Celebrating the 100th Post

Scenic stream Lake Cumberland SRP, Kentucky

This marks the 100th post available in waterside places.  Today is a day of reflection.  We have learned from Thoreau, Roosevelt, Merton, Berry and Muir.  Merton and Berry lived and wrote in Kentucky; Berry continues to live  and work in Kentucky.  I appreciate the water and the rocks here.  The rocks draw one to approach.

Seeing in

Winter - Snow Celebration - Louisville, KY

If you notice your own shortcomings you may find your shortcomings a hurdle.  You are human.  If you can find the wonder of your experience then you can grow from your experience.

The Sacred Journey

Olmsted Park Iroquois Park - Louisville, KY

The light comes to the one who is awake to the light's coming.

What I Saw - Eastern Red Cedar

Woods - Sisters of Loretto Farm, Marion County, KY

The shape of the branches coming from the trunk of this cedar holds an appeal.  The coating of snow is a part of its noble presence.  The specific appearance of the cedar is something to appreciate. 

Appreciation of water's beauty

Snow - February 2015 - Sisters of Loretto Farm -Marion County, KY

We look at water in its solid airy form.  We call it snow.  We strive to understand it more.  We pause and we sometimes long to return to the hurry we were used to before the snow came.  The snow piles are in our path and all around us.  A pause for snow is good.  It is a brief pause.  We benefit if we take it in.  We can appreciate the water. The water from snow will do so many things for the streams and the stream beds.

The tan foliage of American Beech, Fagus grandifolia, stands out in the Eastern deciduous forest winter woods. 

 

Walking and appreciating

Sign - Path - Sisters of Loretto, Marion County, Kentucky

Mandela of love - Sisters of Loretto - 1986

Walking with appreciation can lead to greater compassion.  Change to greater work for peace may result.  Want your brain to be healthy?  Put your shoes on; walk through.

What I Saw - trees

Vista - Lake Cumberland State Park - Winter Season

After the fall colors the deciduous trees lose most of their leaves.  Some would characterize the look as barren. Others would say that the evergreens are more noble growing amongst their surrounding deciduous trees.

What I Saw - Lake Cumberland, Southern Kentucky

Shagbark hickory - Lake Cumberland State Park, Kentucky

The shagbark hickory can grow to 100 feet in height.  There are four different hickory trees in Kentucky that have the peeling bark of this tree.  The shagbark hickory and the Southern shagbark hickory have five leaflets per leaf.  The shagbark hickory and the shellbark hickory have large fruits with the fruit being larger than two inches in diameter.  The water hickory has nine or more leaflets per leaf.  The water hickory is so rarely found that it is listed as a threatened tree in Kentucky.

Kentucky's natural places are so strikingly beautiful.  Even waterways marred by dams still show an attractive character.  Kentucky is a Xanadu for those who appreciate biological diversity.  The destruction of the landscape and the pollution of the streams is evident.  Yet natural Kentucky is resilient and worth knowing and caring for.  The many plants and animals that can live in Kentucky make it a showplace.   It is difficult to compare Kentucky to the wonders of other states.  For the Kentuckian traveling across the nation to see the great natural places is understandable.  For the Kentuckian that travels within the state to see the marvels of outdoor Kentucky that choice is an understandable and good choice.  Those who visit Kentucky find it land that they celebrate with appreciation especially if they like trees and animals.

Walking in

Woodland - Big South Fork of the Cumberland River

As John Muir wrote that going out was in fact going in there are special places in the East worth appreciating and preserving for this experience of going in.  The Cumberland Plateau in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama is a very special place.  Most of Kentucky east of I-75 is Cumberland Plateau woodland.  Is it a mystical place?  It be can be.

Thomas Merton

Historic Church - St. James Court neighborhood - Louisville, KY

The Dalai Lama when speaking of Thomas Merton speaks of him with respect for him as a Christian monk.  He has said that Merton's ideas were very, very important.

The Abbey of Gethsemane

Christian Church - Fourth Street - Louisville, KY

I saw the motion picture, "The Many Storeys and Last Days of Thomas Merton."  I was moved to think that while he was in Allegheny, New York he chose to come to the Abbey of Gethsemane near Bardstown, Kentucky.  Additionally after he passed away during his visit to Thailand his belongings were inventoried.  He was carrying an air ticket to various destinations in Asia and the last place listed on the ticket was Louisville, Kentucky.  There is much to appreciate in the forests and the meadows in Kentucky; Merton wrote of being in and praying in the quiet of the woods.