Death in the Afternoon

Here his mate is injured and her condition is grave.

He brought her food and attended to her with love and compassion.

Shocked at her death he tries to move her.

Aware that his sweetheart is dead and will never

come back to him, he cries with adoring love.

None know how long he stood beside her and cried,

devastated by the loss.

Finally, aware that she would never return to him, he stands

beside her lifeless body in sadness and sorrow.

Millions of people cried after viewing these photos throughout America, Europe and India . It is said that the photographer sold these pictures for a nominal fee to the most famous newspaper in France. All copies of that newspaper were sold out on the day these pictures were published. And some people think animals don't have a brain or feelings.......... Do animals have souls????

*****

The Death Of The Bird

For every bird there is this last migration;

Once more the cooling year kindles her heart;

With a warm passage to the summer station

Love pricks the course in lights across the chart.

Year after year a speck on the map divided

By a whole hemisphere, summons her to come;

Season after season, sure and safely guided,

Going away she is also coming home;

And being home, memory becomes a passion

With which she feeds her brood and straws her nest;

Aware of ghosts that haunt the heart's possession

And exiled love mourning within the breast.

The sands are green with a mirage of valleys;

The palm-tree casts a shadow not its own;

Down the long architrave of temple or palace

Blows a cool air from moorland scraps of stone.

And day by day the whisper of love grows stronger,

The delicate voice, more urgent with despair,

Custom and fear constraining her no longer,

Drives her at last on the waste leagues of air.

A vanishing speck in those inane dominions,

Single and frail, uncertain of her place.

Alone in the bright host of her companions,

Lost in the blue unfriendliness of space.

She feels it close now, the appointed season:

The invisible thread is broken as she flies;

Suddenly, without warning, without reason,

The guiding spark of instinct winks and dies.

Try as she will the trackless world delivers

No way, the wilderness of light no sign,

The immense and complex map of hills and rivers

Mocks her small wisdom with its vast design.

And darkness rises from the eastern valleys,

And the winds buffet her with their hungry breath,

And the great earth, with neither grief not malice,

Receives the tiny burden of her death.

-- A. D. Hope

A simple poem, but one that has always impressed me for the quiet way it

builds up in force and slowly expands to show her smallness against the

immensity of what she sets out to do.

peacesojourner

Sunday Reflection - Eagles in a Storm

Eagles In A Storm


Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks? The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm.

While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it. 

The eagle does not escape the storm. It simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm. 



When the storms of life come upon us - and all of us will experience them - we can rise above them by setting our minds and our belief toward God. The storms do not have to overcome us.

We can allow God's power to lift us above them. 

God enables us to ride the winds of the storm that bring sickness, tragedy, failure and disappointment in our lives.

We can soar above the storm. 

Remember, it is not the burdens of life that weigh us down, it is how we handle them.

*****

Isaiah 40: 29 He strengthens those who are weak and tired. 31 But those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles; they will run and not get weary; they will walk and not grow weak.

peacesojourner

Sunday Reflection - Consider the Lilies of the Field

Do not worry about your life, what you will eat;

nor about the body, what you will put on. . .

Consider the ravens,

for they neither sow nor reap,

which have neither storehouse nor barn;

and God feeds them.

Of how much more value are you than the birds? . . . .

Consider the lilies, how they grow:

they neither toil nor spin;

and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory

was not arrayed like one of these.

If then God so clothes the grass,

which today is in the field

and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,

how much more you, O you of little faith?

And do not seek what you should eat

or what you should drink,

nor have an anxious mind.

For all these things the nations of the world seek after,

and your Father knows that you need these things.

But seek the Kingdom of God,

and all these things shall be added to you.

--Jesus Christ (Luke 12:22, 30-31)

Poet - Paul Laurence Dunbar - Born June 27, 1872

Sympathy

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!

When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;

When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,

And the river flows like a stream of glass;

When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,

And the faint perfume from its chalice steals--

I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats its wing

Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;

For he must fly back to his perch and cling

When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;

And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars

And they pulse again with a keener sting--

I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,

When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,--

When he beats his bars and he would be free;

It is not a carol of joy or glee,

But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,

But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings--

I know why the caged bird sings!

We Wear the Mask

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

We wear the mask!

Paul Laurence Dunbar

*****

Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first African-American poets to gain national
recognition. He was born in Dayton, Ohio, on June 27, 1872, to Joshua and Matilda Murphy Dunbar, freed slaves from Kentucky. His parents separated shortly after his birth, but Dunbar would draw on their stories of plantation life throughout his writing career.

By the age of fourteen, Dunbar had poems published in the Dayton Herald. While in high school he edited the Dayton Tattler, a short-lived black newspaper published by classmate Orville Wright. Despite being a fine student, Dunbar was financially unable to attend college and took a job as an elevator operator.

In 1893, Dunbar self-published a collection called Oak and Ivy. To help pay the publishing costs, he sold the book for a dollar to people riding in his elevator.

Later that year, Dunbar moved to Chicago, hoping to find work at the first World's Fair. He was befriended by Frederick Douglass, who found him a job as a clerk, and also arranged for him to read a selection of his poems. Douglass said of Dunbar that he was "the most promising young colored man in America."

By 1895, Dunbar's poems began appearing in major national newspapers and magazines, such as The New York Times. With the help of friends, he published the second collection, Majors and Minors (1895). The poems written in Standard English were called "majors," and those in dialect were termed "minors." Although the "major" poems outnumber those written in dialect, it was the dialect poems that brought Dunbar the most attention. This recognition helped Dunbar gain national and international acclaim, and in 1897 he embarked on a six-month reading tour of England. He also brought out a new collection, Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896).

Upon returning to America, Dunbar received a clerkship at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, and shortly thereafter he married the writer Alice Ruth Moore.

In 1898, Dunbar's health deteriorated; he believed the dust in the library contributed to his tuberculosis and left his job to dedicate himself full time to writing and giving readings. Over the next five years, he would produce three more novels and three short story collections.

Dunbar separated from his wife in 1902, and shortly thereafter he suffered a nervous breakdown and a bout of pneumonia. Although ill Dunbar continued to write poems. His collections from this time include Lyrics of Love and Laughter (1903), Howdy, Howdy, Howdy (1905), and Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (1905). These books confirmed his position as America's premier black poet.

Dunbar's steadily deteriorating health caused him to return to his mother's home in Dayton, Ohio, where died on February 9, 1906, at the age of thirty-three.

*****

As a young woman I had never heard of Paul Laurence Dunbar until I met a person who had graduated from a high school in Alabama that was named after the poet. I researched the poets work and enjoyed his poetry. I am still a fan today.

peacesojourner

Who just knocked at my door......................

Stirred by a knock at the door,

a squirrel peers out of his nest

to find a woodpecker,

making a visit to the maple tree where

he resides in Orchard Park

Mark Mulville / Buffalo News

Things That Make You Go Hmmm....Dead Birds and Fish

There are some things in the news that really catch my attention. The following headline “Thousands of dead birds and fish in Arkansas leave many scratching their heads” , did just that.

On roads, on roofs, on lawns, up to 5,000 blackbirds fell within a one-mile area. Most of them were dead.

The report stated that approximately 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky over a mile of land near Beebe, a small town in northwest Arkansas, and observers spotted the fish kill near the town of Ozark. The recent wildlife deaths in Arkansas that happened around New Year’s Day is definitely a mysterious incident.

No one seems to know what caused the deaths, but there are many theories and various conclusions from local authorities:

• "Test results usually were inconclusive, but the birds showed physical trauma and that the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail."

• Because it happened New Year's Eve, some officials suggest that revelers shooting fireworks may have spooked the birds, to the point that they died en masse from stress-induced cardiac arrest.

• "It is unlikely they were poisoned but a necropsy is the only way to determine if the birds died from trauma or toxin." Tests were to begin Monday.

• A state veterinarian states that preliminary necropsy results show that the birds died of multiple blunt trauma to their vital organs.

This is not a rural gravel road. It's a Louisiana waterway, its surface completely covered with dead sea life -- a mishmash of species of fish, crabs, stingray and eel. This incident took place in a stretch of coastal Louisiana that was hit hard this summer by oil from BP's busted Gulf well.

This massive fish kill occurred 125 miles west of the site, wildlife officials say that the estimated 100,000 drum fish discovered by a tugboat captain over a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River appears to be a natural occurrence that isn't tied to the bird kill in any way.

According to news reports fish kills are fairly common along the Gulf Coast, particularly during the summer in the area near the mouth of the Mississippi, the site of this kill. The area is rife with dead zones -- stretches where sudden oxygen depletion can cause widespread death. But those kills tend to be limited to a single species of fish, rather than the broad sort of die-off involved in this kill.

• And therein lies the concern of Gulf residents, who suspect this may be yet another side effect of the catastrophic BP oil spill.

• Various species of single-celled plantlike organisms flourish in waters enriched with chemical nutrients -- organisms that go on to vastly deplete the oxygen in the water they inhabit.

• The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries investigated the fish kill and determined that it was the result of low oxygen levels caused by low tides and high temperatures.

So there you have it - more than 5,000 dead birds and more than 100,000 dead fish, crabs, stingray and eel. All died during New Year's Night without any immediate explanation.

(Information compiled from various news reports)

It certainly gives me plenty to ponder about.

What do you think? What is your theory?

Definitely comes under the heading of "Things that make you go hmmm!"

peacesojourner

Message from above.................

Messages from above are all around us if we just keep our

eyes open to see them :-)

Buffalo Harbor Cruise on 'Miss Buffalo II' - Part II

Buffalo Harbor Cruise on 'Miss Buffalo' - Part II

As we travelled along the water the tour guide pointed out many of the birds that were nestled along the water's edge

A mother duck with her chicks

We actually sighted kingfishers and great blue herons, white egrets, osprey and other beautiful birds that were nesting along the water's edge. Their colors blended into the rock formations and it was difficult to take photos of them. They can be sighted between April and August when they fly southward.

There is a nesting colony on nearby Motor and Strawberry Islands.

Photographer of this bird unknown

To those who live in Buffalo have you ever wondered what this building is? It is the Emerald Channel Water Intake Building - with the Peace Bridge in the background

The 1907 building takes in 125 million gallons of drinking water for Buffalo every day. Because the intake operates by gravity, the building is rarely visited.

Water rushes into the round brick and concrete building through grates and collects in a circular pool. The water drops 60 feet to a 12-foot diameter, mile-long concrete tunnel burrowed under the river bed. It ends up at the Col. Ward Pumping Station at the foot of Porter Avenue, where it is treated at the filtration plant and sent throughout the city.

Atop the red roof is a guard light for passing ships. Around the exterior wall is a balcony embroidered by curving wrought iron.

1856 Horseshoe Reef Light

with over 1,000 cormorant nests settled on every part of the reef

Between Buffalo and Fort Erie, the International Railroad Bridge was completed in 1873; that bridge was replaced by the present one in 1900.

The Black Rock Rail Yard handled both passenger service and commercial transport of goods into and out of Canada. The railroad bridge remains in heavy usage and is one of the most important rail crossings between the United States and Canada.

The Black Rock Lock located in Buffalo is 650 feet (200 m) in length and 70 feet (21 m) in wide. There is only one chamber and the total weight of the gate is 480 tons.

The lock has been a part of Black Rock since the state of New York built the

Erie Canal in 1833.

Today Black Rock is home to Rich's Research Center and Rich Products, one of Buffalo' largest private employers

Ferry Street Lift Bridge

Because of its strategic position across the Niagara River from Canada, Black Rock was an important crossing place for African-Americans escaping slavery via the Underground Railroad. This heritage is celebrated with an annual Underground Railroad Re-Enactment at Broderick Park on Squaw Island at Niagara and Ferry Streets, the site of a ferry crossing prior to the construction of passenger bridges.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Boathouse was built more recently in 2008

As we travelled past the boathouses we could see the graffiti that was created by the West Side Rowing Club high schoolers - it seems it is the tradition that each year's winner of the rowing events record their victory on the side walls of the river.

On most days river boating, fishing, and the picturesque recreational activities of the West Side Rowing Club still continue.

Sunday morning outing

We travelled under the Peace Bridge which is an international bridge between Canada and the United States at the east end of Lake Erie at the source of the Niagara River. It connects the City of Buffalo, New York in the United States to the Town of Fort Erie, Ontario in Canada.

There are five arched spans over the Niagara The total length is 5,800 feet (1,768 m). On June 1, 1927 the bridge was opened to the public.

The Peace Bridge was named to commemorate 100 years of peace between the United States and Canada.

The bridge remains one of North America's important commercial ports - four thousand trucks cross it daily and it is still possible to walk to Canada over the bridge. However, more recently it is important to have your passport with you due to the increased security screening.

*****

It was raining during the three hour boat ride and you will notice that most of the photos have a grey aura to them.

While on the boat I learned that port side means left and and starboard means right and that

New York offers free fishing on June 26 -27th when one can fish without a licence.

If you find yourself in Buffalo I encourage you to take a cruise around the harbor. The boat's narrator has a good knowledge of the area's flora and fauna and so many snippets of interesting information - I have recorded just a small portion of the journey here.

peacesojourner

photos by peacesojourner

ANIMALS - come in pairs

Some beautiful photos that I came across - enjoy!

Amit Dave / Reuters

Two of a kind

A pair of chameleons fight inside a park in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.

Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters

Neck and neck

Two giraffes lean against each other at the Botlierskop Game Reserve in Mossel Bay, South Africa

Just Horsing Around

Two horses fight on the grassland near Chifeng, a city in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Winfried Rothermel / AP

Entwined lives

Storks huddle in their nest in Holzen, southern Germany.

Sanjeev Gupta / EPA

A king cobra couple "kiss" at the Van Vihar National Park near Bhopal, India.

Happy News - The Dedication of Mothers - A True Story

This sweet story was sent to me recently by a friend - it happened a year ago but it is still 'happy news' - enjoy!

The Dedication of Mothers:

A True Duck Story from San Antonio, Texas

Motherhood is about commitment. It is also about making the most out of what God has given you so that you can take your little ones to safety and maturity. And sometimes we see this modeled in the most unusual ways. Here is a real life story from the Kingdom of Ducks that was played out in downtown San Antonio recently.

Something really precious happened in downtown San Antonio this week. Michael is an accounting clerk at Frost Bank. He works there in a second story office. Several weeks ago he watched a mother duck choose the concrete awning outside his window as the unlikely place to build a nest above the sidewalk. The mallard laid ten eggs in a nest in the corner of the planter that is perched over 10 feet in the air. She dutifully kept the eggs warm for weeks, and Monday afternoon all of her ten ducklings hatched.

Michael worried all night how the momma duck was going to get those babies safely off their perch in a busy, downtown, urban environment to take to water (which typically happens in the first 48 hours of a duck hatching). Tuesday morning, Michael watched the mother duck encourage her babies to the edge of the perch with the intent to show them how to jump off. Office work came to a standstill as everyone gathered to watch.

The mother flew down below and started quacking to her babies above. In disbelief Michael watched as the first fuzzy newborn trustingly toddled to the edge and astonishingly leapt into thin air, crashing onto the cement below. Michael couldn’t stand to watch this risky effort nine more times! He dashed out of his office and ran down the stairs to the sidewalk where the first obedient duckling, near its mother, was resting in a stupor after the near-fatal fall. Michael stood out of sight under the awning-planter, ready to help.

As the second one took the plunge, Michael jumped forward and caught it with his bare hands before it hit the concrete. Safe and sound, he set it down it by its momma and the other stunned sibling, still recovering from that painful leap.

One by one the babies continued to jump. Each time Michael hid under the awning just to reach out in the nick of time as the duckling made its free fall. At the scene the busy downtown sidewalk traffic came to a standstill. Time after time, Michael was able to catch the remaining eight and set them by their approving mother.

At this point Michael realized the duck family had only made part of its dangerous journey. They had two full blocks to walk across traffic, crosswalks, curbs and past pedestrians to get to the closest open water, the San Antonio River, site of the famed “River Walk.” The onlooking office secretaries and several San Antonio police officers joined in. An empty copy-paper box was brought to collect the babies. They carefully corralled them, with the mother’s approval, and loaded them in the container. Michael held the box low enough for the mom to see her brood. He then slowly navigated through the downtown streets toward the San Antonio River. The mother waddled behind and kept her babies in sight, all the way

As they reached the river, the mother took over and passed him, jumping in the river and quacking loudly. At the water’s edge, Michael tipped the box and helped shepherd the babies toward the water and to the waiting mother after their adventurous ride.

All ten darling ducklings safely made it into the water and paddled up snugly to momma. Michael said the mom swam in circles, looking back toward the beaming bank bookkeeper, and proudly quacking.

At last, all present and accounted for: “We’re all together again. We’re here! We’re here!”

And here’s a family portrait before they head outward to further adventures....Like all of us in the big times of our life, they never could have made it alone without lots of helping hands. I think it gives the name of San Antonio’s famous “River Walk” a whole new meaning!

This story and images have been adapted from the original and posted with permission.

Posted by Doug Phillips on May 11, 2009

Bald-Headed, Pink-Faced Songbird Discovered

Bald-Headed, Pink-Faced Songbird

(Iain Woxvold / University of Melbourne) Scientists stumbled upon this bald-headed, pink-faced songbird while surveying a limestone outcrop in Laos

A bald-headed songbird with a pink, nearly featherless face and distinctive calls has just been found in a rugged region of Laos, according to scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Melbourne who made the discovery.

Aside from its unique characteristics, the avian is noteworthy because it is the only known bald songbird in Asia

*****

What were you doing before you were discovered?

I think you are beautiful!

Welcome to our world - I hope you will be appreciated.