FANA-FI-GAIA
Imbolc, February 1, 2023
6th Quarterly from the Ziraat Council
|
|
Dear Friends,
The natural world, made up of Earth, Water, Fire and Air, provides all living beings with our bodies. In general, we experience the life in the mineral kingdom as steady and stable. The vegetable kingdom includes, for example, the amazing and dignified role that trees exemplify with their noble uprightness, their conversion of carbon dioxide to the oxygen which supports the existence of so many of us living beings, and their extensive root systems communicating and caring for each other.
|
|
|
Naturally the vegetable family also provides food for a vast number of living forms, including us human beings. In the animal kingdom there is so much variety, from the land-based creatures to those beings that occupy the water and air elements. Human beings have extraordinary facility but oddly lack the abilities of so many of the animals, and for what we want to illustrate here, the birds’ gift to be airborne. |
|
|
We want to share our wonder, awe, appreciation, and attunement for the bird family. So often we emulate the masters of the air element, the birds, by flying in our dreams! We are so dazzled by the way the birds are so elaborately dressed, mostly with different outfits for the females and the males, exhibiting so much beauty and variety. |
|
|
Male and female Hooded Merganser |
|
Some birds mate for life, some flock together and care for each other, some are solitary. |
|
|
Some hunt by day and some by night. Some are vegetarian and some are carnivores. We appreciate the vulture family for their great job as a planetary cleanup crew.
|
|
There are those who do an amazing job of camouflage, like the bitterns and those who let their beauty shine, like the tanagers. |
|
Blue-winged Mountain Tanager |
|
Most birds have amazing eyesight, far better than humans, as seen in the raptors. The super speed demons of the world are the falcons, the fastest creatures in all the kingdoms. |
|
Coopers Hawk arising from our fountain |
|
Kestrels Mating in Morocco |
|
Then there is the fierceness of the eagles, the swiftness and agility of the kingfishers, terns, osprey and more, who are comfortable in the air and diving into the water. |
|
White-throated Kingfisher |
|
The precious hummingbirds, with their incredible beauty and grace serve as pollinators, as do many birds. |
|
Then there are the wise ravens and owls, the (not always) graceful swans, the amazing prehistoric looking pelicans, and all the odd-looking birds whose form is an adaption to what their circumstances for mating, nourishment and service to the ecosystem are. |
|
Juvenile Great Horned Owl |
|
We admire the woodpeckers, the shorebirds, the herons, the sparrows, the finches, the warblers and on and on and on - too many marvels to share in this one offering! The variety of form and function in the bird kingdom is simply extraordinary, being the masters of the sky!
When my Indian Classical Music Guru, Pandit Pran Nath was guiding me on how to improvise, he said: “don’t plan what you are going to sing next, be like the birds when they fly, with joy, let the currents carry you”.
Much Love,
Pir Shabda Kahn, on behalf of the Ziraat council
|
|
All photos © Shabda Kahn
Camera - Sony A1 with Sony 200-600mm lens
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
