Wires and Weather Vanes
I took this photo on December 21, the morning of the Winter Solstice. It's a view of my neighbor's static weather vane. It always points southeast. I suppose they installed it to give their garage a certain countrified look and aren't concerned with which way the wind blows.
It was cold and clear on this morning and the sun was just rising. Normally, birds sit on these wires and keep the weather vane goose company, but they were all in the trees, puffed up and trying to keep warm. I wondered how many voices were in the wires at this early hour and smiled at the small, floaty cloud as it made its way above the urban wilderness out to the sea.
This day is the shortest of the whole year and every day after it is longer, filled with more light until the summer solstice. Not long after my peaceful interlude in the back yard, it began to rain, gently at first and it hasn't stopped.
It's now January 4, 2005, and last night there was rain, lightning, thunder and hail. For people in other parts of the world, hail is no big deal, but in Los Angeles, it's rare and wonderful. When I lived in Kansas City and lived with the daily violence of real weather (e.g., thunderstorms, ice storms, snow, tornadoes), I never lost the wonder and and respect for it. Weather is cause and effect. It's impersonal and true. It's the power of the universe made manifest.
This morning, I checked a couple of message boards to see if I missed anything interesting over the holidays, and one thread titled, "Why do you think God did this..", caught my attention. The thread is about the Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami tragedy. It's large and contains fairly ignorant responses (e.g., tired references to "the french", slurs against christians, slurs against atheists, slurs against anything that breathes) but early on a "newbie" posted a response that resonates with me.
".., My take on it is that sh*t happens, good and bad, and all I can do is my best to avoid the bad and help as best I can when it happens anyway. Sometimes there's just nobody to blame, though human nature is to look for somebody - god or mother nature in this case... does blaming someone change the outcome? No. So what's the point?"
That's the response of a survivor to a question posed by a victim. This tragedy brings out the victims in the world. People who want to wallow in blame, shame and regret. People who create separation when unity is the answer to their prayers or whines. People are the only beings who buy into this false consciousness. All other beings accept their environment, the activities and events around them and find the will and the way to survive.
Thinking about this prompted me to revisit the song, "Within You Without You" by George Harrison.
"..,When you've seen beyond yourself
then you may find, peace of mind,
is waiting there.
And the time will come
when you see we're all one,
and life flows within you and without you."
May all beings know love and peace.
