DURING NATIONAL PARK WEEK, WE CAN BE GRATEFUL FOR THE PASSAGE OF THE ANTIQUITIES ACT OF 1906 "The President of the United States is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments." Antiquities Act 1906 When Congress passed the Antiquities Act, it authorized any U.S. President to unilaterally declare the creation of a National Monument - without Congressional approval - with the stroke of a pen. Many National Monuments created in this manner were later converted into National Parks, a redesignation which requires Congressional approval. Some of the more famous National Monuments created by the Antiquities Act are: Devil's Tower, Statue of Liberty, Grand Canyon, Olympic, Bryce Canyon, Great Sand Dunes, Muir Woods, Capitol Reef, Grant Teton and Zion. Some of these later became National Parks. I am very grateful for this piece of legislation, and I'm aware that we shouldn't take it for granted. Can you imagine a Congress like the one currently in Washington approving a new National Monument? In fact, in 2014, conservatives in Congress sought to dismantle the Antiquities Act. Fortunately, they have been unable to do so, thus far . . . Photos: Arches (UT), Grand Teton(WY) and Olympic (WA) National Parks, all of which were originally set aside as National Monuments, using the Antiquities Act. For a complete list of all National Monuments created under the Antiquities Act, go to: https://www.npca.org/resources/2658-list-of-monuments-designated-under-the-antiquities-act For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/
0 Comments
"Who shall say what prospect life offers to another? Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?" Henry David Thoreau Early Spring in the Rockies is dominated by one wildflower species - the Pasqueflower. It is a long time before any other flower as showy as this makes its appearance in the foothills. But what amazes me is how many different forms this one plant can take. When closed on a cloudy or rainy day, its blooms resemble a tulip. Partially open on a partly sunny day, it seems like a crocus. Fully open in bright sunlight, it has the appearance of a star. And then there are all degrees of openness in between. For me, the Pasqueflower's varied appearances are instructive in encouraging each of us to examine the meaning of life from a multitude of different perspectives. As human beings, we all have a tendency to become fundamentalistic in our thinking - to narrow our perspective and look at things from only one point of view. However, it is important for full psychological and spiritual development to understand life - and especially the Ultimate Mystery or Divine Source - from a variety of different perspectives. One of the things I learned early in my academic training was the ability - especially when studying another religion or philosophy - to temporarily bracket my own world view and really enter into the mindset of the faith I am seeking to understand, walking the spiritual journey for a while within THE OTHER'S unique set of moccasins. I can always return to my own view afterwards, but it is important while studying any faith or philosophy to live WITHIN the other's view, making it momentarily my own. What I've discovered with more inexperienced students is that often they want to enter into a critique of the other faith RIGHT AWAY before even giving it a decent chance to speak its truth to them. This is the tendency that ALL of us sometimes have, but it is important, I'm convinced, to reserve judgement at first and really enter the worldview of another. This presupposes, of course, that there is something GOOD and TRUE in the other's view, and that we can and should actively learn from it. This kind of approach helps us realize that every worldview - including our own view, to which we often cling so tenaciously - has both its plusses and its minuses, its advantages and its disadvantages. This fact of life is actually quite wonderful, for it means that each faith NEEDS all of the other faiths to make up for the areas in which it is lacking, and vice versa. I pray that all of us - as a species - might learn to be continually curious, to become philosophically adventurous, to consider risking our own beloved sense of security, and to really enter into the worldview of another. To be able to shift perspectives like this - in the process of opening up a whole new worldview - is, we will discover, more powerful and transformative than any mind-altering substance could EVER be! Photos: Pasqueflowers from various locations in Larimer County, CO For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "[Nature's] real value lies in the realm of the intangibles, vistas . . . , solitude, and quiet . . . There is great need for people to come in touch with silence, cyclic rhythms, and natural beauty if they are to retain their perspective. Tension, speed, and lack of real purpose in their daily lives make it mandatory they go to places where they can find themselves, regain their dignity and fulfillment as humans. It is the intangibles of the land they need." Sigurd F. Olson Photos: Limber Pine in the Mist; Subalpine Fir. Both photos were taken in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, on April 18, 2016; The third photo shows Pasqueflowers above Horsetooth Reservoir, CO, April 17, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ Let Us Draw Out the Best in One Another BEFORE We - or They - Transition to the Next Life!4/21/2016 In Colorado, we've had a lot of experience this past week of the transition season between Winter and Spring. During the same period - on Saturday - my Alaskan brother-in-law made the transition from this life to the next. As you might imagine, I've been thinking a lot about Chip, and the many positive qualities with which he enriched my life. Although our theologies were quite different - and often seemed at odds with each other - we both had an intense love for the personal Source out of which all things come and to which they all return. When someone we know passes on to the Next Dimension, we naturally focus on their positive qualities and the wonderful things they contributed to our lives. In the process, we rightly minimize the difficult aspects of the relationship. I wonder - why do we so often wait 'til someone dies to focus on the positive dimension? Why don't we act similarly with one another WHILE WE ARE STILL ALIVE? After all, isn't that why we have been placed here in this life - to uncover the Sacred in the depths of one another, highlight It, and then woo It into expressing Itself ever more vibrantly? I ask this day that we would not take each other for granted, but that we might seek always to draw out the very best in one another! Photos: Springtime in the Rockies! Various scenes near my home in Larimer County, CO, April 14-18, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN MUIR! APRIL 21, 1838 "Christianity and mountainanity are streams from the same fountain." John Muir Scottish-born naturalist, explorer, mystic and founder of the Sierra Club - John Muir - has been my primary spiritual mentor for almost fifty years! I first met Mr. Muir in elementary school, when my class studied "Stickeen" in a third-grade reader. Then, throughout my boyhood, Muir's outdoor adventure stories inspired me to fantasize constantly about Western landscapes and eventually - at age 17 - to move there, fall in love with their wild grandeur, and - like Muir - to dance in utter elation in the vibrant beauty and light of their sacred mountains. Then, in my 30s, I began a serious study of Muir's spirituality, at one point poring over volumes of his pencil-written journals housed on microfilm in the library of my alma mater - Colorado State University. The result was the publishing - in 2012 - of "The Contemplative John Muir," a book which I frequently quote here on Facebook, on Instagram, and in my Wilderness Mysticism blog. For Muir, the joy experienced in Nature was not a mere subjective emotion but was instead a Divine Force that served to SWIRL together both human and wilderness realms, making them into ONE! Similarly, the love and passion Muir felt while exploring wild country became a visceral heat that effectively MELTED the two dimensions together, until one's individual self became simply the means through which Divine Nature celebrated and became aware of Itself in human form. John Muir took the language of his strict Calvinist upbringing and effectively transferred it to his experience of wild Nature, where it took on a completely new meaning. Through Muir, Christianity became "mountainanity" as the presence of God and Christ emptied themselves out - through "kenosis," I would argue - into the wide-open spaces of mind, heart and landscape. Thus, if we want to see a uniquely American Christian Mysticism, all we have to do is study MUIR! With Muir, becoming "born again" was a description of what happens to us while out exploring in the mountains. For him, it was Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada of California - which he called "The Range of Light" - that effected this religious conversion. Similarly, "baptism" for Muir was the rite that occurred when immersing himself in the rainbowed spray of Yosemite Falls, when "some of the earthiness washed out of me and Yosemite virtue washed in." Eucharist became a participation in the literal and metaphorical blood-sap of his beloved California Sequoia trees, which he also shared with Douglas Squirrel. In fact, for him, it was the crucified CHRIST who appeared within these god-like trees, declaring - as they were being cut for lumber or for sport - "Forgive them, for they know not what they do!" I am firmly convinced that unless our religion and spirituality teach us to perceive more deeply the utter magic of our life HERE ON EARTH, they are detrimental and should best be jettisoned from our lives. A focus on the "afterlife" is understandable during times of sorrow and illness, but let us never forget that God - and heaven itself - humbly and eternally serve as a sky-like Backdrop of love that allows THIS WORLD AND ITS CREATURES to reveal themselves in all of their magic and wonder, like echoes appearing out of nowhere! That indeed is the whole point of meditation, where we become ONE WITH that divine Backdrop of both God and heaven, thus enabling all of life to reveal itself, permeated from now on with the love and warmth of our own sacred personality and essence! For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ Happy National Park Week! "The tendency nowadays to wander in wildernesses is delightful to see. Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life. Awakening from the stupefying effects of the vice of over-industry and the deadly apathy of luxury, they are trying as best they can to mix and enrich their own little ongoings with those of Nature, and to get rid of rust and disease. Briskly venturing and roaming, some are washing off sins and cobweb cares of the devil's spinning in all-day storms on mountains; sauntering in resiny pine woods or in gentian meadows, brushing through chaparral, bending down and parting sweet, flowery sprays; tracing rivers to their sources; getting in touch with the nerves of Mother Earth; jumping from rocky to rock, feeling the life of them, learning the songs of them, panting in whole-souled exercise, and rejoicing in deep, long-drawn breaths of pure wildness." John Muir, "Our National Parks" 1901 "I am the Billy Graham of National Parks." Ansel Adams For me, National Parks and Forest Service Wilderness Areas are my "religion." These are the temples - the places where I worship the Creator - and the scriptures which reveal to me nuggets of divine truth when I'm in an ecstatic frame of mind. It's no wonder that National Parks are appropriately called "America's Best Idea." :) Photos: Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, WY; Fireweed and Reflection Lakes, with Mount Rainier in the background, Mount Rainier National Park, WA; Ice patterns on The Loch, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "There will always be something worth fighting for and something worth fighting against. That's the drama of the human condition. That's what makes life so interesting, and so entertaining, and so full of laughs - the fighting, the struggling, the friction. I don't really want to live in a peaceful utopia. From a personal point of view, the world we live in is just fine with me. Because there are so many things to laugh at and laugh about, so many things to admire and love, and so many things to despise. it's an ideal world for a writer, for anybody whose emotions are alive, for anybody who wants something to think about and talk about." Edward Abbey Photos: Great Sand Dunes, Hewlett Burn, Coyote in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ One of the things I love most about Colorado is the variety of landscapes and weather conditions one can experience just by changing elevation. Today, for example, we began with lush Spring greenery at 6,000 feet, progressed to foothills wildflowers at 8,000 feet, and then hiked in falling snow at 9,000 and 10,000 feet. Variety, I'm convinced, truly IS the spice of life. However, one of the things that perplexes me most about human beings is our relatively undeveloped ability to look at the meaning of life from a variety of different perspectives. For some reason, we get stuck on just one, yet often seem clueless about the fact that we really DO see according to a particular filter. Generally, we think we look through clear, spotless lenses, and this error is, of course, the source of so many of our conflicts with other people. Seeing life from a variety of perspectives is built on the foundation of introspection - the practice of uncovering our own unconscious biases. Only when we see that we do indeed HAVE a particular view can we then come to appreciate the value present within OTHER particular views, and then begin to learn from the unique wisdom abundantly present within those very perspectives. May all of us increase in this important awareness :) Photos: Greenery at Horsetooth Reservoir; Pollinator on a Pasqueflower; Joanne hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. All three photos were taken in Colorado. For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "All that we call destruction is creating." John Muir Happy National Park Week! This coyote feeding on a carcass attracted quite a crowd yesterday along the road, close to Rocky's park entrance. National Parks are indeed amazing places to observe ALL aspects of Nature's wildness. Photo: Coyote and Magpies, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, April 18, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "Beauty is the harmony of contrasts." Alfred North Whitehead Photos: Pasqueflowers and Greyrock, CO; the green meadow across the street from my house in Larimer County, CO; Wild Plum flowers at Watson Lake (CO), with Bellvue Dome in the background. April 17, 2016 Ah, Springtime in the Rockies! Some areas in Colorado received 40 or 50 inches of snow during this weekend's storm! For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ |
AuthorStephen Hatch, M.A. is a spiritual teacher and photographer from Fort Collins, Colorado. His approach is contemplative, inter-spiritual, and Earth-based. Archives
June 2016
Categories |