mingled by one wind

from the vast
Just another ordinary day dawns in northern New Mexico. I couldn't figure out which direction to shoot with my little camera, so once again I was out in the 35 degree temp (not bad for the hour), on the deck (wearing shoes this time) -- slowly I turned.... Days' beginnings and endings are mostly spectacular here and in more than two decades I've never quite taken them for granted. Each one holds its own enchantment or drama and I continue to relentlessly try to capture it with a small camera lens. I am a possessive type. Want to own the sunrise and the moon and flowers, keep them in my knapsack like Basho did -- his within his poems -- mine within my camera (and poems).

Those are the big dramas of our planet in one small location in the Southwest. The aurora borealis is lighting up the skies in another place and I hope someday I can see that, too. But for today, I'm here and the clouds are swollen with moisture that we all hope and pray falls upon our so dry land. NM is in its worst drought since 1898 or so.

to the small

These feathers were part of what looked like a bird slaughter in the park. There was no body, only many feathers, beautiful and sad at the same time. Just like the short video posted on facebook that I watched this morning. It shows a gorgeous Midway Island in the Pacific: seagulls, ocean, mist, hatching birds on the beach being fed by the adult birds. And then we see another reality, dead and dying birds, bellies slit open to reveal the detritis of humanity. Plastic rings, pieces of metal, pencils, bottle caps...I don't need to go on...you can see it for yourself at www.trulymind.com. Please check it out. I don't know what can be done to stop this destruction of nature. What will be left for our great grandchildren if this continues, except pictures in books and displays in museums. Also, please read Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,000 Bath Toys Lost at Sea, by Donovan Hohn. There are groups of people trying to clean up the seas, but it's a huge task and needs to start at the corporation and consumption level--what are the odds for that?

I certainly never expected to join the crew 
of a fifty-one-foot catamaran captained 
by a charismatic environmentalist, 
the Ahab of plastic hunters...
         Donovan Hohn (from Epigraph (Moby Duck...)