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beyond

2016 August 17
by Rachel Turiel

There is a place beyond politics, opinions and judgments. Beyond half the things that keep you up at night.antidote12

A place where orchids congregate like cliquish middle schoolers under seepy cliffs; and the larkspur sing a song called purple. (With senecio hitting the high yellow notes.)

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A place where weather is an animal that will never be tamed.

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Here, being human feels like just the right size, appropriately small amongst the stout spruce and fir trees, and the ancient, storytelling rocks. For a brief, wondrous time you may find your desires shrink into something manageable, a small parcel that you can put in your pocket and examine later.

antidote11Everywhere, there are questions.

You may be led by your own curiosity, like honeybee to pollen.

I mean really, who dreamed up elephant’s head? antidote10

Or, monkshood?

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What about the columbine, which manufactures its own nectar in its elegant spurs?

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It’s hard to remember that wildflowers and pollinators have signed their own covenant – no humans required. And yet, walking in the wild garden, you may learn something new about humanity.

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Here, the flavors of happiness may begin to look different, less about accomplishments and acquisitions, and more about the privilege of walking this beloved earth. You may allow yourself to be schooled by the resident teachers, the living things who seek only what they need. Maybe life need not be so complicated.

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If you feel tension unravel, or the deft brush of clarity sweep away what is no longer necessary, trust it. Who’s to say this is not the real world. Beyond.



18 Responses leave one →
  1. Julia permalink
    August 17, 2016

    Ahhhh. So beautiful Sister.

  2. Sarah permalink
    August 17, 2016

    I want to read this every single day. Perspective.

  3. Baba permalink
    August 17, 2016

    Thanks so much for the reminder that nature has so much nourishment available if we just let it in. Beautiful images and words

  4. Katherine Daley permalink
    August 17, 2016

    So beautiful… Where are the pictures taken, it is amazing?! Nature’s beauty is so clarifying.

    • Rachel Turiel permalink
      August 18, 2016

      Most above Silverton, some in La Platas.

  5. Becky permalink
    August 17, 2016

    how beautiful what is provided by Nature and that we pay so much here in the south to copy. I felt peace after I looked at this – thank you for sharing

  6. Jan Turiel permalink
    August 17, 2016

    That is so breathtakingly lovely. Thank you. ❤️ Aunt Jan

  7. Ellie permalink
    August 17, 2016

    Amen.

  8. August 17, 2016

    LOVE this!
    We really should meet up for coffee or tea sometime. :)

  9. August 17, 2016

    Beautiful Rach. Beautiful.

  10. Kara permalink
    August 17, 2016

    Lovely post. It recalled to me this poem, which we keep on our frig and refer to often and yet too infrequently:
    The Peace of Wild Things
    By Wendell Berry
    When despair for the world grows in me
    and I wake in the night at the least sound
    in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
    I go and lie down where the wood drake
    rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
    I come into the peace of wild things
    who do not tax their lives with forethought
    of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
    And I feel above me the day-blind stars
    waiting with their light. For a time
    I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

    Wendell Berry, “The Peace of Wild Things” from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Copyright © 1998. Published and reprinted by arrangement with Counterpoint Press.
    Source: Collected Poems 1957-1982 (Counterpoint Press, 1985)

    • Rachel Turiel permalink
      August 17, 2016

      Kara, we have that poem on our wall! I am almost positive it came from a Montclair Friends Newsletter! Yours too? What awesome synchronicity!

  11. Michelle Ellis permalink
    August 17, 2016

    Such beauty ! A field of wildflowers high in the mountains is heaven on earth!

  12. Rachel permalink
    August 18, 2016

    What a lovely way to start my day. And now I know there’s a flower called elephant’s head because it’s covered in tiny elephant heads! What a world.

  13. Solyssa permalink
    August 19, 2016

    I agree with Sarah, I want to read this everyday! I thought, as I was looking at the photos, that I would leave this in my inbox, to return to, when I need a moment to loose myself in fields of wildflowers.

  14. Sparks permalink
    August 20, 2016

    True dat.

  15. Sabrina permalink
    August 21, 2016

    Lovely and amazing it is! A grand, intelligent designer and creator of it ALL

  16. August 23, 2016

    Oh Rachel! This hits home so much. I am quoting you on my last post. Hope it’s OK. Here: http://www.roaditup.com/blog/2016/8/23/a-weekend-of-riding-and-eating-and-blueberry-picking-in-carcross-yukon

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