creation

A Shadow of My Present Self

Steve · January 13, 2020 · 3 Comments

Steve Shadow 2 — Shadow of My Present Self, January 2020. SJG photo.

An image and memory from a recent walk, a poem of reflection and shadow for a mid-winter day…

A Shadow of My Present Self

Walking through the woods near the lake
at the end of a warm winter’s day
the sun so near the horizon
that it sends its golden carpet unfurling
recklessly across the earth,
I catch myself walking beside me.

A shadow thrown
in black-on-orange-on-oak-brown,
A temporary photograph
reminding me who I am at that moment.

Wandering, quiet, willing to be surprised.
Trying hard to see and be aware.
A child, after all these 60 years,
of the source of light
shining in and through and around me.

A ‘New Road or a Secret Gate’

Steve · March 31, 2019 · 22 Comments

Still around the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though we pass them by today,
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the moon or to the sun.

from “Upon the Hearth the Fire is Red”
from The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

End of Maintained Trail...keep walking. Sedona, AZ. SJG photo

The poem above is a piece of a larger lyric, sung by Hobbits as a “walking song”’ in J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. It has been many years now since I first made my way through Middle Earth with Bilbo, Frodo and the gang, but I admit to thinking of them often when I am out for a hike, especially if the path is not clear or if I am walking it for the first time. For while they knew the general direction they were headed (southeast toward Mordor), the path and the turns were often uncertain. Some turns led to glorious adventure — usually fraught with battles to be fought with the likes of giant spiders or orcs — but adventures nonetheless.

I am very close to beginning a new walk, as retirement from my position at the university looms large (target date: June 14). The question I hear most frequently, you might imagine, is “what are you going to do?” It’s a fair question since, at age 59, I am not technically retirement age (especially when it comes to the intricacies of health insurance…) I get a plethora of advice from those who know me well and those who don’t. Thanks for all that. I hear you all.

Life and Death on Display: Midwinter at the Missouri Botanical Garden

Steve · January 11, 2019 · 6 Comments

climatron — The iconic Climatron and its reflecting pools. Opened in 1960, the Climatron was the first geodesic dome to be used as a plant conservatory. It was built following the principles of R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic system and has no interior support and no columns from floor to ceiling. It rises to 70 feet in the center, spans 175 feet in diameter at the base, has 1.3 million cubic feet, and encloses approximately 24,000 square feet, according to the Garden’s website. SJG photo.

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” – John Muir

As I write this, St. Louis is in the midst of a winter snowfall that could leave somewhere between 6-12 inches of snow on the ground. It’s beautiful and all that, but I’m not amused.

Just a week ago, I spent several hours of an unseasonably warm day walking the grounds of one of our region’s storied treasures — the Missouri Botanical Garden, better and forever known to long-time St. Louisans as Shaw’s Garden. Named for the merchant and botanical enthusiast Henry Shaw, an Englishman who came to St. Louis in 1819 as an 18-year-old in search of customers for his hardware and cutlery business on the edge of the American wilderness, the “Garden” is today world renowned for its botanical richness and beauty, its architecture and the botanical knowledge its scientists continue to uncover on the grounds and at sites throughout the world.

On the Road: Brown County, Indiana and Hoosier Artist T.C. Steele

Steve · August 19, 2018 · 4 Comments

I haven’t written a travel blogpost for a while, so as I lean into retirement and “next steps” in the coming year, I have a yearning for more travel and more opportunities to write about it. Although not always as specifically “spiritual or faith-filled” as many of my posts, I hope you will enjoy our occasional meanderings around America’s Midwest and elsewhere to discover beautiful, historical places and the interesting and creative people who live (or have lived) in them. For it is in this beauty and creativity that I so often find God…

Chair — The world's largest rocking chair, Casey, Illinois.

Last weekend, Sue and I took off for one of our long weekend trips in search of history, art, natural beauty and adventure. After a bit of wandering along I-70 in southern Illinois (including a pit stop to see the world’s largest rocking chair, mailbox, pitchfork, pencil and windchime in Casey, Illinois), and a quick sojourn to Indianapolis to see one of my photos on display in the Inspired By Spring exhibit at the historic Lilly House at Newfields, we made our way to Bloomington and eventually on Sunday to Brown County, Indiana, home to the early 20^th-century “Hoosier Artists” and, most notably, impressionist painter T.C. Steele, the godfather of the movement.

Did we know of Steele and the Hoosier artists as we planned our trip to Brown County? We did not. This is why we love to travel. We head in a given direction, we know where we’re going to stay and have picked out a few places we want to visit, but we allow ourselves to be surprised by what the road and journey gives us. This trip gave us T.C. Steele. [Read more…] about On the Road: Brown County, Indiana and Hoosier Artist T.C. Steele

Goldfinches and God Arrive

Steve · June 10, 2018 · 12 Comments

IMG_8991 copy copy — A Lesser Goldfinch, photographed a few years ago in Jerome, Arizona. SJG photo.

“Beauty is the harvest of presence.” David Whyte

I have been up early the last few mornings enjoying the cooler early day before the heat and humidity of St. Louis summer kicks in. You have to grab the cool while you can get it these days.

Bird-watching and listening from my screened porch (where I seem like the one in the cage and the birds are free to fly) are especially fruitful in the morning, for the birds know what I know about the cool of the day. About a week ago I put up a new feeder just outside my backdoor for the American Goldfinches (Spinus tristis) that I occasionally see in the neighborhood. I hung it where it can be easily viewed from where I sit to read and pray and write, a place where I wait for God to show up just as I now awaited the arrival of my first visitors. Sure enough, yesterday morning I caught sight of my first pair of goldfinches.