James Thornton and Natural Wonders

A country walk with my partner James is always an intriguing affair. His parents learned patience along woodland trails, pausing to share all the beauties he discovered as they inched along the path. He shows me how insects emerge, perfectly camouflaged, to sit in wait on particular flowers with which they have co-evolved. He cries with delight at some miniature flower clinging to a crack in a wall, or suddenly skips away across the undergrowth in pursuit of a beetle in flight.
He has appeared in three of my books—in I was Carlos Castaneda he is Kevin. In On Sacred Mountains and In Search of the Divine Mother he is himself. Those books tell something of our story together, and being with him and the training he’s brought me feeds into all my work.
In Search of the Divine Mother is the biography of the Indian holywoman known as Mother Meera. James and I first met on the doorstep of her German home. It was our first visit. James stayed with her for a year. I’ve just discovered another book appearance of his that stems from that time, when the writer and performer Nina Wise came to visit. This passage of fine crisp prose comes from her A Big New Free Happy Unusual Life.

I was walking one afternoon with my friend James along a country path in Germany that traced its way between villages through pastures and planted forests. James suddenly fell to his knees. I thought he was hurt.
“Careful,” he whispered, and pointed to a leaf where a tiny dot of a bug had come to a halt. He reached for his Swiss Army knife, unfolded the miniature magnifying glass and handed it to me.
I stared at a natural wonder: the bug’s iridescent blue wings lay folded over it shining black back, a yellow band shimmered around its neck, and red eyes popped from its pointed face.
We stayed on our knees for a time, passing the glass back and forth until the tiny miracle crawled away.
“Amazing!” I said, and James smiled like a docent.

It’s James’s birthday today – yo Jamie, happy birthday.

(Check out some of James's writings at TheBiggestIdeas)