Tag: Postaday2012

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #217

You don’t know my city or the dusty streets where I live 
You don’t know my name; you don’t know ME.
You have your own troubles, your OWN world – why should I be in it?
 Your world is school and homework; TV and music; shopping and friends
 You are concerned about your grades, your weight and your Mum nagging you to clean up your bedroom
 And will she buy those designer jeans you must have for the Party on Saturday night.
 You are looking forward to your holiday in America and leaving school to get that job you’ve always wanted.
My world is hard, unloving, unfair, …worse 
I don’t have any designer jeans, just this one, dirty, threadbare dress
 I have never been to school; I’ve never read a book 
I have no Mum to nag me, or care for me – she died three years ago
 I have no bedroom to keep tidy, because I have no home.
I’m concerned about where I will sleep tonight – will the Policeman wake me up, beat me up, lock me up, worse…? 
I’m concerned about my aching, empty stomach
 I’m not well – I have a disease I can’t spell and no medicine to treat it 
I have nothing to look forward to…
Except an early, lonely death from a disease my underfed body could not resist.
They call me beggar, thief, worse…
They look at me with hate in their eyes, then chase me away – what have I done?!
You see my picture in your newspaper and on your TV screen, but you turn away 
You don’t see ME!
I AM in your world – OUR world.
 I am also aboard spaceship earth, but you are a rich passenger and I am a poor one
 You CAN understand my world: ask questions, find answers, find ME! 
Will you try? It might help you make sense of your own world.
What’s my name?
 MY name is Street Child of India.

“Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test:

Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will it restore him to control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to community for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?

Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away.”
Mahatma Gandhi

From Fristha Childrens Village, India

Let your doubts and self melt away on your journey†††nada te turbe†††jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #167

An image made at the Basilica of San Albino,which lies at north end of the Plaza of La Mesilla, New Mexico. Originally built of adobe in 1855. The church was rebuilt to its present structure in 1906. It became a basilica on November 1, 2008.

I love the church’s statement of faith:

“The Basilica of San Albino Roman Catholic Church 
is a bilingual community of believers 
on a faith journey. We are called to love one another, 
as God loves us by prayer, service and sharing 
the Good News of Jesus Christ.”

The church has witnessed a lot of history. Mesilla was a lively social center in the 1880s. People came from as far as the City of Chihuahua and Tucson to attend bailes (dances), bullfights, cockfights and theatrical presentations. As a social center, the town attracted more than its share of violence. It was not uncommon to see differences settled in the streets with guns. The famous and the infamous, such as Pancho Villa, Kit Carson, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid frequented many of the bars and dances in town. It was at the jail and courthouse on the southeast corner of the plaza that Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced to hang in 1881. It is said that Carson ate regularly in the old La Posta Inn (still a functioning restaurant today), a thick-walled fortress against rampaging Indian attacks as late as the 1860’s.

The town of Mesilla was as wild as the West ever was.

The village was also the crossroads of two major stagecoach lines, Butterfield Stagecoach and the Santa Fe Trail. The village of Mesilla was the most important city of the region until 1881. In 1881 the railroad bypassed Mesilla in favor of Las Cruces, four miles to the northeast. With this event, the county seat was moved to Las Cruces and Mesilla’s importance was soon dimmed by its neighbor. As a result, Mesilla has experienced little growth until recently, and so, has retained much of its original nineteenth century feeling.

Make some history on your journey†††nada te turbe†††jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #166

In my last posted photo of a coyote, I had put up an image of an injured, weak, broken and lonely coyote. This one was healthy, strong, and running with a pack of four. What a difference friends and family can make!

Yesterdays post of the sparrow spoke of that bird’s story as an immigrant. Not so with the coyote. Coyotes are native only to North America.

“The coyote is a living, breathing allegory of Want. He is always hungry. He is always poor, out of luck and friendless. The meanest creatures despise him and even the flea would desert him for a velocipede.”
…Roughing It….Mark Twain
While populations of many other animals are shrinking, coyote populations are actually increasing. Coyotes once lived only in prairies and deserts of the western United States and in Mexico. Today they thrive almost anywhere in North America.The coyote’s keen intelligence and senses help it adapt to many different habitats: forests, deserts, prairies, mountains, suburbs, cities, and even golf courses.

I love this fact “In order to not get detected by predators, sometimes coyotes walk on their toes to make as little noise as possible.”  Would love to see a coyote walking on his “tippy toes”

This trickster of Native American tales often gets fooled—but it always bounces back.

Bounce back on your journey†††nada te turbe†††jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #165

White Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)

You generally don’t have to travel far or search long to find a sparrow in North America. House sparrows range across North America and can be found in cities, farmlands or in the country, forming into large flocks.  They live mostly where we live. There are 245 species of sparrows and finches worldwide and it is estimated that the population is around 150,000,000 birds, but their numbers get lower each year as there is less food for them, because of fewer gardens. They are now on the threatened birds’ list in many parts of the world.

Among the many sparrows found in the United States are the House sparrow, the song sparrow, the white-throated sparrow (or peabody bird), and the chipping, white-crowned, vesper, Lincoln’s, fox, field, tree, and swamp sparrows. Sparrows are valuable to farmers in destroying weed seeds. Originally sparrow meant any small bird; the word appears in this sense in Greek mythology and in the Scriptures.

The House Sparrow is a very social bird. It is gregarious at all seasons when feeding, often forming flocks with other types of bird. It also roosts communally, its nests are usually grouped together in clumps, and it engages in a number of social activities, such as dust and water bathing, and “social singing”, in which birds call together in bushes.The House Sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes. A group of sparrows can be know as an “ubiquity” of sparrows, now there is a 10$ word.

Not bad for a little bird that immigrated to America as a stowaway from Europe in the 1850’s. Sounds pretty much typically American, just like the rest of us.

Adapt like the sparrow on your journey††nada te turbe†††jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #164

We spotted this Ferruginious Hawk (Buteo regalis) on a “last call” flight for the evening. He was looking for one more feeding before roosting for the evening. The Ferrugineous Hawk means “rusty color” and refers to the coloration of the wings and legging feathers. Before the extermination of the bison, their nests were often partially made from bison bones and wool. A group of hawks is rightfully known (along with other names) as a “tower” of hawks.

R Kelly #1 hit of 1996 I CAN FLY  played through my head. That music was used in several Michael Jordon videos and the movie Space Jam.

“I believe I can fly
I believe I can touch the sky
I think about it every night and day
Spread my wings and fly away
I believe I can soar
I see me running through that open door
I believe I can fly
I believe I can fly
I believe I can fly”

Believe you can fly on your journey†††nada te turbe††jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #163

I could imagine the smell of talc and a mixture of Barbicide, shaving cream and Old Spice. There would be those tall bottles filled with colorful liquids of unknown purpose. Lined in front of a mirror that reflected another mirror and the images faded to infinity. A glass carafe of burnt coffee and and the odor of snubbed out cigarette buttes in a sand filled canister ash tray.  My heart warmed for  a hot towel and a straight razor shave.  I felt my Grandpa Jim walk by, nice.

How the times change, sometimes even for the good.

A lot from a quick glimpse of an old style, man’s barbershop in T or C, NM. How long has it been since you been in one?

Sometimes it good to visit the past on your journey†††nada te turbe….jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #162

Watch the lead duck. All the other ducks  will follow right behind. Interestingly, the whole group echoes  the lead duck. He walks, they walk, even when they can fly. The feelings and actions of the One out front are transferred to those who follow.
Who are you following on your journey? †††nada te turbe†††jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #161

What do you see when you look at yourself ? Are you a reflection of you or the world around you ?

“Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.” James 1:23-24

Keep looking, know who you really are on your journey! ††nada te turbe††jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #160

YOU DON’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT!

I had a great sunset a coming and had gotten side tracked getting to to the White Sands Monument in time for the early winter closing hours. So I wandered looking for something to make use of the sunset. I had seen this small body of water just north of Alamogordo NM. I headed for it, driving past the small turn-off  twice before finally managing  to turn onto the dirt road.

It was a strange place in that the water was very brackish like. There were all kinds of warning sign: “no swimming”, “no wading” ,” no fishing”, “Do not drink the water”, “Steel shot only”,”No off road driving”.

I reluctantly got out of the car and tried to walk down to the waters edge. After getting within 10-12 feet, I started sinking into this grey-like mud. This was not where I wanted to be. It sucked, literally!

I backed away from the muck and went up to higher, solid ground and made this peaceful image.

I thought of what a grumbling member of the Israelites I would have been. “This water is bitter, oh no not manna again”!

Take what you are given on your journey†††nada te turbe†††jim

Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #159

MANY RIVERS TO CROSS

“Many Rivers to Cross” is a song written in 1969 by Jimmy Cliff.

This song is a personal favorite of mine. It so touches the need to see and realize that we all have many rivers to cross on our journey. Sometimes they are not at all filled with just water. There is almost always more than one way to cross these rivers: over, around or through. Or we can just change course and not cross, even when it seems so simple a course to follow.

I figure a lot of singing artist relate to this song. A search on Itunes will yield an unbelievable number of variations. It is almost as popular as “Somewhere over the Rainbow”, another song that deals more or less with the same question.

Cross your rivers to get to your rainbow on your journey†††nada te turbe†††jim