the dignity & beauty of elderly animals

Photographer Isa Leshko has been "travelling to sanctuaries across the country to photograph animals that are elderly or at the end stage of their lives."  Prompted by helping to care for her mother with Alzheimer’s disease, and time spent with an elderly blind horse, Leshko hopes that the photos will help herself and others wrestle with the difficult realities of aging and mortality.  And she also hopes that the images will encourage people to look at animals, especially farm animals, in a different and more empathetic light.

You can read more at Leshko's "Elderly Animals" project artist statement, and view the photos here.  In black and white, they really do capture a unique beauty and dignity of some of the more venerable members of God's animal creation.  Leshko mentions fighting back tears at some of her shoots, in the following short from Walley Films about the project, which in itself is very moving:

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a drop in the bucket

Thanks to Chuck Summers of Seeing Creation for this great reminder of the incredible "vastness and variety" of God's creation and creatures ...

In Psalm 104 the Psalmist declares “How many are your works, O Lord!  In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” (v. 24, NIV)  Elsewhere in this psalm the biblical writer mentions a number of creatures.  He refers to “wild donkeys,” “birds of the air,” “the cattle,” “the stork,” “wild goats,” “the coneys,” “the beasts of the forest,” “lions,” and “leviathan.”  He also mentions other aspects of God’s Creation: the clouds, the wind, the mountains, springs, grass, trees, the moon, the sun, the forest, and the sea.  Without a doubt, the Psalmist recognized all of Creation to be God’s wonderful handiwork and a manifestation of His wisdom.  God’s Creation is seen as a reason for joyful praise.

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let heaven and nature sing

Thank you to pastor Chuck Summers of Seeing Creation for allowing us to share this meaningful Advent reflection accompanied beautifully by some of Chuck's photography ...

It’s the third Sunday in Advent and since the theme for this Sunday is joy we sang “Joy to the World!” at church this morning.  This has to be one of the most familiar and popular of all Christmas hymns.  I have enjoyed singing this song since my childhood.  Even as a kid I particularly liked the part that says, “let heaven and nature sing.”  What I didn’t realize back then is that the idea of heaven and nature singing comes straight out of the Bible.

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embracing diversity

I'm grateful to introduce a new and multi-gifted voice to our blog in Chuck Summers, a pastor and nature photographer based in eastern Kentucky.  Following is "Embracing Diversity" from Seeing Creation, a compelling blog which he co-hosts with fellow photographer Rob Sheppard ...

“How many are your works, O Lord!” (Psalm 104:24)

We truly do live in a remarkable and diverse world.  I did a few Google searches and discovered that there are an estimated 1.5 million different plant and animal species in the world today.  There are over 10,000 different species of birds and an incredible 900,000 different species of insects.  The various species of flowering plants number around 400,000.  There are 25,000 different kinds of cherries and 264 different kinds of monkeys.  The estimated number of different trees is in the tens of thousands.

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what I learned from animals

The following is a brief but poignant reflection from Nancy Janisch of Conversation in Faith on recognizing the profound creatureliness in the eyes of animals, a privilege many of us have encountered through the companions in our own homes ...

What I learned from animals, I learned from looking into their eyes.  Look into the eyes of an animal and someone looks back.  If you grew up with animals you might take this for granted.  It took me quite a while before I realized how astonishing this is.  It’s not just a dog or a cat or a horse looking at you; it’s this dog or this cat or this horse looking at you.

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christmas in Yellowstone

With "Christmas in Yellowstone" airing again tomorrow, Sunday evening on PBS, I thought I'd re-share this review.  The episode is well worth watching this season, for many reasons ...

PBS Nature had another mesmerizing episode over the weeked, "Christmas in Yellowstone."  It features the wildlife of the park as they try to survive the harsh winter, and you feel yourself growing attached to the fate of different creatures such as the isolated red fox and wounded otter.  Breathtaking landscapes are also a draw, as is the thread of human connection to Yellowstone woven throughout.  Here are a couple of previews:

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spring is in the air

If you haven't been by the main site in a while, I wanted to post a quick note that we've updated the look a bit with a new color scheme.  This was prompted by yet another brilliant banner by my brother Joshua DeVries, a gifted graphic artist who has donated his talents to not one sparrow on more than a few occasions.  Thank you, Josh. 

I'm also sincerely grateful to Ben and Clover Aldridge, Ali Beem, Mary Fitzgerald, Patti Monaghen, Jackie Pointer, Amy Sondova and 123rf.com for their beautiful contributions to our new home page slideshow.  Seeing as the hint of Spring has finally found us here in southeastern Wisconsin, and with Easter around the corner, it seemed appropriate to feature a few more baby animals this time.  We'll be posting more on those themes in the next few weeks.

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photography by Patti Monaghen

My wife and I had the privilege of becoming friends with Patti Monaghen a few years back, and I quickly came to admire her creative eye.  A professional photographer and photographic printer for almost twenty years, her bio says:

She works independently, selecting jobs that catch her imagination.  She has a certain devotion to Chicago, but travels the world making each trip a photographic journey.  From New Zealand to Ireland, from the Dominican Republic to Europe and Central America, Patti captures the diverse land- and cityscapes of each new place.

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equestrian stills by Nicole Pifer

A year or two ago, when I worked an alternatingly angst-ridden and dead phone room at a retail job, a friend named Nicole Pifer would drop by compassionately from time to time to relieve my tedium.  Aside from sharing a passion for animals and animal welfare, Niki is also a trained and talented artist, and one day she brought some photography from a recent school project to show me:

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nos update, may 09

still fledgling, but no longer hatchling ...
(see the development of our unofficial mascot 'Spoggy')

This past Saturday, May 16th, not one sparrow turned one year old.  As alluded to in a recent blog post, anniversaries are often special to me, and this one was especially so.  When I think of all the ups and downs of the past year, I'm grateful not one sparrow survived some difficult circumstances. Launching and maintaining an animal advocacy effort in the Christian community was going to be a stretch in the best of times, and Lord knows this year has been far from that.  Maybe some of you can relate.

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