My trip to the AGO meeting in Davis turned out to be an all day affair if you take into account the bike and train commute. I hopped on my bike at 7:20 am and pedaled to the Berkeley Amtrak station. The day started cold, foggy and breezy waiting for the train. I used to know my way around Davis like the back of my hand, having spent four years there as an undergrad. But my memory failed me, and the campus has expanded, and I ended up a bit disoriented, but fortunately found a sign and a fellow attendee to point me in the right direction. I arrived at the meeting location, the Mondavi Center at 9:50, with a little more than an hour to spare. I took the liberty of introducing myself to a few other early arrivals, including the Executive Director of the Stewardship Council, the Associate Dean of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, a former dorm mate from my undergrad years at UCD, and the California Wilderness Coalition.

The session went from 11:00 until about 12:15, with most of that time taken up with the audience listening. If you are interested you can download the agenda. Of the various presenters the presentation that left the most impact with me was Andy Beckstoffer, from Beckstoffer Winery talking on the benefits of private conservation easements in California. With the pressure to expand development up and down the Central Valley, easements may play a key role in protecting land and sustaining agriculture. Phil Martainelli talked about reintroducing Elk into California, including two areas that I’ve visited while taking photos for The Nature Conservancy, The Carrizo Plain and San Antionio Ranch.

But the real focus of the meeting was to give the people attending the event the opportunity to tell their stories. The stories continued for an additional 45 minutes beyond the 45 minutes allotted, and they could have gone on for another two hours. There were, in my estimate, about 200 people attending. We heard from fly fishers, mountain bikers, off road vihicle enthusiasts, rock hounds, hikers, land trusts, cattlemen, farmers, ranchers, environmental educators, including Natures Theater just to name a few. Some of the issues that came up included the Berryessa Snow Mountain proposed national conservation area, with stories both for and against the proposal, the wilderness status of Drakes Estero (the photo above is from Drakes Estero), invasive species such as the Zebra Mussel, and restrictive nature of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

I left the event with a new awareness of the opportunities that exist to connect people with nature by helping them share their stories.

I’ll be attending the America’s Great Outdoors listening session hosted by Congressman Mike Thompson tomorrow, with the intend of expanding my network people that are interested in connecting people with nature.  A number of organizations involved with nature, conservation and land protection are expected to be there.  And to help celebrate America’s Great Outdoors here a photo of on of my favorite places, the Carrizo Plain

Normally I’d say that the scenery from the train is not all that interesting, but today I find everything interesting, like a little kid seeing the world for the first time. We’ve just left Modesto; non-descript housing tracts, levees and farms, abandoned vehicles in yards, grain elevators. I see photos everywhere. Perhaps just the act of traveling without the distraction of driving leaves me open to see more possibilities. And most of the architecture is mundane, agrarian or industrial; not subjects I would normally look at for artistic possibilities, but they all make a statement. Life is artful, Art life-full. It’s not about what’s happening outside, it’s about what’s happening inside. It’s about having an open heart and an open mind to see the world with a new possibilities. I think that in itself is artful living. Or perhaps I’ve just had too much coffee. What do you think?

(Written on April 24,  posted on May 2)

Earth Day found me on the Carrizo Plain looking for wildflowers. It was an overcast and cold with an occassional rain shower. Watching the clouds move in on the Carrizo Plain is dramatic. I’ll be posting photos shortly. In the meantime here’s  photo I captured a couple of hours ago in the Antelope Valley, east of Los Angeles.

The Amen of Nature is always a flower – Oliver Wendell Holmes

One thing I haven’t done much lately is sit still, which is probably why this image I intended to post for Saint Patricks Day is just now getting posted.  This image by the way was captured in Killarney National Forest in Ireland.

And as for sitting still, today though, I’m laying on the couch with a bag of ice on my right knee and doctors orders to be a “couch potato.” It almost a blessing in a way.  But then, here I am with my laptop, preparing work for clients, and catching up on some of my marketing tasks.  It seems my right knee has been giving me some discomfort, so let’s hope the arthroscopic proceedure will get me back on my feet in short time. Meantime, I’m going to permit myself to be waited on, I’m going to slow down and count it a blessing to have quiet time.  And just for good measure, here’s  link to some photos of a recent snow camping trip with a panorama of Lake Tahoe .

So here it is for those of you that missed the cake cutting on Saturday. I asked a friend of mine, Kuczynska Kuczynska of What the Cake, to create a cake that would represent a mountain scene with a stream, trees and a campsite. I think her creation was quite amazing. I’m calling the mountain Mount Fondant. What do you think? I cut the first piece with trepidation. It seemed a travesty to destroy a piece of art, but once we got to munching on the moist fluffy cake it was hard to stop. And for those of you who were here, I want to thank you for joining me in rolling the “odometer” over to a new year. Can I stop counting now? I’m still in denial that I’ve reached the 60 mark. This past year has been challenging on many fronts, and I feel like I’ve been thrust into the crucible, where one is forced to examine what is of value and what is not. And what shows up is that when I stop and give up my own selfish desires and ambitions and pay attention the world around me life works. For most of my life it has been about me. My photography, my goals, my ambitions, my desires to travel and see the world. Now it’s time to stop and listen. To listen to friends, to listen to family members, to listen to the trees, to listen to the mountains, to listen to the weeds growing in the yard. Like Brother Lawrence who was content to practice the presence of God.

I walk before God simply, in faith, with humility and with love; and I apply myself diligently to do nothing and think nothing which may displease Him.

I’m reading Gary Snyder’s book Back on the Fire, which is a thought provoking collection of essays, I was particularly struck by the following from pages 34-35.

Gift economy? That might be another perspective on the meaning of ecology. We are living in the midst of a great potluck at which we are all the invited guests. And we are also eventually the meal. The Ainu, when they had venison for dinner, sang songs aloud to the deer spirits who were hanging about waiting for the performance. The deer visit human beings so that they might hear some songs. In Buddhist spiritual ecology, the first thing to give up is your ego- The ancient Vedic philosophers said that the gods like sacrifices, but of all sacrifices that which they most appreciate is your ego. This critical little point is the foundation of yogic and Buddhist askesis. Dogen famously said, “We study the self to forget the self. When you forget the self you become one with the ten thousand things.” (There is only one offering that is greater than the ego, and that is “enlightenment” itself.)

The being who has offered up her enlightenment is called a Bod-hisattva. In some of the Polynesian societies the Big Person, the most respected and powerful figure in the village, was the one who had nothing—whatever gift came to him or her was promptly given away again. This is the real heart of a gift economy, an economy that would save, not devour, the world. Gandhi once said, “For greed, all of nature is insufficient.” Art takes nothing from the world; it is a gift and an exchange. It leaves the world nourished.

“Ripples on the surface of the water— were silver salmon passing under—different
from the ripples caused by breezes”

A scudding plume on the wave—
a humpback whale is
breaking out in air up
gulping herring
—Nature not a book, but a performance, a high old culture

Ever-fresh events
scraped out, rubbed out, and used, used, again—
the braided channels of the rivers
hidden under fields of grass—

The vast wild
the house, alone.
The little house in the wild,
the wild in the house. Both forgotten.

No nature

Both together, one big empty house.

A new year brings with hit hope and determination for change. I’d like to think that we can begin anew at any moment in time. Tomorrow, today, right now. And then why not embrace change now? Why wait for an event like a new year or a new decade. As part of my own renewal I received a book for Christmas, Earth Gospel, A Guide to Prayer for God’s Creation.  I’ve been working through this book, following the daily prayers and meditations.  For December 31 the meditation includes a familiar hymn:

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
fill me with life anew,
that I may love what thou dost love,
and do what thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
until my heart is pure,
until with thee I will one will,
to do and to endure.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
fill I am wholly thine,
till all this earthly part of me
glows with thy fire divine.

I offer this hymn as a meditation for the new year. And the picture that I’ve chosen to go along with these words was captured on December 31 also, while exploring “The Bulb,” a local open-space area which has become a location for artists to create artwork from found objects and recycled junk. You can view more photos of The Bulb here.