Summer has settled into our area with warmer temperatures, higher humidity levels, some of nature’s best offerings, and much to ponder or consider. Though we have lost some daylight minutes since the summer solstice on June 20th, sunrise at 5:58 AM and sunset at 8:53 PM provide us with just under fifteen hours of daylight to explore nature and life. Our adventures this week led us to a number of discoveries, a few reminders, and some special moments. We had do make a number of trade-offs and alterations along the way in both activities and thought process, and thought we’d share some of what we saw and learned in this week’s post.
“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
Theme of the Week: Setting in as Life Comes to Be
Our theme of the week is more of a culmination of observations, leading us to recognize summer’s best offerings and harsher realities. The contrast between the two may be great on the surface, but if we break things down a bit, we find a common thread of life itself.
One of our first observations was that of the many flowers coming into bloom to join other flowers that have been blooming for weeks. Seeing the chicory join the daisies, wood sorrel, and clover blooms made us wonder about how nature accepts each offering it has. By this we mean how nature’s elements combine to form other elements and lessons in life.
The blooming wild flowers do not appear to grumble about sharing the space in the fields or fret about who is moving in next. The flowers bloom and drop their seeds in time, allowing for another generation of flowers to appear the coming year.
Another observation was how the deer have transformed their coats from drab brown or gray to rusty reddish brown. The color change is nature’s way of helping the deer adjust to the change in seasons and acts as camouflage for survival. Drab brown or gray coats are composed of two layers of fur. The under layer acts as an insulator while the outer layer provides camouflage. The rusty red coats of summer are much thinner, allowing for cooling of the body when temperatures are warmer. The changes in coat color are related to hormonal changes as the deer mature.
Like the wildflowers of the fields, the deer seem just fine with the color change as they graze and move about in their daily activities. While many fawns are only starting to move about and still have their white spots on their coats, they are also setting in, becoming more aware of their surroundings, and starting to understand what they need to do in order to survive. A number of the male deer have separated into bachelor groups already, hanging out in the fields in groups of two or more in the early morning and later evening hours. The does are still needed by the fawns, so they are doing their motherly duties each day, some more anxious than others of their young and all the possible mischief the fawns can get into.
These examples in nature illustrate how life and time move us along despite what may change around us. They also offer considerations regarding relationships. All are connected to each other and each one is its own entity, yet part of a larger whole. The larger whole is connected to life itself. Life itself is connected in and through God’s love.
“The only moment that has any effect or revolution for us is when we acknowledge God’s active presence in our lives and the power of unconditional love.” –Richard Rohr
Lesson of the Week: Where Stand We?
Our lesson of the week also snuck up on us as we started new routines to help us adjust to recent life changes. None of these life changes were in our control, and we acknowledge this fact was hard for us to accept at first, but after some time, lots of praying, and insight from nature, we’ve reached the point we are now. Is this our final resting place on these subjects? No, not by a long shot, but it is where we are now, where God has deemed us to be, and where we can learn many more lessons.
Are these lessons easy? No, not at all. Many of these lessons are hard, even the ones we’ve had before. However, these lessons are part of life, regardless of age, gender, or whatever category you want to try to organize whatever is being contemplated into.
The bigger question of these lessons is where are we with them? Are we ignoring them, exploring them, running from or toward them, trying to understand them, wishing we did not have to understand them, or some combination of all the former? Does it matter where we are with these lessons? Well, maybe, depending on the lesson and the potential impact (be it positive or negative) the lesson could have upon us.
Perhaps the biggest point of these lessons came to us through a verse used repeatedly in our morning reflection and other readings. The verse offers a lesson in hope, faith, trust, and love, all of which if we really break down any learning in life, are the roots to growth.
“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” –Jeremiah 29:11
Question of the Week: Accepting or Settling and the Difference Between
Our theme and lesson of the week got us to contemplating the difference between accepting and settling for or with one’s life and circumstances. Is there a difference? Yes, there is. Accepting requires a bit of faith, compassion, perspective, and insight to help us see or reach a common ground. Setting typically entails these elements as well, but with the outcome of giving up something, be it tangible or intangible.
Is accepting better than settling or vice versa? There most likely is no right or wrong answer to this question, and the answer may very well depend on the circumstances or details of the subject matter. Do we necessarily need to know the difference between accepting and settling? Well, it can be helpful to know whether you are required or expected to give up something in life, but sometimes not knowing is a blessing in disguise, for if you don’t know what is expected, you may also not realize what is missing once you give it up.
Regardless of whether we are accepting or settling, there is also an element of gratitude to consider. Having gratitude makes both accepting and settling possible and plausible, though on the surface the conditions of the circumstances may point a different direction. It is what lies beneath the surface that one must face head on. What lies beneath entails the truth, and what entails the truth invites one to freedom. In freedom, one can find many things, the greatest of which is love. Love in turn feeds the roots of gratitude that nourish hope, which in turn leads one through the circle of life.
“Optimism is really rooted in gratitude. Optimism is sustainable when you keep coming back to gratitude, and what follows from that is acceptance.” –Michael J. Fox
Song of the Week: Settling All Matters That Come To Be
Our song of the week has been in our heads since Sunday. We’ve heard this song on the radio many times in the past week and it fits where we are in our adjusting, accepting, and settling of life’s circumstances. Admittedly, we were first drawn to the music, then the lyrics. When we took the time to really let both sink in, we had a bit of a eureka moment, realizing that we are not alone in our struggles to accept, understand, and move on in and with life.
Settling Down
Should I give up sunsets for marigold mornings?
Should I look for rainbows or wait for the rain?
Is happiness on the highway? Or is it parked in the driveway?
Should I lean on you, babe? Or should you lean on me?
Am I looking for comfort? Am I looking for an escape?
Am I looking for you? Am I looking the other way?
I’m a wild child and a homing pigeon
Caravan and an empty kitchen
Bare feet on the tile with my head up in the clouds
One heart going both directions
One love and a couple of questions
Am I settling up or settling down?
Am I settling up or settling down?
I could plant a pretty garden or just send myself flowers
Be a jet-set Friday or a Sunday hometown girl
I could stay a little lonely or let you get to know me
Yeah, I could love a picket fence if it wrapped around the world
I’m a wild child and a homing pigeon
Caravan and an empty kitchen
Bare feet on the tile with my head up in the clouds
I’m one heart going both directions
One love and a couple of questions
Am I settling up or settling down?
(Written by Natalie Hemby, Luke Dick, and Miranda Lambert; Performed by Miranda Lambert)
Sound of the Week: Locusts in the Trees
While riding my bike on Tuesday (July 6th), I heard a familiar sound. The breeze was very warm and the sun was going down. The sound broke the silence around me as I pedaled along, but the interruption took me back to childhood, acting as a reminder of one of summer’s rites of passage. The sound was that of the locust calling from high above in the treetops. While it was not necessarily loud, it was amplified and in harmony with a number of locusts calling at one time.
The locusts make this sound by rubbing together different body parts. The body parts rubbed together depend on the locust species. The locusts heard at night, also known as slant-faced grasshoppers, rub spikes located on the hind legs with their front wings to make a buzzing or whee-whee-whee sound. Locusts heard in the daytime, also known as band-winged grasshoppers, make snapping or cracking sounds (known as crepitation), with their wings as they fly. In both cases, the process of making the sound is known as stridulation.
The rubbing of the body parts creates a vibration, which has a wave length and an associated sound wave. The sound waves travel through the air at different frequencies, which may be audible or inaudible to the human ear.
As an interesting side note, crepitation, stridulation, and vibration all end in the suffix –ation, which means action or process or something connected with an action or process. For many people, hearing the locusts calling sets off a connection between the sound and the time of year (summer). In essence, the sound is an indication (another –ation word) summer has arrived.
One other note on this topic is historically, the night time locusts started calling in late August, a sure reminder to many a youngster that summer was winding down and school would start once again. In recent years, the locusts have started calling in our area in early or mid-July. The reason for the shift is not clear, though we suspect it is partly to do with weather conditions and environmental changes. Perhaps the why of the shift is not as significant as the actual shift. What caused it may remain a mystery, but the truth that it happened cannot be denied.
“Leave the broken, irreversible past in God’s hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.” –Oswald Chambers
May life’s circumstances lead us in and through the circles of relationships we need. May these circles in turn help us to learn the art of accepting life for what it is, and may we find the courage to accept through summer settling in.
Summer Settling In
Sun on the rise
In the hazy run of the morning skies,
Red and all ablaze
Ready for what comes ahead in the day,
As the mist fades and the birds sing
While the list of God’s creations bring
Gifts in disguise
Through and in time
In the hints of summer settling in
Beneath the wonder of heaven.
Little flowers in the fields
Sitting atop tall towers of stems that yield
Only to the sun’s light
As the days run along in life
And the bunnies hop along
While the running spots on the fawns
Mature and then fade
As they learn to explore in the does’ wake
Through summer settling in
The fruits that have been.
Berries on the vine growing
In colors cherry red and crimson flowing,
Teasel town on the rise
Along with the morning glory down on the vine,
Milkweed and butterfly weed too
Send their colors streaming through
The green grasses
In the seas of the landscape captured
In the midst of summer settling in
As part of the gifts God has given.
-Lisa A. Wisniewski
A Note of Thanks
Thanks to our friend Loretta for explaining the difference between accepting and settling to us years ago. Thanks also to artists like Miranda Lambert who have the artistic grace to confront life’s questions and present them to others in a creative form. Special thanks to friends Julie and Gabe for their insight to some recent questions we asked, and their willingness to share their life experiences.
-Lisa and Leo
Natural Deltas 