From My Nature Journal: No Big Deal?

One of my kids is studying to become a nurse. If I recall correctly, among Jarrett’s very first classes was one on molecular biology, starting very small. That makes complete sense to me as the foundation point for the study of disease and medicine.

I guess I have come to believe it is one of the basic rules of nature observation as well: get small. Getting small, getting low, never ceases to amaze me in my study of the natural sciences. A square foot of earth becomes a veritable and vast jungle when observed up close. Usually we are more impressed with large things – grand canyons, majestic mountains, tall buildings, redwoods and sequoias, record snowfalls, large stadiums, sweeping vistas, broad rivers. But what of the small? Like a tiny, jewel-like crystal? The trifling fiddlehead fern sprout destined to be a yard wide? The veins of a leaf, the geometric form of molecules or DNA, the myriad colors of grains of sand, a head of wheat, a snowflake, a common guppy, the half-inch cone of a one-hundred-foot hemlock?

There is a wonder, a magnificence, in God’s creation that defies adjectives, indeed that sometimes even defies language at all. Be things large or small, I routinely struggle in these essays to describe the splendors and intricacies I see or the lessons I learn. However, it is interesting that I often find richer and more faithful curricula in paying attention to the small or commonplace things rather than the mighty. (Click here for one of my earliest blogposts last year on the significance of seemingly insignificant things.)

It is almost counterintuitive, because in life and work I have accustomed myself to look for broader pictures. Even in photography, Gail has much more of an eye (patience, more likely!) for macrophotography than I do. I’m the one who tends to compose landscapes, panoramas and scenery; she will usually be the only one of us to get down on the ground on her stomach and elbows and take close-ups of bugs, flowers and whatnot. Doubtless there is symbol there, she with her details and me with bigger picture things; we make for a good team.

Photo Notes…

1. Gail and I thought the larger shell was small

when we picked it up, perhaps a half inch in

diameter. Then we looked more closely at the

shells strewn on the Florida beach and

spotted the smaller one, maybe 1/8 inch at

most. (We’ll often use one of our rings in a

photo for size comparison purposes.)

2. This brilliantly-colored little leaf hopper is

maybe 3/16 inch long, and makes the grains of

sand seem as boulders. A question for my

entomologist friends Kirk or Bill: what kind is it?

It’s from Michigan’s U.P.

3. Note the spiral beauty in a tiny cactus seen in

central Colorado, barely larger than Gail’s wedding rings.

4. This little hermit crab character might be one

the coolest photos of something small I have ever

seen. It was taken by our daughter Sarah and

son-in-law BJ on the Oregon coast, amazing.

Jesus said in Luke 16:10, “Who is faithful in small things I will make faithful in much.” It was David, the runt of the litter, who became Israel’s greatest king; ‘gravitationally-challenged’ Zacchaeus whose home the Savior chose to honor; sparrows nesting in the temple’s eaves that caught the attention of the Psalmist; little children that Christ challenged us to exemplify; Joseph, the little brother, who ends up saving his family from famine; the tongue in James 3, likened to the small rudder of a large ship or a small flame that starts a forest fire; Gideon’s army whom God assured that smaller would be better; the infinitesimal ant that provided a lesson to the wise writer of the Proverbs; even God himself who was incarnated to us as a small baby in a small way in a small place.

So, Lord, teach me always to look carefully -- high and low, large and small -- for sightings of your graces and demonstrations of your truths.

~~ RGM, from an earlier journal entry,

adapted for my blog June 3, 2014

P.S. I remember from my youth seeing a video that demonstrated the common frontiers of vastness and minutiae; it was called “Powers of Ten.” Press here to check it out if you have several more minutes; it’s pretty impressive.

POTM...*: The Gift

(*Photo of the Month)

OK, I have been asked about these two photos several times, but don’t think I’ve ever yet taken the opportunity to share them together; so I thought I’d post them this week as my photo(s) of the month.

I’ve heard it said that good photographs are not ‘taken,’ they are given, even granted as a gift. With what I believe about the gifts of nature from our good God, I truly do find that there are special photos we’ve shot that we more accurately see as being gifts from God. This pair is one such example.

Gail took them three years ago while we were vacationing in Michigan. The subject is a whitetail fawn, of course, at least in one photo; the fawn, it seems, may provide the backdrop for the subject in the other. It depends on how you look at it.

We have stumbled across resting fawns in the woods, in our Michigan yard, in a neighbor’s shed, even had one plop down right on the highway one time as it crossed and we approached; needless to say, we pulled over, went back and got it off the road. In each of these cases we never saw the doe. Adult whitetails will frequently leave their newborns in order to go and make their necessary browsing circuits; and since a fawn is relatively scent-free, and sits stock still as it rests, a predator can pass within feet of it and not take notice. (Hmmm… stillness and the ability to be hidden from the predator… Now that might actually preach some time…) The fawn’s spots even provide camouflage in the process, breaking up the patch of tawny brown quite well.

This one, however, no longer young, was on the move with its mother nearby, and Gail just happened to be in the right place at the right time to receive the gift. We have been grateful for the photos ever since.

It was naturalist John Muir who said:

…A single day in so divine an atmosphere of beauty (as God’s good earth) would be well worth living for. And at its close, should death come without any hope of another life, we could still say, “Thank you, God, for the glorious gift!” and pass on.

~~RGM, May 16, 2014

P.S. If you love deer as much as I do (it’s actually my favorite animal to see in the wild, in spite of its ubiquity), hit this link to return to a blogpost I did on deer some time ago.

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

POTM...*: The Ephemerals

(*Photos of the Month)

OK, I decided a photo of the month would be timely for my first blog of June, breaking from the norm of sharing from my nature journal as my first entry of the new month. This is simply because we just took these images these last several days, and I’d like to get them up in context! So let me give a bit of that context before I share the photos.

Gail and I are away from Colorado right now, enjoying an early spring (after a very long winter) in the Northwoods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Early spring? In June? I explain. Though we have often been here by Memorial Day weekend, this winter was unusual here, with cold temps and late, heavy snows well into the first six weeks of spring. Take this for example: last year in 2012, ice-out on our lake took place the first week of March; this year it didn’t go out until May 8, a record in anyone’s memory. That is crazy! And to make matters worse, the depth of that late snow and the resulting delay of the frost going out has produced an unusually high water table, extending what is known here as ‘mud season’ by several weeks. Our driveway is impassable, creeks and lakes are high, some gravel roads are still closed having been washed out with freshets, and water is running in the woods in places we have never seen it run before.

Another thing it has done, however, to our great delight, is delay the first blooms of the season until late May; as a result, we are seeing flowers we have never had the pleasure of seeing here before either. Typically, early blooms come to flower before tree leaf-out blocks direct sunlight to the forest floor.  Some of these early bloomers are called ‘ephemerals,’ blooms that may last as short as a single day. Among them are some shown below. Thankfully, though a patch of them might be ‘here today and gone tomorrow,’ varying ground conditions (shadows, moisture, rocks, incline, etc.) may allow another patch to pop out in another place the next day, or the next. So it has been fun to walk or drive up and down the road, or walk in the woods each day, and see unusual and short-lived blooms along the way. Most early season flowers are white or mostly white.

The word is from the Greek ephemeron,

which means liable to be cut short,

a good word for a bloom that

might only last a few hours.

Ephemerals, as it relates to flowers, was a new descriptor to us. We found it in several places as we looked up these unknown blooms in our field guides. The word is from the Greek ephemeron, which means liable to be cut short, a good word for a bloom that might only last a few hours. Then I thought that Greek word even sounded familiar, and sure enough, it is from the same root as the common Biblical word daily. If I remember correctly, it is the word that we use in the Lord’s Prayer when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” I think it is also the word used in the Septuagint (an early Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) in Exodus 16, when the Israelites are told to gather manna sufficient only for the day, in other words, to trust God that God will daily provide for them again the next day. Thinking about and meditating on this Biblical word has added a lovely meaning and deeper appreciation to our early spring flower-gazing and identification.

Here are the photos...

Hepatica – ¾-inch single blooms. A true ephemeral, it can be pale blue, lavender, pink or white. Also called liverleaf for its liver-shaped basal (lowest) leaf, early herbalists assumed it must then be good for liver ailments – it wasn’t.

Trillium – 2-3 inch tri-petaled blooms, with a three-lobed leaf and three-sectioned sepals. It is no wonder it is called trillium. It is also a protected species, one of our favorites, and the white flowers turn light pink with age; seeds are eventually disbursed by ants who carry them underground.

Wintercress – ¼-inch blooms in bunches, one of the first plants to green in the spring, even while snow is on the ground, thus its name. The leaves are often the first green food of the season for hungry deer.

Spring Beauties – ½-inch single blooms, can be white or pink, with pink veins that guide small insects to the nectar spot. Sometimes producing a veritable carpet of blooms, we have also seen these in the spring on the tops of mountains in Colorado.

Trout Lily – 1 inch single blooms, takes up to seven years to mature to flower; can also be white. It is also called adder’s tongue, with both flower and leaf disappearing by early summer.

Marsh Marigolds – 1½ inch blooms, not a marigold at all but in the buttercup family. The showiest and longest-lasting of the early risers, it is also known as cowslip, as cows would slip on them when coming down to the water in early spring.

Dutchman’s Breeches – 1 inch blooms, one to four on a stalk, another true ephemeral. Certainly the winner in the ‘coolest name category,’ its flowers resemble, upside-down, the pants worn in the Netherlands in earlier times. It is a favorite of spring bees due to its ample nectar.

Skunk Cabbage – tiny flowers on a one-inch pineapple-shaped spike, wrapped in a strange floral sheath, with leaves eventually up to a yard wide. Coming in a close second in the ‘coolest name category,’ it soundly beats all comers in the ‘weird category.’ This ephemeral produces so much heat that, if it has to, it thaws the ground and melts the snow in a circle around it as it pushes up from the ground. As its name implies, it stinks.

And speaking of ephemerals:

As for man, his days are like grass.

   he flourishes like a flower of the field,

for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,

            and its place knows it no more.

But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear him,

            And his righteousness to children’s children,

To those who keep his covenant

            And remember to do his commandments. (Psalm 103:15-18)

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field… will he not much more clothe you…? Therefore, do not be anxious… (Matthew 6:28-31, portions)

The grass withers, the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever. (Isaiah 40:8)

May you be completely assured today of the blessing of God’s daily care.

~~RGM, June 1, 2013

 P.S. Up next week? Back to my nature journal…