Our Collective Journal
October/November 2011
“I have often felt a motion of love to leave some hints in
writing of my experience of the goodness of God.”
–John Woolman
Chapter 3
How have you experienced
God’s Presence in nature?
Photo Credits: Mark Pratti-Russum, Moss covered log Redwood Forest CA
Posted on September 29, 2011
There often exists a fine line between adventurous zeal and myopic irresponsibility. My husband and I have erased it several times in several places. In one quite memorable case, God protected us, strengthened us and blew our socks off. It was nearing the end of summer 1994. Our plates were typically full and overflowing, so inserting a family vacation into the agenda was more of a desperate attempt at escape than a wise well-planned...
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
I grew up as a child on my grandfather’s almond ranch in the flat, chemically controlled farmland of California’s Central Valley. I couldn’t wait to get out. The place seemed to have no nature and no culture. Two years of college did not still my restless spirit. It was the Vietnam War era and I took a job as a Conscientious Objector at a home for emotionally disturbed children in the lovely, golden hills of...
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
When I was 21 I began observing the moon. I was well versed in the natural history and geology of my environment, but was woefully ignorant of how the sun and the moon cycles worked. Maybe I was inspired by the clear skies in Southern Oregon or my continuing interest in nature based spirituality. Maybe God was tapping me on the shoulder, pointing her finger at something I needed to see. Whatever it was, I...
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
She feels her heart pound. She rises to the balls of her feet to shift into motion. Gravity pulls on her bones as her weight tumbles forward. The fall and catch of running takes her in a large arc. She controls the momentum for a moment to hang suspended in time and space. Her arms sweep and reach; the sinews taut, muscles balanced. The slick cartilaginous surfaces glide as she transfers the sweep of her...
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
As a teacher, back to school time causes me to reflect on my summer. One of my big questions every year is, “Did I get enough time in the forest, along the seashore, sitting near a river, sitting in my front yard soaking in the peace of the day and the trees that surround me?” To return to school feeling nourished and ready for “people time,” this time in nature is essential to my soul....
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
That the sun shines and the rain falls on good creatures and bad, That seeds must die that plants may live, That great trees grow from tiniest of seeds, That living things give their lives so that others may eat, That everything around us teaches about life, death, love, being, change, and mystery, —-in full color and more than 3-D—- Still...
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
For more than 20 years, I have lived in the same house. Sometimes, I think about what the place would have been like as wilderness, many years ago. It would have been a hillside. Even today, heavy rains will form a creek on the downhill edge of my property. The ground is clay. Whatever sunlight reaches the soil is filtered by tall trees. It is a place where ferns and blackberries thrive. Most other...
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
I awoke one fall morning to discover a dense, dripping fog. I dressed extra warmly and headed over to the Rhododendron Garden, one of my most reliable places to encounter God. I parked my bike and ambled down the winding path, noting the rich visual texture of the early fall colors wrapped in fog. I mused, “So what does God have in store for me today?” I walked out onto the low bridge across...
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
Allan Hunter was on his knees right beside me stretching out over the pond to see the pollywogs. “Look! That one has hind legs now. How’d that happen, Patty Lou?” I remember trying to answer his impossibly huge questions. Trips to the park with Allan, our minister, began very early in my life and were so special! He actually asked everyone about these things because life for him was a miraculous adventure. Other times he...
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
Almost exactly three years ago, Beth and I were celebrating our honeymoon in southern Oregon. We had rented a cabin located deep into the Cascade Mountains. On August 9th, I entered this into my journal: Beth and I went exploring today. We made our way through paths of pine trees, and impressive cedars. The smell of juniper and pinesap blew with the air, so sharp and intense. I was searching for a sugar pine...
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t feel God’s presence in nature, but I do remember when I couldn’t put a name to the amazing wonder, beauty, and peace I felt whenever I was immersed in it. I’ve always felt that presence flowing around and through me, filling my senses, mind, and heart with love, but it wasn’t until I was 17 that I knew it was God. Up until then, I questioned...
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
Standing among the Redwood trees in California’s Richardson Grove State Park, I feel the presence of God so powerfully that I think everyone must feel it. After all, it’s where God lives (or at the very least a favorite vacation spot). The majesty, power, serenity and beauty of those towering giants all reflect and magnify God’s light as it streams earthward through the canopy on its way to the forest floor. Not even the densest...
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
For many years I returned to an island in Maine for a few weeks in June. It was a quiet time, still between seasons, no longer spring but not yet full summer. The ferry ride to the island was an hour long ritual of shedding my winter skin, my city skin and settling into a different rhythm. The blue wind and wide sky, the sea scattered with bright lobster buoys rolling between the islands, the...
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
In February of 2002 my wife Elizabeth passed away unexpectedly. Fortunately we had talked about each other’s wishes for after death, although I had not thought I would be following those wishes so early in our life. As she requested, Elizabeth was cremated and when spring came I brought her ashes to my parents’ property in the Adirondack Mountains of New York to be spread amongst the day lilies that have been growing in a...
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
In June of 2007 I saw a crow in the neighbor’s swimming pool (down the hill from us) that looked like it was trying to get out and couldn’t. Other crows were flying about. I ran down, put my hand under it, it sat on my hand, and I lifted it out. It was small and somewhat fuzzy so I think it was young. I lifted it by the “tummy” up to the pool-equipment roof....
[more]
Posted on September 29, 2011
The first time I remember feeling and knowing there was a God, something with a felt consciousness that was in all, occurred when I was 3 years old sitting and leaning on our old garage as the sun set over the fields in Oklahoma. The completeness of being alone and the “presence” of the evening was all encompassing. I felt whole and at peace in my 3-year-old self. I remember later trying to tell Mom...
[more]