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Welcome! This is a place to share how we celebrate & deepen our relationship to Nature. Here you will find stories, images, & ideas about wilderness, human nature, & soulfulness. Drawing from the experiences of everyday living, the topics on this blog include: forays into the natural world, the writing life, community service, meditation, creativity, grief & loss, inspiration, & whatever else emerges from these. I invite you on this exploration of the wild within & outside of us: the inner/outer landscape.



Friday, January 22, 2016

Shifty Stuff

Shifty stuff. All of it.


Earlier today I was finalizing a document to send off for review. I wrote about life transitions, disputes, and their transformative potential.

A few minutes ago I responded to a friend’s email about a crisis through which the family is living day-to-day.

I looked up at the bookshelf that has my favorite artisan-crafted kaleidoscope perched on the edge; maybe I was seeking a beauty-respite…


And I remembered the coolest scope I’ve ever seen:

huge. built into a flower planter. focused so that through the eyepiece the pansies fracture off into diamonds of misshapen color. petals askew.

a

nature-lover’s,
kaleidoscope-collector’s,
handcrafts fanatic’s,  
vivid-color enthusiast’s

ideal pairing!

Kaleidoscopic nature. Ever shifting under the finger-turned wheel. Always new, fresh, bright. Transition or fragmentation at its easiest. Most beautiful. Most pleasant. Expected.


Crises are not so easy to navigate. Nor are major life transitions, conflicts.

But they can be crystalline in clarity and even full of beauty. They are certainly a natural part of what it means to be on this earth. They afford a different view of what we tend to experience ordinarily. They are not to be feared, but revered: the transformative potency in the ruptures of our lives are fodder for the juicy stuff of change, a chance to reflect rather than the unthinking reflex.

(And in Japanese, the kanji for “crisis” is sometimes said – though a bit erroneously - to be comprised of two characters: “Danger.” “Opportunity.” I’ll take it! Only these 34 years after living on Honshu am I really beginning to understand the crucial significance of this: the danger is in not taking the opportunity with which it’s paired.)


If we can slow down in the transitions, even when they require immediate triage, we will find the courage, strength, and natural response that is in tune with the inevitable cycles of change. This is the beauty and peace at the center of the shifty stuff.
All blog images created & photographed by Jennifer J. Wilhoit unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: "©2016 JenniferJWilhoit/TEALarbor stories. AllRightsReserved."
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