Oh darling juvenile Robyn. Blessings for your journey. And bless you Chloe, what a beautiful final resting place you prepared for her.
I’m shocked but I guess not surprised by that window strike data. Sigh. I remember reading something a while back about the danger our cities/high rises posed to migratory birds.
I loved learning about the left and right hemispheric brain preferences, and about Sir Ian! I must investigate further, he sounds incredible. I loved the way you laid out western culture’s left brain favouring over the top and how we are SO lopsided and how this is playing out in our harms in ways that are deliberate and inadvertent . “Did we inadvertently spend the last couple of centuries building a world where the sacred is less recognisable?” landed with a lot of sorrow.
I am always left after reading your pieces with hope though Chloe, I am so grateful for that. I’m going to hold the notion of love as a field close. ♥️🪶✨
Wow, the divided brain is very relevant to me. When I was in college I investigated 352 different majors, and none of them seemed to fit. This was very frustrating as my roommate chose his major in about 3 weeks, a really hard major, and he stuck with it all his life.
It took me decades to understand that the problem in my case was that right brain dominated mind just couldn't make peace with picking any one particular thing, because I wanted to study it all, the whole. To this day I seem incapable of making a blog limited to a particular subject, even though it's very clear to me that's what I should be doing. How do you explain what your blog is about when you yourself don't know?
Having a right brain dominated mind is great for taking in the sweeping vistas of reality, and I wouldn't have it any other way, but the price tag is that it's rather more difficult to fit in to a culture built around specialization. Jack of all trades, master of none, is not exactly the most promising career path these days.
Regarding bird strikes: How we feel about these events would seem to depend completely on what we think death is. No living thing wants to die, but that doesn't automatically equal death being a tragedy. I don't know what it equals, other than that those who have near death experiences usually seem to be disappointed when they're told that they have to go back to rejoin we the living.
This is beyond beautiful as you carry us on your powerful query to merge into the greatest Mystery of the Field of Love. I am grateful to follow you as you weave your thoughts and love into this beautiful tapestry.
I am utterly stunned to read your statistics on the death of birds colliding with glass. One utters 'unbelievable!' I have never known this before, it adds a new layer of sadness to trying to understand this life we are living.
I am overjoyed with your discourse about left brain/right brain. I have been aware for many years of the different sensibilities of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The most powerful thing I can do to hold balance in my life is to have a creative project underway, even if I may not be working actively on it, the fact that I have engaged and committed to a creative project keeps my right brain active. It will virtually carry on without 'me', showing me image and color and movement, until I am ready to put my hand to it. I feel it in my entire being. I am also keenly aware that during the creative process I have to return to uncertainty, again and again, to invite the creative flow to remain open and alive. The left brain demands the relief of 'an answer' so we take a few deep breaths and invite the right brain to open again to the unknown. I have made a speech to graduating art classes about 'the Courage to Embrace the Creative Unknown'. So I am soo delighted to read this.
Death and Birds is a bright creative spot in my life, Chloe, and I thank you with love.
I love it that you switched the green and blue fields into opposite hemispheres!
I don’t think I’ve ever been able to put into words what exactly it is that rubs me the wrong way about how capitalism’s constant churning disregards the sacred dimension of our lives — but your piece helped me articulate it in a way I never have before.
I also never realised that so many birds died from building collisions - that is so sad!
This is so aligned with what I was just reading about Blake, Chloe! The synchronicity is remarkable - Higgs thought it was concurrent with the rise of the industrial revolution but even before on the Enlightenment emphasis on rational vs religious thinking. Nevertheless, I'm saddened by the numbers of bird strikes, and angered that architects carry on without regard to the hazard. Thanks for shining a light on the problem.
Your little robin does look like a Waterhouse painting.😢🌈🌈🌈
This reminds me a little of the devastation wrought by the fashion for wearing bird feathers, wings & sometimes whole birds on upper class hats in the late nineteenth century, which led to the expansion of the Audubon Society, and a ban on hunting migratory birds in the USA
“Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants,"
I only recently have fallen in love with birds, for about the last 8 year as they sing to me to rise. But as I read this quote, I realized how I don't really love or value all God's creations. It's mostly self-serving. And when I read the statistics about the bird deaths from collisions, I had to ask myself if I was more horrified by the number or by the fact that I had never thought about this a day in my life. How could I not know such a thing exists?? How could it literally never have crossed my mind? How can I claim to love something and only think of it in relation to how and when it benefits me? How can I live so disconnected from nature that the care and concern for ALL God's species only comes to mind when I encounter conversations like this. Thank you Chloe as this was a big wake up call for me ❤
Those are some pretty horrifying stats on bird Deaths from window strikes. I had no idea about how much of an issue it was. My parent's house suffers from this somewhat due to their lounge/kitchen having a view that runs from one side of the house to the other and back outside and I know they get a fair few hits each year from confused birds. I should tell them about those anti-collision stickers.
I've always been fascinated by the differences between left and right hemisphere, loved the extra info here. Astute observations on the shift in left-brain thinking. I hope that some of that can be countered over time, despite the state of the world. In fact, I'm left with optimistic thoughts on the beautiful implications of right-brain mystery after reading. If anything, that's what I always walk away from your posts with: a stirring of the right-brain, a sense of the indefinable.
You always leave me speechless with your words, and I always learn something new from you. I didn't know there are so many window collisions each year, though I never paid attention, but I imagine that happens A LOT, whether we see it or not. I mean, I see roadkill all the time. Poor animals that once reigned supreme in nature now have to fight for it in so much confusion due to human interference.
Love this, Chloe. I have heard McGilchrist on a few interviews before and have had to rewind and re-listen several times because I was completely fascinated by everything he shared. Thank you for another great piece - much to think about.
Pockets of the sacred
Oh darling juvenile Robyn. Blessings for your journey. And bless you Chloe, what a beautiful final resting place you prepared for her.
I’m shocked but I guess not surprised by that window strike data. Sigh. I remember reading something a while back about the danger our cities/high rises posed to migratory birds.
I loved learning about the left and right hemispheric brain preferences, and about Sir Ian! I must investigate further, he sounds incredible. I loved the way you laid out western culture’s left brain favouring over the top and how we are SO lopsided and how this is playing out in our harms in ways that are deliberate and inadvertent . “Did we inadvertently spend the last couple of centuries building a world where the sacred is less recognisable?” landed with a lot of sorrow.
I am always left after reading your pieces with hope though Chloe, I am so grateful for that. I’m going to hold the notion of love as a field close. ♥️🪶✨
Wow, the divided brain is very relevant to me. When I was in college I investigated 352 different majors, and none of them seemed to fit. This was very frustrating as my roommate chose his major in about 3 weeks, a really hard major, and he stuck with it all his life.
It took me decades to understand that the problem in my case was that right brain dominated mind just couldn't make peace with picking any one particular thing, because I wanted to study it all, the whole. To this day I seem incapable of making a blog limited to a particular subject, even though it's very clear to me that's what I should be doing. How do you explain what your blog is about when you yourself don't know?
Having a right brain dominated mind is great for taking in the sweeping vistas of reality, and I wouldn't have it any other way, but the price tag is that it's rather more difficult to fit in to a culture built around specialization. Jack of all trades, master of none, is not exactly the most promising career path these days.
Regarding bird strikes: How we feel about these events would seem to depend completely on what we think death is. No living thing wants to die, but that doesn't automatically equal death being a tragedy. I don't know what it equals, other than that those who have near death experiences usually seem to be disappointed when they're told that they have to go back to rejoin we the living.
This is beyond beautiful as you carry us on your powerful query to merge into the greatest Mystery of the Field of Love. I am grateful to follow you as you weave your thoughts and love into this beautiful tapestry.
I am utterly stunned to read your statistics on the death of birds colliding with glass. One utters 'unbelievable!' I have never known this before, it adds a new layer of sadness to trying to understand this life we are living.
I am overjoyed with your discourse about left brain/right brain. I have been aware for many years of the different sensibilities of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The most powerful thing I can do to hold balance in my life is to have a creative project underway, even if I may not be working actively on it, the fact that I have engaged and committed to a creative project keeps my right brain active. It will virtually carry on without 'me', showing me image and color and movement, until I am ready to put my hand to it. I feel it in my entire being. I am also keenly aware that during the creative process I have to return to uncertainty, again and again, to invite the creative flow to remain open and alive. The left brain demands the relief of 'an answer' so we take a few deep breaths and invite the right brain to open again to the unknown. I have made a speech to graduating art classes about 'the Courage to Embrace the Creative Unknown'. So I am soo delighted to read this.
Death and Birds is a bright creative spot in my life, Chloe, and I thank you with love.
I love it that you switched the green and blue fields into opposite hemispheres!
This is such a wonderful piece Chloe.
I don’t think I’ve ever been able to put into words what exactly it is that rubs me the wrong way about how capitalism’s constant churning disregards the sacred dimension of our lives — but your piece helped me articulate it in a way I never have before.
I also never realised that so many birds died from building collisions - that is so sad!
This is so aligned with what I was just reading about Blake, Chloe! The synchronicity is remarkable - Higgs thought it was concurrent with the rise of the industrial revolution but even before on the Enlightenment emphasis on rational vs religious thinking. Nevertheless, I'm saddened by the numbers of bird strikes, and angered that architects carry on without regard to the hazard. Thanks for shining a light on the problem.
Your little robin does look like a Waterhouse painting.😢🌈🌈🌈
This reminds me a little of the devastation wrought by the fashion for wearing bird feathers, wings & sometimes whole birds on upper class hats in the late nineteenth century, which led to the expansion of the Audubon Society, and a ban on hunting migratory birds in the USA
https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/07/15/422860307/hats-off-to-women-who-saved-the-birds
“Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants,"
I only recently have fallen in love with birds, for about the last 8 year as they sing to me to rise. But as I read this quote, I realized how I don't really love or value all God's creations. It's mostly self-serving. And when I read the statistics about the bird deaths from collisions, I had to ask myself if I was more horrified by the number or by the fact that I had never thought about this a day in my life. How could I not know such a thing exists?? How could it literally never have crossed my mind? How can I claim to love something and only think of it in relation to how and when it benefits me? How can I live so disconnected from nature that the care and concern for ALL God's species only comes to mind when I encounter conversations like this. Thank you Chloe as this was a big wake up call for me ❤
*re-enters orbit so that I can now comment* 😉
Those are some pretty horrifying stats on bird Deaths from window strikes. I had no idea about how much of an issue it was. My parent's house suffers from this somewhat due to their lounge/kitchen having a view that runs from one side of the house to the other and back outside and I know they get a fair few hits each year from confused birds. I should tell them about those anti-collision stickers.
I've always been fascinated by the differences between left and right hemisphere, loved the extra info here. Astute observations on the shift in left-brain thinking. I hope that some of that can be countered over time, despite the state of the world. In fact, I'm left with optimistic thoughts on the beautiful implications of right-brain mystery after reading. If anything, that's what I always walk away from your posts with: a stirring of the right-brain, a sense of the indefinable.
You always leave me speechless with your words, and I always learn something new from you. I didn't know there are so many window collisions each year, though I never paid attention, but I imagine that happens A LOT, whether we see it or not. I mean, I see roadkill all the time. Poor animals that once reigned supreme in nature now have to fight for it in so much confusion due to human interference.
Chloe, this is just the most beautiful writing - I am so glad to have found you here.
Love this, Chloe. I have heard McGilchrist on a few interviews before and have had to rewind and re-listen several times because I was completely fascinated by everything he shared. Thank you for another great piece - much to think about.
thanks for the "little pocket of the sacred", Chloe 💚
the way you artfully weave your love of Birds...
with the "presence and honesty that can open up around Death, and dying..."
is quite masterful.
i look forward to your next installment... 🙏🏼