Everyday Rituals/Carrot River

This Carrot River we write down as an address for our town is just an ordinary slow-moving muddy little river that runs down by our pasture bottoms. If you are present enough for its ordinary flow you will also notice the glorious moments the humble creek gets transformed. Change happens oh so slowly as the days of the seasons go by. It all looks a little boring but when you look again, it is glorious.

In the frozen winter, the dark water turns to ice and is blanketed in snow , wind silently carves the snow mounds into sculptures of rounded towers and blue shadowed gullies that the animals leave track on as they cross the bare space. In springtime the ice thaws, the white blanket cracks and fractures till it leaves completely in a rush of inflowing melt water that pours out of the fields and forests. In summer the river fills with the rains, then dissipates in the heat as the clouds pass continually overhead, blue sky reflects with white patches on the water. Now in autumn , the glowing foliage on the banks mirrors the sunsets warm rays and all these golden and red sensations ripple in the calm waters.

We walk the cow path that meanders crookedly up and over gully side and then we duck under a wire fence, brush through waist high ferns as we step down along the muddy bank. I could build a little cabin on the high slope and live in solitude by this river. Watch the geese settle down and the deer creep close for a drink. See the fiddle heads uncurl in spring and harvest the wild mint for my daily cup of tea. Listen to the coyotes song in the nighttime and know when the elk herds go crashing through the pasture fences. Watch the small moose calf clumsily blunder along after it's hurrying mama. Ahhh, that would be me in another era.

I know my place lies in the farmhouse up the road. It is just as humble as this little river. When I am actively present in my small unfinished farmhouse...I also witness transformations and joyous bursts of life that sparkle to add glimmering beauty to ordinary days. Grinding coffee beans and setting the hot water to heat is an everyday ritual. When my young boy thinks to bring a favourite chipped coffee cup to me, the ordinary becomes a miracle. It's such a small and beautiful thing and those moments happen over and over all the time in my humble little spot. If I say my thanks aloud , notice the beauty in the ordinary, the ripples spread and the glow reflects around us all.

Praise is meant to be shared, the beauty is meant to be appreciated. We are the Noticers and we shall speak and write and paint and cook and sing our Praise. This is how a humble pasture river becomes a thing of art.

Flow on, humble little Carrot River with your banks of foliage rooted deep. You are naturally ordinary and that is perfectly glorious.