From My Nature Journal: Call it Bloggers’ Block

Call it bloggers’ block or writers’ block or whatever, but anyone who regularly follows my blog has found that I haven’t posted during this calendar year. It certainly is not due to a flagging of interest in observing and celebrating God’s incredible creation. That is part of me. Appreciating nature is as strong a spiritual pathway for me as it has ever been. We get out into God's garden almost daily, hiked even today picking wild huckleberries along the way. 

So I’m not exactly sure what it is. Perhaps it’s what has seemed an unusual busyness of late, perceived or real, or the lack of motivation to do the work it takes to write. Both have likely impacted my inspiration. 

But I feel in my gut that what I am experiencing is just a hiatus. I’ll get back to it. Lord knows I have a thousand writing ideas I’ve gathered over the years tucked away in my files. Meanwhile, if you are missing it (as actually I am), of the 250 posts I’ve shared over these ten years, 60% of them are well-indexed. (I stopped that sometime back as well, and may choose to complete indexing before I begin writing again.) As your interest dictates, hit the index tab under the masthead and check the variety of subjects I’ve covered. I enjoy browsing them myself. 

And, by all means, get outside and take in God's Masterpiece.

~~ RGM, July 2023

How My Blog 'Works'

I am asked from time to time about the different ‘columns’ I do on my blog. So it got me to thinking recently, “Hey, my very first post back in January of 2013 tells of the ‘why’ I do this, and I ended up putting it on my masthead by the title Why this Blog? Maybe it’d be helpful to somebody if I wrote a simple primer about the ‘how,’ and put that on the masthead as well. So that’s what I’m doing this week – I’ll share a simple explanation of how my blog works, and then insert it as a tab. I have a five Saturday month anyway, Saturday being my typical posting day. Next week I’ll get back to God’s

 good creation and I can still get four posts in      

during May.                                                             

If you’re new to this blog, the following may be helpful in order to understand my general approach; it can also help you navigate the site and know what you’re seeing. I utilize four main ‘features,’ each of which is usually done once per month, but not necessarily in this order:

From My Nature Journal

This monthly column features essays from an actual nature journal I have kept over the past several years. When I see something in nature that reminds me of a spiritual parallel, I like to write about it, keeping many of these pieces written out in longhand in a handmade, old fashioned leather-covered journal I bought at a craft sale -- have actually filled the old thing up by now, so the 
newer ones stay on my computer. I guess some 
of them might be akin to the parables of the Gospels, and though certainly not as pithy as Jesus’ stories, the practice becomes a way for me to be attentive to the messages the Creator sends through his creation.

Photo of the Month

This feature takes little explanation; it’s usually just a photo (or several) of something my wife Gail or I have taken recently, or one we took in the past about the same time of year. On extremely rare occasions I may use something someone else took, especially if it’s a famous photo, but then I will always reference it. I will also say something about the photo’s subject or context.

Blowin’ in the Wind

The most eclectic of my columns, Blowin’ in the Wind is a regular feature consisting of an assortment of nature writings – hymns, songs, excerpts, prayers, Bible readings, poems or other things – pieces I may not have written but that inspire me. I trust they will do the same for you. As with my photo of the month, I will usually include some commentary as well.

      Quote of the Month

Again quite self-explanatory, approximately once per month I’ll put up a simple quote I’ve gathered over the years from things I’ve read, with a comment about the person quoted or the context from which they spoke. This column will also usually include a photo of the person that I have found online, another time when I use photos that are not our own.

And the tabs? Well, these instructions here will make it onto a tab called How it ‘Works.’ As I said earlier, Why this Blog?  brings a reader back to my very first post, in which I explain my reasons for writing. About the Author is the barest of bios, but which can still personalize the writing in such a way as to bring a personality to the page. Resources will include the posts I write or share that offer some sort of a spiritual exercise, or devotional practice, that may be experienced by an individual or a group; there are not many at this point, but I expect to be putting others up in the months ahead. (Feel free to copy and use them whenever and wherever you’d like.) Index is something I update every post, adding minimal key words that can help someone go back and find a post they’re interested in seeing again. And The Music is something of a specialized index for posts that have combined a love for nature with a love for music.

Finally, beyond all this, each blog usually contains links (always bolded and colored) that can be hit to go deeper into a blog’s subject, and the photographs I include can be enlarged for greater clarity by clicking on them.

There you have it, a pretty pedestrian little intro on the methods to my madness. But for me, it's all about this:

I lift my eyes to the mountains -- where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1, 2)

~~RGM, May 2, 2014

Blog, Blah, Blah...

I have recently seen a figure published that there are nearly 200 million English-language blog sites on the web, and that worldwide the total begins to approach one billion. Most of these sites are dead or dormant, of course. But still, though it can almost go without saying that that means there is one blog for every seven people on the face of the earth, I guess it also means that there is somehow room for one more. 

No apology need be made for adding another: I feel I have something important to say. Isn’t that the reason anyone takes to the pen, keyboard, canvas or airwaves/microwaves? OK, maybe not the latter… But no, there’s more than that. I feel I have something important to give testimony to.

I am a naturalist. I have not always considered myself such, even thought the title undeserving, but it is a designation with which I have become more comfortable in recent years. I am certainly no O.E. Wilson, no John Muir, no Thoreau, Carson, Sibley, Abbey, Lindbergh, Berry, Audubon or Olson.  But Webster’s Dictionary solves the question of self-designation for me: a naturalist is simply a student of natural history. I am unquestionably that, as there is much about nature that captivates me. Its study and consideration captures not only the hours of my leisure but as well the rarer moments of a daydream.

However, I am also a Christ-follower, a worshiper of the God of the Bible. In fact, this pursuit, though mentioned second here, has actually preoccupied me far longer and infinitely deeper than my preoccupation with nature. It is now many, many years that I have sought to follow hard after God. There is nothing that is more important to me, nothing. And through these years I have found these two passions -- nature and my Christian faith -- coming together in an almost aching, throbbing sense of wonderment and awe.

I have found these two

passions -- nature and my

Christian faith --coming

together in an almost

aching, throbbing sense

of wonderment and awe.

Which brings me back to the statement above about it being more than just feeling I have something important to say: that it is more about feeling I have something important about which to give testimony, to give a shout out about, to give props where props are due. An ancient writer, another who sought to follow hard after God, put it this way: “I will tell of God’s wondrous works.” He knew that nature was not just natural; it had its source, its foundation, its substance in the God who created it. Thus, nature was more than natural, for that writer and for me: it is creation. Extraordinary. Supernatural, if you will. I can’t speak about it from anything but a spiritual perspective.

So this is what I would like to give testimony to: that “…The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and everyone who lives upon it.” Some will think me a fool. Some even of my friends will wonder why Rick is choosing to write about this stuff, like one of my good friends who looked at me in bewilderment one time as I waxed about creation and said, “What are you, some kind of animist?” He knew better and was pulling my leg. But another of my friends might not have been: when I told him as we walked those autumn woods that day that I felt when a leaf fell from a tree and touched me before it hit the ground that I considered it a kiss from God (yes, I admit that now sounds really stupid to me, too), he responded, “Oh yeah? So what do you think if a big branch falls off and hits you?”

Hmmm… Casting my pearls…

Yet I will still tell of God’s wondrous works. To be sure, I do have another life, a family and ministry life… But right here, at the intersection of creation and faith, is where I often find strength for the journey to which God has called me. And since I am always surprised at how little I find being written on the subject, it seems to me all the more important that I write.

So, another blog? Yes, for my good reasons. Besides, I can think of at least my fair share of seven persons who may be interested in hearing what I might have to say. Let’s see, first there’s me, then my wife, my four kids and three sons-in-law… There, I’m already ahead of the worldwide average.

~~RGM, January 1, 2013