When I was teaching, I used to meet students in Safeway who seemed shocked that I shopped for food. We get so used to seeing a person in a particular setting that we do not see them at all; they fade into the background.
I’m afraid that happens with birds, too. When we see a species often, we give it a “name” and don’t really look at it anymore. I’m sure I’ve been guilty of replying “Oh, that’s just a House Finch” when someone new to birding points one out.
If we had seen a lot of birds in Fresno, I might not have paid any attention to this House Finch flying to a feeder.
However, I didn’t immediately recognize what it was, so I tracked it until it landed in a nearby shrub
and then flew even higher, where his brilliant red head and chest stood out more clearly against the blue sky.
I’ve said this before, but I think it bears repeating that walking around with a camera makes you more aware of your environment. I labeled it “The Zen of Canon” way back in May of 2004.
It’s certainly not a new idea. Coincidentally, I encountered this quote from Henry Miller on Facebook while working on this blog entry: “The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”
Sounds sort of Whitmanesque, doesn’t it, maybe even Zen-like.
Have no idea how I found you , but I enjoy your posts.. especially todays about the house finch.
since I began writing poetry 5 years ago I notice everything way more than I used to ~ common birds are just as pretty as their rarer cousins and it makes my life happy to enjoy the elegance of a crow with smooth ebony feathers..
You might have found me through a search for poetry. This was a “poetry blog” for quite a while and I’ll get back to poetry sometime soon. I think photography and poetry have a lot in common.
A world in an everyday thing. It’s true and so easily forgotten in our slow blind walk towards the end.
Thought you might like this as you alluded to Zen. Hope it is not familiar to you.
Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage
By Shitou Xiqian (700-790)
I’ve built a grass hut where there’s nothing of value.
After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap.
When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared.
Now it’s been lived in – covered by weeds.
The person in the hut lives here calmly,
Not stuck to inside, outside, or in between.
Places worldly people live, he doesn’t live.
Realms worldly people love, he doesn’t love
.
Though the hut is small, it includes the entire world.
In ten square feet, an old man illumines forms and their nature.
A Great Vehicle bodhisattva trusts without doubt.
The middling or lowly can’t help wondering;
Will this hut perish or not?
Perishable or not, the original master is present,
not dwelling south or north, east or west.
Firmly based on steadiness, it can’t be surpassed.
A shining window below the green pines —
Jade palaces or vermilion towers can’t compare with it.
Just sitting with head covered, all things are at rest.
Thus, this mountain monk doesn’t understand at all.
Living here he no longer works to get free.
Who would proudly arrange seats, trying to entice guests?
Turn around the light to shine within, then just return.
The vast inconceivable source can’t be faced or turned away from.
Meet the ancestral teachers, be familiar with their instruction,
Bind grasses to build a hut, and don’t give up
.
Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely.
Open your hands and walk, innocent.
Thousands of words, myriad interpretations,
Are only to free you from obstructions.
If you want to know the undying person in the hut,
Don’t separate from this skin bag here and now.
I haven’t read this particular poet or song, but it certainly is a familiar idea in Chinese literature, and I’ve read a lot of that later in life. I’m more a Taoist than a Buddhist, but I certainly identify with many of the ideas in this song. Not quite ready to move into a hut, but I spend much of my time up in the mountains walking.
Taoism and Zen walk hand in hand and I suspect The Tao is the greater hand.
A lovely post — I wrote down the quote!
I had a similar experience regarding the red winged blackbirds. It was the 2nd bird I learned to identify and they are “everywhere” around the swaying reefs in our Colorado nature preserve and farm ponds. I recently moved to Erie, CO and their songs are beautiful. Majestic when I just pause to listen and appreciate.
Loren, this post is a work of art, from beginning to end