Acadia pictures

This entry will be pictures of this beautiful place.

Third night pictures

Another night of cooking and eating in the rain this time on my coleman gas stove.  I listen to the water splashing on my metal plate. It has turned cold but I am staying toasty warm.  Below is a video of the morning fog rising off the lake.  

In the rain

On the second night I cooked with electric which meant I could do it in the car under the back hatch in the up position. I made an omelet of sorts, using eggs the girls gave me before I left.  When I finished eating and started to put things away, I saw a little skunk by the car on the opposite side of where I was eating.  He was ambling through and I let him go without seeing me.  I did not want him to spray and he was happy to ignore me.

   

Getting Started

It has taken me a week to find Wifi.  There are too many other things to do.  I am keeping a journal that I can carry with me. (Thank you, Averill.) Today is a rainy day so I have found a coffee house in Bar Harbor for a bit of a social media break.

This is a naturalist journey for me and so also a spiritual journey.  I have always found my renewal in nature.  Walking back from the chicken yard with warm eggs in my hand looking at the evening colors framing my house has always been  my blessing at the end of the day. 

I am feeling that renewal on this journey.  I have driven into reds, yellows and oranges and have smiled.  The first night I stayed in Ohio.  So far every park has been near water - lakes, oceans, bays. Water reflecting was is real and what is true.  On that first night I was awakened when I heard a thud on the car door. I have screens that I can put on the windows on warm nights so the windows were down to let in the night air. At the sound I bolted, grabbed the keys and put the windows up.  With a moment to breathe, I realized that it was a raccoon probably smelling the ripe bananas in the car.  I didn't want it lifting the screen and climbing into the car.  Raccoons are very clever.  I heard it again later in the night.  At break fast I saw little paw prints on the hood of the car.  It had definitely been exploring. 

The campground was interesting in that it was decorated for fall holidays.  People lived there and served as hosts.  They were having a decorating contest.

Weekend Visitors

This weekend eight goats came.  They foraged inside an electric fence, safe from predators, clearing out a lot of honeysuckle.  They loved the sweet potato vines I shared, playing tug of war with them.  And they feasted on the pears that I brought over by the bucket full off of an old pear tree near the chicken house.  I think I might be falling in love with a new animal.

Lily

In homage to my Lily.  I found this website which shared the work displayed in her final art show.  Sharing here because I love her work.  http://eportfolios.cornellcollege.edu/art/lniswonger18/ 

Simone Weil

After watching the documentary "An Encounter with Simone Weil" and being moved by some of the quotes shared there, I decided to google search for quotes and made this list that spoke to me.  I am sharing here. 

Simone Weil

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” 

“All sins are attempts to fill voids.” 

“A beautiful woman looking at her image in the mirror may very well believe the image is herself. An ugly woman knows it is not.”

“Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be obtained only by someone who is detached. ” 

“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.”

“Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.” 

“The sea is not less beautiful in our eyes because we know that sometimes ships are wrecked by it.” 

“We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.” 

“Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.”

“The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say, What are you going through?” 

“Humility is attentive patience.”

“A mind enclosed in language is in prison.” 

“The most important part of teaching is to teach what it is to know. ”

“Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty. ” 

“Those who love a cause are those who love the life which has to be led in order to serve it. ” 

“The desire to love the beauty of the world in a human being is essentially the desire for the Incarnation. If we think it is something else, we are mistaken. The Incarnation alone can satisfy it.”