Explorations of Nature with Poetry Archives - Steve Jones Great Blue Heron

Relative Motion

June 16, 2020/in Explorations of Nature with Poetry, Nature's Inspiration /by Steve Jones

A statement of fundamental Nature-essence: Everything in Nature is relative in space and time, including our own lives.

Nature-Inspired Poetry

I’ve toyed with Blog-Post-by-verse a few times since I enrolled in a beginning poetry course this past winter at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Funny that I spent much of my professional higher education career writing in two styles:

Boring administrative language
Uninspiring scientific technical writing

I suffered through it. In the process, I learned to despise passive voice and third-person formality. I hungered to write with my heart, soul, spirit, and feeling fully engaged. Alas, I found that prose-worthy outlet with my books and these Blog Post photo-essays. And now I’m taking another step toward an even looser style — poetry. That doesn’t mean writing poetry is easier… in fact, at this stage in my writing exploration journey I find verse far more difficult. I know my own prose voice… I recognize it as it flows from the keyboard. Its cadence comes naturally. I labor at the verse. I do know by now that I struggle mightily with rhyming. So, don’t look for it in this offering, which I call Relative Motion. Instead, what I am seeking is a reflective style that allows me to express feeling and experience…without the constraint of rigid reliance upon subject, verb, grammar, and structure. Sure, I could employ prose, but I fear it would be bound to Earth, stiff, requiring many more words.

That explains the attempt at verse. I arrived at this subject (relative motion), one I have reflected on for soon-to-be-69 years, because I am a spatial creature, always cognizant of place. Motion has dominated much of my adult life. I remember with uncanny clarity the sensation of lifting from the runway in the central Appalachians the first time Dad took me up in a small single engine Piper. I can close my eyes at will and feel the thrust, the release, and the lightness. My mind relives the optics of receding runway and trees, the rapidly-expanding horizon, the 3-D mountains taking form and shape. During my forest industry days I had reason and opportunity to go aloft in choppers — wow, the exquisite exhilaration of vertical lift-off! I loved it (flying)… and still do.

Earth-bound, I ran recreationally (I called it competitively) for over a quarter of a century. I logged 31,000 miles during our son’s first 21 years. As with going airborne, I can close my eyes and cover some of my running loops step-by-step, hill-by-hill, start-to-finish. I can see the landscape sliding past, enjoy the exertion, savor the rush, glory at the runner’s high that did indeed occasionally lift me above and beyond life. If I choose, I can still bring to life the closing six-mile agony of my first marathon (yes, the full 26.2 mile beast). At mile 20, I felt worse than ever before… then a mile later felt twice as bad!

And beginning when we lived in Ohio (2008-13) a quarter of a mile from a 250-mile network of paved rails-to-trails, I have biked several thousand miles. As of this morning (June 16, finalizing this Post), I have already logged 970 miles this Covid-19 calendar year. Whether flying, driving, running, or biking, I pay attention to the flow of landscape, and my relative place within it. I believe that everything in Nature is place-relative. Although I realize that I am not the center of the universe, in part this verse suggests that we observe motion, in whatever form, relative to ourselves.

Relative Motion

Two cars stopped adjacent

Mine moves forward

I slam the brake…

Movement continues!

Until the car beside me

Backs from my vision.

All motion appears relative,

Bicycling along the greenway

Trees nearby race past me

Distant trunks recede in slow motion

Mid-way stems track mid-pace

Oaks far ahead stand at attention

Until, upon my approach

They accelerate to and then fall behind me

Drone-mounted camera

Goose alongside flapping,

Stationary, as clouds slip behind

Speeding streams of traffic below

Unmoving to each other

The pavement flowing beneath,

Only perspective defines motion

Polaris… the North Star… stationary

Navigating us for centuries

323 light years from Earth

Too far for visible relative motion

Time, too, is relative

We see evidence that it passes

But cannot discern its movement

The verse is simple, non-rhyming. I hope the few photos below illustrate some of the relative motion concepts. I photographed the images June 2, 2020 as I traversed 25 miles around and on Bradford Creek Greenway in Madison, Alabama. My average speed a comfortable 12.5 MPH. For the record, that’s 18.33 feet per second.

All motion appears relative,

Bicycling along the greenway

Paused and resting, I can clearly see greenway surface texture. At pedaling pace, the surface texture elements are indistinguishable.

Trees (and fences) nearby race past me

Distant trunks recede in slow motion

Mid-way stems track mid-pace

The metal fence posts stand ten feet apart. I cruise past the posts at the rate of 1.8 per second. They are a blur, yet the woods-edge beyond, some 400 feet away, stretching within the photo image nearly 500 feet, a distance that takes me roughly 28 seconds to cover. As the fence posts whiz past, the woods edge falls behind leisurely.

Distant trunks (and far horizons) recede in slow motion

Now, I extend the horizon. The nearby fence (below left) continues to race past; the horizon woods edge exhibits little relative motion. I took both of these photos along County Line Road’s adjacent biking/pedestrian trail, a four-mile out-and-back extension I add when I do Bradford Creek Greenway loops.

Oaks far ahead stand at attention

Until, upon my approach

They accelerate to… and then fall behind me

Time, too, is relative

We see evidence that it passes

But cannot discern its movement

Roughly 22,000 days (six full decades) passed between the two photos below. Time meant absolutely nothing to the camera-aware tyke below left. In some ways, time means everything to the guy with helmet and biking gear. I lived those 22,000 days at the relentless pace of 60-minutes an hour, yet at any given moment, time stood still. I detected no sense of motion. Everything around me moved at the same pace… hence, no relative motion. However, the evidence is clear and harsh. Dad departed 24 years ago; Mom in April 2017. They ran their race; I’m running mine, with them in my heart… my body, soul, and spirit.

Nature, I believe, is oblivious to time. Have our weathered Appalachians counted the centuries…the millennia…since their alpine glory? Does the heron track the seconds while he stalks the careless frog?

I often turn to the deep-musing great naturalists of days gone by for wisdom in my life. Henry David Thoreau observed, “You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.” And, so, wisely he proclaimed, “Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.” Ah, if only I can so live these remaining years… enjoying each moment in the stream of life. Insisting upon staying in motion, yet moving apace with the years, finding an eternity in each moment.

Thoughts and Reflections

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All three are available on Amazon and other online sources.

The fundamental truth I draw from this Blog Post: Everything in Nature is relative in place and time, including our own lives.

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2020 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

My Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

I love hiking and exploring in Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few others lives… sow some seeds for the future

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

Acorn Rondeau

May 13, 2020/in Explorations of Nature with Poetry, Nature's Inspiration /by Steve Jones

Acorn Rondeau

I am NOT a poet, yet I enjoy the magic of words. Winter quarter I completed a beginner’s poetry-writing course at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Here’s the poem I wrote for a class assignment:

Acorn Rondeau (Rondeau is a kind of poem that ends where it began)

An acorn drops, tumbles to earth

Fortuitous landing, a place for birth,

Avoids predation, readies to launch

Cotyledons burst through its pericarp

Sunlight enters the factory doors

Chloroplasts ignite, machinery roars,

Season after season, patience and toil

Roots explore darkness, embrace the soil

Foot by foot, skyward bound

Solid and steady, anchored to ground

A century of summers — oh Mighty Oak!

An acorn drops, tumbles to earth

Fortuitous landing, a place for birth

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

The poem speaks to the cycle of life and living, generation after generation. I have many relevant photos – here are my two Alabama grandsons standing recently by a 52-inch diameter white oak at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.

And another big white oak with grandson Sam at Wheeler Refuge:

And a proud red oak along Monte Sano State Park’s North Plateau Trail.

And a massive towering white oak at Joe Wheeler State Park.

A century of summers — oh Mighty Oak!

An acorn drops, tumbles to earth

Fortuitous landing, a place for birth

Season after season, patience and toil

Roots explore darkness, embrace the soil

Foot by foot, skyward bound

Solid and steady, anchored to ground

Even though I confess that word play in verse is stimulating and enjoyable, don’t look for Steve’s Book of Nature Poetry any time soon!

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

I love hiking and exploring in Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few others lives… sow some seeds for the future

I like to imagine that representative samples of my books appreciate accompanying me into the woods. So far, none has complained nor groaned. You guessed it, that’s my books and me above standing in front of a white oak.

A century of summers — oh Mighty Oak!

An acorn drops, tumbles to earth

Fortuitous landing, a place for birth

Knowing that I am getting way out in front of remote possibility, perhaps there is a book of Steve’s Nature-Inspired Life and Living Poetry awaiting me around the corner of some forested trail!

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

Knowing that I am getting way out in front of remote possibility, perhaps there is a book of Steve’s Nature-Inspired Life and Living Poetry awaiting me around the corner of some forested trail!

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2020 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: https://stevejonesgbh.com/contact/

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

Easter Storms — A Covid-19 Corollary

April 20, 2020/in and Greenways, Explorations of Nature with Poetry, Nature's Inspiration /by Steve Jones

Covid-19 Context

I wrote these words the Wednesday after Easter, a day when Covid-19 deaths in the US were at approximately 30,000 (42,000 today), with confirmed cases at 614,000 (787,000 today). We remain under what I term Covid-19 House Arrest. A dire situation, yet I see signs of hope. The new case and hospitalization curves in most places (including New York City) appear to be beyond peak — that is, we have successfully flattened the curves. Deaths are at peak, reflecting the 10-16-day lag beyond new cases. I thought a lot about parallels to Covid-19 as violent Easter Sunday storms raked across the southeastern US with an energetic storm system trailing a cold front ushering record-breaking cold to much of the country.

Here in northern Alabama I measured just under four inches of rain, bringing us to ~44-inches since December 1, 2019! Right here in Madison, AL we endured numerous warnings during the afternoon and evening: Area-wide flood; flash flood; severe thunderstorm; and tornado. Fortunately we suffered little damage beyond several snapped utility poles nearby and eleven hours without power. We had readied our storm shelter, but never retreated into it. Nothing signaled imminent impact; even the tornado warning indicated the funnel in the southern porting of our county. Southwide the system killed 40-plus.

Monday morning, which dawned with full glory and promise, after allowing time for Bradford Creek to ease back into its banks, I headed for the Bradford Creek Greenway to bike. I offer the reader photographs and reflections from the Easter storms and their standing as a metaphor for the savagery of the Covid-19 pandemic. This viral fury, too, will pass, leaving an indelible mark on life and living, and stamping reminders, lessons, and emotional scars into our individual and societal psyche.

Rather than develop a text-packed Post to communicate my reflections, I find it easier to condense my impressions and feelings, expressing all with verse and accompanying photographs:

Easter Storms — Covid-19 Corollary in Verse

.

Easter 2020 dawned forebodingly

Skies dark with threat,

Absent the light of hope, and

The sunshine of resurrection

Covid-19 and its own darkness

Cast deep and frightful shadows,

Cancelled Easter gatherings and services

Kept us physically isolated… hug-less

Now add the ominous threat

Of imminent flooding,

Severe thunderstorms and hail,

High winds and twisters

By Easter’s early afternoon

An energetic storm system lifts,

Bringing rain and thunder, and

Storm warnings through late evening

Pounding, slanting downpours

Snapping lightning; growling thunder,

Frequent new warnings

Storm shelter open and stocked

But this time not needed

All slipping east by nightfall,

Threats ebbing with the departure

Easing our minds for sleep

Easter Monday dawned with promise

With the full glory of renewal,

An abundance of hope’s light

And the sunshine of resurrection

The storms left their mark

Eleven hours without power,

Others were not so fortunate

More than 40 died southwide

Monday morning biking

Along Bradford Creek Greenway

Revealed the clear evidence

Of rain just shy of four inches

Like Sunday’s storms,

A literal deluge and whirlwind,

The Covid-19 savagery is passing

Leading to a dawn of glory and promise

This, too, shall pass. We will emerge stronger for the experience. We have learned that we are all in this together. That we are one with Nature. That even the smallest of life forms, a lowly virus, can change lives. That humility can be soothing salve for the soul and heart, and for our emotional well-being. And most importantly, that the power of Nature’s inspiration (even from an outbreak of severe weather) can lift us toward resurrection and renewal. And, for me, I feel a growing sense of sacred connection to life and living… to what is important and essential. Not just sacred… spiritual as well. The storms and pandemic reinforce my belief that I am nothing. Nothing beyond a small element of a greater whole. Part of Creation… for a brief moment in time.

Thoughts and Reflections

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All three are available on Amazon and other online sources.

Here are the two succinct truths I draw from this Blog Post:

Now is a time to reflect on what is important and essential
Nature always provides lessons for dealing with life and living

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Reward, and Heal you!

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2020 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: https://stevejonesgbh.com/contact/

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

I love hiking and exploring in Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few others lives… sow some seeds for the future

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

Fifty Shades of Green

April 15, 2020/in Explorations of Nature with Poetry, Nature's Inspiration /by Steve Jones

I see cruel irony that as Covid-19 frees time to read, ponder, write, and create, it’s the virus that too often dominates my mind. I sat recently in my doctor’s office parking lot waiting to be summoned to the appointment (a Covid-blessing — no crowded waiting room torment in these days of physical-distancing). A wet cold front had passed earlier that morning, leaving chilly wind and gloomy skies. The light level emphasized green, fractionating to shades seldom otherwise distinguishable.

I’ve concluded over the years that summer evenings, as day fades toward gloaming, the greens grow more intense… ever more vibrant. They seem to rise above nearby colors. Judy and I for years have dubbed it “the green time of evening.” I believe the thick cloud cover that 8:00 AM spring day triggered a “green time of morning.” I haven’t been able to substantiate my green-intensity observation with science.

I penned a verse titled Fifty Shades of Green later that day:

Fifty Shades of Green

We always hear so much

About autumn’s rich palette,

Forests of multiple hues

Golds, reds, and yellows

Yet, look to hillsides when

Winter releases its grip,

A richness of verdant greens

All spring-fresh with promise

But my heart in this southern land,

Sees spring as other than promise,

Spring is the real thing, the delivery

Too soon yielding to summer

I want spring to linger, holding tight

To cool evenings, chilly morns,

Celebrating new life… longer days,

But a virus intercedes, parasitizing life

As Corona cast its shadow

Its darkness dims our spirits,

But Nature pays no heed

Bursting 50 shades of green

I refuse to ignore spring’s interlude

Escaping Covid-19 house arrest,

Entering Nature in transition

Relishing 50 shades of green!

I don’t need to search long for the fifty shades. Here’s a bonanza of green along nearby Bradford Creek Greenway.

One hundred feet away, the big oak bears a few flowers, back-dropped by a greening riparian canopy.

Even lush non-flowering plants carry bright robes of greenery — with apologies to Dolly Parton, wearing coats of many colors (all of them shades of green).

Combine emerging tree and shrub foliage with moss-green rocks and throw in a bit of purple phacelia — a viriscent panoply (I confess, I don’t talk like that!) with a splash of violet.

And here are new Virginia creeper leaves and a mossy stump ring outlining where once a forest tree stood.

Last year’s loblolly pine needles and fresh catkins (male flowers fully loaded with pollen ready for flight).

A flooded farm and forest road at nearby Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge — winter rye green over-topped by the greening forest and the soft blue sky above. A spring color buffet for those not requiring other than green (and blue).

Six-year-old grandson Sam poking a catkin cluster to release a puff of pollen. Also in my backyard, landscape ornamentals do not maintain such fidelity to green foliage. I believe the foreground Japanese maple gives just the right shade of new red.

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

I love hiking and exploring in Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few others lives… sow some seeds for the future

I like to imagine that representative samples of my books appreciate accompanying me into the woods. So far, none has complained nor groaned. Knowing that I am getting way out in front of remote possibility, perhaps there is a book of Steve’s Nature-Inspired Life and Living Poetry awaiting me around the corner of some forested trail!

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2020 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: https://stevejonesgbh.com/contact/

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

Correcting My Blog Post Distribution Snag

April 10, 2020/in Explorations of Nature with Poetry, Nature's Inspiration, Updates /by Steve Jones

Hello to all, including those of you who disappeared via an error in my automatic Blog Post distribution system. Welcome… and welcome back!

I publish these Posts weekly, offering reflections and lots of my photos on Nature-Inspired Life and Living. All 210 (or so) that I’ve posted since January 2017 are accessible at: https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/

My trouble-shooting may have resurrected some on the list who had elected to unsubscribe. If so, I beg your forgiveness. Unsubscribing remains quite simple.

Re-Introduction to Steve Jones, Retired Forester and Lifelong Nature Enthusiast

Chances are that most of you who fell aside because of my technical bust have met me. In case you haven’t, here I am dealing with Covid-19 house arrest:

Struggling at my desk with too many tight deadlines:

And enjoying Nature with six-year-old grandson Sam:

Annotated Review of My Ten Most Recent Posts

Accompany me on an annotated tour of my ten most recent Posts. I write about my own journeys of revelation and discovery in Nature. All photos these past three years (with a rare inclusion of someone else’s capture with full attribution) are my own. I write most of the Posts about ventures here in Alabama, but I occasionally will stray to other locations, including several Posts from a July 2019 tour of western National Parks and an August 2019 visit to three National Parks in Kazakhstan. Although this Great Blue Heron website offers plenty of insight into who I am, in brief explanation, I am a forester (BS 1973) and applied ecologist (PhD 1987) who practiced my trade in the forest products industry and then wandered into higher education research, teaching, and administration. Above all else, I am a lifelong Nature enthusiast.

My Mission with these Posts and other retirement endeavors is quite simple: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

My ten most recent Posts:

April 7, 2020 — Cloud Verse

I’ve often observed that Nature is poetry in action. I’ve decided now that maybe I should attempt building some verse around my Nature observations and reflections. I offer a poem entitled Nature’s Cloud Inspiration, some reflections about clouds, and many of my own cloud photos: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/04/07/cloud-verse/

April 1, 2020 Land Trust Mushroom Hike on Rainbow Mountain Preserve

I participated in yet another Land Trust of North Alabama hike, this one exploring mushrooms on Madison, Alabama’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve. Fungi are the generally hidden engines of life and death in our forests. Most of my recent Posts offer a Covid-19 statement of context. Here are my observations, reflections, and photos from Rainbow Mountain: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/04/01/land-trust-mushroom-hike-on-rainbow-mountain/

March 28, 2020 Nature Pauses Not for a Human/Viral Pandemic

I offer a bit of verse about the paradox of a global viral pandemic changing every facet of our life and living… and Nature proceeding as though nothing is amiss: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/03/28/nature-pauses-not-for-a-human-viral-pandemic/

March 24, 2020 Resurrection Fern — A metaphor in Verse for Nature’s Simplicity

I visited nearby Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve the damp afternoon following 1.35″ of spring rain. Resurrection fern stood in full turgid splendor, reminding me that we, too, will emerge from Covid-19, forever changed, but stronger for the experience: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/03/24/resurrection-fern-a-metaphor-in-verse-for-natures-simplicity/

March 19, 2020 Lyrical Expressions in Forest Pathogens… Under a Covid-19 Cloud

As Covid-19 is raging globally, I chose to offer some verse on historic tree disease pandemics. Writing one of my standard text and photo Blog Posts would have required a treatise far too long and scientific. Because Covid-19 is both a medicinal and emotional crisis, I wrapped my tree pathogen feelings loosely in science with a heavy seasoning of sentiment for the forests and trees of my profession… and my dreams: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/03/19/lyrical-expressions-in-forest-pathogens-under-a-covid-19-cloud/

March 16, 2020 Bethel Spring North Alabama Land Trust: Yet Another Natural Gem

The Land Trust of North Alabama opened its Bethel Springs property with a February 29, 2020 ribbon-cutting and three interpretive hikes. I trekked with the History Hike leading to the old spring house, the waterfall, mill house foundation, and an old road bed or two led by local historian John Kvach. What a wonderful addition to our regional wonders of Nature! The Post: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/03/16/bethel-spring-north-alabama-land-trust-yet-another-natural-gem/

March 11, 2020 Nature Poetry: Sowing Seeds for Earth Stewardship

I’ve written my Nature-Inspired Life and Living Posts for nearly three years, relying upon prose and photos. I am now venturing into some verse, boldly going where this old forester has never gone before. As close as I’ve come to baring my soul! My Post: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/03/11/nature-poetry-sowing-seeds-for-earth-stewardship/

March 7, 2020 Leafless Tree I.Di. Hike along Bradford Creek Greenway

February 22 I joined with a Leafless Tree I.D. hike sponsored by the Land Trust of North Alabama on the Bradford Creek Greenway. I remain convinced that learning more about Nature amplifies our commitment to Earth stewardship: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/03/07/leafless-tree-i-d-hike-along-bradford-creek-greenway/

March 1, 2020 My Edu Alliance Journal Article on Academic Leadership

I offer global principles for academic leadership in the February 24, 2020 Edu Alliance Journal: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/03/01/my-edu-alliance-journal-article-on-academic-leadership/

February 26, 2020 A Morning Visit to a Nearby Section of Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge with my Six-Year-Old Grandson

Just 15 months from turning 70, I am driven to plant seeds for Earth stewardship. What better way than making sure my own grandchildren carry the torch into tomorrow! Sam and I recently visited nearby Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/02/26/a-morning-visit-to-a-nearby-section-of-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge-with-my-six-year-old-grandson/

Please keep in mind that there are another 200 Posts ranging widely, yet maintaining fidelity to the theme of Nature-Inspired Life and Living. During this time of Covid physical distancing, why not journey back into three years of Nature wandering?!

Watch for coming Posts on a more or less weekly basis.

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

I love hiking and exploring in Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few others lives… sow some seeds for the future

I like to imagine that representative samples of my books appreciate accompanying me into the woods. So far, none has complained nor groaned. Knowing that I am getting way out in front of remote possibility, perhaps there is a book of Steve’s Nature-Inspired Life and Living Poetry awaiting me around the corner of some forested trail!

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2020 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: https://stevejonesgbh.com/contact/

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

Cloud Verse

April 7, 2020/in Explorations of Nature with Poetry, Nature's Inspiration, Spirituality in Nature /by Steve Jones

I’ve published more than 200 Posts in these pages over the past three years. I use a format of photos, reflections, and lessons drawn from places visited in Nature’s realm… here locally and even internationally. Seldom have I ventured beyond simple prose. But now I’ve completed a poetry writing class at the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. I love words, especially words employed to speak of Nature-Inspired Life and Living. So, I’m tentatively and with no small measure of trepidation attempting some verse and free-form!

Clouds

I love clouds. See two previous Posts highlighting my infatuation with them:

https://stevejonesgbh.com/2019/10/17/the-tumbling-mirth-of-sun-split-clouds-sky-gazing-on-a-12-day-national-parks-journey/
https://stevejonesgbh.com/2018/11/07/cheaha-state-park-mid-october-skies-and-clouds/

Normally I build explanatory and reflective text around my embedded photos. I don’t believe that it’s necessary for me to explain, describe, date, or give location for these images that I’ve included in previous Posts. Use your imagination… construct your own story.

Nature’s Cloud Inspiration

We’ll go with that as the poem’s title. I love the scientific names for clouds, using them liberally without definition in my verse. The words alone capture the spirit of my love affair with our vibrant atmosphere. And here’s my poem:

Firmament… a thin layer of heavenly gases

enveloping and sustaining life on Earth

Twenty miles up (or out) noctilucent clouds,

ice crystals at the edge of darkness and space

Closer to home, judgement day apocalyptic,

undulatus aspiratus portending doom

Towering power and fury, cumulonimbus,

of deluge, hail, gale, and lightning stabs

Mare’s tale white-feather brush strokes,

cirrus across deep blue fairness

Foggy obscurity lifting from terra firma,

stratus detail-mush, gray nothingness

Stratus with precipitation merits a moniker

to its own – nimbostratus offers rain and snow

White puffs of fair weather and smooth sailing,

cumulus cotton balls cruising the cerulean sea

And my favorite crowning lofty mountain peaks

is the lenticular, space-ship lenses, still-life beauties

Full-day azure over the barren desert

cloudless emptiness; beauty-less; hopeless

Give me the cloud menagerie of suspended droplets,

salving my eyes; soothing my soul

A forester, I love trees… have for life

but try growing a cloudless tree

Poems are made by fools like me

But only clouds can grow a tree

Clouds and Trees

Poems are made by fools like me

But only clouds can grow a tree

A forester, I love trees… have for life

but try growing a cloudless tree

Poems are made by fools like me

But only clouds can grow a tree

Joyce Kilmer captured the essence of trees and poetry:

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

I’ll continue toying with the idea of employing verse to translate Nature’ beauty, magic, wonder, and awe. Perhaps through the vehicle of poetic expression I can better capture the joy and inspiration that is Nature. For the moment, I’m enjoying the idea of shifting gears now and again from my standard writing in sentences and paragraphs held rigidly to the constraints of grammar and conformity.

Poems are made by fools like me

But only clouds can grow a tree

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

I love hiking and exploring in Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few others lives… sow some seeds for the future

I like to imagine that representative samples of my books appreciate accompanying me into the woods. So far, none has complained nor groaned. Knowing that I am getting way out in front of remote possibility, perhaps there is a book of Steve’s Nature-Inspired Life and Living Poetry awaiting me around the corner of some forested trail!

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2020 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: https://stevejonesgbh.com/contact/

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

Nature Pauses Not for a Human/Viral Pandemic

March 28, 2020/in Explorations of Nature with Poetry, Nature's Inspiration, Updates /by Steve Jones

As I write and publish this brief Post March 28, 2020, our air is thick with pollen — ’tis the season! Six-year-old grandson Sam spent an hour outdoors with us today — social-distancing and all that.

I couldn’t help but share a few photos and write a bit of verse about the paradox of a global viral pandemic changing every facet of our life and living… and Nature proceeding as though nothing is amiss.

Nature Pauses Not for a Human/Viral Pandemic

March 28, 2020 — Covid-19

Impacts human life and living,

Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda)

Simply couldn’t care less

North Alabama catkins

(the pine’s male flowers)

Are ripe and shedding their load…

To grandson Sam’s delight

Warm sun, ready for gathering

Encourages new lateral growth,

Candles reach and lengthen

Ready for chloroplasts to power

Loblolly pine knows not of Covid-19.

Adding a little new wood each year,

The pine knows its future

Is not linked to human fate

Practice Covid-19 avoidance,

Like social distancing and self-isolation;

And dare to venture outside, but

Beware the air thick with spring pollen!

Fitting Photographs

North Alabama catkins

(the pine’s male flowers)

Are ripe and shedding their load…

To grandson Sam’s delight

Warm sun, ready for gathering

Encourages new lateral growth,

Candles reach and lengthen

Ready for chloroplasts to power

Stay safe — enjoy Nature-Inspired Life and Living!

Resurrection Fern — A Metaphor in Verse for Nature’s Simplicity

March 24, 2020/in Explorations of Nature with Poetry, Land Trust of North Alabama /by Steve Jones

11 Photos

An Exemplar for Simplicity in a World of Expanding Complexity

I will mention but not dwell upon the fact that Covid-19 house-arrest spurs reflecting, creating, and writing… and encourages me to flourish in Nature whenever I can. March 21, 2020 I drove the short three miles to Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve to hike the Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail. I know, the old forester below looks like he may already be suffering from some serious malady!

I hiked the day after yet another inch-plus of rain. My timing had purpose — I wanted to see the rich variety of life clinging to trees, especially the amazing resurrection fern… in its full moisture-laden glory. I also saw ubiquitous lichens and mosses in vivid splendor adorning saturated bark, branches, and rocks… their presence highlighted by the deep shade of continuing dense cloud cover. However, today I am focusing on one of my favorite gifts of Nature: resurrection fern.

And as I have recently been emboldened to do (by completing a winter term poetry writing course), I offer today’s reflections principally in verse. Magically, even the trail sign is framed by resurrection fern.

I discovered this morning as I write this that over the past couple of years I have restricted my photography by and large to the verdant, fully-hydrated version of resurrection fern. I could find no clear photos of the desiccated, dry-dormant version. The best I could do to represent that state of shut-down is this massive oak at Camp McDowell adorned with its robe of dry resurrection fern. Ah, if only I had anticipated this Post and compiled a portfolio of withered fern.

So, there you have my foreword, setting the stage for my latest verse… a testament to a wonderfully resilient non-flowering native plant, with a stress-dealing mechanism tested and honed over 360 million years!

Striving for…and with…Simplicity

Release a spore to the wind

Trust it to find suitable anchorage,

This special fern finds all it needs

Perched high in the fork of a tree

Resurrection fern, Pleopeltis michauxiana

Southeastern USA forest resident,

An epiphyte of high aerial regard

Clinging to branches and bark

No parasite this exquisite plant

Non-flowering, just like other pteridophytes,

But vascular, unlike neighbor-mosses,

Yet all are green with chloroplasts ablaze

No need to reach for the sun

The tree does the vertical work,

No need for forest soil and deep roots

Tree surfaces bear water and nutrients

Yet from time to time showers lessen

Hot breezes swing the boughs,

No moisture within reach

Time to close the door… rest

The fern knows the drill,

Responding with adaptation,

Hitting the off switch, drawing within,

Wilting without complaint

Master of dry-spell deception

The fern sleeps with drought,

Desiccated, feigning death, withered

Simply turning life off with ease

Waiting patiently, anxiety-free,

Knowing the rain will come,

As it always does in these humid climes,

Resuscitating the deceased

Springing to life with turgid cells

Moisture awakens the dead,

Resurrected from deepest sleep

Arboreal garden alive and green

No lesser organisms are these,

Finding plenty amid scarcity,

Thriving for 360 million years

Adaptable to whatever tomorrow brings

(Do we humans know the drill,

Responding with science and sense,

Hitting the off switch, drawing within,

Beating Covid-19 with social distance?)

Should humans fail the test,

Ferns will grace the remains, and

Festoon the decay of civilization,

Declaring their reign of simplicity

Release a spore to the wind

Trust it to find suitable anchorage,

An epiphyte of high aerial regard

Clinging to branches and bark

Leonardo da Vinci observed: Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world. I agree… and offer that Nature is the consummate artist.

An epiphyte of high aerial regard

Clinging to branches and bark

Release a spore to the wind

Trust it to find suitable anchorage,

This special fern finds all it needs

Perched high in the fork of a tree

No parasite this exquisite plant

Non-flowering, just like other pteridophytes,

But vascular, unlike neighbor-mosses,

Yet all are green with chloroplasts ablaze

A two-hour Covid-escape hike reveals magic, spurs contemplation, and lifts spirits. Perhaps we require something like a global pandemic to give us pause, consider our place in the world, and draw together for the common good. We need Nature’s places far more than she needs us. No matter our fate, Nature will reach far beyond our time and place.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Natural Rules of Simplicity

I often look back 500 years to seek enlightenment from Leonardo da Vinci, who saw wisdom in Nature and expressed it simply and profoundly. Some examples:

In her (nature’s) inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.
Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.
Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.
Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.
Nature never breaks her own laws.

Resurrection fern, whose moniker so beautifully expresses its secret to life and living, is simplicity itself:

An ancient form, long ago proven fit and sustainable
Spore disseminated, wind-dependent
An epiphyte, elevated anchorage courtesy of trees
Stress-coping as its mainstay
Relatively free from grazers
Writes no poetry
Concerns itself not with philosophy, fate, or social distancing
It is what it is

Simplicity rules the day, the year, the centuries, the eons!

Thoughts and Reflections

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All three are available on Amazon and other online sources.

Here are the three succinct truths I draw from this Blog Post:

Simplicity ensures evolutionary success
Nature is the consummate artist
Nature’s power to inspire and lift us is unfathomable — jettison the potential mental, physical, social, and spiritual anguish of Covid-19 by escaping to nearby Nature

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire and Reward you… and keep you healthy!

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2020 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: https://stevejonesgbh.com/contact/

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

I love hiking and exploring in Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few others lives… sow some seeds for the future

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

Release a spore to the wind

Trust it to find suitable anchorage,

An epiphyte of high aerial regard

Clinging to branches and bark

Lyrical Expressions in Forest Pathogens… Under a Covid-19 Cloud

March 19, 2020/in Explorations of Nature with Poetry, Nature's Inspiration /by Steve Jones

I write these words March 18, 2020, sheltered in-place in the midst of uncertainty as we face the Corvid-19 pandemic. As a forester (1973 BS) and applied ecologist (1987 PhD), my passion in semi-retirement is Nature, especially trees and forests. With all of my speaking, teaching, and consulting gigs on Covid-hold, I allocate my time among writing, reading, and venturing into Nature’s nearby wildness, camera in-hand and mind alive with thoughts of my place in this world.

Covid-induced house-fever (not of the body temperature kind) provoked me to contemplate the role of all organisms in the great circle and cycle of life and death. I loved undergraduate and graduate courses on forest pathology; I am still fascinated by tree pathogens. Because I have just finished taking a course on writing poetry, I offer you another Great Blue Heron Blog Post in verse… combining tree diseases (pandemics of a different sort) and Covid-19 considerations, thoughts, and reflections.

Trees, too, suffer pandemics

All in the cycle of life and death

Da Vinci, master of simplicity, said,

In her (nature’s) inventions

Nothing is lacking

And nothing is superfluous

And below is my verse. Again, don’t expect rhyme and standard rhythm, nor a scientist’s pure explanation of the respective diseases. View it as more freelance, the musings of a naturalist… fueled by passion and philosophy… and a zeal for words.

The Lyrical Intonations: The Grand Circle of Life and Death

All life strives to persevere

Whether human or Covid-19,

Securing the essentials

And seeding the next generation

Trees, too, suffer pandemics

All in the cycle of life and death,

Their Latin monikers, harsh

Yet lyrical… even elegant

Chestnut blight, an Asian import

Eliminating America’s Tree,

A Cryphonectria parasitica pandemic

All in the cycle of life and death

Dutch elm disease, a fungal immigrant

Swept shade from New England streets,

Ophiostoma ulmi, guilty as charged

All in the cycle of life and death

White pine blister rust, another import

Threatening the pine of my youth,

Cronartium ribicola, a fungal nasty

All in the cycle of life and death

No doubt, I am in love with oaks,

Facing oak wilt’s death threat

Ceratocystis fagacearum,

All in the cycle of life and death

Colluding with beech scale insect

Beech bark disease of European origin,

Cryptococcus fagisuga, deadly force

All in the cycle of life and death

Courier of spring’s glory

Blunted by dogwood anthracnose,

Discula destructiva, foe of beauty

All in the cycle of life and death

Loblolly pine of my industry days

Cursed by fusiform rust infection,

Cronartium quercuum, dealing woe

All in the cycle of life and death

All life strives to persevere

Whether plant pathogen or Covid-19,

Seeding the next generation

All in the cycle of life and death

Sobering reality of lesser organisms

Impacting human life and economy,

We learn their ways to reduce consequences

All in the cycle of life and death

Da Vinci, master of simplicity, said,

In her (nature’s) inventions

Nothing is lacking

And nothing is superfluous

Whether human dreams, or

Covid’s brute determination

To live, flourish, and reproduce,

All in the grand circle of life and death

Stating the obvious, death is the final chapter of life; death leads to renewal. All cells furnish nutrients to some consumer organism. Fungal hyphae feeding on dead wood in the two photos below are arranging their next meal, extending mushrooms to the trunk surface to distribute spores to tomorrow’s host.

Virginia pine at Buck’s Pocket State Park, dead of unknown causes… perhaps daring to select a precarious perch on the rim rock.

Spotted this twin sweetgum March 18, 2020 on one of my Covid-house-arrest escapes to Bradford Creek Greenway. Buttressed base evidences deep heart rot, a fungal infection established decades ago. The stems have now split; the hollow right fork shattering eight feet above ground.

Da Vinci, master of simplicity, said,

In her (nature’s) inventions

Nothing is lacking

And nothing is superfluous

A massive bur oak, dead of unknown causes, at the edge of gallery forest cover in Kansas’ Konza Prairie Biological Station… perhaps succumbing to more than two centuries of harsh life. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.

All individuals of every species across 3.5 billion years of life on Earth have succumbed, or will die. Understanding that death is integral to life does not diminish the import of our Covid-19 pandemic. I offer these remarks only to acknowledge that like every living organism, we humans are host to many infectious agents, some ancient and some still emerging and evolving. Unlike the American chestnut (America’s Tree) and the introduced Cryphonectria parasitica, we humans possess the means to combat Covid-19 through the science of modern medicine, just as we did with typhoid fever, smallpox, bubonic plague (black death), and polio. I take comfort that science will prevail.

All life strives to persevere

Whether plant pathogen or Covid-19,

Seeding the next generation

All in the cycle of life and death

Meantime, I shall continue Corvid house-arrest, occasionally venturing into local Nature for doses of Vitamin-N. All of us want to avoid the sorry condition I feigned below:

Thoughts and Reflections

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All three are available on Amazon and other online sources.

Here are the three succinct truths I draw from this Blog Post:

All living cells are subject to infectious agents, some harmless, others deadly
We have always been, along with every form of life on Earth, part of the endless circle of life and death
Nature’s power to inspire and lift us is unfathomable — jettison the potential mental, physical, social, and spiritual anguish of Covid-19 by escaping to nearby Nature

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire and Reward you… and keep you healthy!

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2020 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: https://stevejonesgbh.com/contact/

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

I love hiking and exploring in Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few others lives… sow some seeds for the future

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

Nature Poetry: Sowing Seeds for Earth Stewardship

March 11, 2020/in Explorations of Nature with Poetry, Nature's Inspiration, Updates /by Steve Jones

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

Robert Louis Stevenson

I am committed to Earth Stewardship, a mission component driving my entire life in these years of semi-retirement. Spurred by being no longer fully employed, watching the first two of our five grandchildren nudge to within a few months of their teenage years, and feeling both knees (among other body elements) making woods hiking more difficult, I am focusing more and more on leaving some kind of legacy. Sam, the youngest of the five, enjoys hitting the local wildness with me. I am thrilled with his enthusiasm for exploring the woods! Here he is with a lichen-encrusted American beech.

I’ve published these Great Blue Heron Posts for nearly four years, reaching a tally of 200+ Posts. The vast majority have integrated text and photos, explaining and reflecting on Nature’s magic, beauty, wonder, and awe. I’ve striven to present written messages with inspiring, grammatically correct verbiage. I took a course on Writing Poetry during the 2020 winter quarter of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. I love words… and their integration with my photos. Now I’m ready to try words in verse. I want you to know that it is not easy for this old forester to bare his soul in what for me is a brand new medium. Don’t look for the rhyming verse that most people consider poetry. Neither should you look for the mushy stanzas of love, epic challenges, and tragedy…rooted symbolically in odd twists and turns of phrase. My verses are low on deep hidden meanings and far-reaching interpretation requiring exhaustive study. I am far too literal with words to wear the reader out trying to interpret what I really meant.

Sam is my Nature buddy. My role as his trail guide is simple — passing the fever of Earth Stewardship to him in a manner purposeful, yet subtle, enough that he ultimately shares my addiction into the deep future. That he embraces and spreads the Earth Stewardship gospel. Here is my poem, Sowing Seeds.

Sowing Seeds

Steve Jones March 7, 2020

Inoculating youth

With the love of Nature,

and joy in wildness

Encouraging him with Nature immersion

To embrace his responsibility

To know and understand,

To respect and enjoy

To steward the future

He’s not just a boy; he’s tomorrow

Nothing else counts so much

As devoting myself to the future,

Making sure Sam knows his joy,

And accepts his burden

I pass the torch to him

With passion and purpose

He accepts it without yet knowing

How blessed he is to light the way

Inoculating him

With the love of Nature

I pass the torch to him

With passion and purpose

He accepts it without yet knowing

How blessed he is to light the way

He’s not just a boy; he’s tomorrow

Nothing else counts so much

As devoting myself to the future,

Making sure Sam knows his joy,

And accepts his burden

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

I love hiking and exploring in Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few others lives… sow some seeds for the future

I like to imagine that representative samples of my books appreciate accompanying me into the woods. So far, none has complained nor groaned. Knowing that I am getting way out in front of remote possibility, perhaps there is a book of Steve’s Nature-Inspired Life and Living Poetry awaiting me around the corner of some forested trail!

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2020 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: https://stevejonesgbh.com/contact/

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com