The Natural Contemplative Blog https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com Contemplation Is a Relationship with Unfathomable Reality Fri, 29 May 2026 15:06:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/cropped-cc512-32x32.png The Natural Contemplative Blog https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com 32 32 nospirituality,whales,nature,awareness,meditation,mindfulnessThe Natural Contemplative podcast explores our essential nature, as revealed through contemplative practice and immersion in the natural world. Contemplation is more than just a way to find inner peace. It is a way to realize the true nature of our being.The Natural Contemplative PodcastJohn L Crockett The “Practice” of Contemplative Ecology https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2025/08/the-practice-of-contemplative-ecology.html Sun, 17 Aug 2025 13:26:20 +0000 http://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/?p=974 I am not one to suggest practices. There is a good reason for that. Practices too easily become rigid. I do not want to impose rigid practices on anyone or anything, because I find that removes us from simple attention. Is simple attention a practice? Not really. It is something very natural. A practice suggests … Continue reading "The “Practice” of Contemplative Ecology"

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]]> John L Crockett Detained and Deported https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2025/04/detained-and-deported.html https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2025/04/detained-and-deported.html#comments Wed, 16 Apr 2025 12:04:10 +0000 http://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/?p=922 It is becoming more and more common for ICE to kidnap immigrants who are here legally, who have married U.S. citizens, who are naturalized citizens themselves, who have played by the rules, attended their hearings, broken no laws, and been exemplary members of their communities. And with the passage of the huge, horrible megabill, this … Continue reading "Detained and Deported"

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]]> https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2025/04/detained-and-deported.html/feed 8 John L Crockett This Precious World https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2023/07/this-precious-world.html Mon, 03 Jul 2023 14:31:03 +0000 http://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/?p=899 The world is burning (and drowning and starving), and what are we doing? Some of us are in complete denial, or don’t dare to admit what we know, or are overwhelmed by the enormity of it all, so we carry on with business as usual. We keep growing the economy, keep burning fossil fuels, keep … Continue reading "This Precious World"

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]]> John L Crockett Remembering Roger Payne https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2023/06/remembering-roger-payne.html https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2023/06/remembering-roger-payne.html#comments Wed, 14 Jun 2023 14:05:59 +0000 http://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/?p=896 I became aware this morning of the death of Roger Payne. For those of you who did not know him, Roger discovered that humpback whales sing long, complex songs. And along with his wife, Katy, discovered the ways in which humpback whales modify their songs in something like the folk process in human music. Roger … Continue reading "Remembering Roger Payne"

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]]> https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2023/06/remembering-roger-payne.html/feed 1 John L Crockett Right Whales Urgently Need Our Help! https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2022/12/right-whales-in-danger-again.html Wed, 21 Dec 2022 17:09:56 +0000 http://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/?p=848 Update 12/23/22: The sad but not surprising conclusion to this story is that the House passed the budget today. Very few news outlets even mentioned this issue. If people had known, If we had had some time to organize a campaign, we might have been able to get this rider out of the budget, because … Continue reading "Right Whales Urgently Need Our Help!"

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]]> John L Crockett Think Black: Remembering C.T. Vivian https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2020/07/think-black-remembering-c-t-vivian.html Sat, 18 Jul 2020 17:54:40 +0000 http://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/?p=721 I note with sadness the death yesterday of the Rev. C.T. Vivian. For those of you who do not know of him, he was one of the core leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. I met Rev. Vivian in 1984 in Atlanta. At the time I … Continue reading "Think Black: Remembering C.T. Vivian"

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]]> John L Crockett Waves of Stillness https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2020/07/waves-of-stillness-2.html Wed, 01 Jul 2020 20:52:38 +0000 http://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/?p=718 Waves of Stillness began as a podcast recorded on the shore of the Bay of Fundy in 2008. I have added photos and video we have taken there over the last 18 years.

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]]> John L Crockett We Can’t Go Back To Normal https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2020/06/we-cant-go-back-to-normal.html Thu, 18 Jun 2020 16:12:22 +0000 http://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/?p=705 We can’t go back to normal, because “normal” is a disaster. Normal, at least anywhere that industrial civilization is dominant, is deeply destructive, based on exploitation and domination of people, plants and animals; subjecting the entire biosphere to the demands of profit and power. These are turbulent times, by turns encouraging and dispiriting, but there … Continue reading "We Can’t Go Back To Normal"

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]]> John L Crockett A Listening Walk With Clover https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2020/06/a-listening-walk-with-clover.html Mon, 15 Jun 2020 12:22:58 +0000 http://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/?p=712 Last week I sat for an interview about nature sound recording with Clover the lamb.

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]]> John L Crockett Stopped In Our Tracks https://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/2020/05/stopped-in-our-tracks.html Sun, 10 May 2020 13:12:52 +0000 http://blog.naturalcontemplative.com/?p=682 “…all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly… This is the way our universe is structured… We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of … Continue reading "Stopped In Our Tracks"

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