Yesterday I spent time observing the territorial and migratory behaviors of the Rufous and Allens Hummingbirds.
It happened that I came across this beautiful species of lichen commonly called Candy Lichen. The scientific name is Icmadophia ericetourm.
This lichen is not uncommon here in Oregon, however, it is a favorite of mine. I sat next to the lichen beneath a large manzinita shrub with a male Allen's Hummingbird performing his aerial display above me.
All the while, I was present in the Presence and such spirit of thanksgiving can upon me for the certain knowledge of a renewed mind... of a consciousness and conscience no longer anchored in the things of the world, but anchored in eternity even as I walk amongst and observe the beauty of the natural world. To know eternity in mutability is a blessing. I became mindful of Emerson's Poem:
GOOD-BYE
GOOD-BYE, proud world! I'm going home:
Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine.
Long through thy weary crowds I roam;
A river-ark on the ocean brine,
Long I've been tossed like the driven foam;
But now, proud world! I'm going home.
Good-bye to Flattery's fawning face;
To Grandeur with his wise grimace;
To upstart Wealth's averted eye;
To supple Office, low and high;
To crowded halls, to court and street;
To frozen hearts and hasting feet;
To those who go, and those who come;
Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home.
I am going to my own hearth-stone,
Bosomed in yon green hills alone,—
A secret nook in a pleasant land,
Whose groves the frolic fairies planned;
Where arches green, the livelong day,
Echo the blackbird's roundelay,
And vulgar feet have never trod
A spot that is sacred to thought and God.
O, when I am safe in my sylvan home,
I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome;
And when I am stretched beneath the pines,
Where the evening star so holy shines,
I laugh at the lore and the pride of man,
At the sophist schools and the learned clan;
For what are they all, in their high conceit,
When man in the bush with God may meet?
Then it came upon me. I'm no longer going home. I am home! Presence is home! Presence is sufficent! I am "safe in my sylvan home" by the power and strength of the Spirit's presence within me and my presence in the Spirit. I am home both literally and figuration.
