Photo #12  Bee in lilac blossoms,  May 17, 2020 (photos by Abe Green) 

 

 

THE OPEN ROAD

peace, love, happiness & understanding

 

February 24, 2022

 

 

Where the bee sucks, there suck I: 

In a cowslip’s bell I lie; 

There I couch when owls do cry. 

On the bat’s back I do fly 

After summer merrily.   

Merrily, merrily shall I live now 

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

 

—from The Tempest by William Shakespeare

 

 

As promised, here are more pictures and texts from Abe Green:

 

 

Photo #13  Mouse friend,  May 7, 2019

The wheel turns ceaselessly—birth and death.

 

 

“Birth is not the beginning,

Death is not the end.”

 

—Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) (370 BC – 287 BC)

 

Walt Whitman says:

 

The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,

And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,

And ceased the moment life appeared.

 

All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,

And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

 

Has anyone supposed it lucky to be born?

I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.

 

–from “Song of Myself”

 

 

Photo #14  Robin eggs,  May 19, 2020

 

 

 

Photo #15  Campfire at Fresno Lake, (North Central MT.),  July 24, 2020

 

I once wrote a lengthy story about campfires. This is the last paragraph:

So here I sit by my campfire, don’t want to “do” anything with it; it doesn’t have to be huge or roaring, just be itself—warm and friendly.

I want to hear its special language of hisses, snaps, pops, and crackles—it’s a language made for my spirit.

I want to smell its earthy, woodpitch scent.

And I want to stare into its inferno-like heart, knowing what I see is a glimpse of the blazing glory of my own human heart.

The same bursting energy that fires the universe.

 

 

 

Photo #16  Showdown Ski Area, (Central MT.), October 27, 2020

 

I just love this photograph, (though I did not take it). The juxtaposition of the dog and an awaiting ski area clothed in deep new snow—two very experiential loves!

 

 

Photo #17  Eye painted on stone, December 28, 2021

 

I found the rock, an artist friend painted the eye at my request. Live, the piece is dynamic. I call it: “The observer being observed”! It reminds to not only witness what surrounds me, but to also authentically witness my “self.”

 

 

Photo #18  Fall colors on Aspen trees, September 26, 2021

 

“It’s the job of wise people to encourage us to perform thought experiments to challenge us about things we take for granted, to imagine in new ways.”

 

—J. Stallings quoted by A. Green

 

 

 

Photo #19  Grizzly Bear release, (photo: MT. Fish & Game), October 17, 2021

 

I included this picture of a grizzly relocation release as an opportunity to speak of the plight of so many of Earth’s habitants. When I see a bear or bird or beetle I see no less than the same spark of life that resides within my breast. How can I wish to experience life while denying it to other life expressions? For that’s what is really going on here, we are all—every plant, every animal, and every mother’s son and daughter—expressing the “gift” in our own way.

 

 

Photo #20  Bent tree regrowth, October 24, 2021

 

 

Lessons from a Tree

 

Seed split. Root sprout. Leaf bud.

Delve deep. Hold fast. Reach far

Sway. Lean. Bow. Loom.

 

Climb high. Stand tall. Last long.

Grow. Thicken. Billow. Shade. Sow seed.

 

Rise by pluck, child of luck,

lightning-struck survivor.

 

Burn. Bleed. Heal. Remember. Testify.

Nest. Host. Guard. Honor.

 

Fall. Settle. Slump.

Surrender. Offer. Enrich.

 

Be duff. Enough.

 

—Kim Stafford

 

 

 

Photo #21  Sleeping Giant Skyline, Beartooth Mtns., (Southcentral MT.), November 4, 2021

 

 

The Peace of Wild Things

 

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

 

–Wendell Berry

 

 

 

Photo #22  Broken Objects, December 16, 2021

 

 

Though sometimes unseen, there are extraordinary possibilities in everyone. If today, I’m a good enough example, if I shine my light bright enough, just maybe…I can change the world! But the world is so big. Better to focus on those I encounter in my little corner of life.

 

–Abe Green