How It All Began

These are the first wild flowers I found this spring
in the Short Hills Provincial Park.

Spring! At long last.

Rebirth. Hope.

Creation.

Here is a lovely Chinese story that explains it all:

Let it be told of a time when there was nothing but chaos,

and that chaos was like a mist and full of emptiness.

Suddenly, into the midst of this mist came a great colourful light

and from this light all things that exist came to be.

The mist shook and separated,

that which was light rose up to form heaven and that which was heavy sank,

became solid and formed the earth.

Now from heaven and earth came forth strong forces

and these two forces combined to produce

yin and yang.

I actually had to hunt to find anything that wasn't yellow. 

Soon though, these delicate wild flowers will carpet the forest.

Picture yang like a dragon

- hot, fiery, male, full of energy.

Imagine yin as a cloud

- moist, cool, female, drifting slowly.

Each of these forces is full of great power.

Left alone they would destroy the world with their might

and chaos would return.

Together they balance each other and keep the world in harmony.

I love the play of shadows in this clearing.

So still and quiet.

This then is yin and yang

and from them came forth everything.

 

The sun is of yang and the moon, yin.

The four seasons,

winter, spring, summer and autumn

 and the five elements,

 water, earth, metal, fire and wood

 sprang from them.

 

So did all kinds of living creatures.

This trillium was growing on the Steve Bauer Trail.

Evidently it isn't against the law to pick our provincial flower.

But who would want to?  They are so beautiful and hard to find,

most people are content to let them be.

So there was the earth,

floating like a jellyfish on water.

But the earth was just a ball without features.

Then the forces of yin and yang created the giant figure P'an Ku,

the Ancient One.

P'an Ku, who never stopped growing every year of his great long life,

set to work to put the earth in order.

He dug the river valleys and piled up the mountains.

Over many thousands of years he shaped and created

the flow and folds of our earth.

I love this picture. It looks as if the trilliums are growing

between the toes of the tree.

But such work took its toll.

Even mighty P'an Ku could not escape death

and worn out by his struggle, he collapsed and died.

His body was so vast that when he fell to the ground

 his body became the five sacred mountains,

his hair the plants

and his blood the rivers.

From his sweat came the rain

and from the parasites living on his body

came forth

human beings. 

This is how it all began.

*

According to the Educational pages of the Hampshire Count Council,

http://erros@innovationslearning, the belief in the balancing forces of

yin and yang lies at the heart of

the Chinese philosophy and influences the way the Chinese people

 treat their environment.

They see the earth as a living being which

must be cared for properly and kept in order, so that the powerful

forces of yin and yang are kept in balance. 



Think of the BP oil spill, 911 and nuclear power plant accidents

as things that happen when the yang is unchecked.


Women have been learning to use the yin 

by speaking, by voting, by boycotting, by protesting,

 by organizing, by supporting, by representing. 



I believe the yin and the yang may at last be

 starting to move slowly towards a healthier balance.

February - a Month to Die For

"February is a suitable month for dying..."

- Anna Quindlen, One True Thing


I knew that one of his dogs had died when I saw this old fellow on the trail a few days ago.

In the past he has  always been accompanied by an Irish wolfhound
 and the whippet you see in the picture.

For some reason the male wolfhound at about 200 pounds and my dog Flynn,
a 15 pound alpha female, hated each other on sight.


Anyway, I told him how sorry I was and he nodded sadly.


"But we just bought a twelve week old Irish wolfhound puppy!
He's already 48 pounds," he said proudly.

Flynn didn't take this news well.

"There seems to be so much more winter than we need this year."

- Kathleen Norris

The thing about February is that everything isn't always what it seems.

It looks as if this young fellow, who was kind enough to stop and pat Flynn, might be one snow block short of an igloo the way he's rolling a bicycle down a snowy path.

The truth is that the roads were absolutely clear and dry that day.
 Perfect for biking if you were dressed for it.

He was likely just taking a short cut home from school.



And anyone who wears a bright red toque and pats my dog is okay in my books.

"Late February,

and the air's so balmy snowdrops and crocuses

might be fooled into early blooming.

Then, the inevitable blizzard will come,

blighting our harbingers of spring..."

- Gail Mazur



Yesterday I was given this bundle of unusual black pussywillows
 that had been found down by Lake Ontario .

It was a beautiful day. 
The first day I had been able to wear shoes rather than boots in months.



Today a February winter storm rages outside my window.

"Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours.""

- Robert Byrne

 And geese are Niagara's way of saying "Up yours" to winter.


They V up in the fall and look like they are going someplace,

flapping and honking across the evening sky.

But they never really leave.


 It is all for show.


They know we like to see them do it I guess.


Mid February Flynn and I spotted this flock happily paddling around in the Welland Canal.

"Why, what's the matter,

That you have such a February face,

So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?"

- William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing

 
 
February is also the month that
 
Secnarf,
 
 the independent Rhino candidate from North Pelham
 
took over my facebook wall for a day.
 

She promised to open all of the community schools that have been closed in Niagara.
 
She will fund these schools with the money she gets from shutting down

the Board of Education.
 
 
She promised to take all of the calories out of chocolate cake

 
and

 
to make up for all of those years when women didn't have the vote,
 
she believes that women should be able to vote twice.

 
 
I don't know about you,

but

Secnarf,

(the only candidate who looks like a cabinet minister),

has my vote.
 
 

I mean votes.
 
 
 
 
 
*


Hang on everybody, it is the last week of February and we're almost there!



*

The Third Day

God said, "Let the earth produce vegetation:

seed bearing plants and fruit trees on earth

bearing fruit with their seed inside

each corresponding to its own species."
And so it was.

The earth produced vegetation:

the various kinds of seed-bearing plants

and the fruit trees with seed inside,

each corresponding to its own species.

God saw that it was good.

Evening came and morning came:

the third day.

Genesis 1:11-13

Steve Bauer Trail, Fonthill, Ontario

June 28, 2010