Get out!

Happy Birthday, Henry David Thoreau! Many of us first met Henry in our high school English classes slogging through his literary classic, "Walden Pond." Having taken another look at the book not from an assignment, yet, from wanting to, I found I really enjoyed it and there was a lot to appreciate about Henry.

Thoreau was a a big fan of sauntering --- which is walking around at a moderate, reflective pace thinking, observing, just being. In celebration of Henry's birthday, I invite you to saunter some today. Walden found much inspiration in nature and sought to live simply and in rhythm with the natural world. If your sauntering today leads you to the woods and you become inspired to build a cabin and take up residence, be sure to bring along writing materials, I hear that makes for a great book.

With our ever decreasing green space and our over-connected-all-the-time society, I think Throeau would shout, "Get out!" In part from incredulity and urging us to get outdoors and look and smell and go barefoot and splash in streams and sit underneath trees. At the risk of sounding pretentious, an op-ed by Timothy Egan in yesterday's New York Times entitled, "Let 'Em Eat Dirt," is a plea for parents to allow their kids to get muddy, eat dirt and run freely in the great outdoors. Egan's inspiration for the column came from watching a little boy playing in a muddy tide pool and then runnning off in pursuit of a butterfly and the author's friend remarking how rare it is to see children just outside being with all the cool stuff in nature -- no date-planners, no scheduled play dates, no helicopter parents.

I'm thankful for a great childhood where days were spent swimming in the creek, walking in the woods, playing catch in the field, digging in the garden and eating meals outside. This upbringing has served me well. Now a suburban dweller, I am making it a point to take daily walks near the river and to make time to just be outside in nature, with trees, the music of birdsong and animals that scurry loudly in the leaves.

The sun is shining, the weather is warm, the landscape is green....what are you waiting for? GET OUT!

sj;

Animal instinct

I consider myself an open person, as long as you're not hurting anyone feel free to do your own thing. In fact, I like the folks who dance to their own full orchestra. That said, I must confess that I do not understand nor do I get the entire Furry deal. For the uninitiated, the Furries is the name given to the persons who attend the Anthrocon conference, which is an annual gathering of persons who identify with animals and wonder what it would be like if animals could walk and talk to the point where they dress up and walk around as said animal.

Pittsburgh has become the host city for the annual Furry Convention. Last week, one could see numerous individuals walking around the city with three-foot tails attached to their pants or wearing animal ears atop their head or completely costumed as the animal of their choice. Many sport blue and white tails, purple heads with green horns or do a full-costume wolf in courtier clothing.

I admit that I don't get it.
I admit that I remain incredulous at the amount of press this gathering received. Even the local NPR station ran a story.
I admit that I don't know how they fill a full three days of a convention. What are the workshops? "How to be a blue fox in a red and gray world"

Personally, I enjoy narratives about animals given human characteristics found in the good story, well told. Perhaps the best to do this is the author whose birthday is today, 11 July --- E.B. White who wrote "Stuart Little" and the classic, "Charlotte's Web" for which White received much of his inspiration living on his farm in Maine.

The more I think about it the more I realize that this gathering of tail-wearing, big-animated-head sporting folks is in large part what "Charlotte's Web" is all about --- friendship. So, if these Furries find a connection, hang-out with friends they perhaps see only once a year at the convention --- then more power to 'em.

I probably will never get the whole animal identity thing, yet, friendship and finding folks with whom one can be one's self and belong --- that I get.

sj;

Dog days...

Happy July! In Southwestern PA we are in our tropical season with our "3 H" summer of heat, haze and humidity. I'm not a fan.

Exactly when do the "dog days" of summer officially begin?
(I looked it up: 3 July through 11 August)

If this isn't the dog days then we are at least in the puppy period of the summer.

So you are "in the know" and can impress folks with this bit of knowledge, the "dog days of summer" are named for the time when the star Sirius, known as the Dog Star, is in conjunction with or lines up with the sun. Sirius is the brightest star visible from earth. Ancients believed that the combination of energy and heat coming from these two great stars would naturally make the weather even hotter. Quaint and in a lot ways I can see why they would've thought that, forget the fact that a star is so far away from earth it could never generate enough heat to warm us. Yet, feel free to toss out this insight at your next picnic or barbecue.

All I know right now is it is stinkin' hot!

July is the heart of summer, the month that is wide-open with school neither ending nor starting, the month of vacations and get-aways.

July is the month when, and I'm blaming it on the heat, we slow down and begin to move as if in molasses. Spiritual guides warned of being wary of the "devil of the noonday sun." Their point is when one's spiritual life becomes more grinding then grace-aware and when your inner light is bushed and busheled instead of bright and a beacon to recognize it and remedy it.

Ask what it is that moves you, speaks to you, sparks your spirit. Be intentional in finding the WOW moments --- catch a sunset, notice a flower, listen to bird song. Do what is just. Instead of bemoaning how horrible is everything, do something: call your elected official, write a letter-to-the-editor, join a group committed to the cause.

My mother always referred to late spring and early summer "as the greening of America." We joked about it, yet, she was right and I can't help but notice how lush and full and green is the landscape. In the heat of summer, the challenge and the call is, in the words of Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB, "to be ever green, a strong shoot of justice, a steadfast tree of peace."