The great Joseph Mitchell reminded us that “thoughts of death and doom” are part of the human condition, and of ways to rid our mind of them.
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The Practice of Seeing Through New Eyes (Proust + LSD)
This quote reminded us of a stunning video of a 1950’s housewife who took part in an early LSD experiment. As the drug takes hold, she glories in the colors she sees and says “Everything is one. Can’t you see it?” Without taking LSD, we find there is still a great deal of unexpected beauty to see IF we practice noticing what’s around us.
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Murmuration: Thousands of Starlings Move as One
(Video link HERE.) In this homemade video of murmuration, thousands of starlings flock over a river in Ireland, moving as one. It is a mystery of nature, happening in smaller scale daily, often unnoticed. Each bird in the flock appears to be connected…listening to every other. The mystery is how birds that are hundreds of feet apart “know” when to turn in unison and create such joyous beauty.
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improvisation in the natural world
I’ve been thinking a lot about birds lately, about the mystery of their migrations; their unerring return each spring. Our Cooper’s hawk is back from the dry barrancas of Zapotecas, its familiar kek-kek-kek vying with argumentative crows and cooing mourning doves at dawn. Improvisatory arboreal architects are at work big time. Humingbird hangs its timid sac of…
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monday morning wonder: dig these birds of paradise!
(Video link here.) Photographer Tim Laman and ornithologist Ed Scholes journeyed into the remote jungles of New Guinea in search of crazy dazzling Birds of Paradise, whose wondrous plumage is the result of some wild evolutionary development.…improvisation. Says Scholes: The Birds of Paradise represent one of those singular events of evolution that stand out, that…
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