Bugs to Bhakti: Nee Nee's Nature Blog

Go Down

2011-08-06T07:43:00.001-07:00

Go Down

Get out of the sky

These shiny bright places

The clean spaces

Go Down

Into the roots and mud

The leaves and bugs

The rot and ruin

The dark, rich womb

Here

Your Heart is rooted

By the sturdy trunk

By the wide ropey feet

Stay

Send it up

Arms wide

Earth to Sky

Yogi Berry

2010-07-13T06:01:00.000-07:00

The wild black raspberries (Rubus occidentalis) have been incredibly abundant this year and I have been picking gallons of them. These dark, tangy berries dwell on stalks among the tangled profusion of locust, honeysuckle, goldenrod, and multiflora rose that surrounds my family's home. To harvest these delectable globes one must sacrifice at least a small amount of skin because it involves wading into a thicket full of sharp thorns; even long sleeves and long pants cannot provide full protection. However, I have found both the process of garnering the berries and the resulting pies and jams to be worth the scratches.
The harvesting process is a sensual meditation. It starts by my wandering a few meters on the trails that surround our home until I spot the dark, purple-black hue of ripe berries. I pick from the edge at first but am slowly led deeper into the thicket by the lure of more ripe berries within. Almost in unison, my eyes spot a ripe berry and my hand reaches out to pluck it and place it in my pail. Over and over again, this action occurs until my mind is lulled into quietude and finds union with body, breath, and surroundings. My concentration on picking berries (dharana) slips in and out of a meditative state (dhyana). Sweet fragrances tickle my nose, the calling of birds sings gently in my ears, and, under the trees, I am cool in the thicket even though the thermometer says we are experiencing record-breaking heat. My hands become stained a lovely purple-black and occasionally I pop a particularly large specimen into my mouth to savor the rich, tangy, sweet flavor that varies with each berry.

I slowly peregrinate the entire five acres dancing in and out of the bushes. In my circuit, I find intimacy with little grottoes of trees, shrubs, and piles of brush. Each little place has its own spirit--its own song that it sings to me. I am reminded of T.C. McLuhan's descriptions of the relationships between Aboriginal Australians and land. In her book The Way of the Earth, McLuhan reveals how the Aborigines view the land as containing many sacred sites. These sites are marked by landforms (e.g., a rock formation, a spring, a cave, etc.) that ancestral beings created during the "Dreamtime." The "Dreamtime" or "Dreaming" is both a past time of creation and heroic acts by mythological figures and a spiritual world that exists in the current time and place. For the Aborigines, the Dreamtime sites must be tended to in the proper way as they are places of deep connection to the spiritual world as well as providers of worldly needs (e.g., food, water, shelter, etc.). Similarly, for me and my family, the berry "grottoes" around our house yield both spiritual and physical sustenance.

The Nature of Yoga

2010-06-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

While hiking, I often take some time to meditate in a meadow or do postures under a tree. I have found that my mind finds peace easily in these settings. Think about your own experiences. Are there outdoor activities that bring calm to your brain? Gardening, kayaking, bicycling, sailing, and sitting quietly on the porch in the sun are a few potential examples.

“Yogas citta vritta nirodhah.” The second sutra from the first chapter of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras simply states that yoga is the quieting of the mind. Thus, the peace we experience in natural environments is yoga. But exactly what is it about the outdoors that helps us find quietude?

The word “yoga” itself means union. During yoga, many layers of mental complexity fall away and our minds unite with our most essential functions—the pumping of the heart and the movement of the breath. Natural environments facilitate this union of mind and body because the materials and rhythms of nature are the same as those found inside us. The earth and stones are like our bones. The flowing of water reminds us of the movement of our blood. The wind is the same as the air moving in and out of our lungs. The chorus of birds calling to each other is akin to the millions of neurons signaling to each other throughout the nervous system.

In natural places, it is easier to connect to our most essential nature because that nature is reflected all around us. We experience a union of internal and external and realize, on an intuitive level, that all boundaries are artificial. In short, nature brings the experience of oneness that is the ultimate yoga.

Next time you are outside on a lovely day, maybe take a little time to do some asana, meditation, or breathing exercises. You might be surprised at how quickly your mind finds calm. Also, simply pay attention to your breathing and to your thoughts next time you are outside doing your favorite activity. You may find that the yoga has found you!

Great Gulf

2010-05-25T07:55:00.000-07:00

I look down into the clear water
of this little, protected pond
and I see millions of black droplets
swimming and squirming together.

Tadpoles,
all moving in the same direction.

I think of the Gulf,
1000 miles away,
and of black droplets,
of a different kind,
swimming and squirming,
together in great masses
with currents
to places yet unknown.

I hear the scientists on the radio
talking in even tones about how they
won't be able to give numbers
until years have passed
and more data is gathered.

Please,
please,
please
do not find
false comfort in their objective uncertainty,
our inability to put numbers in boxes,
to encapsulate and order
what has happened --

a Great Gulf between the knowledge of our minds
and the knowing of our hearts.

Mayapple magic

2010-04-16T17:15:00.001-07:00

Each Spring, thousands of small white fingers reach up through the loose soil and brittle strata of last year's leaves. Each finger splits open at the tip and out shoots a small, tightly furled green umbrella. The bright sun pours down through naked trees that are only contemplating the prospect of leaves and these green umbrellas unfurl in clusters of several hundred. In some spots, the forest floor looks like a crowded beachfront.

These are the mayapples (Family: Berberidacea, Genus and species: Podophyllum peltatum). After a long winter, their appearance is almost magical, akin to a fairy ring of mushrooms appearing overnight. They are modest plants, often hiding their fruit and flowers beneath a cloak of greenery. If you find a mayapple, peek underneath its skirt to find, depending on the time of year, either a small green globe (flower in the bud), dainty white flower, or modest, lemon-shaped fruit. While the fruit is said to be edible but tasteless, all other parts of the plant are not to be eaten as they contain toxins. The Native Americans did consume and use the roots for a variety of medicinal purposes and, in Western medicine, chemicals from the plant are the same as those used in some cancer treatments.

About this blog . . .

2010-04-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

Hi! Welcome to my science/nature/yoga blog. Almost every day I go outside and see/hear/touch/smell/taste something that causes me to have yoga with some aspect of the natural environment. Yoga means union and is simultaneously a physical, emotional, intellectual, and, some might say, spiritual experience of something. It is when your witnessing of say, the call of a robin, is more than just a vague logging of sound or even the logical recognition of "oh yeah that was the sound of a robin." Through this blog, I want to share and encourage others to go outside and have their own small adventures. My title "Bugs to Bhakti: Nee Nee's Nature Blog" reveals my intention. "Bugs" indicates that I will provide factual, scientific information about my observations culled from trusted sources. "Bhakti" is a Sanskrit word/idea meaning devotion and indicates emotional and spiritual aspects. "Nee Nee" is what my 19 month old niece calls me and belies playfulness and fun. I hope you enjoy all aspects of this work. Please comment and participate!

Squirmy minnows (mayflies)!

2010-04-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

Imagine you are hiking by this small, lovely stream in upstate New York. Your big human foot crunches down on some shale next to one of the clear, gravelly pools and you can't help but notice one hundred dark little squiggles bolting and squirming in every direction in response to the tectonic disturbance that just rippled through their watery home. Your brain immediately thinks "fishies!" or, maybe, "tadpoles!" However, tadpoles prefer still water and fish are generally found in larger waterbodies. The little squirmers you saw are probably lacking a backbone and may, in fact, be mayflies! Take a close look at the video below. I snuck up on a few of these critters and gave them a gentle poke so you could see how fish-like their motions can be. I apologize for the video quality. I took the video with my camera and will, at some point, acquire some better gear.

See how many mayflies you can find in the picture above. Mayflies are one of many orders of insects that have an aquatic juvenile stage. In other words, after these insects hatch out of eggs, the spend a period of time in water eating and growing before they transform completely in appearance and emerge onto land to mate. The mayflies shown here are commonly called "comb-mouth minnow mayflies." The "minnow" part of the name refers to their fish-like appearance and movements. The "comb-mouth" refers to the shape of their mouth parts which they probably use to gather and scrape very small pieces of food (e.g., periphyton, diatoms) off of rocks. They are in the family Ameletidae and in the genus Ameletus (in case you like taxonomy). Ameletus is considered very sensitive to environmental pollution/disturbance. Thus, you are most likely to find them in small streams in wooded areas and are unlikely to find them in streams in agricultural fields or urban areas. Enjoy the close-up of Ameletus below ( Donald S. Chandler/ Discover Life ).If you want to see what this animal looks like when it emerges onto land click here. I highly recommend going out and seeing what kind of creatures you can spot in a stream near you. You can get your hands wet and gently turn over rocks or you can just spend a little time gazing into the watery realms watching the sunlight flicker over rocks and leaves while listening to a singsong babble. A very useful yoga pose for watery gazing is the stream side squat (shown below).