Pygmy goat kid playing

""

'via Blog this'

Money is inedible

Only after the last tree has been cut

Only after the last river has been poisoned

Only after the last fish has been caught

Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten

~ Cree Indian Prophecy

Be Present In Your Life.

SANSKRIT PROVERB Look at this day, for it is life, the very life of life. In its brief course lie all the realities and verities of existence, the bliss of growth, the splendor of action, the glory of power. For yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision, but today, well lived, makes every day a dream, a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day

PEACE LOVE & LIFE - YouTube

PEACE LOVE & LIFE - YouTube: "

"by ryouandiris on Mar 29, 2008

TO THE TUNE OF THIS SPIRITUALLY HAUNTING SONG, BY SNATAM KAUR..I ADDED SOME BEAUTIFUL PICTURES OF SOME DEEPLY LOVED ANIMALS, IN HOPES OF REACHING ALL THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT THE EARTH, OUR FREEDOM AND RIGHT TO PEACE ARE SOLELY FOR THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE.

'via Blog this'

Imagery for Getting Well

Creating the image of meaning in despair, finding joy in crisis, and imaging hope in tragedy.  In other words, it is about seeing the pony in the mire of a life-threatening or chronic condition.

- Deirdre Davis Brigham, author "Imagery for Getting Well -Clinical Applications of Behavioral Medicine

Beginner's Mind

Sit down before facts like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion.  Follow humbly whatever and to whatever abyss nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.
- T.H. Huxley

Italians

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/11/photogalleries/101101-ibex-goats-dam-italy-bighorn-sheep-wyoming-science/#/goats-dam-wide_28160_600x450.jpgGoat-Dotted Dam

Photograph by Adriano Migliorati/Caters News

Cingino Dam isn't completely vertical, allowing ibex—such as these goats pictured in summer 2010—to gain some purchase.

Adapted to their perilous environment, Alpine ibex have evolved a specialized split hoof, whose cleft is wider than on any other split-hooved species, according to Smithsonian Magazine. The hoof also has a hard wall that can grab on to steep cliffs and a soft, rubbery inside that serves as a "stopper" when the animal is pushed forward by gravity, the magazine reported.

And because dams are usually built in steep canyons, Cingino's steep rock face is likely nothing novel for the mountain-dwelling ibex, according to Opperman. (See dam pictures.)

Sometimes reaching heights of 16,000 feet (5,000 meters), the herbivores spend their lives scrambling the European Alps' rocky and steep terrain, according to Caters news agency.

(See a picture of a related species, the Iberian ibex, courting in Spain.)

Published November 1, 2010

Gravity-Defying Goats

Photograph by Adriano Migliorati/Caters News

Using moves that would make any rock climber jealous, Alpine ibex cling to a near-vertical rock face of a northern Italian dam in summer 2010.

This and other pictures of the goats have been circulating online recently, particularly in emails claiming the animals are bighorn sheep on Wyoming'sBuffalo Bill Dam, the rumor-quashing website Snopes reported in September.

In truth, Adriano Migliorati snapped the pictures at the 160-foot-tall (49-meter-tall) Cingino Dam (see map of the region), the Italian hiker told National Geographic News via email. The goats are attracted to the dam's salt-crusted stones, according to the U.K.-based Caters news agency. Grazing animals don't get enough of the mineral in their vegetarian diets.

It's not far-fetched, though, to think such a scene could be photographed in theUnited States. For example, mountain goats could scale dams in the U.S. West, according to Jeff Opperman, senior advisor for sustainable hydropower at the U.S.-based nonprofit the Nature Conservancy.

Opperman, who called the Cingino pictures "mind-boggling," pointed out a picture of a Montana mountain goat doing an "incredibly acrobatic stretching maneuver to lick salt" in the November National Geographic magazine (eighth picture in this photo gallery).

"He is wedged up this sheer vertical cliff face, almost doing a yoga pose with four hooves splayed out there," he said. "It's the same concept [with the Italian goats]—these animals can overcome what looks like impossible topography to get what they want."

Opperman cautioned, though, that the Italian dam is rare, in that its rough masonry provides gaps that act as toeholds. The more common, smooth-concrete dams—such as Buffalo Bill Dam— would give goats anywhere in the world trouble, he said.

—Christine Dell'Amore

Published November 1, 2010