birds. It totally spoke to the power of personal experience with wildlife--all of us were completely enthralled and wanted to know every single bit of natural history about the birds; I can imagine even a less-inclined crowd couldn't ignore the magnitude of having a bird that close to you. So cool!
--Maggie Bourque, Teton Science Schools Graduate Student
Exercise
Using nature as your mirror, take a walk through your favorite natural, feral or wild space and, letting go of your thoughts, walking in the style of kinhin, breathe in the self that you see, and breathe out relaxation and lovingkindness. Repeat until it's time to do something else.
Question
What did you most identify with on Saturday's journey? How do you see that as part of yourself, a part of your self image? What might be the significance of having that as part of the makeup of your identity?
And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them,
And such as it is to be of these more or less I am,
And of these one and all I weave the song of myself.
--Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
I am driftwood in the stream
Indra in the sky
looking down on it
--from "Solitude"
Ian Marshall, Walden by Haiku
David M. Hoza
and finally concluded to stay out till sundown,
for going out, I found,
was really going in.
--John Muir
Narcissus saw himself in a still pool of water, and fell in love. Snow White's queen asked again and again, "Who's the fairest one of all?"--satisfied with but one answer. Perhaps we should re-think our traditional relationships to nature and reflection. If I grow so still inside and very present, and the I that I know vanishes, the Other filling my sense, what then?
Intelligence with the earth
myself partly leaves
and vegetable mold
--from "Solitude", Ian Marshall, Walden by Haiku
Des identified with the places she'd skied, Diane with the White Tara of Compassion; Steve with David Abrams, Dylan or Jack or Bryan with the native Shoshone songs of his tribe, Brooke with Yoga and the cycles of the moon.
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look
through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.
--Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
Mark identified with charismatic megafauna, no one to my knowledge identified with the wasps; many of us identified with a good beer. I identified with landscapes I call home, and the names and places of stories that have grown dear to me.
The Murie Center
in partnership with Grand Teton National Park
After 30 seconds, a twittering bird is added to the ambience.
I had stopped to rest on a boulder on top of a low butte at the north end of the Elk Refuge. It was one of those fresh-cool days of early spring when you just walk out among the aspen trees, looking for things--anything that confirms what you already know.
--Olaus Murie, Wapiti Wilderness
The whole parade of plants, animals and birds goes on from this date, too fast, too many to count, too many keen impressions to chronicle. Yellowbells and purple phacelia by the garden, green grass, green buds everywhere, first robin, first yellow warbler, first sound of ruffed grouse drumming. Evening is the enchanted time...Suddenly we stand still and listen.
--Margaret (Mardy) Murie, Wapiti Wilderness
Exum Mountain Guides
Jenny Lake, Wyoming
Better to live in the presence of the wild--feel it, smell it, see it--and do something that succeeds, like Gary Nabhan's preservation of wild seeds or Doug Peacock's intimacy with grizzlies...We only value what we know and love...
--Jack Turner, The Abstract Wild
Teton Science Schools
I got to hold a live Great Horned Owl! Roger Smith, a former Teton Science Schools faculty member and founder of the Raptor Fund (based in Wilson, across the valley) visited the graduate students. Roger brought a few friends: Owlie the Great Horned Owl, and Ruby the Red Tailed Hawk. It was an incredible experience to hold these powerful and majestic birds. It totally spoke to the power of personal experience with wildlife--all of us were completely enthralled and wanted to know every single bit of natural history about the birds; I can imagine even a less-inclined crowd couldn't ignore the magnitude of having a bird that close to you. So cool!
--Maggie Bourque, Teton Science Schools Graduate Student
Exercise
Using nature as your mirror, take a walk through your favorite natural, feral or wild space and, letting go of your thoughts, walking in the style of kinhin, breathe in the self that you see, and breathe out relaxation and lovingkindness. Repeat until it's time to do something else.
Question
What did you most identify with on Saturday's journey? How do you see that as part of yourself, a part of your self image? What might be the significance of having that as part of the makeup of your identity?
And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them,
And such as it is to be of these more or less I am,
And of these one and all I weave the song of myself.
--Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
I am driftwood in the stream
Indra in the sky
looking down on it
--from "Solitude"
Ian Marshall, Walden by Haiku
David M. Hoza
2 comments:
I most identified with the ease in which I adapted into the environment. When I am in the city, I am cautious about where I sit down. I wouldn't just sit down on any sidewalk with the same kind of ease that I found myself enjoying as I nestled my body in the sage brush.
I am part of nature. I live in a modern world most of the time, but when I am in "nature", I am it; I am part of nature. I breathe the same air that the hawk that we saw breathes. I touched the same soil that the bears touched. On Saturday, the only thing setting me apart from the wild was a backpack and clothing.
Nature is wound into my identity. As contradicting as it may seem, since I am writing about this on a computer in my home in the city, I yearn for nature like my daughter yearns to be close to me. It's more than just a desire; it's a need. After the long journey on Saturday, my daughter NEEDED me. The entire night, she stayed close to me. She wanted to sit on my lap. She wanted hugs. She needed me. I need nature, and closeness to it, in the exact same way. Perhaps it is because of my biophilia. Perhaps it is because it is what I know most intimately. Perhaps it is because I am most myself in nature. For whatever reason, it is wound into my being.
This is what I wrote while sitting in the sage:
Wild Song
It goes to the horizon
like looking up
from the depths
to ship bottoms hung
like stars in empty space.
The mountains
like broken teeth,
mossy with pine.
Steppes bristle
with sage and wild grass.
It is a form of forgetting.
Because the deep gold
of autumn in the cottonwoods
is not your turquoise home.
The jade of river bottom
speaks of health and plenty,
but we know better.
We know, far away,
in buildings of plaster and steel,
concrete fruits fail to ripen,
and gray blue walls
do not move.
It is a dead ocean,
the waters filling in
all we cannot tame.
Wild is not a diatribe.
It is boundless,
infinite space.
Real and complete.
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