Monday, November 13, 2023

River to Sea November 13, 2023

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Ponce Inlet November 12, 2023

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Sugar Mill November 11, 2023

Friday, November 10, 2023

limited awareness

This former ocean bottom could be called Flatland

Where anything above has been constructed by humans 

Beginning with the shells piled up years ago in mounds

Dwarfed now by all the limestone shell poured into concrete


Flatland is a mathematical place of the imagination

Where only two spatial dimensions are known to exist

Perceived as reality in the limited awareness of the residents

Who nevertheless have a logical explanation for everything 


As we sat to dinner in our screened-in porch this evening

Watching the subtropical sunset turn the clouds pink 

I heard crickets chirping nearby that you did not

And you heard a distant wren call that I did not


Reminding us we too have limited awareness

Like Flatlanders experiencing only what we can sense

Otherwise unaware of all that is happening

More so as we age and our senses fade


And yet we notice so much that others do not 

Because we are free to frequent nature preserves 

Because we listen carefully while looking around us

Because birdwatching takes our full attention


This present moment that seemed endless in our youth 

Now compressed into our limited time remaining

Invites us into the natural world outside ourselves

Aware of the existential dimension in which we live