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One word. Five minutes to write about it. This is the idea behind Five Minute Fridayand this is today's free-writing post.
nature preserve
preserve history
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I so enjoy visiting any kind of nature preserve, a state or national forest or park, or even a local park that preserves natural spaces. Forests, wetlands, seashores, lakes, mountains, deserts . . . all are places to marvel at the beauty and delicate balances in the natural world. I'm always amazed by God's creativity and workmanship in the variety of landscapes, plant life and wildlife. And sometimes I also remember to be grateful that someone had the foresight to preserve a natural area and protect the wild spaces in some way from being trampled in our efforts to build and to tame.
I think I appreciate the parklands more now that I live in a city. I'm not an outdoorsy person really, but I like a good walk in the woods, a hiking trail that's not too difficult, watching birds, and stargazing. I wonder if I took for granted our country location before we moved here, and now that my home is surrounded by parking lots and other buildings rather than my own unmowed lawn and neighboring farmland, I realize that I need those walks in the woods.
I watched an interview Tucker Carlson did with Robert F. Kennedy Jr not long ago, and towards the end of the interview, RFKJr expounded on why he got involved in environmental causes and his beliefs about the value of nature. He believes nature is where we meet with God, and that there is a deep connection our souls have to nature. Of course, I don't know exactly what his theological beliefs are, and I'm pretty sure there are a lot of differences between his ideologies and mine, but I loved what he said about nature.
I don't call myself an environmentalist in any way, and I definitely don't agree with what I would call extremists, because we don't and shouldn't worship the earth or its creatures. But I also believe that since humans are meant to steward the earth, we do need to manage its resources wisely and make sure to not do harm to God's creation. God gave Adam and Eve a beautiful world to care for, to populate, and to bless; and it's because of sin that God's world began to experience death and ruin. So it's really our responsibility to partner with God to care for his world as best we can.
The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.
~Genesis 2:15~
The earth suffers for the sins of its people,
for they have twisted God's instructions,
violated his laws,
and broken his everlasting covenant.
~Isaiah 24:5~
Preserving and enjoying the beauty of the natural world is our part of our mandate, and should be something we do with a heart of gratitude and worship to the Creator. Because I do think that God has put something in our hearts that is drawn to nature and therefore to God. We were meant to be in the Garden.
Read on, if you like, for a few related quotes, thoughts, and news about the Wednesday Quotes link-up.
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Since the FMF word of the week took me down a road that led to discussing nature preservation, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to add some quotes, and to do just a very brief research into the topic.
Two names that came to my mind were John Muir and John James Audubon.
John Muir was passionate about nature, and his advocacy was instrumental in establishing the National Park Service, and the modern conservation movement. He believed wild spaces should be accessible for everyone, not just the elites. He was a relentless traveler, explorer and naturalist, and a prolific writer about these adventures. His articles and books inspired interest in the natural world, and in 1890 led to Yosemite being set aside as a national park. He was also influential in establishing Sequoia, Mount Rainier, and Grand Canyon as national parks. And of course, there's the John Muir National Historic Site dedicated to him and his work.
Quotes from John Muir:
Wilderness is a necessity . . . there must be places for human beings to satisfy their souls.
Look! Nature is overflowing with the grandeur of God!
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
Hiking - I don't like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter?' It's a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, "A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike' through them."
I love that, and I didn't know that was the origin of the word 'saunter'. I'm going to try to use that word whenever suitable from now on!
God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.
Well, I'd say that God CAN save the trees, but the point is that it's kind of our job to look after them, isn't it?
Honorable mention should go to President Theodore Roosevelt, who worked with John Muir to make those National Parks a reality, and who was also known for his love of nature.
Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance. ~Theodore Roosevelt
Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us. ~Theodore Roosevelt
John James Audubon was best known for his contributions to ornithology, as his collection of over four hundred life size prints of birds was, and still is, a standard when it comes to depicting and describing birds. His personal life is a much more complicated grab bag of what we'd call good and bad, but his name was chosen for the Audubon Society by its founder, George Bird Grinnell after being tutored by Audubon's widow, in recognition of Audubon's contributions to wildlife art and natural history.
Never give up listening to the sounds of birds. ~John James Audubon
A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children. ~John James Audubon
Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand. ~Henry David Thoreau
Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. ~Frank Lloyd Wright
And I wanted to include this clever, but very sad, bit by George Carlin. We don't want America to be known this way, and that's why conservation and preservation of natural spaces and resources is so important.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
You, LORD, preserve both people and animals.
~Psalm 36:6~
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I've been participating in the Wednesday Quotes link-up hosted by Marsha at Always Write. The link-up is on a short hiatus right now, as Marsha has passed on the hosting duties to me and to Sadje at Keep It Alive. We will relaunch the link-up as co-hosts in October. In the meantime, I'll continue to give a shout-out to Wednesday Quotes 2024 in my WQ style posts.
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A hodgepodge is a jumble or assortment of things that might not appear to belong together. Joyce at From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly link-up called Wednesday Hodgepodge that is a little collection of questions for bloggers to answer just for fun and to get to know each other. I always look forward to chatting with friends over coffee, so pour a cup of your favorite and let's visit for a few minutes!
Here are this week's questions - and my answers - for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge.
1. When the Hodgepodge lands on September 11th I want to acknowledge that. Will you purposely pause to remember, pray, or attend any sort of ceremony on 9/11? Share any thoughts or memories you'd like to share about this day.
I don't have any plans to attend a service or ceremony specifically for 9/11, but we have Dinner + Discipleship tonight and will remember and pray, I'm sure. I do plan to pause during my workday to remember as well.
We lived in a sort of rural area in Maryland in 2001, and I was home with my infant daughter and three young boys. I just held my baby and cried, staring in disbelief at the TV, and I didn't know what to tell my boys. We lived very close to Camp David, and so we usually noticed when there was air traffic headed to and from there, as the jets went right over our house. I remember thinking later that day that it was eerie how quiet it was when the regular air traffic wasn't flying over. I'd always thought we lived in a really quiet spot, but when all flights were grounded it hit me that I was just so used to the planes that I hardly noticed. Everything was truly quiet out there for a couple days.
2. Growing up, did you spend a lot of time with your grandparents? What's something you learned from a grandparent?
Yes, with my maternal grandparents. We didn't live near them, but we visited each other often, and there were several summers when I was growing up that I spent several weeks with my grandparents and aunts.
I learned about cooking, baking, and sewing from my Grandma, and her kindness and generosity was something I've always wanted to emulate. She had a way of welcoming people and being interested in them and caring about them that was really special. I learned a little bit about gardening from my Grandpa, mostly involving harvesting from his huge garden, although none of that really stuck with me! My Grandpa kept track of the weather, including the rainfall, every day, and although it wasn't something he specifically taught me, that idea of paying attention and doing your own forecasting made an impression. I think my interest in birdwatching started with my Grandpa, even though his vision was failing. There was always music in my grandparents' home. Grandpa had a little organ, like the tiny church organ kind, and he played by ear. He also played the harmonica and the autoharp, and he loved to sing. I remember him singing hymns and gospel songs with his brothers - a capella, and in German! I think Grandpa and Grandma would be very proud of how much musical ability my family has, and that we use it in our churches. And I think they'd love that I sing barbershop!
3. What's your go-to breakfast?
Honestly, I rarely eat breakfast, so the go-to is just coffee. My favorite when I do eat breakfast at home is cereal. Going out for breakfast is a special treat, and I have a hard time choosing between waffles and French toast. I will always order bacon too!
4. Tell us the story behind one of your favorite photos.
I'm going to have to choose just one (or maybe two) to talk about - do you know how hard that is?
My family now has a few of these re-created photos but this is the first one we did. I came across the original snapshot (in the collage) when I was looking for some childhood photos for my oldest son and it absolutely cracked me up. I couldn't remember who took it and it doesn't seem like it was posed - I suspect we had gathered on the front porch to wave good-bye to visiting family members and someone thought to take the photo. It's a mystery. But it had such a silly, hillbilly, Gretchen Wilson vibe that on Mother's Day in 2015 (right before my oldest son drove away on his move to Ohio) we did our best to recreate the pose. I use it as my Facebook cover photo every year for Mother's Day and it continues to make everyone laugh and generates great comments!
5. This week Friday lands on the 13th. Are you superstitious in any way? Do you like scary movies, and if so what's your favorite?
I'm not really superstitious although I bet I have some little "good luck" habits I've developed without even thinking about it! I do not like scary movies and I think the closest to a horror film I've ever watched was Poltergeist, way back in the day. It scared the bejeebers out of me and my best friend! My favorite "scary movie" is either The Haunted Mansion (the Disney version with Eddie Murphy) or Ghostbusters (the original with Bill Murray).
6. Insert your own random thought here.
My random thought will be ten brief random thoughts this week, in response to the 10 on the 10th questions. Even though today is the 11th. Bear with me.
On the 10th of each month, Marsha In the Middle asks ten questions for us to answer in as much or little detail as we wish.
This: meaningful relationships are life-giving, and I've got experience with close family and friendship relationships where we see each other very infrequently, and wouldn't give those up for anything!
This: I love having fresh flowers!
This: I've wanted to go on an Alaska cruise for ages, so a luxury Antarctic cruise sounds fascinating!
That: Pumpkin spice could ruin too many things, so I'd rather not have it at all.
That: Not a fan of humidity, and I think I can deal with the cold.
Toss-up . . . This: I'll take the real fur, I guess.
This: provided the logo wrap isn't something I don't want to be associated with at all.
That: I can't imagine stilettos working for my feet any more, no matter how custom-fitted they may be, so I'll stick with comfy sneakers.
That: The cottage would probably be pretty close to my dream house anyway, especially once I'm finished painting!
This: I'm not adventurous enough to take a chance on trying something new every single day.
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Welcome to another installment of my challenge and reminder to myself to take photos somewhat regularly. I'm not a photographer, but I enjoy taking everyday photos of things I find interesting or want to remember later, and I find that I notice interesting things when I'm intentionally watching for them. Having some prompts that are open to interpretation has helped me pay a little more attention to what's around me. Every two weeks I have a few words and phrases that I'm focusing on, and I try to find opportunities to take pictures of these things each week. These were the prompts I assigned myself for the past couple weeks:
August/September Prompts - Everyday Images #44
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at home (monthly)
selfie (quarterly)
warning
sunrise and/or sunset
clean
grow
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at home (monthly)
selfie (quarterly) - I promise I wasn't grouchy when I took this selfie, just kind of in a hurry to get it done!
warning
sunrise and/or sunset - I had to revisit this prompt when I had a better chance of seeing the rising and setting sun. I'm missing the sunrise these days because it rises before I leave the house and I don't have an eastern view from home. I had a few sunset photos to pick from though.
We were greatly saddened to hear that Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew were struck by a driver and killed, and the day before their sister's wedding too. Tragic. RIP Johnny Hockey.
We went to the ZucchiniFest in Obetz one weekend.
This feather momentarily fooled me into thinking it was little moth or bug, so I figured why not take a photo?
Columbus Clippers game:
We went to the Greek Festival and I took a few photos while touring the beautiful Greek Orthodox cathedral.
Picking out a planter or two for the season:
I am sharing my photos every other Tuesday, along with my prompts for the next two weeks. You can use all or some of the prompts for your own photo posts, or none of the prompts and just link up a post featuring your photos. Simple rules: Your posts must be family-friendly; the photos must be your own; and the post must be mostly photos. If you do share I'd appreciate a mention and link to A Fresh Cup of Coffee on your post.
Everyday Images continues in 2024, every other Tuesday. And on the alternate Tuesdays, I'm hosting the Twenty-Six Lists link-up. I'd love to have you join me for that too!
This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
