One year ago (May 14, 2007) I began this exercise in creativity, little knowing how transformative it would become - my initial desire to post a daily song/book/poem/quote has segued into a cathartic/educational/
stimulating journal/scrapbook of which I'm quite proud. At times I'm unearthing emotions I never thought I'd make public - other days find me sharing trivial but joyful celebrations of life. It's all about the pendulum, eh? - god knows I've experienced both sides now (thanks, Joni!) and anticipate the upcoming chapters of my life as they continue to unfold...
Of the 366 days past (yes, it was a Leap Year), I submitted 316 posts - I didn't quite achieve *daily* but, considering holidays/family emergencies/vacations, I'm happy with the consistency of effort/content.
I'm still not putting myself "out there" (as in... I've only told a double-handful of people about the blog) - a few others have unintentionally found their way or synchronistically stumbled across my musings. I guess I believe the more privacy I retain, the more honest I'll be - I tend to be a very outgoing, widening-the-circle kinda woman... and it feels nice to keep a corner of my soul relatively to myself...
Thanks to all who stop in and read, whether or not you choose to comment - with my hits at 11,735 (averaging almost 1000 per month) even as I type, somebody's paying attention (not that I need the validation... but it is warming... :-)
I've been quiet the last few days and probably will remain so the rest of the week - my mom arrived Monday (visiting from near Atlanta) and leaves Sunday, and the days are even more full than usual. Her health has deteriorated substantially since we last saw her at Christmas - it is very hard for her to take, as well as for me to watch. I have many things to process over the next few days/weeks/months - warning: some of it will most likely end up here...
I never take for granted my relatively smooth life: a husband and children I adore (and who love me in return), extended family who never give up on me, friends who listen, support and nurture, music to sustain, books to inspire, a so-far-hurricane-resistant roof over my head, abundant food in my pantry and a safe and friendly neighborhood in which to walk (at almost 8 weeks, we're still maintaining 4/5 days a week, 3 1/2 miles a day!) - and don't forget the jacuzzi (right, AW?... :-)
I thrive on hugs and tears and song lyrics, oh my - it's all about the love, peeps!
SONG: Green by Edie Brickell
BOOK: Love Makes The Green Grass Grow by Vaughn Loeffler
POEM: The Holy City by J. H. Prynne
Come up to it, as you stand there
that the wind is quite warm on the sides
of the face. That it is so, felt
as a matter of practice, or
not to agree. And the span,
to walk over the rough grass - all of this
is what we do, quite within acceptance
and not to press
the warm alarm
but a light
surface, a day
lifted from high
thick roots, upwards.
Where we go is a loved side of the temple,
a place for repose, a concrete path.
There's no mystic moment involved: just
that we are
is how, each
severally, we're
carried into
the wind which makes no decision and is
a tide, not taken. I saw it
and love is
when, how &
because we
do: you
could call it Jerusalem or feel it
as you walk, even quite jauntily, over the grass.
QUOTE: "Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place." ~ Zora Neale Hurston
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Green (Edie Brickell)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Everything Green (Christine Kane)
Today is Earth Day, founded as an environmental teach-in in the late 1960s, and celebrated in many countries each year on April 22.
In September 1969, at a conference in Seattle, Washington, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment. Senator Nelson first proposed the nationwide environmental protest to thrust the environment onto the national agenda.” "It was a gamble," he recalls, "but it worked."
Five months before the first April 22 Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the rising tide of environmental events::
"Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam...a national day of observance of environmental problems...is being planned for next spring...when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned...." Senator Nelson also hired Denis Hayes as the coordinator.
Each year, the April 22 Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Among other things, 1970 in the United States brought with it the Kent State shootings, the advent of fiber optics, "Bridge over Troubled Water," Apollo 13, the Beatles' last album, the death of Jimi Hendrix, and the meltdown of fuel rods in the Savannah River nuclear plant near Aiken, South Carolina -- an incident not acknowledged for 18 years. At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Environment was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news. But Earth Day 1970 turned that all around.
On April 22, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.
As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. The April 22 Earth Day in 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. For 2000, Earth Day had the Internet to help link activists around the world. By the time April 22 rolled around, 5,000 environmental groups around the world were on board, reaching out to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries. Events varied: A talking drum chain traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa, for example, while hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., USA.
Earth Day 2000 sent the message loud and clear that citizens the world 'round wanted quick and decisive action on clean energy. Earth Day 2007 was one of the largest Earth Days to date, with an estimated billion people participating in the activities in thousands of places like Kiev, Ukraine; Caracas, Venezuela; Tuvalu; Manila, Philippines; Togo; Madrid, Spain; London; and New York.
Founded by the organizers of the first April 22 Earth Day in 1970, Earth Day Network promotes environmental citizenship and year round progressive action worldwide. Earth Day Network is a driving force steering environmental awareness around the world. Through Earth Day Network, activists connect change in local, national, and global policies. Earth Day Network’s international network reaches over 17,000 organizations in 174 countries, while the domestic program engages 5,000 groups and over 25,000 educators coordinating millions of community development and environmental protection activities throughout the year. Earth Day is the only event celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities. More than a half billion people participate in Earth Day Network campaigns every year.
For years, we've been celebrating Dar Williams' birthday with social actions and, since her birthday is April 19, the last few have been ecologically-centered - below is my 2008 pledge:
Hey, Dar -
SONG: Everything Green by Christine Kane
BOOK: Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living by Doug Fine
POEM: Enriching the Earth by Wendell Berry
To enrich the earth I have sowed clover and grass
to grow and die. I have plowed in the seeds
of winter grains and various legumes,
their growth to be plowed in to enrich the earth.
I have stirred into the ground the offal
and the decay of the growth of past seasons
and so mended the earth and made its yield increase.
All this serves the dark. Against the shadow
of veiled possibility my workdays stand
in a most asking light. I am slowly falling
into the fund of things. And yet to serve the earth,
not knowing what I serve, gives a wideness
and a delight to the air, and my days
do not wholly pass. It is the mind's service,
for when the will fails so do the hands
and one lives at the expense of life.
After death, willing or not, the body serves,
entering the earth. And so what was heaviest
and most mute is at last raised up into song.
QUOTE: "It is imperative to maintain portions of the wilderness untouched so that a tree will rot where it falls, a waterfall will pour its curve without generating electricity, a trumpeter swan may float on uncontaminated water - and moderns may at least see what their ancestors knew in their nerves and blood." ~ Bernand De Voto
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Christmas is a Time for Giving (Nicolette Larson)
As I posted last week, this Christmas finds me decorating less and breathing more - for various reasons, there is less disposable income in our family these days, and I'm trying to find ways to cut back on the cost of presents while retaining the meaning of the holiday, as well as honoring the planet. Below are a number of links to "green" or political or free-trade products - I also bought 20 of these bags from my local Publix (a deal at $1.49 each) and, topped off with a festive ribbon or bow, will be using them to wrap this year's gifts (reduce, reuse, recycle... right?... :-)
UncommonGoods Gifts Made of Recycled Materials
TrueMajority Shop
A Greater Gift
National Organization for Women Holiday Store
P.S. From my friend Cathy's blog: Green shipping alternatives--Country Living, Dec 2007, pg. 24A. Use real peanuts, not styrofoam. Or wrapped peppermint candies, or scrunched up sheet music, or pinecones and greenery.
SONG: Christmas is a Time for Giving by Nicolette Larson
BOOK(S): Unplug the Christmas Machine: A Complete Guide to Putting Love and Joy Back into the Season by Jo Robinson, Jean C. Staeheli
The New Green Christmas: How to Make This and Every Holiday an Environmental Celebration by Evergreen Alliance
POEM: Prologue of the Earthly Paradise by William Morris
Of Heaven or Hell I have no power to sing,
I cannot ease the burden of your fears,
Or make quick-coming death a little thing,
Or bring again the pleasure of past years,
Nor for my words shall ye forget your tears,
Or hope again for aught that I can say,
The idle singer of an empty day.
But rather, when aweary of your mirth,
From full hearts still unsatisfied ye sigh,
And, feeling kindly unto all the earth,
Grudge every minute as it passes by,
Made the more mindful that the sweet days die—
—Remember me a little then I pray,
The idle singer of an empty day.
The heavy trouble, the bewildering care
That weighs us down who live and earn our bread,
These idle verses have no power to bear;
So let me sing of names remembered,
Because they, living not, can ne’er be dead,
Or long time take their memory quite away
From us poor singers of an empty day.
Dreamer of dreams, born out of my due time,
Why should I strive to set the crooked straight?
Let it suffice me that my murmuring rhyme
Beats with light wing against the ivory gate,
Telling a tale not too importunate
To those who in the sleepy region stay,
Lulled by the singer of an empty day.
Folk say, a wizard to a northern king
At Christmas-tide such wondrous things did show,
That through one window men beheld the spring,
And through another saw the summer glow,
And through a third the fruited vines a-row,
While still, unheard, but in its wonted way,
Piped the drear wind of that December day.
So with this Earthly Paradise it is,
If ye will read aright, and pardon me,
Who strive to build a shadowy isle of bliss
Midmost the beating of the steely sea,
Where tossed about all hearts of men must be;
Whose ravening monsters mighty men shall slay,
Not the poor singer of an empty day.
QUOTE: "Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake. Let us use it before it is too late." ~ Marie Beyon Ray
Monday, May 14, 2007
The Verdant Mile (Tracy Grammer)
This blogging thing is new to me... and I intend to start slowly... baby steps, as they say... or, to continue the metaphor, tendrils. Each day, for a while, I'm going to post a song, a book, a poem and a quote. I may eventually begin to bare my soul. Then again, the songs/books/poems/quotes I choose may just provide an indication of where my wisdom/serenity/courage lies at any given moment, eh?
SONG: The Verdant Mile by Tracy Grammer
BOOK: Walking a Literary Labyrinth by Nancy Malone
POEM: Messenger by Mary Oliver
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird— equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is that we live forever.
QUOTE: "If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking." ~ Buddhist proverb
