Your writing is beautiful and powerful. It is creating a desire within me to see the world more fully. I will begin by picking up a book on birds, I want to know their names. I loved the point about sometimes we don’t “care” to know. Perhaps it is akin to meeting a person for the first time and not asking for their name. Thanks again for your newsletter. I’m learning a lot, and not only learning, but being moved to change as a person.
Great. A place with a rich variety of birds. Sibley Field Guides are a great place if you want to explore the total range of birds, but it can be quite daunting for a beginner. Maehr's Birds of Florida also looks good, which will help you work out what can be seen in your local area.
for a beginner, I suggest focusing on the birds you see in your local park and garden first. Get to know their names, reciting them each time you see them. Anything you see that you can't identify after looking in the book, ignore for now - in time you will learn to identify harder species, but this takes time and practice - and trying to identify everything you see is a mistake beginners often make. It leads to frustration.
In order to see things we need to move at a rate of speed that makes our surroundings visible. This does not happen in cars. I used to spend lots of time walking very long distances with my children and they grew to love their surroundings. When developers moved in to till the nearby fields for new housing it hurt them to see this. To me it felt like the rape of the land.
Indeed! To be observant, slowness is an absolute priority. I also find this when walking. Whereas others like to walk fast - getting to the destination is more important, for me, I like to walk slowly, stop, observe (and watch birds!). I have never quite understood going for a walk or hike just to get somewhere if that means passing by so much interesting stuff!
Hello Hadden, nice work. So many things to unpack in this idea of having the vision, the "right kind of eyes," to see God's creation. It's so evident in so many ways how post-modern man, generally speaking, has trained his brain to filter so much out because we are onslaughted with so much. As you suggested, what gets one's attention is not what should catch and hold our attention. Let's just point to soil. When I tell someone there are more living creatures in one cubic inch of soil than there are humans on the planet, they stand with an incredulous look mouth agape with no way to process what I've told them. When I tell someone that observation is our first responsibility in stewardship, they think I'm being lazy or unproductive when others blunder into creation with little understanding in the name of "getting something done." Even those who I know who are certified permaculture consultants have an action bias to helping someone with a given landscape. When those of us who have been certified are taught that the very first action to take is essentially no action but to carefully observe in the greatest of detail. If stewards of the land would take one year in just observing the landscape for which they have been given responsibility, how much more productive and healthy and healthful the landscape would be as an integrated component of God's larger creation. Careful observation, or maybe we term it vision, will inform our decisions and actions related to a given space in which we find ourselves.
Thanks, Dan, sorry it has taken so long to reply! And I like your point about brain filtering, this is very true and something I have to stop myself from doing from time to time.
If you have access to it, Wendell Berry's essay 'Horse Drawn Tools and the Doctrine of Labour Saving' has a passage quoted which makes the exact point you are making about taking time to observe the land first before acting. I see this as absolutely vital for the long-term health of not only of the land, but also the farmer's productivity. Sadly, short-term yields are demanded by our food systems which leads to much rashness in our agricultural lands.
Your writing is beautiful and powerful. It is creating a desire within me to see the world more fully. I will begin by picking up a book on birds, I want to know their names. I loved the point about sometimes we don’t “care” to know. Perhaps it is akin to meeting a person for the first time and not asking for their name. Thanks again for your newsletter. I’m learning a lot, and not only learning, but being moved to change as a person.
Thank you, Ronald, this is so encouraging.
With regards to the book about birds, where are you based? I can then give you some recommendations for a book that would suit your local area.
Thanks, appreciate it. I live in Orlando, Florida
Great. A place with a rich variety of birds. Sibley Field Guides are a great place if you want to explore the total range of birds, but it can be quite daunting for a beginner. Maehr's Birds of Florida also looks good, which will help you work out what can be seen in your local area.
for a beginner, I suggest focusing on the birds you see in your local park and garden first. Get to know their names, reciting them each time you see them. Anything you see that you can't identify after looking in the book, ignore for now - in time you will learn to identify harder species, but this takes time and practice - and trying to identify everything you see is a mistake beginners often make. It leads to frustration.
Thanks! I will follow your advice and pick up those books, looking forward to seeing
In order to see things we need to move at a rate of speed that makes our surroundings visible. This does not happen in cars. I used to spend lots of time walking very long distances with my children and they grew to love their surroundings. When developers moved in to till the nearby fields for new housing it hurt them to see this. To me it felt like the rape of the land.
Indeed! To be observant, slowness is an absolute priority. I also find this when walking. Whereas others like to walk fast - getting to the destination is more important, for me, I like to walk slowly, stop, observe (and watch birds!). I have never quite understood going for a walk or hike just to get somewhere if that means passing by so much interesting stuff!
Hello Hadden, nice work. So many things to unpack in this idea of having the vision, the "right kind of eyes," to see God's creation. It's so evident in so many ways how post-modern man, generally speaking, has trained his brain to filter so much out because we are onslaughted with so much. As you suggested, what gets one's attention is not what should catch and hold our attention. Let's just point to soil. When I tell someone there are more living creatures in one cubic inch of soil than there are humans on the planet, they stand with an incredulous look mouth agape with no way to process what I've told them. When I tell someone that observation is our first responsibility in stewardship, they think I'm being lazy or unproductive when others blunder into creation with little understanding in the name of "getting something done." Even those who I know who are certified permaculture consultants have an action bias to helping someone with a given landscape. When those of us who have been certified are taught that the very first action to take is essentially no action but to carefully observe in the greatest of detail. If stewards of the land would take one year in just observing the landscape for which they have been given responsibility, how much more productive and healthy and healthful the landscape would be as an integrated component of God's larger creation. Careful observation, or maybe we term it vision, will inform our decisions and actions related to a given space in which we find ourselves.
Thanks, Dan, sorry it has taken so long to reply! And I like your point about brain filtering, this is very true and something I have to stop myself from doing from time to time.
If you have access to it, Wendell Berry's essay 'Horse Drawn Tools and the Doctrine of Labour Saving' has a passage quoted which makes the exact point you are making about taking time to observe the land first before acting. I see this as absolutely vital for the long-term health of not only of the land, but also the farmer's productivity. Sadly, short-term yields are demanded by our food systems which leads to much rashness in our agricultural lands.