DE LIGHT ED

Sunrise/LPC

The sun is rising now,

Freeing itself from the edge of the earth,

Red, yellow, ochre, magenta, violets merge with black and blue.

Energy builds by the second,

warmth, light

and dark relief in the foreground.

Another transformation.

A continual transformation.

Change is felt with immediacy.

The edges define a drawing.

The morning and evening edges define the day.

Frame the day.

Red sky at morning….

Red sky at night….

Today’s red morning feels less like a warning, more a delight.

Sailing to Gainesville via Charlotte.

De light ed.

LPC 12/7/07

Speck

Speck

All is just a speck to me

Gliding on a distant sea

Drifting on a different tide

Way away the other side

Nowhere else I'd rather be

All connected seamlessly

Never want a little more

Reaching for another shore

Evermore a speck to me

Sheer beauty of infinity

Flotsam, jetsam, bit of foam

All is but a place called home

Time and space now I see

I've become a speck to me

Larry Carlson 11.5.11

ONE OF THOSE DAYS

The forecast for the day should have read: hail and snow, intermixed with sunshine, gale-force winds, and the occasional passing hurricane. The morning woke me with sleet striking the window of Catherine Home. The wind sounded like rushing water as it swirled through the village of North Berwick. I put on my plus fours and stood by the window, contemplating. What a beautiful sight, I thought. The force and fury of just a minor storm, hardly disturbing the large brown chickens while bending the flagstick on the 16^th, the familiar silhouette of Lamb Island across the timeless linksland asked for nothing. All punctuated by the wind evidenced as a whistle somewhere in the cracks between the stone.

After breakfast, in the kitchen near the ruined half of the house where we talked of renovations and conservatories, we made our way down into the village because it would take more than the weather to stop me from my appointed round. Elsewhere in the world some might question our sanity, but here along this ancient shore no one gave us a second look. National pastime. The weather here isn’t always like this, but it was just one of those days.

One of those days, indeed, when the strength of your heart is brought to the limit. Sailing through the air on a straight and true line was a piece of myself going somewhere with all my concentration behind it. Sometimes, when it seems like everything is trying to stop you, you pass a point of no return. At this point your insides no longer question what you are doing; your constitution allows your muscles to relax and your mind to let go - dissolving itself into that vast universe of peace. Now is the time when your perceptions will make your memories. Letting not one blow pass me by, I stand forward and confidently offer the winds the chance to test me.

In the world, this happens in small ways every day. It has happened in big ways from time to time throughout history and the spirit behind both is the same – freedom and love. Despite the inability to reach a green in regulation there is a sense that all is right, the knowledge that one will turn at the nine and fly home. Somewhere out there beyond the last burn lies the two fives that mark the end of the struggle. At this time you find your thoughts and yourself melting away. Here, between the third fairway and the stone wall guarding the entrance to the green, that spirit allowed me to melt away in anticipation of the day and days to come. Days filled with a heightened awareness born from the brush of the wind. That wind became my voice howling over the links that had long ago become a part of me. The spirit of life and the freedom to live it were swirling around me from every direction. To know that feeling, with all its strength and fury, gives me the peace of mind to understand how to love something.

I’m fortunate enough to say that I am in love. And despite the strength and fury of that feeling, despite all its complications, it is a calm body of water. It is a feeling that has peace at its core, and at its edges is this man, standing in the morning’s light, savoring the howling wind and pushing forth into the course, the world and himself, knowing that nothing can make him give up and go home. Nothing. If only there were guarantees that as surely as the Redan slopes right to left, the spirit that keeps us swinging – that spirit that does not accept retirement- will flow on forever. Yes, it was just one of those days when you really understand what it means to be alive.

NOT KNOWING

I was just in New Zealand and met a man named Peter Beadle. He is an artist and paints these incredible landscapes from this part of the world. I read one of his books where he said that if I stayed there for a few weeks I would "...realize that man’s life, in sickness and in health, is bound up with the forces of nature; and that nature, so far from being opposed and conquered, must rather be treated as an ally and friend, whose ways must be understood, and whose counsel must be respected." I did stay for a few weeks. I hiked 33 miles on the Milford Track where I took these two pictures. One evening my friend Max invited us to share with each other what we were thinking that day as we were marching through this grandeur. The insignificance of mankind could certainly be felt there. The towering peaks, thunderous waterfalls, dense forests with ancient beech, and eerie bird calls, all conspired to shrink me down to a very humble size. The evening star cover was vast, clear and unfamiliar to me. The entire experience left me filled with awe and respect for a planet we call HOME. What was I thinking? I'm not sure really. It had something to do with appreciation. Perhaps appreciation that I am not in control. That something else, some larger energy, is at work in the universe. Something about which I know very little at all. Not knowing is such a relief. Beadle had invited me to understand and respect nature. My respect is there; the understanding may take a lifetime or two.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Moab, Utah/Colorado River/November 12, 2006/10:14:11 AM

Somewhere between the heaven

And Earth,

The murky borders of eternity

Dissolve into perfection---

Places so ephemeral

They cannot be possessed,

Yet real enough to confound us,

Into loving.

                                                                Christopher Di Lascia

TAKE COURAGE

Merced River/Vernal Falls/John Muir Trail/Yosemite Valley

Do you think you can take the world and improve it?

I do not think it can be done.

The world is sacred.

You cannot improve it.

If you try to change it, you will ruin it.

If you try to help it, you will lose it.

Lao Tzu

Native cultures evoke a sense of spirituality within me when I encounter them. Indigenous people have something more than a shared language, I think it is a connection to each other, the earth, and, by extention--me. When we currently discuss the environment, ways in which we have harmed it, and ways in which we believe we can fix it, I feel a sense of frustration and hopelessness at the enormity of the task. I think this stems from the premise that the environment is something out there as opposed to something in here, in me. Thinking about the inclusive nature of things and the idea that Shakespeare expressed when he said, "We are nature too." I am left with a sense of well being that seems so natural to my indigenous friends. When I consider my physical being and appreciate the impermanence of it, the cycle of life, the long and short of it, the up and down of it, the happy and sad of it, I am free to take all the rhetoric of the debate into a completely different and, to me, wholly understandable place. I've only to look within to find the answers. John Muir's poignant statement about 'going out' captures this for me.

I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded

to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found,

was really going in.

In Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland I found the John Muir Museum. Here was the birthplace of our naturalist. Wandering through his house I came across his 'going out' quote. I felt an immediate sense of connection and reconnection to this man. It was a deja vu experience having walked the John Muir Trail up out of Yosemite Valley as an awestruck young man and many times later. Both East Lothian and Yosemite connect me to something spiritual and to myself. I was deeply moved to find Muir in both. Standing in the little museum on Dunbar's High Street I found myself on the top of Vernal Falls, feeling the rush of air as it was moved by the swift falling waters of the Merced River. Were we not separated by a mere century, Muir and I could have been going out together. Despite this the feeling of connection was complete for me. I copied the quote and continued to explore the surrounding countryside where nature was (I am) so accessible.

There is an old Sioux Indian saying that best summarizes how I feel about all of this.

          Take courage, the earth is all that lasts.

ONENESS

While traveling in Tibet in May of 2006 I took this photo on a hike up to the Potala Palace. It is one of my favorite images from this trip and reminds me of this writing I did earlier that year in January.

Everything we say or do connects us to every other being.

Words and actions ripple out across the pond touching everything and everyone.

Everything and everyone becomes one. Is one.

This oneness clarifies, signifies and relieves.

It ushers forth thoughts that are new and exciting.

Revealing in us the connection that allows true love and understanding.

Traveling Easy

I hear it said by people that traveling is a hassle, but I find it easy. I got up out of bed the other day in Bridgehampton, made sure I had the passport, reading glasses, etc., and drove my car to the bus station. I found my friend Alice there and was happy to travel with her to the city. She was going to meet her son Peter and run a few errands before returning home. I was going to Grindelwald, Switzerland. We parted at 40th Street and Lexington Avenue. I took the subway south to my loft. I stopped on the way to get some hiking boots at Eastern Mountain Sports. A couple of blocks later I went into the Apple Store to get a power cord for my laptop so I could write this when I got to my hotel. Then I walked another half a block to my loft, picked up my Patagonia fleece, answered the phone from the driver who said my car service had arrived, went downstairs, entered the car, went to the airport, checked-in with only my carry-on bag (traveling easy requires a minimum of luggage), flew to Zurich, boarded a train in the airport, went clickety-clack over the Swiss countryside up into the Alps, admired the precision of everything Swiss, including the exact timing of the trains entering and leaving the stations, stepped off the train into a picture, postcard setting below the Eiger and Wetterhorn Mountains, walked two blocks to my hotel, and met my friends for dinner. Just sitting here after a few days hiking and still marveling at the ease of it all. After tomorrow I’m going to take a train to Lugano, meet my friend Mark and spend three weeks in Italy. This will happen right after the hotel delivers my laundry. I only brought enough clothing for just a few days. Traveling easy means traveling light and wearing what I have lightly including my life.

Grindelwald, Switzerland
September 21, 2008