This was an email exchange between Laurie and me during a period of Covid-19 on April 4th, 2022. I wrote to her the first part and her reply is posted after. Thank you for stopping by.
What does that even mean?
I like most people during this time of waiting and remaining in seclusion, think.
I watch from the window of my room, and I read articles on the Internet about how this virus has impacted the world and the economy. I try and read books, I always liked doing so but somehow I find them a bit irritating at the moment. Perhaps due to the genre of book I read? I love history but I have always known it is usually not true or some fabricated version of the truth and just another person’s opinion.
Why do we voice opinions anyway? The world is full of them.
Does anyone really know?
And why do I pretend to accept it as so?
Why does anybody?
There are so many websites and books filled with opinions of the perfect solution or the surefire way that the thing being discussed is right. I am not trying to sound bitter here at all, that is not my nature as you know all too well. Just thinking…
I believe in the Holy Bible. I believe the stories are true. I also believe that in order to understand it prayer is required first. Asking for Wisdom and Understanding to intervene in my mind because I am not equipped right out of the box to get it. I know some of how our history in this country began, according to the books I read and what I was taught in school. How people from another world landed on our shores with a Bible in one hand and a sword in the other. Men’s prejudice against those that did not believe and look like him. The power they had over women because THEY misunderstood the words that were written in between those leather-bound books they carried pretending to know what was really written inside. An evil way of thinking and acting grew and grew all over our land because of one word. POSSESSION. Man’s undying need to own and take control and possession of everything that they came in contact with. It hasn’t stopped. It never will. Until the end.
Possession snuffs the life right out of the soul. It buries people knee-deep in mud. It creates monsters. Yes, God did say be fruitful and multiply but there was the fine print that the human race failed to notice. Things like love your neighbor, do not take the name of the Lord in vain, remember the sabbath and keep it holy, do not kill, honor thy father and mother, have no strange gods before ME and so many others throughout that Book that were instructions to a way to live life and survive the chaos and unbelieving.
Possession, of course, brings greed and manipulation and so many other undesirable attributions. Nothing wrong with making an honest living, no doubt about that but there is guidance inside those Biblical walls for doing so.
As I sit and type out this email I am listening to a songbird sitting outside my window. Chirping away and not a care in the world. She has no concern about protection from a virus, or where the next meal will come from, or where her head will rest tonight. Somehow it all happens though at the right time.
Her world doesn’t change for the most part. We as humans do interfere but I am also a firm believer that God created the wild things to adapt to whatever comes its way and if it doesn’t it dies but wasn’t that too part of the plan? She goes through each and every day without a worry in the world, contributing and surviving the best she knows how. Living out her sole purpose.
So I sit and watch the world outside day after day begin to move slower and slower. People now have to do without things they never really needed to begin with. Adapting to the changes that the government put on us each day. Adjusting and tweaking our living arrangements. Finding ways to make do while in semi-confinement. Forcing us to stop and think about what is really important and perhaps turning into a better version of ourselves. Many are cleaning and purging their homes of things that they meant to get rid of long ago but never had the time.
Now forced to do so and forced to look inward, time is now on our hands.
The songbird knows nothing of possession. Her needs are met day in and day out without collecting and hoarding. Self-sufficient, except with a little help now and then by the Mighty Hand of God. Protector of all things and waiting to be a shield in time of despair for those that call to Him.
Truly a possession worth having I think…
My possession is still wrapped around the thousands of images I have made throughout my life as a photographer. Truth is I know the reason why I cannot let go of them. They are dear to me. Each and every story behind them because Nature prompted me many times to look up and to take a walk with her and float above all the problems of the world. To meet her in a space only known to the birds that sing, the ones that hide there, the ones that fly high causing my neck to almost break by bending back so far so I could watch the infamous Eagle in all her grandeur. Causing me to take my focus off what was of no importance and witness something so beautiful and magic. And when there were no birds to grab my attention there was always a trail of fungi and moss with small creatures busy with their day at my feet, living inside the wonderful habitat that God created just for them.
Nature is the closest thing to the Creator. Why did I walk away? These images I possess mean more to me than opinions and reading unwarranted books and articles from individuals that haven’t the foggiest idea of what is really true. Maybe it is just a way for them to chase something or perhaps it is a way for them to feel fulfilled because a songbird has yet to draw their attention off the thing that is of no importance.
It would be nice if everyone could do so…
just my opinion—
Reply from Laurie:
LOVE IT! Such a good thing to read and ponder when I returned from my walk to deliver a friend’s birthday gift to her front porch (telling her to leave it there a couple days before bringing it inside so that all influence that might cling to it will be gone except for the LOVE with which it was given). Raining steadily, which is why I did not walk at dawn as usual. As I said I went back through my meditation room and decluttered even more…
What helped? I emailed a friend who loves reading my work and I said, “Do you want a bunch of journals of mine to read? If not, they are destined for the burn pile. And it will not hurt my feelings if you say ‘no thanks.'” She said, “Yes, please!” So I stuck it all in a box (just as I did the tea things) and I will send it off to her next time I go to the post office. Same with passing on books once I have read them, even ones that I thought I might need (on Chinese Medicine, on Ayurveda, on Chi Kung, etc…) I heard in my meditation this morning, “It is too late for more learning of knowledge. Let it all go. All the reference books. All the stuff you think you need. Now is the time to rely solely on the self and trust in the Creator to show you the way home.”
In other words, I need no other opinions.
Whew! Therefore, your email and your thoughts were very pertinent to what I am going through right now. I feel like I have been giving stuff away for ten years, which is indeed true!! I went through the kitchen yet again and pared it all down even more. If I have not used it in a year, why would I think I might need it? And, yes, sometimes it is lovely to think of the friend who gave it to me, but even so….let it go.
So, what about your photographs? Do you have someone you could give them all to? Taylor? Even if she never did anything with them. Even if they were forgotten in the end. At least you would have let go of them in a mindful and good-hearted way. Something to consider.
I know when my mom died I wondered what I would do with the collection of all my books that I had signed for her personally. Lucky for me I had a friend here locally who said she would be honored to have them and she would cherish them (at least for now…someday she will let them go and that is fine).
Yes, the songbird. Just singing joyously and not being concerned. The perfect role model for all of us.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Very helpful to me.