Nature

"Cowbird"

Crisp white you stand
Perfectly still
Marbled
Watching and waiting
Listening
You prowl
I watch
I wait
I listen
A calf cries nearby
The dancing of the trees
The whispering of the wind in my ear
Vulnerablility
The key to enjoying
Anything
Suddenly you move
A flash
Immediately back to position
Except for one swallow
I admire the discipline


Being in nature, to me, is such a
wonderful experience. I have enjoyed this
assignment better than any other. I was raised
in the country setting. A small south central
town in Florida. The last I heard our town human
to cow ratio was three cows to every one person.
I spent two hours outside in my nanny and poppy’s
pasture. They have about forty or fifty cows on
ninety acres of a heavily treed grass land.
My poppy (my grandpa) just harvested another
piece of property and he has a good sized
collection of hay bails now. I sat for
two hours in nature between two hay bails and
read poetry. It was one of the greatest experiences
I have ever had. I never realized how much I missed
being outside in the nature of my hometown
until I moved away to college. But the best part of
the experience was because I paired my love of nature
with reading poetry, something else I also leave.

“Of course I have always known you
are present in the clouds, and the
black oak I especially adore and the
wings of birds. But you are present
too in the body, listening to the body,
teaching it to live, instead of all
that touching, with disembodied joy.”
(Six Recognitions of the Lord, Mary Oliver, Line 4)

This line was most evident in my experience
or natural literature. I think Mary has a very valid point.
I think that what she could have been talking about
here was the fact that God is everywhere in everything,
working on our behalf. He could be ministering to your
emotional health by therapeutically causing a bird to
sing a beautiful song next to you. I think he especially
works in nature. Although the earth and all its beauty is
but a mere finger painting to what beauty God can create.
Look at the beauty of the universe. God ministers through
His whole body. His church body ministers and so does His
actual body, the Holy Spirit. Mary Encountered this and so did I.
God can minister in more ways than just feeling also. He
can move with sights, sounds, and any other avenue He chooses.