Quote of the Day - 1/19/2012

I live in the tame and visit the wild and never forget the difference between the two. - Janice Emily Bowers (books)

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What an elegant way of articulating what is true for the relationship most of us have with wild environments. It is our preference to feel safe from the wild world where we live while appreciating that the wild still thrives. We want to tame - to control - so that we feel safe and secure. Our control of the wild is minimal; we are less confident that we will always survive or even understand what it contains.

Still - there are occasions where the wild world can be viewed from the security of our tame life:

 

  • Deer coming into the backyard, seen from a window 3 stories above
  • A woodpecker in the top of a tree with dead branches on a walk through a formal garden
  • Jack-in-the-Pulpits beside a boardwalk through a scrap of woods
  • The rosy light of dawn on the winter trees seen from the kitchen window

And those add a blessing to the day.