Cedar Waxwing Silhouette — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Spiritualists believe waxwings to be a symbol of selfless generosity. The symbolism of the waxwing totem is believed to teach selflessness and the practice of giving to others for their benefit, and not your own. Waxwings are traditionally associated with the politeness you should have when you give away to others the thing you have craved for or cherished for so long.
I dream of a quiet man who explains nothing and defends nothing, but only knows where the rarest wildflowers are blooming, and who goes, and finds that he is smiling not by his own will.
black and gray drowns out the blue oceans full of plastic poison in our water virus in the air deserts are dryer water in the streets glasers are melting forests are burning times are changing
I bring them from the mountains, from the sea, from the edge of streams and look at them, heft them, hold them hard while they keep holding themselves harder. Is it because they haven’t had to change their surfaces in our time though, in theirs, they’ve suffered the blunt demands of ice and water and wind and god knows fire, been cracked and frozen, thawed, made molten again and again have started over grinding and being ground from monument to boulder, to rock, to river stone, to gravel, to pebbles, to sand, to slurries of grit, to dust?
Teaching Elementary School Students Geology in Sabino Canyon (January 2019)
Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) stopped offering their Elementary School Nature program in March of 2020 because of the pandemic. Since teachers are no longer able to bring their students to the canyon, SCVN has begun creating a series of videos, Sabino Canyon, The Canyon Classroom, and placed them on YouTube.
Several videos have been created to date. The most recent one is Harvester Ants.
Naturalist Jeff Hahn with Elementary School Students — Images by kenne
I don’t fear death so much as I fear its prologues: loneliness, decrepitude, pain, debilitation, depression, senility. After a few years of those, I imagine death presents like a holiday at the beach.