BEHOLD

the miracles within and beyond

The male Blue Indian Peafowl/Peacock | end of day at The L.A. County Arboretum - shot on my Canon 6D

“The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.” - Charles Dickens

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Indian peafowl are a species in a group of birds called pheasants. The males are called peacocks, while the females are called peahens. Together, they are peafowl.

One peacock has from 100 to 150 long tail feathers, each one about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long. Every time I look back on these images I wonder do the women complain about how beautiful the males are and why they didn’t get picked to carry this extraordinary magic of fanned feathers? I wish I could find the recording I took of their feathery mating call. It is louder than a wild cat purr, or rattlesnake ready to strike, shaking their feathers and hindquarters as they strut. Why are the males so magnificent?

The answer is a bit shallow, but aren’t we all a bit?

Female birds prefer a colorful mate. Ahhh, the inherent dilemma of shallowness. During the mating season, males attract females by showing off their vibrant feathers.

The bird world is a world of wonder, brilliance, intelligence, color, patterns, flight, motion, ingenuity and everything that we are. Mostly. How did we learn to fly?

From day one, as man rages on, spinning his wheels, man has brazenly taken credit for those wheels and all of his/her accomplishments.

But what of the path?

From the wheel, to weapons, flight, color, patterns, shelter, bridges, wells, food, and on and on, what lies within us and what was placed before us is the answer. We have used what has been described as a supernatural, Divine gift from God, that apologetics and many scientists have come to deep conclusions over.

We were perfectly and uniquely made with equipment sitting right inside of us. Wheels spinning, conveyor belts carrying cells, fighting off disease, breathlessly working hard for our survival, combines filtering out, separating good from bad, plumbing systems so intricate it’s an amazing miraculous feat every time we head to the bathroom.

Windpipes from lungs. We create from within.

Our heart. Hearts. A world renowned symbol of love, life. The compressor that keeps us alive. Fills me up, takes my breath away.

How are ideas planted in our intricate brains? as they work to memorize and code.

I had a friend who underwent brain tumor surgery many years ago with a well known doctor in Los Angeles. She asked him if he was a “believer.” Dr. Black’s answer was, “I’m a brain surgeon. You can’t look at the brain without believing.” I will never forget that.

When I look at the peacock alone, I see a rich “mid-century” color > paint palette, loaded with patterns used for fashion and design. I see a miracle.

We can look at the entire animal kingdom as resource for millions of visual and industrial ideas. We fly in airplanes as we studied the bird. We swim as we watched them float. We build as we destroy their dams, nests and each other.

Earths resources, “elements” laid in the ground for engineers and electricians, walnut trees for bookshelves, trees for books, cotton fields for clothes, and like my husband says, “what on earth would we do without cement?” and a million more things.

Inward, is a genius used outwardly every single day we walk, talk, glide through a building, use a machine, drive a car, type on a computer, and on and on…

We are all uniquely and miraculously made to fulfill a purpose, intricately wired often in “different” directions. Every tool placed in front of us in nature.

Have we appreciated our God-given earth? can we live without it, survive?

Tearing it down, building it back up.

Miracles within and beyond.

It is truly something to behold.

That, in and of itself, should make us revere the earth and our Creator.

For God so loved the world…

The miraculous Peacock | Shot on Canon

Lower right, I call “First Position” :)