Life and the Mangrove Estuary, Nature Art by Kevin Songer

 Although I started this work five years ago I refine and add to it most times when I return to the art.  This is because of my ever evolving world view and because each day I learn more and more of the ways of nature.

Life  Beginnings in the Mangrove Swamps

The work features the bed of sea water and mangrove leaves which themselves represent an ecosystem unmatched in life biodiversity, one even home to the snapping shrimp.  The snapping shrimp though such a small creature, is one of the loudest life forms found in the ocean.

This art piece also features symbols of human thoughts about life, those from different cultures throughout the world and time. Nature Art therapy has provide an invaluable benefit to my healing from aortic dissection and kidney cancer.

This image is also one of my first few NFTs I am uploading to Rarible.

So much to see and think about in nature.

Forgotten Healing Secrets of Nature

Forgotten Healing Secrets of Nature

'my creeky bones
feel young again watching
old man river run'

Nature is our mother.  She cares for us and has always freely given us the secrets of healing.

Since the first humans walked the earth nature has been there sharing her healing powers with all life.

As a mother provides for her children, nature has from the first African plains' Australopithecus species four million years ago, given all life the necessities for a whole, healthy and fulfilled existence. 

During our nomadic existences communication with nature was inherently accepted as common place.  Through sight, sound, scents, tastes, touch and other senses humans 'listened' to earth sounds and communication of natural forces.  We were 'in-touch' and we were a part of all that surrounded us.  Just as a four legged creature eats grasses when sick, we humans too would turn to plants and substances of the earth and space when in need of healing.  This was the nomadic way of life for millions of years on our planet.

However with the advent of agrarian and then industrial lifestyles we gradually turned from being one with our source of being to thinking of human existence in a dualistic sense, one where we humans were separate and even 'better' than nature.  We forgot how to communicate with the original source of healing. 

Today humans live mostly alienated from that which we evolved.  Thanks to the many mythologies molding our thought processes since childhood humans have been trained to relegate the natural world to a chore, like mowing the lawn. We take for granted the earth around us.  We wait for something 'better' as the grass is always greener proverb suggests.

We no longer value the advice of the natural world.  Instead our generation understands mostly vibrations, noises and techno-sensual stimulations of the concrete urban jungle.

I think some of our high technology is wonderful.  The internet has expanded my understanding of the cosmos.  My mechanical heart valve and Dacron aorta have given me a chance at life where without I would not be alive today.

Yet it wasn't until I discovered the power of our forgotten communications with nature that I truly felt healed.

My body bionics kept me alive.  Communion with nature gave me true life.

Nature has taught me slowly.  She lured me into her wilds shortly after my second open thoracic event.  That day Judy and I sat under a massive live oak growing in a coastal hammock and I could literally feel rejuvenating power fill my body.

Over the years since Judy and I have tried to leave the house for the forests, beaches and swamps on a daily basis for healing purposes.  We may go out fatigued but always come back invigorated, infused with powerful communion.

Trying to think analytically after being on heart lung bypass can be at best tricky.  My brain was subjected to embolistic events during the process according to the neurologist.  So my explanation of how nature communicates these forgotten healing powers may sound simplistic or confusing. 

These more real than esoteric nature connections are powerful though.  And they have healed me in so many ways.  Even though the doctors still, to this day, tell me they are surprised I am alive.

Nature communicates her healing power through all of our known senses and then through others senses we have a hard time explaining. I think of this as both physiological and quantum communications similar to in the movie Avatar, connection with the Tree of Souls.

My journey of healing originated in a baptism of nature's energies.

When I am hiking in the wilds come the winds, the sunshine, the rains and earth connections. 

Surrounding me too are healing networks and complexities of an array of life forms.

There exist so many healing synapses with mother nature that I could fill a book with describing them all.

Some of the most primal but powerful are those connections formed from my interactions with water.

Many of my hikes are up in the beach dunes.  Not only is sand walking a healthy workout but the waves crashing into the seashore fill me with subconscious remembrances of nine months nurture, surrounded by water.  And I am reminded all life came from water.  Many even say 'water is life'.

Water imparts her healing powers with many approaches.  A gentle rain soothes while a hard rain cools, irrigates and gives pause to urban background static.  Fog inspires my imagination; snow cleanses and trickling creeks sing soothing music to my heart. 

But in front of the screen I lose these nature associations.  Note to self - spending nature time is investment in health so take the time to do it!

I've just scratched the surface of communication with nature here.

Hopefully we can explore other dimensions of communication with the natural world in future posts.  I'd like to examine how we interact with plants, with the earth, with the cosmos, water, fire, animals. 

My brain intuitively understands the truths of the Tree of Souls.

My challenge will be to figure out how to assign the appropriate words into sentences that share accurately the forgotten secrets of communication with nature we all have been given.

Stay tuned.

Simple Spirituality, My Search for The Divine and the Meaning of Life

I have been looking for the meaning of life and think I have found it.

My search for true spirituality was long and complicated when it should have been easy

For me, the meaning of life can be found in love.  

When we love other people we have found The Divine.  That's it.  That's all. 

I could stop here because there is nothing else to say. 

But I going to try to explain myself in really simple terms because I need to try and be consistent with basic principles of western logic; for myself and for others and because, lol, my blog posts need to be a certain length.

First of all, for me ‘The Divine’ must be simple.   Because my cognitive level is damaged as a result of multiple open heart surgeries and my being on heart by-pass for hours I have a difficult time with complicated things.  So spirituality must be easy.

Complex liturgy and lists of things to do and not do may sound beautiful for a contemplative moment but the meaning quickly evaporates as the seconds tick by and my ADHD or stroke induced forgetfulness overwhelms my mind.

Fortunately, simple words like ‘I love you’ profoundly call out to my soul, my deep inner sanctum, my heart, the place where my self-realization and self-awareness reside.  When I am in the midst of love I am also aware of the presence of a permanent Divinity and the paralyzing fear (so typical of my humanness) of temporality fades.

Secondly, walking on death’s threshold with my medical condition, I want to know God.    I also need the Divine because I am scared of facing a cold, dark eternity alone, by myself.  Believing in The Divine alleviates this fear, even if doing so exposes my fragility.  But that is what love is for.

Let me be very clear here about a side issue.  It’s OK if you don’t believe in life after death or God.  I will honor your beliefs.   In turn I expect the same freedom to believe how I need to, of you.  And it is OK if you have a different religious belief from across the U.S. or the world.  I hold you in esteem for your beliefs and wish the same respect in return. 

Now, it is really hard to put what I truly want to say in written words.  As a sometimes writer and blogger I like to think words are the best way to communicate ideas.  But everyone perceives written words differently.  We can both read a sentence and not find the same meaning.

I can even tell you what a group of words is supposed to mean and after hearing me ramble you may still have your own understanding.  The words we use as a human race are terribly inadequate to accurately describe spirituality.

So, ‘The Divine’ is the term I will use here in this post mostly because for me the term ‘God’ has been permanently defiled with an image of an angry, scornful old man up in the sky waiting to strike someone in retribution for even a small misstep.


And I want to believe The Divine loves us no matter what feeble proper noun we choose to call it and won’t get pissed off if we spell or say the right name wrong or the wrong name right.

So, because I think on very simple levels and I am physically fragile with respect to cardiovascular health and realize each breath could be my last, I long for a really simple spirituality and a desire to know and abide in The Divine.  Complicated words are confusing.  Simple words may be the best.  Love is a simple word.

But perhaps words are not even necessary to know The Divine.  Yes, you can read scripture or verse over and over and tell me what it means.  Quite possibly I may be able to see The Divine in those words but I really do not need those words to know The Great Divine; for God is much more than words.

Likewise, you can take me to the top of the highest mountain, through the depths of rain forests or down into the oceans and show me wonderful handiwork, creation, amazing life.  Yes, I can feel God’s hand on my shoulders in the summit wind, or hear God’s voice inside flowing waters or calling birds but I do not need to see the brilliant handiwork of nature to know The Great Divine.

I may sit in a church pew and listen to elegant verbal illustrations of the theologian and catch a glimpse of God’s story.  But I do not need the preacher’s well rehearsed script full of those words validating his or her learnings, to really know God.

Historic Dead sea scrolls with dusty ancient Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic writings may hold special insight about God.  Yet none of these parchments from which much of the Bible is written are not necessary to know The Divine, neither is the Bible.  In fact I really think one does not even have to be able to read, and they can be deaf, dumb or even in a coma and still find The Divine.

When I float in our swimming pool with my eyes closed my St. Jude aortic valve sounds loud under water and something I reason that is probably similar to what I listened to in the womb for nine months.  But many of my other senses are shut down floating with eyes shut.  And even without my cognitive logic and senses operating as they usually do, I still know love. 

So to me, none of our human senses are required for pure and simple spirituality, or to be in a relationship with The Divine.


I find pure spirituality in love.  I believe God is love.  I believe love is of The Divine.  I believe love is The Divine.

And now I want to learn how to love, forgive, be forgiven, and empty myself of negativity, fear or resistance I may have towards others.  I want to live in love, nothing else. 

Going back to those dusty parchments called the Dead Sea Scrolls, some of the texts have been interpreted to say God is love.  We should pay attention to these powerful words.  Weaving love into our life can be easy.  Martin Luther's words helped me understand this when he said, ‘Love God and do as you please’.  Meshing love and life can be easy (though we usually have a tendency to take the long, hard route) and as I said, my brain needs to operate on very base levels to be consistently functional.

Today I like to take Luther’s quote and adapt the words ever so slightly for my own benefit, saying, ‘love Love and be yourself’.

By loving love we are loving God because God is love.  By being ourselves we are acknowledging our humanity.  This is simple spirituality.  Not much to it.   To reside in the presence of God we should give and accept love.  By living in love I will be living in the presence of God.

This is not a separatism of dualities rather it is an emptying of self interest and replacement of our desires with love, help, friendship, kindness and placing our neighbor first, that brings us into the presence of The Divine. 

Acknowledging our humanity allows us to be who we are as a man or woman living in a complicated universe.  And I am going to write another post about my humanity, my animalness.  I am going to try and use words to describe why I am so much like the bear foraging in our swampy flatwoods, the osprey enjoying fresh kill from the salt marsh, the eagle ruffling his feathers and guarding his nest and female, the snake in the weeds or the wise old owl, the butterfly dancing in the wind and why I am also a human, one seeking permanency through love.


Suffice it for the moment of conclusion here to say I am drawn to another group of words from those old parchments found in a cave.  Paraphrasing, they say ‘when two or three come together, in my name, there I am also’.  I know when I am with others, uplifting them, I am in the presence of a great love and have found the meaning of life.

And I will be glad to share my bloody raw fish kill with you any day you are hungry.  Just don’t mess with my female or my kids and leave my territory as clean as you found it when you leave.