#glenlauder • Tenneson Woolf

October 17, 2016

Nature Never Hurries

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“Nature never hurries, yet everything is accomplished.” — Lao Tzu, Chineses Philosopher, 6th Century BC

Thank you Glen Lauder for sending beautiful nature photos recently with this Lao Tzu caption. The photo above is one that I took from Stewart Falls, Utah in 2009. I spent the better part of a day there, alone. Some of it was taking pictures of what amazingly grows in rocks. I think of it as an irrepressible spirit of life.

Some things can’t help but grow. Can’t not blossom. It is this way with human beings also. And with human beings in groups. I’ve seen it many times. And irrepressible life generated by the most simple interactions, that grows from even very hard places.

September 6, 2016

Summer Rain

I’ve been enjoying a book of Maori proverbs lately. It was given to me by friend and colleague, Mary Alice Arthur, when I first went to New Zealand in 2009. The particular book I have is called, Earth, Sea, Sky: Images and Maori Proverbs from the Natural World of Aotearoa New Zealand. It is by Patricia and Waiariki Grace, with photographs from Craig Potton. I love the short and simple phrases that come from Maori tradition and from this land that has claimed a good chunk of my heart.

The picture above is one that I took last year, near Wellington. I was enjoying the distant horizon and the time with my then 18 year-old son. From the book, the proverb is:

He taru kahika.

Walk on,
as it is only the summer rain falling.

It’s a reminder to be aware of small adversity, and thus not to let it be a hindrance.