Gini~
Faith, Hope, Love
copyright © Genevieve Dietrich. All rights reserved.
We've gone biking every day since we got the bikes. It reminds me of when I started running. When you run enough to get to the point that you can just run and run forever at a reasonable pace, you notice this powerful feeling of being your own vehicle. You can get anywhere in your own body AND you are right there in the world. There is no barrier between you and the rest of the world. It is an unusual feeling, but honestly when we humans move with any speed we are usually in a vehicle. The bikes make me feel like this, like I'm running on human power and that I can go anywhere that way.
The slower pace of a bike compared to a machine puts me in the world around me rather than passing by it. I see and say hello to people I pass. I see the old people, sad people, lonely people, people playing, and the children. I notice the specifics of their condition. I can say something to them, I can smile. I see goldfinches clinging to the tops of grass seed heads watching me pass by. A woolly bear caterpillar with no black stripe at all desperately trying to cross a road caught my eye. If his weather prediction ability is good, we're in for a harsh winter. I picked him up and put him in the woods. A magnificent red-tailed hawk shot up in surprise at us. Swallowtails on six foot high thistle plants, hawks, crows, jays, cardinals and ravens are everywhere for us to see.
We headed home tonight near twilight because we'd stopped on the way home to get dinner. As we headed home I saw a bed of backlit cosmos flowers in the middle of suburbia shopping concrete land that looked like glowing splashes of pastel straight from Vincent Van Gogh's paint brush. We turned the corner and the same sun made the tall blooms of a landscape grass look like giant glowing feather dusters. My knees were weak and my eyes clouded with tears from the beauty of the most mundane things in the world. Our world is overwhelmingly beautiful, even the ugliest corners. It amazes me every time I get out in it and open my eyes. No matter how much of this earth we destroy, what remains still holds the beauty, mystery and promise, the seeds of hope and justification for faith of what came before.
Hear a Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Faith, Hope, Love
copyright © Genevieve Dietrich. All rights reserved.
We've gone biking every day since we got the bikes. It reminds me of when I started running. When you run enough to get to the point that you can just run and run forever at a reasonable pace, you notice this powerful feeling of being your own vehicle. You can get anywhere in your own body AND you are right there in the world. There is no barrier between you and the rest of the world. It is an unusual feeling, but honestly when we humans move with any speed we are usually in a vehicle. The bikes make me feel like this, like I'm running on human power and that I can go anywhere that way.
The slower pace of a bike compared to a machine puts me in the world around me rather than passing by it. I see and say hello to people I pass. I see the old people, sad people, lonely people, people playing, and the children. I notice the specifics of their condition. I can say something to them, I can smile. I see goldfinches clinging to the tops of grass seed heads watching me pass by. A woolly bear caterpillar with no black stripe at all desperately trying to cross a road caught my eye. If his weather prediction ability is good, we're in for a harsh winter. I picked him up and put him in the woods. A magnificent red-tailed hawk shot up in surprise at us. Swallowtails on six foot high thistle plants, hawks, crows, jays, cardinals and ravens are everywhere for us to see.
We headed home tonight near twilight because we'd stopped on the way home to get dinner. As we headed home I saw a bed of backlit cosmos flowers in the middle of suburbia shopping concrete land that looked like glowing splashes of pastel straight from Vincent Van Gogh's paint brush. We turned the corner and the same sun made the tall blooms of a landscape grass look like giant glowing feather dusters. My knees were weak and my eyes clouded with tears from the beauty of the most mundane things in the world. Our world is overwhelmingly beautiful, even the ugliest corners. It amazes me every time I get out in it and open my eyes. No matter how much of this earth we destroy, what remains still holds the beauty, mystery and promise, the seeds of hope and justification for faith of what came before.
Hear a Ruby-throated Hummingbird