Breeze of Color

 BREEZE OF COLOR

I sit on the stones content, blessedly content, to watch the beautiful fall colors waving in the warm breeze heralding approaching weather.

Observe….savor Nature….as I did as a small child in dad's navy hammock under the cottonwood tree.  

I might seem a far different person now than when a student.  But not so at all.  I have simply shed the worldly dreams and hopes of younger days, revealing the person that was always there.

Spectacular fall colors this year, cherished as I cherished them as a child.

Then it was necessary to have aspirations, to get grades, to have career objectives.  It was all necessary, all my response to the world in which I was placed.  The infatuation with cars and TV shows was necessary, until seeing through them.  But I was always there, underneath the thick blankets of plans and schedules and hopes, always ready to pause to savor the colors in the breeze.

Occasionally, in order to be me, I momentarily eschew discipline and goals and allow exploration of what I really want …...and I am back outside, immersed in the colors, absorbing the sun, as I did when I had nothing to do.  

I was Home then, and Home now, the same Home.

Here, basking in light filtered through reds and coppers and greens and yellows and golds, here, without having to defend or justify my inactions, here, the healing here, I am who I was then, then far away and long ago, when I seemed so different, when I still wore the world's demands.

Copyright 2025 Don Ray.  Please share.

Opportunity in the Darkness

 Copyright 2025 Don Ray

Feel free to share.

OPPORTUNITY IN THE DARKNESS

 

We, these nominally freewill individual elements of consciousness, find ourselves in this world of entropy, inevitable death, need, hunger, suffering, and evil.  We exist in more or less solitary confinement, our experience of life singular and isolated, with no way to share the essence of what it deeply feels like to be you and me.  

This might initially seem discouraging, and then depressing, and then abjectly hopeless.  ……but only because we miss the point.  Perceived from a different perspective, a distinct Light becomes evident in the undeniable darkness.

We are placed in a form of existence with boundless opportunity to do good and practice Love.  Yet our individual corporeal existence is all about us, all about our birth, all about our survival, all about our destiny.

We are given ample, indeed boundless, opportunity to do good, to help, to alleviate suffering, to rescue, to heal, to comfort.  Anywhere we turn there is need, which is to say, opportunity.

We do not have to save the world.  We cannot save the world.  But we can save someone or something, and in the process accept the gift of our own salvation.

There need be little torment about exactly what to do.  In this world of suffering the opportunities are boundless.  Raise your children, do a good job, or rescue animals, or shelter the homeless, or serve on church committees, or be politically informed and active.  But for God's sake, for your sake, do something.  There is no single right path.  There is no way for you to save the world.  But there are endless ways to save something and someone.  

That is the nature and Purpose of this world of entropy, to provide opportunity, to provide the Choice.  At its core foundational structure, below the infinite mathematical sequences that can only tease at a pseudo-determinism, resides entropy, the statistically not quite impossible, and hence inevitable, evolution of conscious life, and the inexorable death of that life.  The resulting overall perceived image is a grisly panoply of carnivorous cruelty.  Yet at the pixilated level of the individual elements of isolated consciousness, there we see the Purpose, the beautiful Purpose, the redeeming Purpose, in the opportunity to  choose Love and beauty in whichever direction we turn.  

It is a Universe and Creation of suffering.  It is a Universe and Creator suffering…...all for us, for each of us…..we children being born into what seems darkness because our eyes are still closed, we children of a Light awaiting our Choice to let it shine through us.

Copyright 2025 Don Ray

Please share.

In Need of Meadow

IN NEED OF MEADOW

Copyright 2021 Don Ray.  Feel free to print and share

On north ridge, lying in a meadow, first time here.

Had been up on this ridge one other time, long enough ago I had forgotten it.  

A falcon cries in the distance.  I let warmth of morning sun wash over me and wash away the tension of unrelenting human interaction.

There could be critters up here.  This is a place between trails, a place of sanctuary, a place untouched and safe.  Grass turns to white gold as the sun rises.

We are instantly late in the season, red berries having appeared overnight, grass seeded out and dry overnight.

I seek repentance from this life of following and going with the world’s flow, but I know not which way to turn.

Here I can smell the dry grass.  So long since noticing that smell!  Why does even the potential for presence of people send Nature and Spirit into hiding?

Sounds!

A deer?

A bird?

Senses awaken to natural responses, no ambiguity or secrets in the threats posed in Nature,

no deception or subterfu

No hidden agendas in Nature,

or so I pretend.

An open meadow brings some clarity of vision,

some visual perspective across distance not blocked by obscuring and tangled growth.

We need meadows in our lives,

we need a chance to get some momentary distance,

some perspective.

We need a moment to not have to anticipate what is behind that tree or bush,

to not have to calculate what underlies that comment and motive.

Tangled and obscuring are the forests of our societies,

interactions the grabbing branches,

conversations the ensnaring vines.

Seek a meadow,

seek perspective,

find a spot of sunlight unshadowed by demands and expectations.

Bask for a moment in clarity of light and sky,

even if social woods remain dark and confusing upon reentering

At least you will know there is Light,

and that the dark and confusing tangle of forest does occasionally yield to bright glade and clear vision.

Copyright 2021 Don Ray.  Feel free to prnt and share.

Recognizing Beauty

RECOGNIZING BEAUTY

Copyright 2021 Don Ray.  Feel free to print and share.

Homestead creek  07:02

The creek is running!  Barely, but running!  The surface trickle just barely makes it past the wood jam, fizzling out in less than a meter.  There is no sound.  The surface ripples the tiniest bit, making the sky's reflection flicker.  But it's grown from yesterday!...thanks to the remarkable string of daily rains.  Thank You, thank You, thank You for this symbol of the inexorable return of Life in spite of our destructiveness.

As I walked out the back door before sunrise, a coyote concert!  Little family was loud and clear from the south!  Upon reaching coyote point I never saw them though.  Now four mornings since I saw them.  

The mountains had a slow motion cloud fall silently and grayly slipping over ridges from the south, a rare alpine treat.

A couple of bucks in the valley were trying out this year's antlers with each other.

Sublime beauty.  Thank You.  Thank You.  Thank You.

Would anyone read these poor words and experience a touch of that beauty?  Would anyone wish they had been there?

If so, why were more people not up there this morning and every morning?  Why do I not bother describing such scenes to anyone?  Does our limited ability to perceive beauty make beauty boring?  

We prefer adventure and tales with conclusions.  That's a problem if it keeps us from experiencing beauty.  If we cannot perceive the beauty in Nature we cannot discern it in ourselves.  If we cannot recognize loving Creator in Creation we will not recognize our souls as children of that Creator.  The value of Nature's beauty reflects our own value, as we arise from and are integral part of the same Source fulfilling the same Purpose.

A cold indifference toward Nature inevitably is companion to a cold indifference toward humanity.  One either looks for beauty and Spirit in everything or turns from beauty and Spirit in all aspects of life.  

Looking for Beauty does not mean pretending it is there when it is not.  It means having eyes and heart open and receptive to the living Spirit of the Source, especially when it appears in unexpected form.  

Imagine seeing.  Imagine wanting to see.  

Copyright 2021 Don Ray.  Feel free to print and share.