A Little Sunday Morning Religion

It's a grey kind of sunrise in the Ozarks this morning. I took advantage of the mild temperatures last night and slept on the deck. The futon is comfortable enough and I slept well.

I woke up around 4:30 and opened my eyes to Jupiter and Saturn in the southern sky -- at least I was pretty sure it was them since I know they are in conjunction this month. Checking my SkEye app verified that it was and I was wishing I had my glasses to better see the constellations of Sagittarius and the Scorpion. By 5 o'clock the stars were obscured by clouds that are moving in for some possible Sunday morning showers.

I think the thing that woke me up was the noise from the birds. I had forgotten how loud they can be in the early morning. The treeline at the southern end of our property is about 1/4 mile (400m) from the house. Those are the nearest trees and the morning sounds are loud enough to wake me. There are also a couple of competing roosters from different farms that add to the morning cacophony. An occasional mooing cow and a couple of distant barking dogs -- yeah, we are not in the city anymore!

In spite of the noise of nature, I am finding my morning coffee and "quiet" time to be a pretty cool way to connect with God. In looking at the etymology of the word religion, we see a couple of different possibilities. Re (again) legere (to read) or to read again is one. A more common thought is re (again) ligare (to bind, the same root as in ligament) as in to reconnect with God.

Yeah, I like that.
The religion of Nature.
Reconnecting with The Creator through the created.
I'm going to contemplate on that for a time. I'll get back to you and share my thoughts sometime soon.

John