burningbushadventures

February 20, 2012

Howard A Cohen, Wilderness Guide for Body and Soul — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:20:49 +0000

I learned this, at least, by my experiment;
that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

from the “Conclusion” to Walden, Henry David Thoreua

February 6, 2012

Howard A Cohen, Wilderness Guide for Body and Soul — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:20:52 +0000

We all travel the milky way together, trees and men; but it never occurred to me until this storm-day, while swinging in the wind, that trees are travelers, in the ordinary sense. They make many journeys, not extensive ones, it is true; but our own little journeys, away and back again, are only little more than tree-wavings–many of them not so much. John Muir, “The Mountains of California”. New York: The Century Co., 1894 .

This passage is one small part of a truly beautiful paean to nature titled “A Wind-Storm in the Forests, found in chapter 10 of his book “The Mountains of California”. I highly recommend reading the entire passage, if not the book. Click here for a link to it.

I am taking Burning Bush Adventures on the road to different Jewish communities over the next few weeks! To see if I’ll be visiting a city near you click here.

January 30, 2012

Howard A Cohen, Wilderness Guide for Body and Soul — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:00:20 +0000

The child of a certain rabbi used to wander in the woods. At first his father let him wander, but over time he became concerned. The woods were dangerous. The father did not know what lurked there.

He decided to discuss the matter with his child. One day he took him aside and said, “You know, I have noticed that each day you walk into the woods. I wonder, why you go there?”

The boy said to is father, “ I go there to find God.”

“ That is a very good thing,” the father replied gently.“ I am glad you are searching for God. But, my child, don’t you know that God is the same everywhere?”

“Yes,” the boy answered, “but I’m not.” A hasidic story told by Rabbi David Wolpe.

I am taking Burning Bush Adventures on the road to different Jewish communities over the next few weeks! To see if I’ll be visiting a city near you click here.

January, 23

Howard A Cohen, Wilderness Guide for Body and Soul — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:27:41 +0000

Surely all God’s people, however serious or savage, great or small, like to play. Whales and elephants, dancing, humming gnats, and invisibly small mischievous microbes – all are warm with divine radium and must have lots of fun in them.

John Muir, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, (1913), pages 186-187

January 16, 2012

Howard A Cohen, Wilderness Guide for Body and Soul — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:43:33 +0000

There is Some Kiss We Want

There is some kiss we want
With our whole lives,
the touch of spirit on the body.

Seawater begs the pearl
to break its shell.

And he lily, how passionately
it needs some wild darling.

At night, I open the window
and ask the moon to come
and press its face against mine.
Breathe into me.

Close the language-door
and open the love-window.
The moon won’t use the door,
only the window.

Rumi
Translated by Coleman Barks

January 9, 2012

Howard A Cohen, Wilderness Guide for Body and Soul — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:52:02 +0000

Beyond the humiliating blankness of “Lord God, only You know,” it is a mode of dynamic, desirous connection with a world of infinite possibilities.

Avivah Zornberg, Genesis: The Beginning of Desire, Pub JPS, 1995. p.166

January 2, 2012

Howard A Cohen, Wilderness Guide for Body and Soul — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:20:41 +0000

Happy New Year!

Our temperatures have been so unseasonably mild here in southern Vermont this winter that my garlic has already started coming up! These amazing shoots of green inspired the following three short reflections.

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
~ Henry Miller

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.
~ Walt Whitman

Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so called scientific knowledge.
~ Thomas Edison

December 26, 2011

Howard A Cohen, Wilderness Guide for Body and Soul — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:17:06 +0000

I once defined faith as the redemption of solitude. It sanctifies relationships, builds communities, and turns our gaze outward from self to other, giving emotional resonance to altruism and energising the better angels of our nature. These are some of the gifts of our encounter with transcendence, and whether it is love of humanity that leads to the love of God or the other way round, it remains the necessary gravitational force that keeps us, each, from spinning off into independent orbits, binding us instead into the myriad forms of collective beatitude. A society without faith is like one without art, music, beauty or grace, and no society without faith can endure for long.

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks;
The Limits of Secularism

P.s. There are still a couple of spots not yet filled on our February dog sled trip. And just a reminder, it is not too early to book a date for a paddling trip this summer!

Monday, December 20

Howard A Cohen, Wilderness Guide for Body and Soul — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:04:45 +0000

Suffering is not necessarily a morally refining agent that turns apathy into compassion, greed into generosity, meanness into graciousness and ambition into humility.

The Muselmann at the Water Cooler
Eli Pfefferkorn
Academic Studies Press, 215 pages.

December 12, 2011

Howard A Cohen, Wilderness Guide for Body and Soul — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:00:07 +0000

Faith without culture is an expression of fanaticism. p. 35

Holy Ignorance: When Religion Meets Culture, Olivier Roy, pub. Columbia Univ. Press