Bird Droppings July 9, 2011
Dodging rain drops

Georgia has been considerably drier this summer than the last. The surprise thunderstorms while often severe still have kept most trees green. I have been watering our flowers and of course with fertilizer they are growing so fast many fall over from their height and my herb garden is lush and deep. I have a beautiful canna lilies and squash that have so many blooms and grown so much they can barely stay up. I planted a crop of jimson weed, or datura which is a cousin to the angel trumpets given to me by a friend in Pa. I will have to watch out for them when I mow this week they are coming up all over the back corner of the yard.

“A name is imposed on what is thought to be a thing or a state and this divides it from other things and other states. But when you pursue what lies behind the name, you find a greater and greater subtlety that has no divisions. Atoms of dust are not really atoms of dust but are merely called that. In the same way, a world is not a world but is merely called that.” Visuddhi Magga

I read this quote in passing yesterday and have been thinking about it for some time we could easily get lost in the metaphysics of Gary Zukav or James Redfield describing the infinite inner worlds and selves and the interrelationships. But I thought I would look at rain more metaphorically. I was mowing the yard yesterday just as a storm hit or I thought was going to hit. I made Speedracer look slow making the turns and cutting grass. The sky would darken and wind would pick up and I would stop for a water break and no rain.
Several times the isolated thunder showers passed me by each more magnificent than the last in clouds and colors. After I finished trimming and spot watering just in case the storms missed us altogether I took my westie outside for a run. I had spent a few moments meditating in a rock garden we are building a circle of sorts including various succulents and perennials and rocks that are very special to us. Many my father in law collected as he went fishing a piece of pretty granite here and there and he would take them home over the years. We have been bringing back from Warner Robins since he passed away and clearing up his rock pile and building ours.
As I went out with our westie however a new and bigger cloud formation swirling about. It went to my left ever so slowly and then stopped and I could see lightening flashing in a large circle almost around me as if I was in the center of the storm. My dog was sitting beside me as I stood transfixed in the front t yard with her tail between her legs. I moved to the rocking chair on the porch watching in awe as nature played out in front of me. Finally after thirty minutes of approaching the rain and wind finally came and I took my dog in and headed myself into the house. It had started to rain and of course the wheels of pondering started.
Over the past summer I had seen drizzle and light rain, drops as big as golf balls, hail stones mixed in and today as I read news earlier much of the Midwest is in a flood state, and still in other areas drought. As I thought from the same precipitation just in different levels and in how we perceive it. Floods in the Amazon River basin are essential for the rain forest to survive and often drought in some areas precipitates sprouting of seeds as rains return.
In the Kalahari desert the African Bullfrog or Pixie Frog will envelop itself in mucus and burrow into the mud sustaining on fat and water stored in its tissues hibernating till the next rain which could be a year or more then climbs out when rains come and lays eggs and the tadpoles leave their ponds just as they dry up and start the cycle again. In Georgia rain is a blessing and curse, crops benefit and so do bugs and such. As I was thinking deeper into rain, for some see rain only as a negative a detriment to their activities on that day.
A few days back because of a good rain and a trip into town by chance I did find a book at Borders. But a deeper look at rain maybe beyond that physical stuff we see. In our lives we are always deluged with issues we deem bad much like rain at times. Yet when we start to seriously see these issues they can become much like my rushing to finish mowing or a change of plans and going to the bookstore, a driving force for growth or change for the better. I read somewhere that, “A name is imposed on what is thought to be a thing or a state”. After all it is only a name and it is how we perceive and utilize that issue that makes it bad or good.
Perhaps this sounds silly but in my own life as I shift from seeing an issue as detrimental to one of change of growth there is a release a freedom and we could go deeper but I will save that for another time. I am working on research and writing today and soon next weekend a journey back to North Georgia and always wondering what may come. Please keep all in harms way on your mind and in your hearts.
namaste
bird