The natural world is not, to me, a fabric of stuff that gleams with revelation of a singular creator god. Those moments in nature that provoke in me a sense of the divine are those in which my attention has unaccountably snagged on something small and transitory – the pattern of hailstones by my feet upon dark earth; a certain cast of light across a hillside through a break in the clouds; the face of a long-eared owl peering out at me from a hawthorn bush – things whose fugitive instances give me an overwhelming sense of how unlikely it is that in the days of my brief life I should be in the right place at the right time and possess sufficient quality of attention to see them at all. When they occur, and they do not occur often, these moments open up a giddying glimpse into the inhuman systems of the world that operate on scales too small and too large and too complex for us to apprehend.
— Helen Macdonald, Vesper Flights (Grove Press, August 25, 2020)
Photo: Mand. “We had hail one day and I noticed that one hail stone managed to get trapped on a single web strand.”
Live & Learn 
it’s all in the details, just take them in
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Attention. Awareness. Awe.
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I am transfixed by Macdonald’s turn of phrase and attention to detail….Happy Sunday, DK!
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Me too Lori. Hope the weather has settled down in your neck of the woods.
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Yes, skies are finally clearing (a bit). Grateful that Beta isn’t headed our way, but feeling for friends and family in Texas….
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Very good.
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
INDEED!! … “Those moments in nature that provoke in me a sense of the divine are those in which my attention has unaccountably snagged on something small and transitory .. Helen Macdonald, Vesper Flights (Grove Press, August 25, 2020).
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Oh. Wow. Indeed
And this phrase, “fugitive instances”
Caught my breath. Captive.
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She is awesome.
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wonderful partnership between shot and writing – I had two similar (minded) shots on Flickr, one is still on, the other one I’ve taken off
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Love it!
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wow!
Good night David
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You too Vicki…
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