Thursday, January 15, 2009

Thursday Thoughts # 18 -- Things I Have Learned from Mother Nature


Mother Nature never throws anything away. She always recycles. But, we live in a culture where it is considered good for our society to get rid of the old stuff and make room for the new stuff. This includes housing and so a healthy economy means we build more houses and sell more houses. We buy more stuff and get rid of old stuff. This is good for the economy. When I continue thinking along this path it all looks more and more like a giant pyramid scheme to me.

The old adage about bending like the willow so that you don't break leaves out all the gray nuances in life such as when you bend, and maybe aren't watching, sometimes someone will come along and chop off your head or make you feel as if they have while you are trying to adjust to some major change in your life! (another post)


Some days I don't feel as industrious or energetic as I think I should at this elder age and then I see this:

and realize I have not a clue about industriousness and probably wasn't very high energy when I was younger either, and then I try not to be so hard on myself.

When we first bought this vacant peninsula of land a lovely swan greeted us at the dock as we ate our recently purchased Dunkin Doughnuts' breakfast. I forbade my husband to feed the swan as I didn't want swan poop all over the dock in the future. Today, years later, two lovely swans were cruising near the dock and I handed hubby a slice of stale bread and told him to go down to the dock and feed them. They swam eagerly forward, picked at the stale bread, turned up their noses and swam away. Even in nature fresh ingredients are important.

Having a good group of friends to hang out with and party all night is one honest way to make it through a long cold winter. Boy were they noisy last night!


Below is another less demanding way to pass the gray winter days but I think just as psychologically restorative. (As anal as I have been criticized for being I did not screw the containers together alphabetically!)

9 comments:

  1. I have a set of those stacking containers, but mine are not as neatly labled. That looks like intense, delicate work.

    I love the photo of the bent tree. How unusual.

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  2. How sweet that you are up so early this morning reading my blog!

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  3. I'm not so early, Tabor....LOL

    I love your photos; the best tree is odd and the swan is beautiful! I try to recycle everything - or give it away.

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  4. Love this post. Like Kenju I have always tried to recycle things or give away. I like the seed containers. Mine are usually in plastic bags or small jars.

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  5. Swans are beautiful and usually only found in pairs. Its Canadian Geese I worry about!

    Very iinteresting post!

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  6. if you ever think yourself lacking energy i am sure you would think me dead if you met me!

    am eager for the blog post you allude to later.

    someone was quite industrious helping mother nature recycle!

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  7. What neat little seed savers. I should be so neat :)
    You certainly have your share of water fowl. I hadn't thought about them being noisy. Hope they didn't keep you awake.
    The bent tree makes me curious. I wonder what caused it to bend that way. Interesting photos.

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  8. I am guessing the tree was bent from either a tornado or hurricane. I got the seed containers at Michaels. They are bead containers.

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  9. Your tale of rejecting swans because they pooped is pretty funny, Tabor - a swan is something from books and TV to many of us, and a personal swan even more of a fantasy.

    The stacking containers for seed saving look cooler than my recycled spice jars. Using them is partly an attempt to act like Mother Nature, but it also has a lot to do with being cheap!

    Annie at the Transplantable Rose

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Take your time...take a deep breath...then hit me with your best shot.