True North Pathway

Changes

2008-02-28T15:27:00.001-08:00

Given that this blog has mostly been a place to post photos, from now on, I'll be posting to a site that is more conducive to photos.

Future postings will be found at:

www.flickr.com/photos/parsonphoto

"Parson"... combining Parker and Dawson :)

2008-02-19T11:41:00.000-08:00

2008-02-12T16:31:00.001-08:00

Ok, the idea of taking a walk and picking up roadside trash and then arranging it on the ground for a picture is strange. Well, maybe not the picking it up part, but the portrait arrangement is a bit off. Yet, a few things struck me as I picked up these discards. All of them are fast food, junk food, or quick food items. In all the trash I've ever fished out from various roadsides, not once have a seen an empty bag of carrots, a milk jug, a spent tea bag, or an empty cashew container. Never has there been anything that once packaged something healthy. It seems that the vast majority of trash is the stuff that has negative impact on the body, similarly our roadsides and planet. Correlation or coincidence?

So, we have to ask ourselves - at least, for roadside trash - is the problem with disregard for Earth that we just don't really care about ourselves? On the surface, we can say that it is a disregard for others who do care about the beauty that lay at our feet. True. Yet, given the items disgarded, there is clearly a pattern of consumption of food trash where the packagings often become roadside trash. Maybe, we need to see these trashing culprits less so from a standpoint of "you're spoiling my beauty" to "you are spoiling yourself." Possibly, the lessons we need to begin teaching are basic care-for-the-self ones. I mean, if someone truly cared about herself, she would think to eat differently and the impact would be felt and seen in our surroundings.

And it is a much more involved and interesting discussion, but this whole argument may have impact on a larger and global scale, not just one of roadside trash. Over consumption is killing us, and we are addicted to it. We relish consumption of fossil fuels and things in general - which are usually produced and/or discarded in direct connection to carbon conssumption. What drives that need to have more, go more places, seek more things? Is there something naturally built in us to acquire? Just human nature?

Well, maybe.

Yet, it's an aspect of human nature I think we need to work against. Bottom-line, there is unhappines, lack of self-care and understanding, and contentment. Somehow, this is fuel for the spirit of consumption. Consumption will not work to bring us what we need, but like a drug, we think it will and seek more. Seeking more and more is the same for our soul as is junkfood for the body, yet it has an even greater impact on our planet. However, if true contentment were acquired - and this be our driving force - the global meltdown we are creating would be history. With true contentment, would we really need that new fridge, the latest computer or bigger and better home? Or, would we sit satisfied with what we have?

Really, all of these things we replace and purchase, purchase, purchase become a type of roadside trash. For those of us who don't throw the Kit-Kat wrapper out the window, all we acquire ends up somewhere. We just don't see it. (For some images of this global impact of our consumption search Google Images under manufactured landscapes.)

2008-02-08T14:51:00.001-08:00

2008-02-08T14:49:00.000-08:00

2008-02-08T14:47:00.000-08:00

shadow image against snow

2008-02-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

2008-02-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

ice reflection

2008-02-06T15:45:00.001-08:00

2008-01-29T15:26:00.000-08:00

2008-01-25T12:19:00.000-08:00

It's funny what you can find in the woods. And...all life is but a breath.

Little Children

2008-01-25T10:51:00.001-08:00

I spend very little time taking photo's in any given week. Maybe just minutes. But my camera is with me all the time, and I'm always looking and being observant of what's around me. What is happening in nature? What kind of world are we creating? Where is God apparent? I'm always scanning and thinking about these images that confront all of us on a daily basis. Even if I don't take that moment to take a shot, I've been seeing through the eye of a camera. It's my way of living creatively.

It's also my way of living within the image of God. God is Creator, we are God's co-creators. Having an eye, ear or heart open to something creative in each moment is a means of living as an image-bearer of God.

In Walking on Water, Madeleine L'Engle referred to a study about creativity. 90% of all five year old kids score as being highly creative. By age seven that number drops to 10%, and 2% of adults score as being highly creative. Interesting. We're all born with it, or at least 90% of us are. Somehow, through criticism - "Flowers are not blue, Johnnie" - or innuendo creativity gets buried and covered over.

Becoming childlike, as Christ calls us, means reclaiming that sense of creative wonder we all are given. Each moment, is an opportunity for creativity. It doesn't mean getting a job in the field of art, but art can become a part of all of us in and through all we do. It's just finding what works for each one of us....cooking a creative meal, artistically arranging a room, coming up with a new idea.

The options and opportunities are all around us.

As is God.

2008-01-24T16:17:00.000-08:00

You can find the coolest and most intimate things in nature -

even when you're out for a quick walk with your sons.

Thanks, God.

Durance Lake, Victoria

Choice

2008-01-24T12:15:00.000-08:00

A world of choice, freedom, and opportunity. All we want, when and where we want. "Having it all" is a value and a right.

I think I would prefer less (or is that fewer?) decisions in life.

Autonomy Series: Roadside Trash

2008-01-23T11:47:00.000-08:00

Autonomy Series: Emptied Ashtray

2008-01-22T22:06:00.000-08:00

This begins a new series, Autonomy.

2008-01-18T12:19:00.000-08:00

2008-01-17T16:27:00.000-08:00

2008-01-17T16:25:00.000-08:00

2008-01-15T12:44:00.000-08:00

2008-01-13T13:51:00.001-08:00

2008-01-13T13:35:00.000-08:00

shelter series, 3

2008-01-09T12:48:00.000-08:00

2008-01-09T12:45:00.000-08:00

water day, water night

2008-01-08T15:23:00.000-08:00

shelter series, 2

2008-01-06T15:21:00.000-08:00

shelter and refuge

shelter series, 1

2008-01-06T15:19:00.000-08:00

two homes

2008-01-06T14:55:00.000-08:00

2007-12-20T14:47:00.000-08:00

The following two video posts (10 min's each) pose two views on global warming. Attacking Gore and his charts, the second video (Global Warming Hoax) pokes holes in the belief that we have entered a time of climate crisis. Some of their arguments are convincing, and I'm certain there are many missing links coming from the mouths of the climate doomsayers.

And yet.

It's puzzling. Many who say we are not in a time of climate concern enter the argument from a standpoint of right versus wrong or us versus them. It smacks of standard bred politics where there is no middle ground or open discussion. One digs his heals in the ground facing one way, another stands opposed. Together, they tug o' war.

I appreciate the first video (The Most Terrifying...). It is a good argument to act and make change no matter what your view.

Crisis or not, making changes in how we live and interact with our world makes sense. We are called, each of us, to be responsible with what we have been given. Should we wait until the final jury is in? Or, why not act as if there is a climate crisis even if there is no climate crisis? Reducing waste, cleaning up our air, living with less that others might have just a little, slowing down our lives, living more simply, and ... and ... and ...

Someone once said to me that the world will be destroyed by God because of sin. Therefore, let's cast off our responsibility in the present, shall we? Even if Tim LaHaye is your theology, we are still not removed in the present from caring for what is God's. I've been given a body. If I believe I'm on that heavenly road and will receive a new body when I arrive, it doesn't mean I am allowed the freedom to eat to my heart's content and abuse my body in the present.

Planetary diabetes, here we come.

Maybe.

Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See

2007-12-20T14:43:00.001-08:00

Global Warming Hoax

2007-12-20T14:42:00.001-08:00

2007-12-19T16:04:00.000-08:00

2007-12-12T13:01:00.000-08:00

lone tree hill, west face

lone tree hill, near peak

lone tree hill, peak

2007-12-11T15:07:00.000-08:00

2007-12-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

run off, china beach

2007-12-06T17:01:00.001-08:00

2007-12-05T10:59:00.000-08:00

ice and snow

2007-12-04T22:01:00.000-08:00

grey day

2007-12-04T12:33:00.000-08:00

setting sun from dallas road, downtown victoria

2007-11-29T13:07:00.000-08:00

mussel shell and rain, china beach

2007-11-28T10:56:00.000-08:00

"Let me think here for a minute... hmmm... Should I use the cup holder in my car and then toss my trash into an appropriate container? What are my other options? Think, think, think. I know, I'll open my door and place it on the street. Paper is biodegradable. This rainy season will surely return it to earth. Dust to dust and all that. As for that long-lasting plastic top, it's the same color as natural earth. The wind will blow it into a special spot no one will ever notice."

2007-11-22T18:04:00.000-08:00

2007-11-21T12:27:00.000-08:00

b & w morning sun

2007-11-20T15:10:00.000-08:00

2007-11-18T12:29:00.001-08:00

2007-11-16T12:17:00.000-08:00

2007-11-15T10:46:00.000-08:00

east sooke park

2007-11-14T12:19:00.000-08:00

reflection - alders, firs and grass

2007-11-13T14:46:00.000-08:00

alder reflection, leaves on surface

2007-11-13T14:42:00.001-08:00

rain catching light

2007-11-09T21:52:00.000-08:00

tall ship reflection

2007-11-09T21:51:00.001-08:00

bridge reflection at McKenzie Bite

2007-11-09T21:47:00.000-08:00

descending storm

2007-11-07T11:56:00.000-08:00

2007-11-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

2007-11-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

Albert Head Lagoon

one more for the reflection category

2007-10-31T12:05:00.000-07:00

My mind is held this time of year. Yet, it's not the amazing Fall colours painting the landscape or the clouded mountains across the Straight, it's also the subtle dances and images on hidden waters.

There are countless shots of beauty. Yet, if you look a little more closely you'll see beauty's reflection on water in the shaded areas of dense forest. Depending on the sun's height, these reflections may appear to lay across the water or they may go straight into the water. Small pools in streams are choice because you can walk around them and find that just-right angle that will display these hidden-gem images.

I am drawn to the unknown and changing quality to them. A tiny ripple from a breeze will cast a different view, and they alter as quickly as the slightest unseen movement of the sun. A picture of them will rarely turn out as intended.

They remind me to tune into God and his movement and action in the - often - subtle and small, similary hidden spaces of life. The excitement on my child's face as he helps carve a pumpkin, his anticipation of a granola bar, the warmth of a fire, a clean pair of pants. All the things I take for granted or overlook in my search of bigger plans and better things.

2007-10-30T17:36:00.000-07:00

2007-10-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

This shot was taken at Esquimalt Lagoon.

I love the flattened appearance of the dead tree mixed against the coloured scrub brush.

2007-10-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

reflection - maple and licorice ferns

autumn stream

2007-10-19T22:10:00.000-07:00

What is the What

2007-10-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

I picked up a copy of the book What is the What at Costco, that bastion of local wares and goods.

Written by Dave Eggers, it retells the story of one young boy who made the great march in the Sudan. Thousands upon thousands were orphaned as the government attacked many villages, killing family members. The boys were often in fields, herding, and were able to escape into the jungles hiking, sometimes for years, to Ethiopia or Kenya. So, this book retells the story of one boy and his long hike. It's very informative regarding the social injustice of this 2nd Sudanese Civil War. Moreso, it's deeply personal. It also provides a window into this guy's experience coming to America. (Around 4000 Lost Boys came to the U.S. and were given relief, but the "relief" was short-lived and resulted in significant social difficulties for them.)

Wow, that all sounds pretty depressing, yet it is really a triumph of a read.

2007-10-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

more autumn

2007-10-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

reflection

2007-10-17T12:28:00.001-07:00

reflection of maple and autumn forest

2007-10-16T15:09:00.000-07:00

This was taken at Gowland Tod park. GT is a large space with many trailheads. This section is on Wallace Rd, near Butchart Gardens. As you begin down the path, you will follow a stream. Within 5 or 10 minutes, there is a large tree that crosses the stream. Crossing it and carefully, you will find a trail that follows the stream on the other side. Beautifully hidden and unkown.

and here is today's word, boys and girls

2007-10-16T15:04:00.001-07:00

Ah, I have been out of touch with this blog, my cyberspace coffeehouse. I'm not sure who all reads this thing, looks at the pics, etc. Life has been busy, lately, and this became low on the priority scale. However, I do have some pics from this wonderful time of year that I will begin posting.

And, as I have time, I will post a few thoughts regarding a Christian response to earth-stewardship. I've been slowly working on what I intend to be a book about this topic. Some of the posts in the past have connection to that project. Here and there, I'll drop a few new lines.

Fighting the Bear

2007-09-20T13:06:00.001-07:00

Between work, family and a never ending home project, last week was full. Yet, I still engaged something close to my heart. Bear Mountain owns a huge expanse of land in Langford. Virtually all of the land up thar yonder hill is filled with all things new and luxurious to the expense of flora and fauna. I had to see first hand and did some exploring a while back. Some of the pics in previous entries give an exceedingly small glimpse of land takeover at its finest. I was lucky, I guess. I heard that the security routinely patrols, on the make for folks like me. Had they seen me, I'm sure they would have wondered what I was doing as I hithered myself here and there with my camera. No, they would not have wondered. They would have just done their job.

That's Langford. They have zoned for the likes of BM. Fine. Yet, the Bear wants more.

Bear Mountain owns considerable acreage just over the border and into the Highlands. So far, they have been given approval for a wilderness golf course and a certain amount of housing. Not enough, apparently, because they have been pushing to change the urban containment boundary beyond Langford into the Highlands. This change will allow them greater opportunity to develop their land within the Highlands. More homes, less trees and all the problems that will create.

There was a public hearing last week offering folks the opportunity to speak their minds about the new expansion. I had the opportunity to voice my thoughts. (Actually, I voiced many thoughts since my speech included about 15 people's opinions.) All went well, I believe. At the regional level, it almost certainly will be defeated. Yet, BM will take this to the provincial level where they will have more sway. Their lawyers will kick in at this point and the province is more open to big business like BM. It's a wait and see at this point.

It's hard not to take their fundamentalist approach to development personally. It hurts. And a lot. It seems that there is so little that can be done. What is done, is usually reactionary. They do something over-the-top, and a group steps forward to stop it. Good, but how do you proactively stop a beast like the Bear and its advance? Even more, so much of it is driven by hunger for more money. How do you stop greed?

It's interesting to ponder. Is there a way to engage and stop a group like the Bear before it advances? Is it possible to change hearts?

I'm a Christian and not environmentalist. (That's my wife speaking, and I like it.) So, I'm compelled to be involved in this type of thing. I believe we are each called to rule this land. Rule is a neutral term and can be good, bad or neutral (meaning nothing is done). It's all what you do with it. How are we doing as earth-keepers? Tending this garden called earth means we each think about our impact and the promotion of care for all that God has made.

It also means stopping uncare, doesn't it? If we see an abuse to a human or a dog, we would act.

Is mass development an act of uncaring that we need to stop? Is it possible that land destruction today is a little like the many abuses to humanity that have occured over history? Looking back, over and over there have been harms done to people groups that were barely realized until well after the fact. There may have been a few key people who attempted change. Yet, by and large greater humanity slept until years or centuries later when people finally said, "Oh, how could that have happened?"

Trees aren't people, granted. Yet, for those of us with the title Christian, we believe that all things created are God's. We therefore can't sit.

I'm not sure if fighting BM is worth it or the thing to do. Certainly, earth-keeping goes well beyond this or any kind of fight. Yet, it's a piece. Somehow, we need to stand up to greed and destruction. Christians can't just leave it to people with the title environmentalist, and, as if was just a lengthy four-letter word, make fun of them.

What's done is done on Bear Mountain, Langford. Yet, the Highlands?

So, I will fight. I will do so since the Highlands is not just my home but was created by our greater region as a place to be kept green for all of Victoria.

The following is not my shot - I don't own a helicopter. This is an aerial of BM. Green space to the north is highlands and the proposed encroachment of urban zoning.

2007-09-20T13:05:00.001-07:00

2007-09-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

reflection

2007-09-06T16:17:00.000-07:00

Remember when this had trees?

Bear Mountain. Actually, this is the Highlands. Yet, BM bought land in the Highlands and have begun work on another golf course. It is intended to be a wilderness golf course. I have been lost in the wilderness, but I don't think that is possible with this layout as it stands.

Not all development is bad. Yet, I am struck by the brazen style in which this has been done. Trees were levelled before they were even given approval. Why? The fines are less than the profit made in clearcutting.

This picture shows the beginning of the green space of Victoria. Victoria was originally designed to have a green belt, a space to contain growth and keep an element rural and wild. This open and cut-down space is the beginning snake into protected space.

2007-09-06T16:16:00.000-07:00

What's a tree to do?

Bear (Bare) Mountain, Victoria

2007-09-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

2007-09-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

2007-08-31T11:43:00.001-07:00

I sit on the shore.
A chorus line of mist moves center stage,
meeting the main character, morning sun.
I feel the tiniest drops of rain,
hardly noticed by my bare legs and
not even seen on these still waters.
And now they are gone.
Are they?
No, still here but even smaller.
Now, they are gone.

2007-08-31T11:40:00.000-07:00

A stand of hemlocks shade the incoming morning sun.

2007-08-28T19:29:00.001-07:00

During certain times of the day - usually early morning and later in the afternoon - the rays of the low-hung, yet strong sun will cast deep shadows from solid objects like trees but will brightly fill things softer and more transparent. Sometimes referred to as backlighting, you need to be facing the sun to really see this picture show. There are long shadows from the dense forms of life and their own appearances as mysterious silhouettes in the midst of light-filled plants and leaves. A golden, highlighted weed or blade of grass will standout in the backdrop of these black silhouettes and shadows.

This intense type of backlighting only lasts for a few moments. It's as if nature says, "Look at me! Now, quickly!"

When I glimpse it, what I see is about what I feel.

2007-08-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

mornings, Main Lake, Quadra Island

2007-08-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

Reflections from Main Lake, Quadra Island

2007-08-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

Goldstream Park

2007-08-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

broad leaf maple

2007-08-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

just inside Banf, name?

2007-08-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

sun thru' gary oaks, top of lone tree hill

2007-08-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

Woods by Wendell Berry

I part the out thrusting branches
and come in beneath
the blessed and the blessing trees.
Though I am silent
there is singing around me.
Though I am dark
there is vision around me.
Though I am heavy
there is flight around me.

2007-08-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

blackberry

2007-08-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

2007-08-09T13:18:00.000-07:00

It was morning, or
so said my body, awakened
by soft glow full moon.
Rising to an open window,
damp, cool of night cleared
sleep's dry blanket
covering my eyes.
And the moon,
suspended from a royal fir,
every needle formally dressed.
Laying my body down,
I rested to this dream.

Gulf Islands

2007-08-08T17:18:00.000-07:00

Portland Island

2007-08-03T10:21:00.001-07:00

thimble berry leaves

2007-08-02T22:56:00.000-07:00

Wilderness is not my god
but God is my wilderness.
All things naturally wild
are the needle of a compass.
And God stands magnetic north.

2007-08-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

Though often seen,
I heard something new.
Exposed to sun, arbutus bark cracks, peels
and slowly, slowly young green flesh is exposed.
The sun rose and cast her rays.
Like the sound of gentle fire,
outer skins of this stand
dried and shed.
And the aging of time
reveals sapling beauty.

2007-08-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

2007-07-31T15:19:00.000-07:00

I took two steps into the waking of this world.
The rising sun crowned the tops of low hung clouds and
cool, wet evening earth rose to the warmth of morning air.
Days have gone by, and I close my eyes.
I breathe in, picture
and am there again.

2007-07-31T15:17:00.000-07:00

in the beginning and until today

2007-07-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

I want the fruit
the one I cannot eat.
I have forgotten all things
for this one ripe pleasure.
Now, it must be mine.
Have I not blessing enough, you ask?
No, surely there is more.
Take and eat.

And I am hungry still.

2007-07-26T13:16:00.000-07:00

2007-07-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

Just one royal blade,
early morning sun on backlit grass.
Golden laced shadows,
stand against still darkened woods.
And this city of my mind
with its constant traffic
is at rest.

River

2007-07-25T09:56:00.000-07:00

I walk up the river
in the water and across logs
back to shore, then over falls
to unkown pools.
Slipping, landing beside water
eyes frame shadows dancing
ferns, moss lacing
moisture, timeless resting
stones, and I drink.
Fully satisfied,
yet thirsty I rise
and walk up the river.

2007-07-17T16:20:00.000-07:00

2007-07-15T07:34:00.001-07:00