First Snow of the Season!

And animism, animatism, and more...

Sunday brought the first snow of the season. Our walk was delightful. I was a little concerned it might be too slick for my old truck to make it to Cedar Bluffs, but we did fine.

Violet the Dog enjoyed herself, as you can see above. Notice the snow on her nose in the middle photo. She always had her nose in the snow sniffing around.

I’m going to come back to the snow below, but first I have some things to share from before the snow.

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Johanna was home from school at the University of Iowa for Thanksgiving and she joined Violet the Dog and I on our walk

Her friend Jonah, a student at William Penn, joined us, and we walked to the geological formation known as the “Sugar Bowl.” Violet the Dog and I love company on our walks. More about Johanna and Jonah later.

Someone had built a campfire under the overhang. I wish I knew who it was. What their story is.

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In a previous Cedar Creek Nature Notes, I reported that someone had curated the rock on the left in the place I usually place my phone to record bird calls by the creek. I felt that it would be disrespectful for me to move it, so I left it alone and it sat there for a couple of weeks for other people to ponder. Then someone turned it on its side in the middle photo. They examined it, enjoyed contemplating it, and put it back in a different position. After maybe a week, as you can see in the right photo, it’s gone. Someone took it or threw it. I looked for it, but there are so many rocks around that I couldn’t find it.

I wonder, did someone take it home to enjoy, or just toss it for “fun?” Regardless, I miss seeing it and pondering the motivation of the human who placed it there. Now I’m pondering the motivation of who removed it from its place.

Of course, I’m over-analyzing this. But that’s what I do. Just think of that rock. Its long geological history. The forces that shaped it, brought it to the top of the post, turned it, and then removed it to begin the next part of its journey.

And if you don’t know about animism and animatism, it’s time you do. Both influence me, as you can probably tell.

Animism and animatism are both beliefs that are often found in the same culture. The difference between the two is that animism believes that only natural things have extraordinary energies, while animatism believes that every object can have paranormal energy. 

Animism is the belief that all beings, including humans, animals, plants, lands, and waters, have a distinct spiritual essence. Animism emphasizes the uniqueness of each individual soul. 

Animatism is the belief that inanimate objects have consciousness. Animatism attributes consciousness and personality to natural phenomena such as thunderstorms and earthquakes, and to objects such as plants and stones. The "power" of animatism does not have a personality.

There you go. If you love nature, you have contemplated this distinction. Or will now.

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Now back to the snow.

Here are some tracks I saw. Not sure who is walking in the left photo. In the middle photo, looks are deceiving. If you look at it one way, it’s tracks ON the snow. In reality, it was a mouse or vole burrowing BENEATH the snow. On the right, someone is going in and out from a burrow under the snow many times.

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The stairs were slick!

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I have to share the above photo of bales in a field near the recreation area. They remind me of frosted shredded wheat!

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Finally, I mentioned that I would share more about Johanna and Jonah. When I was driving Johanna back to Iowa City on Sunday, she received a call from Jonah asking more about the Cedar Creek Natural Area. He was taking two friends out for a walk there who had never seen snow before!

One was from Houston, the other from Myanmar, and they were walking through the snow to the overlook.

Above is what they saw.

Johanna always enjoys our walks and has since she was a little girl. I love her company. And now, isn’t it a wonderful story that her friend Jonah brought two of his friends who had never seen snow before to the overlook?

Inviting his friends to see our world in a new way.

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If you enjoy Cedar Creek Nature Notes, I encourage you to subscribe to my friend Larry Stone’s “Listening to the Land.” It’s fantastic. Larry has forgotten more than I will ever know about our outdoor world.

For another glimpse of the wonders of the Iowa outdoors, Diane Porter’s My Gaia is another Substack I enjoy. It’s full of observations on nature and is ripe with wisdom.

And don’t miss Al Batt’s Substack at Al’s Substack. Al Batt of Hartland, Minnesota is a writer, speaker, storyteller, and humorist. Al writes humor and nature columns for many newspapers and does regular radio shows about nature. He writes a number of popular cartoon strips that are syndicated nationally and is the author of the book, "A Life Gone to the Birds." He is a columnist for "Bird Watcher’s Digest" and “Watching Backyard Birds,” and writes for a number of magazines and books.

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I’m a member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please sample the talents of my fellow collaborative members. If you can afford to be a paid subscriber, that would be great. If not, the vast majority of content is free. And here is a link to the Iowa Podcasters’ Collaborative, should you be interested. Check out my Substack Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture if you aren’t already a subscriber. My Iowa Revolution podcast with award-winning broadcaster Spencer Dirks can be found here.