Lessons from nature

Plum blossoms--symbolize perseverance and hope and the transitory nature of life; reminds us we can be strong without sacrificing grace.

Lessons from nature

Corn cockles perplexed farmers before the invention of wheat harvesters because they grew weed-like among crops and carried a poisonous seed that had to be culled from the grain. They remind us to be wary of beautiful things that are toxic at their core.

Lessons from nature

Bletilla Striata, also known as Big Bob, reminds us never to judge another based on something superficial like a name.

Lessons from nature

Nigella Damascena, a May-blooming relative of the buttercup is commonly called Love in a mist and Devil in a bush. Who and what among us isn't a Jekyll and Hyde?

Lessons from nature

Queen Anne's Lace, or Wild Carrot, a flower whose seeds have been used for centuries as birth control, also teaches us about service as a companion plant that protects and supports the growth of more vulnerable species.

Lessons from nature

Lathyrus latifolius, or everlasting pea, teaches us that labels such as "weed" or "flower" are in the eye of the beholder.

Lessons from nature

An afternoon with a gaggle of Canadian Geese teaches us the importance of relationship (they are monogamous and mate for life), community and a watchful parental eye.

Lessons from nature

It is from St. John's Wort we can learn versatility. Officially know as Hypericum perforatum, it is a herb that has been used for some 2400 years as a nerve tonic, a painkiller for arthritis and menstrual pain, and a relief for gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea, nausea, and more serious problems like ulcers. It is known as an aid for heart palpitations, moodiness and symptoms of menopause, attention deficit, obsessive-compulsive and seasonal effective disorder. It has been used for exhaustion, stop-smoking help, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, migraine headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, cancer and hepatitis C. Some people apply St. John's Wort oil to their skin to treat bruises and scrapes, first degree burns, wounds, bug bites, hemorrhoids and nerve pain. It has evolved into a remedy for depression and anxiety and is being tested on AIDS patients because it appears to help the immune system combat viruses.

Lessons from nature

Perhaps the first symbol of universalism, the rose has common meaning across time and religious, theological and philosophical boundaries. The ancient Greeks and Romans identified the rose with their goddesses of love, Aphrodite and Venus. Iran’s culturally significant geometrical gardens feature roses prominently. Sufi mystics use the rose as a symbol for the quest for divine love. The rose is the emblem of Islamabad Capital Territory in Pakistan. The red rose was adopted as a symbol of the blood of the Christian martyrs. A bouquet of red roses is used as a Valentine’s Day gift in many countries as a show of love. The rose is the national flower of England and in 1986 was named the floral emblem of the U.S. A red rose is a symbol of socialism and is used as a symbol by British, Irish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Brazilian, Dutch, Bulgarian and other European labor or political parties. I suppose it is optimistic to think that a love of roses might furnish an inspiration of future harmony among peoples of the world.

Reinvent yourself

Built in 1891 by Multnomah County to allow the Oregon National Guard a place to practice riot prevention for anti-Chinese sentiment, the Armory was designed in Romanesque Revival Style including massive stone cladding and semi-circular arcades using many Northwest quarry materials. The Armory was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. During the Gerding Edlen development in the Pearl District around the Weinhard “brewery blocks” the dilapidated building was renovated as the home of Portland Center Stage.  Shortly after opening, the building was certified by the US Green Building Council as exceeding the requirements for designation as LEED Platinum, an ideal significant-to-sensational transformation in a city that loves the flight of the Phoenix.

Lessons from nature

Boasting its motto, "I'll still be waiting," Astilbe teaches us patience with and dedication to loved ones; its fragrance infuses our hearts with "no matter what" love even when they make choices we abhor.

Lessons from nature

Persimmons teach us how the bitterness of youth can mature into sweetness.  

Falling in love again and again

“Falling in love” means giving up any preconceived intentions of the other and accepting what you see, feel, hear and intuit. 

Petey Silveira 

  

I’m not sure what’s happening to me, but I keep falling in love. Yesterday I fell in love with tiny birds snuggled among the branches in a euphony of twits and tweeters. On Monday it was an engineer I met for the first time to talk about potential work (I actually fell for his sons in the same morning). The Friday before it was a colleague I have spent some time with, but on that particular Friday I was able to delve deeper and learn more about him.

Happy to live in weird Portland

One of the most tragic things we endure is the vitriol that accompanies the current political circus, making us increasingly intolerant. I live in Portland, Oregon partly because, for the most part, we are kind. Even Garrison Keilor joked about it in his Prairie Home Companion visits. My blessings go to the two drivers I write about below. May their kindness be reciprocated tenfold.

Song for marching fringe cup

Sun-filled fringe cup marches in the breeze forming paisley patterns around the splintery remains of the 100-year maple that fell without notice on Mother’s Day two years ago. Left to lavish on the tree’s fertile remains the fringe cup have propagated their way down the steepness to meet the horsetail in the wetland below. From the plum tree the spotted towhee takes in the lime-green layers of progress and can’t help sing its approval in two chirps and a twill.

Predictable Killdeer

"Killdeer, killdeer, killdeer," shrieks the bigger of the two birds from the inland side of the Barview Jetty on the Oregon Coast. Though we are hiking above them on the seawall, both birds run toward us along the shore, faking broken wings, and when we show no sign of stopping, take flight in unison over the still water below.

Members of the Plover family, Killdeer nest on open ground, often on gravel. They use slight depressions in the rock to mate and lay eggs. Their nests blend perfectly into the background and their speckled eggs look like stones. As a matter of fact, the pair likely had several nests, built to confuse predators, but they use only one for laying of eggs.

Not surprisingly, baby Killdeer are "precocial" (which means ripened beforehand). They literally hatch and start running.

Teacher

You dazzle me with your stories 

of alignment, and of wild things;

your forward movement into the plausible

blows my mind,

opens my skittish heart,

catapults my pen,

forces a time limit,

squeezes perfection to

bleed secrets onto the page.

I abandon my addiction

to the perfect word

to avoid the sinking feeling 

triggered by fleeting grains of sand

in your menacing timer.

You ask me to write 

about impossible things,

read aloud before I am ready

and in doing so

remind me

how small I can be,

and how big I am;

and how resistant I am to risk,

to being vulnerable.

It all leaves me hungry for

full presence in my stories, 

and the desire more than ever,

to tell them so others feel my words.

Stacked odds

Chickadee self-care

A day at the spa for a chickadee includes sunbathing--theory is it helps the preen oil to spread across the feathers and drives out parasites.

Exquisite obsolescence in Shaniko, OR

Shaniko, Oregon never became the transportation hub that The Columbia Southern Railway envisioned, but more than 100 years after its heyday, a handful of residents still live side-by-side with some exquisite images from the past.