A God Given Day in Oklahoma

There is so much more to life than any of us can imagine and we can never know everything there is to know or visualise all there is beyond our own eyes and thoughts and learning.
Take a goldfish for example, his life is living in a tank of water looking out at his small corner of the world,someone keeps him clean and feeds him, he lives and he dies in that tank.He knows nothing else, yet there is much much more !
Take a house cat, he sees his people going out, he has no idea where they go or what they do out there, he could never imagine the places they go or the things they see. He knows only his world and the occassional trips to the vets surgery which give him more of a glimpse into another world than the goldfish, but he doesn’t see the scenery on his travels.He has to accept where his people take him and what is done to him when he gets there.
So it is with us, we see what we see but it doesn’t mean that’s all there is,it only means it’s only the life we know. Yes we know it’s a big world and there are more people and places in it and we know there are other planets.But who is to say there isn’t more that we don’t know about ?
Sorry I’m not very good at explaining deep stuff like this. But I do think we should all realise we are in this together, people and animals and should live our lives helping each other as best we can. Because when it all comes down to it, we don’t really know any more about our world than animals know about theirs.

Michael,
I used to be spiritually where you are, even though I was raised in a Christian home. I believed in Jesus, sort of, but mostly I believed in nature. I have a friend who is a neo-pagan/pantheist and he influenced me a lot. We are still friends, and have been since 1986, even though today I am a Bible believing Christian and he is not.
It is easy to think that anyone who believes the Bible is more than myths and fairy tales with a little good morality thrown in must not be very intelligent. But you know through my writing that I think things through– and that’s true in more than just figuring out all the reasons declawing cats is wrong.
Another intelligent person who took a good look at the Bible and thought things through was C.S. Lewis. I would hope that you would try reading his book Mere Christianity. You may or may not agree with his conclusions, but at least it would show that people who believe in the Bible can do so for rational reasons.
There’s a lot about this universe we don’t understand. Our minds are finite. The universe is just too complex to be here by accident, through time and chance. Look at the amazing design of anything (like our feline friends) and the existence of a creator becomes pretty obvious.
It’s who that creator is that becomes the problem, the great question.
C.S. Lewis was an atheist studying various creation myths from different times and cultures and that’s what got him into looking at the Bible.
You may read what C.S. Lewis has to say and still come to a different conclusion, but it’ll get you thinking, which is always fun.
Ruth
p.s. When I was about seven years old and learned that heaven lasts forever I started trying to imagine what forever is like. I’d usually do it by picturing a pier going out onto a lake and just never ending, the lake and the dock just going on and on and on. I remember trying to do this once while I was on the school bus and it actually made me dizzy.
When we’re kids we try anything, explore any idea. As adults we close off a lot of things. I can’t make myself dizzy thinking about forever anymore because I have too much experience with the finite.
But I like talking with my pagan/pantheist friend because he keeps me open to new ways of looking at the world–and even though we don’t end up agreeing with each other very often, we do remain good friends.

Thank you all very much for your kind and gracious comments.

Your photo’s are awesome Michael you appear to have a gift for capturing the essence of the brooding skies and the animals that are at one with their surroundings; you can almost sense and smell the distant storm in the air.

For me God is peace and the pleasure of being at one with yourself and nature.

Reading between the lines of you recent posts you seem so very relaxed and serene.

I think we all know that you are enjoying every God given moment; I do hope though that we don’t lose you to Oklahoma forever……..

Stunning photography, Michael. You captured the power and the peacefulness, all in one shot. What a pleasure to view your photography.

Some incredible photos, Michael. Yes, the scenery, animals, light and skies were all there, so anybody with a camera would have gotten some decent shots, but your pictures have so much more in them.
Your eye for choosing the right composition and moment is just incredible. I know you were a semi-pro photographer in your younger days – and you sure still have the talents and skills. 🙂

I definitely agree, humans tend to work against nature, whereas animals work with nature. As far as I’m concerned humans are monsters… We destroy everything because we are too selfish to see the effects which will occur/are occurring as a result.

And I just love how everyone here loves animals, and therefore respects nature so much! =)

I would like to echo Gail’s comment with which I agree. We, the regulars, are indeed all one of a kind here on PoC. I think we have the vision to see how the world can be and it hurts to see it the way it is. The way the greedy headless humans trample all over the planet.

Sometimes I hate it. Then I see a glimpse of the way it might be and have hope.

Thanks for your comments. They are important to me.

Humans are truly the squatters of the world. What do we do to deserve leasing status? We pollute the oceans with our oil, we go to war for the dumbest things, we take and take without giving back to the land, we chop down the trees to make parking lots and then complain when it’s too hot…duh. We’re supposed to be the earth’s caretakers…uh huh. Humans are really the stupid ones.

Animals have it right. They don’t merely exist, they LIVE off the land. They give back with their manure which enriches the land. They have a food chain that makes sense and controls population. They procreate to keep the species alive, yet they thin out their own herds or nature helps them do it. Their prodding through the earth helps to diseminate seeds that fly through the air and creates new growth for the cycle to continue as it was intended.

As for those photos, Michael, they are truly magnificent! Each one tells its own story. To me, it shows the awesome power of a ‘higher one’ by way of the clouds – ready to strike at a moment’s notice; however, then you see the gentle animals below. It’s almost like the clouds are protecting them; warding off any potential threat.

We each have our own belief system, but what’s truly great about PoC is that we all agree about one thing – the animals, especially cats, come first. We make up all walks of life, beliefs, genders, philosophies and yet, we still agree on this tenent of wisdom in caring for cats. Thank you, Michael for sharing yourself with all of us.

Thank you Michael, they are just for my own personal pleasure as I love animal pictures on my desktop.But if ever I do use them I will certainly give you the credit.

Ruth, of course you can put these pictures in My Pictures. Whenever, and if ever, you use them just give a credit, thanks.

My Flickr photostream is here:

hehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/11506875@N03/

Michael, would you mind if I kept your scenic photos in My Pictures please ?

Michael, firstly, I think you should seriously consider becoming a professional photographer, your landscape shots are AMAZING! You should try some close-ups, of flowers or something… When it comes to photography beauty can be found in everything, you just need to look for it!

It looks like heaven there, so beautiful! The animals look so at peace too. =)

Wonderful photos Michael, thank you for sharing them with us.
The sky looks very ominous yet the animals are still contendedly grazing, accepting a different side of Nature.
That is the great thing about animals, their acceptance !
We humans would do well to learn that from them and not keep on wanting what isn’t ours, but to gratefully accept what we have.
You really have captured the Biblical look, we have a very old large family Bible with pictures like that in it.
Nature is my God too,I’ve always thought God isn’t a person sitting on His throne,but that He/She is Nature and can be seen in every animal,tree,plant,flower etc.
But sadly, many people don’t see God anywhere at all.

Hi Dorothy, thanks for the comment. It is almost time to go home.

Wow Michael. Beautifully done, and beautifully said.
It doesn’t get much better than that, does it.

These photo’s are just perfect. Thanks for sharing so much of your trip with your POC friends. I hope you are home safe and sound.

dw