Food for the Soul

I spent a lot of time looking at the photographs of photographers that I admire this morning. This practice of looking at the creative work of others is

for me and inspiration for my creative spirit. Making photographs is also food for the soul for me.

This morning I saw a crow walking around on the ice-covered pond behind our house. I am fascinated with birds of all kinds, and crows—common as they are—always delight me.

So I grabbed my camera and switched to my long lens and photographed the crow. Through the telephoto lens I could see that the crow was finding and eating some kind of black worm-like creature that was lying on the surface of the ice. If you look closely at the photograph above you can see that the crow has grabbed something from the surface of the pond. And I can see from other (less well-focused) photos that I made of the crow that it was finding many of the dark colored invertebrates and eating them. How surprising I find it to imagine some kind of life form living on the frozen surface of the pond ice!

More Soul Food

Simple things are what I prefer, quiet beauty, the joy of communing with nature, appreciating the many blessings in my life. Dancing barefoot in the living room while listening to Joni Mitchell songs feeds my soul. Learning new things about photography and trying new ways of seeing through the lens of my camera feeds my soul. Walking mindfully in nature feeds my soul. Laughing and talking with friends and family feeds my soul.

In this darkening time of year with the holidays fast approaching I feel a little out of sync with the world around me. I’m not sure that I will put up any Christmas decorations this year. I’m not feeling the joy of it and it seems something like just another chore. We haven’t bought Christmas gifts for many years except for our grandchildren. The buy, buy, buy madness that has been happening since well before Thanksgiving wears on my spirit.

It is not that I am feeling depressed or downcast. I am not. It’s just that I prefer to spend my energy on creating and sharing joy in ways that I believe make a difference to the earth and to all of it’s life forms. If we spent a fraction of our energy working on making things better for all instead of consuming stuff, imagine what we could do.

…

And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away
from wherever you are, to look for your soul?
Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!
To put one’s foot into the door of the grass, which is
the mystery, which is death as well as life, and
not be afraid!
To set one’s foot in the door of death, and be overcome
with amazement!
To sit down in front of the weeds, and imagine
god the ten-fingered, sailing out of his house of straw,
nodding this way and that way, to the flowers of the
present hour,
to the song falling out of the mockingbird’s pink mouth,
to the tiplets of the honeysuckle, that have opened
in the night.
To sit down, like a weed among weeds, and rustle in the wind!

Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?
While the soul, after all, is only a window,
and the opening of the window no more difficult
than the wakening from a little sleep.

…

— Mary Oliver, Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches