HAWK HIGHLIGHTS

Hawk in flight

[“We’re thinking of a war on _______.”]

-My Spirit Guide-

See the hawk
not apart from me,
my consciousness,
Seeing the greater
terrain I’m a part of.

Isn’t war seeing
others as objects, things,
rather than beings?

Things without life
of their own
to be manipulated.

Beings on the other hand
have love, life,
and maybe differences,
which may be other
than your own.

RICHARD EVAN MACKAY

*** The Hawk represents a messenger in the Native American culture. It often shows up in our life when we need to pay attention to the subtle messages found around us, and from those we come into contact with.

“INGST”

Earthrise1

“INGST”

Noun

Pronunciation: ing +st

“Our challenge is to create a new language, even a new sense of what it is to be human. It is to transcend not only national limitations, but even our species isolation, to enter into the larger community of living species. This brings about a completely new sense of reality and value.” (Thomas Berry, “The Ecological Age,” in The Dream of the Earth, 42).

MY NOTES: From what I’m hearing way too much in the world news today are struggles of one kind or another. There is a lot of ANGST in the world at large rather than what I’d term “INGST”, which I’m defining as a person’s conscious ability to empower their own life possibilities and challenges in some way.

I’m creating a new word here. We have to create, I think, new language vocabulary to come to terms with reality in our world today. You can add this word to your liv-ing vocabulary.

Maybe, we often see or feel ourselves or others as THINGS rather than BE-INGS.

I am open to your feedback on my creativity here.

Contemplating a Sunset

Mobile Bay Sunset

I’ve worked night shift at a care center, and I’ve watched the slow advent of dawn in the morning before anyone was awake and before the sun had arisen. It’s quite an awesome and I want to say other worldly process to contemplate. Walking at my favorite pond this evening, I had the opportunity to show up just as the process of sunset was occurring. The temperature was just right and there was a slight evening wind blowing across the water. As I’ve stated before, the colors here are amazing and actually were shifting while the sun was going down behind the trees.

When I began my walk, the sun was just above the tree tops and bright. As I stopped to sit down on a bench, the sun went behind the trees and the light, the colors, and the reflections on the pond began to slowly shift. What I was experiencing is difficult to put this into words. I think we imagine this change from day to night as being an abrupt kind of thing. What I witnessed took about 45 minutes, and then lights began coming on in the city. On the pond, the wind caused wave patterns which changed as the temperature of evening changed. The colors and reflections on the water of the trees and the picnic house also changed to gradually darker colors of brown, shadow, and greenish black from the trees.

All of this and more was how I witnessed this everyday event in nature. As I stayed contemplating the process, what struck me most was how gradual the changes were occurring. As I said, it was not an abrupt process. The gradual process was occurring to my eyes in the changing colors, the wave patterns on the water, the changing temperature, and the changing of the wind.

RICHARD EVAN MACKAY

Earth Stewardship – 2019

the-witness

THE STEWARDSHIP GROUP: Calling like-minded musicians, writers, poets, artists, and other creatives who are VITALLY CONCERNED ABOUT THE EARTH and our current social environment.

EARTHSONG – INTIMACY WITH THE EARTH

“Our challenge is to create a new language, even a new sense of what it is to be human. It is to transcend not only national limitations, but even our species isolation, to enter into the larger community of living species. This brings about a completely new sense of reality and value.” (Thomas Berry, “The Ecological Age,” in The Dream of the Earth, 42).

AFTER A THUNDERSTORM

I’m sitting looking at the trees after a long, vibrant thunderstorm; I am contemplating my thoughts of all the mystery in this event.

THE LIMITS OF OUR CONSCIOUS PERCEPTIONS

We think of the environment through the filter of our own limited conscious perceptions. What if there is much more to the Earth than is obvious. Thinking that’s all there is, what if there is more to all the plant and animal life than we see at casual glance?

ARE OTHER LIFE FORMS IN THE ENVIRONMENT DISCREETLY SEPARATE FROM US?

“Our relationship with the earth involves something more than pragmatic use, academic understanding, or aesthetic appreciation. A truly human intimacy with the earth and with the entire natural world is needed. Our children should be properly introduced to the world in which they live.” (Thomas Berry, “Human Presence,” in The Dream of the Earth, 13).

We think of other life forms as separate, discreet events from us; we don’t see them as part of a greater oneness and mystery, which is beyond our five senses. There are questions: do life forms communicate in their own ways, perhaps energetically, that we can’t perceive within the parameters of our closed off senses? Perhaps in our evolutionary space in time, there are many things in the environment that are much more mysterious and complex than many of us can fathom.

BEING IN HARMONY WITH THE DIVINE

If I just sit with this mystery in contemplative silence and let it speak to me in its own languages other than my own, then I can feel and be present to this “Peace that passes [my] understanding.” I can feel this intimacy that I call the Earthsong. I can be present and feel in harmony with what I call the Divine.

 

*** NOTE: I value your comments.  Please feel free to comment.

Expanding Your Sense of Time

african-daisy-3413_1280

EXPAND YOUR SENSE OF TIME

“I’ve never been satisfied with the mantra so common among spiritual people today: ‘Live in the moment.’

…teachers try to get people to do something that is not natural to them, and that they don’t really enjoy…

…I’d rather live more in the past and in the future. I’d prefer to expand the time frame in which I live rather than contract it into a moment.”

AGELESS SOUL – The Lifelong Journey Toward Meaning and Joy, Thomas Moore

It’s Only Rain

doorway

It rained all day
and through the night.
The wind was fierce
in the night,
seemed to moan,
and the flags outside
were whipping around.

All this rain,
is it Mother Earth crying
when she is loving us
with so much blessing?

Is she crying over
how we’re losing interest
in being her stewards,
wanting rather to explore
the unknown desert out there
in our universe?

Is she crying
or am I only imagining?

Because, get real,
It’s only rain.

RICHARD EVAN MACKAY
(from my forthcoming poetry book: EARTHSONG POETRY)

THE ENERGY SHIFT before us globally can be characterized as a shift from utilizing dinosaur droppings (coal and oil) to finding new ways to harness and utilize the energy of Mother Earth and of the Universe.