Eagle Peace, llvl

It has been a long journey for the eagles to come back to life in my little Valley. Careful breeding programs and reinstitution into this area. The rivers had to be cleaned up so that the fish they ate were life giving. And now fracking is threatening those rivers again.

But yesterday, Lady Eagle wasn’t concerned about that. She sat regally in the sunshine, casually accepting the startled cries of passersby that acknowledged her beauty.

Sometimes Nature just grabs your attention. Yesterday was one of those days. This beautiful shallow river ran clear over stones, the beginnings of fall’s colors occasionally drifting by. The air was clear and there wasn’t a cloud. Thank you!

And Sunday is the largest Climate March ever. Because all the hard-fought gains are at risk… and so much more. Time for us to step up and speak out for our beloved Mother Earth. Peace must be one with the ground we live on. And we’re needed to respond.

To Harvest Peace or Not, llvl

The picture Deb took this week offers a great snapshot of Central Pennsylvania agriculture with our fields in various states of harvest. The sun is going down. Because we’ve just had the full moon, it’s easy to imagine it rising orange across the river, our Harvest Moon. Life is fertile here, a product of the bounty of the land, the generosity of the climate and the hard work of the farmers. And we give thanks.

Contrast that quiet beauty with the terror of the city that beautiful day in September — the hatred that engendered it; the hatred that it caused, both a by product of so many bad decisions. So many words written, no more needed, just our deep sadness for this incalculable loss. I looked out the window at those towers in that city every day for many years. I had tiny bits of history there. I worked in the investment industry. I left the city to pursue dreams, but the city never leaves your heart… and even without a personal connection, the horror is overwhelming. If you haven’t gone to the memorial, do it. you begin to understand the immensity of what happened; of the deep imperative for Peace.

And then a personal sadness for my sweet nieces whose father ended his life years later.

Peace is needed. Honesty. Understandings that actions have consequences and a willingness to think those things through — as true globally as personally. Healing. Love. When we arise from yesterday’s pain, we must go to work.

Nature Peace, llvl

Mother Nature not only offers us good eats, she offers us Beauty. Here’s this squash, portrait by Deb Slade in wild and beautiful color.

We come in wild and beautiful color too, but somehow that’s never as celebrated as the different colors of, say, heirloom tomatoes.

But what are we, each and everyone of us, if not precious heirlooms?

Peace is a many colored thing… Let’s embrace that. Let’s act on it.

Shaky Peace, llvl

People often say, “oh, I wouldn’t want to live there” as they watch people deal with flood, earthquakes, tornados, droughts. But the fact is there’s not a place on Mother Earth where both the Earth and Nature don’t have their way with us.

When the land moves in CA and when volcanoes explode in Iceland, it’s frightening. And it’s the Earth, stretching, belching doing what it’s always done.

But when we see escalating storms and extreme weather patterns, when the winds rise and the waters decline from our actions we do little or nothing.

It’s true but frightening, the Earth will go on without us. We, however, will not do much without the Earth. At what point are we moved to make Peace with our lives and the future of our children and their children?

Not Really Trying Peace, llvl

It’s possible that I’m the only person in the world not living up to her potential, not being consistent and concerned. If so, read this to scoff. If not, maybe there’s something here for you.

If you’ve been following me, you know I was privileged to spend five weeks in Sweden with dear, dear friends. Never has working hard at friendships paid off so insanely well. And really, if you’ve got kids, consider Rotary’s year abroad. It’s no less than life-changing.

One of the many things I really noticed (and if I don’t write them down, how will I remember?) is how different their approach to packaging is. How little they use anti-bacterial soaps. How efficient their household appliances are. Their waters are clean, You stop to pick up the few pieces of litter. You ride a bike or a bus or a train. (If it’s any consolation, they also flunk infrastructure renewal.) Their veterinary practices concerning antibiotics are the gold standard for the world…

Life is cleaner there. And before you start telling me it’s easier because Sweden is smaller… stop. It’s the same size as many of our states, and it seems we compete for worst polluters. Nature and Mother Earth are just as badly affected by our litter and pollution here as they are anywhere. How do we hold the Earth as sacred?

I’m someone who understands at least a bit the results of lackadaisical attention to the world and the climate… and yet, I do things out of laziness. There is no culture that encourages and teaches us (because I don’t believe I’m the only culprit, which isn’t an excuse for my bad behavior, it’s just a reality.) to reduce our use of products/medicines/ that pollute, ok, let’s say damage, our environment.

So I’m going to start, painstakingly, doing it differently… I hope we all will. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Peace Wabbits. Well, Hares, llvl

You forget how big hares are, when they’re just a word you’re using. But as we were sitting there watching the evening slowly, slowly die, one of them came crashing through the underbrush to take a look at us before loping down the path to the road.

“Hmph,” you could practically see him think as he had to detour around the car. What are they doing here again?

And then twenty yards from the deck where we sat watching, the sun slowly gave up its struggle to shine through the woods. Then it was dusk and it was pretty easy to imagine that you might see the animals that truly do live there. But this day there were no elk or deer, just the ghost memories of them.

It made you consider as we sat in this little Paradise, what the animals might be thinking if they were the sort to do that. How they might fret and grumble about what humans are doing to their world. And it must be said, that in this place, at this cabin, very little, life is lived according to Nature, there’s very little other than our quiet presence to disturb it…

But so many things are threatened. And it seems that people need to push at the edges. There’s an osprey off on an island, and they’ve reserved that island to him. but if you don’t think people need to park their fishing boat right at the very boundary of the forbidden…

Now when life is so slow, it’s easier to hear Mother Earth inhale and exhale; easier to see her beauty; easier to worry about the ways we degrade her.

I wonder why I live so far from Nature when I’m back at my home? And those hares? They’re HUGE! You had to think about Monty Python.

Sounds of Peace, llvl

The joy of being with people you know is not having to talk — or talking when you want to, about whatever you choose. Present time, past times… whatever…

But the silence… I love to live — for a while, at least — in the midst of Nature’s grand silence. To sit long enough that the silence becomes filled with the Earth’s own movements and that of her creatures.

If you’re reading this, you know me, or you’re coming to know me. I am not an outside kinda girl. I live very happily celebrating nature from outside my window or alongside a creek. But don’t ask me to make big excursions in the out-of-doors! I must be a throwback to an earlier genetic mass, because everyone in my family likes to be out in the middle of it. Me? not so much!

But sitting on my friends’ porch, up at their little piece of loveliness in the woods is heaven (especially because i can recharge my e-book! What a great thing that reader is, last time I came on this vacation, I had to carry books. I’m a very fast reader. There were never enough. Now, just one tiny, little device.). The outside toilet and I made peace a long time ago.

I’m captivated by what looks like much of Sweden’s populations ability to sit still. Certainly, there are people lots of places with cell phones. But there are a lot of people without, who are just being. sitting, watching, appreciating. And who then hoist themselves out of their chairs to pack up some sandwiches and thermoses and go down to the lake to bob and float and swim.

It’s really pretty close to heaven and feels a lot like Peace. It’s good to have some familiarity with it, if you’re going to campaign for it.

Island Paradise Peace, llvl

I don’t think there’s any way around this. I think the Swedes are better at being still and in the moment than we are. It could be just me, but many of us, even on vacation are good at just sitting, delighting in the moment. The countryside is beautiful, but there’s beauty everywhere. I’d match my Central Susquehanna’s beauty against beauty anywhere.

One of the things I’ve recognized since I’ve been here is that I occasionally grab Paradise when I meet it. I sat and the stream with Emily and watched the world go by. I floated on the river on my Brother- and Sister-in-law’s boat when my friends came.

And maybe it was just because I’m here that people have taken more time to sit and admire the harbor or the forests, but I don’t think so. They’re on vacation. They’re out in Nature enjoying it. Not necessarily doing something, just being there. Passing around the slightly flavored water and sipping it slowly.

One afternoon, while visiting a sister and her beau, whose daughter and granddaughter were visiting as well, we all piled in the boat and boated around the island. Margita and the 6 year old pulled mackerel lines behind, once we got out on the ocean side of the island. Sophie, the daughter cut their heads off. Björn grilled the fish and we ate them for dinner 3 hours later. Paradise. The sight and taste of the sea. Sweet companionship. A quick stop for a dessert cheese which provided late-afternoon ice creams to tide us over to dinner.

And then the next morning, getting up and packing and then making the time to go down and slip into the sea, there just to bob around like so much flotsam, or is it jetsam, I always forget.

Paradise is here. It’s meant to be enjoyed. It’s meant to be shared. Peace, sweet Peace is in the still, sweet moments in between… (and it’s also, if you get the chance, to be found on islands off the coast of wherever you are. Or in the forests, or the mountains, or the deserts. Just sit and look at Mother Earth. Nature is there to be appreciated. Families are there to be made. Blessings are to be counted. Connections are waiting to slip into place!

Nature’s Pyrotechnic Peace, llvl

Oh, Pennsylvania gardens in the summer! Lush, no other word, except perhaps, pyrotechnic, which our photographer Deb suggested when sending this picture. The greenery explodes, the color pops. “Look,” gardens cry. “Celebrate!” I love the way the spikes burst out of the ground in this photo.

Flowers and plants have their own reason for doing their dance, but we’re the happy recipients of their bounty and their beauty. Doesn’t matter if you’re a vegetable gardener, a flower gardener or, like me, simply a garden appreciator, there they are, gorgeous.

Gardens require a lot of labor. Feeding the world and dazzling us with delight takes tending. I’m so grateful for folks who do the work. I’ve been a dedicated apartment dweller my whole life… I live without dirt, because i pretty much break out in hives or poison ivy in the great outdoors… but that doesn’t mean i’m not dazzled or grateful.

Life. Wild and glorious. Mother Earth is bountiful. And too often we are careless stewards of this abundance. Our approach to such beauty should be reverent and tender. Yesterday I had what i hope may turn out to have been a fruitful conversation about the benefits of boiling water vs roundup for a man beside himself because grass kept pushing up in his sidewalk.

This abundant garden is where we live. For our own sake, and for our Mother’s, why would we put poison on the ground? The Earth gives us life. Shouldn’t we, if we can’t conceive of giving life back, at least consider not poisoning what nurtures us? It seems very little to ask, especially when the world is exploding in bounty under our feet and fingertips.

You understand why painters paint and sketchers sketch and writers write, trying to embrace and honor the beauty. There are so many reasons I’m happy and lucky to live here… gardens are a pretty fabulous reason. Nature, let us be one with it. Let us be at Peace in it.

Paradise, Peace & that Pesky Fly, llvl

It was so fun showing my friends my life here in the Susquehanna Valley. Or at least the happy parts of it! And really most parts are happy parts. The pesky fly in the ointment are the things that are invisible. Hungry Children. Unemployment. All the ‘isms.

But it’s the happy parts of it that give us strength and a reason to stay steady with the work. This is a particularly beautiful part of the body of Mother Earth. Nature… gotta love it!

Added to the glory of where I live, is the great joy of sharing this Valley Beauty with my community/communities…

Sweet times with old friends are balm. All over the world, people are working on the same issues, fighting the same battles, reasoning through the same problems — with perhaps different results, and making differences where they are. And we laugh because we all need to laugh. We compare notes, and then we go back to our lives and see how we can make things different.

But in the meantime. Here’s Paradise. Halfway to Heaven! Y’all come! (and you know I’m not crazy, because Deb Slade is documenting!)

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

Tag Archives: Mother Earth