The new year has been very slow to reveal itself in nature in our area. Gray skies and thick clouds with minimal sun have the landscape looking rather drab and void of life. However, experience tells us the beneath the façade lies life teeming with energy. Somewhere out there, something is living and growing and giving its all to add to the whole of life and nature. This state of seemingly hidden treasures got us to thinking about how things come to be and how we learn. We thought we would share what we observed and researched in this week’s post.
“The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude and into freedom.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
Theme of the Week: Discovery
Our theme of the week started on Sunday morning while I was driving to church. The weather was cold but rainy, so I was trying to be careful though the roads appeared passable and fine for navigation. On the way to church, I heard a favorite song that has resonated with me since its release in 1996. The song was You Can Feel Bad by Patty Loveless. The lyrics tell the story of a relationship gone awry and how each person is moving on in their own way. One takes a more cautious, determined path while the other appears to be taking a care free habitual path to nowhere.
Contemplating the lyrics and life, I thought about how everything is related somehow, though the connections may or may not be visible. These connections have the power to unite or divide us, leading to varying degrees of life lessons. These lesson in turn lead us to, through, and beyond relationships with others to the relationship we have inside between the heart, mind, body, and soul.
Father Bob’s homily at church that day also talked about how moving away from the Christmas season into the new church liturgical year can have an effect upon our thoughts, feelings, and even actions. We anticipate for so long the coming of the season, then it is gone in a few short days. Often during such times, we discover more than we anticipated about ourselves and others. These discoveries can lead us forward or pull us back, but if we remain willing to learn and grow in faith, we eventually find our way.
On the way home, road conditions had changed rather drastically in some areas with patches of ice and slippery surfaces. At one point along my route, the Jeep started to slide and I felt for sure I was going to wreck either into the oncoming traffic or the vehicle ahead of me. Life lessons and driving school years ago gave me the knowledge I needed to help navigate the event, but in all honesty, it was my faith that saved me for at one point all the knowledge exerted was fruitless against the road conditions.
Returning home, I decided to run on the treadmill instead of in what I call nature’s church because I really did not want to risk falling or getting hurt on the ice, and the drastically dropping temperatures combined with increased winds made the prospect of running outdoors less than inviting. The treadmill is new to me, a gracious gift from a friend who no longer had room for it in her home. I’ve only used the machine minimally since bringing it home and am still learning what all the buttons and functions do. Through I was both disappointed with not being able to run outside and a little frustrated trying to figure out which settings would best emulate my running route, I was also grateful. The experience gave me time at home with my dogs Leo and Lena, who had fun watching me run. (Actually, Lena had way too much fun and managed to chew to bits a vacuum filter and one of my socks).
Normally, I write poetry in my head based on what I see in nature while running on Sunday mornings. I wondered if I could still write something in my head while monitoring the treadmill readout and the dogs. It took some time, but as I ran some words came to mind and then the verses started to form. It was a nice way of being reminded that though conditions in life may not always be conducive to the desired outcomes, we can still find a way if we give ourselves some time and open our minds to the possibilities staring us in the face.
“Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art.” –Will Durant
Lesson of the Week: Enlightenment’s Beams
The colder temperatures continued through the week, leading to the first significant snowfall of 2022 in our area. Despite the snowfall, travel conditions were not as treacherous, and my running route was clear enough to tackle. The freshly fallen snow made every tree branch, twig, leaf, and surface in the landscape appear frosted. This was a welcome sight to me, much more colorful reflecting the sun’s rays than the olive drab sea of days prior.
As I ran and even biked that day, I thought about how the snow can cling to everything it touches. The snow can also melt away without notice. How can this be? How can snow have such paradoxical properties?
The answer is based on the fact snow is a form of water, which can exist as a solid (ice), liquid (water as we often refer to it), or a gas (vapor or steam). In its solid state, the ice crystals of the water molecules create little structures that have the capacity to build upon each other. This in addition to temperatures that allow the snow to stay in a solid state are what makes snow accumulate. If, however, ground or air temperatures are above freezing, the snow falls and melts. The change in temperature from the snow clouds in the skies through the air to the ground melts or breaks the ice crystal structures apart, allowing the snow to seemingly disappear upon impact.
We did get a bit of a reprieve from less than stellar weather midweek. The sunrise was amazingly beautiful in deep orange and red under the clearing skies. While running outside that day, I felt like a bird set free. The absence of the darkness and lack of confinement of the treadmill were most welcome. While running that day, I realize the freedom found made the physical exertion seem less taxing. How could this be if I was running the same distance?
The answer lies in our mind’s perceptions and how we break down our feelings and tasks before us. If we dread doing something, we have the potential to defeat ourselves before even tackling the task at hand. If, however, we keep an open mind or even try to envision ourselves enjoying a seemingly mundane task, we have the potential for greater success. The mind is extremely powerful and can work for or against us. What we do with our thoughts and feelings is what allows us to overcome the minds’ power upon us.
Similar to the sun’s rays, the mind sends out signals to our bodies on a continual basis. These signals can become blocked by our feelings like clouds blocking the sun’s light. What is hidden still exists, we just have to work a bit harder to find it. This work may appear discouraging or frustrating at times, but if we keep pushing, we can clear the path.
A book I recently read used the analogy of clogged pipes to illustrate the mind’s flow of thought and emotion. If the pipes become clogged, either by ignorance, negative feelings, or some other obstruction, the inner flow is disrupted. This leads us to less than desired outcomes in relationships, goals, tasks, and daily life. How can we keep our pipes from being obstructed?
Listening, investigating, and learning more are ways to keep our inner workings in order. If we listen, we learn, and if we learn, we can use the experience to gain knowledge (facts or information). Increased knowledge has the potential to lead us to wisdom (knowledge in action).
“Learning never exhausts the mind.” –Leonardo Da Vinci
Words of the Week: Pathways to Seek
Our words of the week from the Daily Word devotional are guidance, free, friendship, zeal, letting go and letting God. Seeking guidance does not mean we are weak or ignorant. Guidance allows us to become free from the ties and chains of our minds. Once free, we can share our experiences with others, leading to friendship not only with others, but within ourselves. These outer and inner friendships create zeal in life, allowing us the energy, determination, strength, and confidence to move forward. Moving forward offers us the choice of letting go, and in letting go, we find faith in God. So, by asking, we both learn and teach. Like many things in life, the first step is hardest, but once we do it, the rest falls into place eventually.
May we come to know life through life itself. May our interactions with others and our willingness to share what we learn and feel lead us to better relationships. May the combinations of events, people, learnings, and teachings lead us to both seen and unseen revelations.
Revelations
Revelations
Enlightening meditations
Vacillating in the mind
Encompassing all of life
Lost and found
As Gods grace resounds
To clear the way
In the near escape
Of where one must be
Nodding as one wonders to improve
Sorting out the ponderings of age and youth.
Revelations
Emancipating proclamations
Visiting the here and now
Enveloped in the where and how
Looking to come to be
As the sun rises and blows the breeze
To and from where one has been
In the love God has sent
Over hill and dale
Nestled in the will that prevails
So that one can find one’s path in time.
-Lisa A. Wisniewki
A Note of Thanks
Our thanks this week goes out to the many teachers in our lives. Whether by given profession or by default of being there for us when needed, every person we meet has the potential to be a teacher to us. We especially thank those who are not given the title of teacher, such as mothers, fathers, siblings, friends, and coworkers, who are willing to impart and share their knowledge with us. It is through this sharing that we come into the revelations in life that lead us to where we need to be. Good teachers never stop learning. Good learners never stop teaching that there is always more to learn.
-Lisa, Leo, and Lena
Natural Deltas 