Christmas Eve 2020 The Lions Sleep Tonight

 "In the jungle the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight"

The snow and rain have obliterated the view and, 

Who knows what lions are prowling in the dark,

Out there ... 

But tonight they sleep, the song says

What comfort a song that reminds us

Even lions sleep and the village can be peaceful.

Bing Crosby & David Bowie - "The Little Drummer Boy (Peace On Earth)" - YouTube

In the jungle,
The mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight

In the jungle,
The quiet jungle
The lion sleeps tonight

Imbube...

Near the village,
The peaceful village
The lion sleeps tonight

Near the village,
The quiet village
The lion sleeps tonight

ohh... wowoh..

Hush my darling,
Don't fear my darling,
The lion sleeps tonight

Hush my darling,
Don't fear my darling,
The lion sleeps tonight, eh eh!

wowoh...

Cheers

Jeanne

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video Bing Crosby & David Bowie - "The Little Drummer Boy (Peace On Earth)"

Bing Crosby & David Bowie - "The Little Drummer Boy (Peace On Earth)"

Alchemy

“Don't think about what you've left behind" The alchemist said to the boy as they began to ride across the sands of the desert. "If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

The last day of 2020

In Ontario it is day 293 of our personal lives being directly impacted by the pandemic.  But was our former world made of pure matter or was it a moment of light?

“and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Why, when there are sunrises and moon rises and birds singing and trees dancing, puppies and babies and people being kind amid all the tragedy and suffering, injustice and ignorance, consumption and abuse do the latter seem to constrict us like the tentacles of an octopus? We can create the world we live in by choosing the lens we look through.

“But he was able to understand one thing: making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.”

― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I wish for all of us for 2021 to empower our alchemy and step into our dreams!!

That's what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

My rereading list (very partial): 

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, and,  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Persig (which is always a good read, but made this years list because of the following quote) 

“There was a language in the world that everyone understood, a language the boy had used throughout the time that he was trying to improve things at the shop. It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired.”

― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Cheers

Jeanne

Science vs opinion

 “It doesn't make a difference how beautiful your guess is. It doesn't make a difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is. If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong.”

― Richard Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics

“Let go of certainty. The opposite isn't uncertainty. It's openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.”
― Tony Schwartz

What we are living through will soon be history. I wonder if people in the future will learn anything from this or whether they will be just like us and continue to make the same mistakes over and over. Curiosity and asking questions are important, but I think many of our politicians, corporate leaders and yes, us individuals as well are looking for the answers in the wrong places. If we know the outcome we want for ourselves we do not look objectively for the answer... we are not truly curious, merely trying to prove our point. Why is it so hard to believe that science, nature and history can be worthy guides??? In this information overloaded world why do we listen and argue about things that science and history and experimentation and studying have answers for? Answers we can find by a simple google search, by reading history or by listening to reputable news sources.

Is there an essence of what we can believe in and that we can use as an underlying guide for how to be when we are buffeted every which way by opinions and voices that manipulate emotions and ignore science?

The following message I read on facebook and I reposted and am copying it here because its message is something we all should keep in mind:

Working parents want kids to go back to school because school closures directly impacts them.

Teachers don’t want schools to open because covid spreading round their school directly impacts them.

Hospital staff want a full lockdown because sick covid patients directly impacts them.

Business owners want to carry on as normal because lockdown directly impacts them.

People with physical health problems want everyone to stay socially distant because catching covid could kill them.

People with mental health problems want people to spend time with because isolation could kill them.

Some can’t wait for a vaccine because they believe it will bring back some normality.

Some are terrified of a vaccine because they believe it could harm them.

We are all going through this but none of us are going through the same thing. Some face crippling financial challenges, others face heart break. We don’t all have to agree with what is best because what’s best for us won’t be best for everyone. We don’t have to understand what others are going through. But we do need to stick together and keep loving each other no matter our differences. We need to be mindful when some things go the way we want it to, it could be terrible news to another person. We need to be kind.

-Author unknown-

Bonus Quotes today:

“No one is is sure of his premise as the man who knows too little.”
Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

“The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.”
Oscar Wilde

Cheers

Jeanne

Muffins vs Icebergs

 “How you can sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can’t make out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless."

"Well, I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them."

"I say it’s perfectly heartless your eating muffins at all, under the circumstances.”
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

What to do, what to do when the beast is rattling at the door? 

What to do, what to do when the iceberg looms and our collective learned helplessness blinds us to anything but oncoming disaster

What to do, what to do when we are victims of "freedom", when ranting and raving and waving flags and blaming don't change the ships course

What to do, what to do??

What purpose is there in joining the ranting crowd? In watching the iceberg get bigger and closer and letting its sensationalness consume us

What purpose is there in letting our focus and emotions succumb to the mob growing more strident and violent as it clamours for attention

What to do, what to do???

What choice do we have?? Stay home and eat muffins, taking great care to butter them carefully maybe?

What choice do we have?? Stop and think how do we want to live and die this one life we have...maybe?

What to do? What to do?

What gives our life meaning? We can choose who we are in this chaos

What gives our life meaning? We can choose what we love in spite of disaster; like the musicians on the Titanic who played as the ship sank, or the mothers who read to their children overcoming their fear of the dangers approaching...

What to do? What to do??

What to do? Eat muffins, butter them enjoy them slowly and savour them

What to do? Think around the iceberg

What to do? Be our own hero first ... if we can't change the world we can change where we focus our thoughts

My heroes from yesterday:

The bookclub friend who delivered cookies to each of our bookclub members; this made me feel part of community of caring people

The friend who came for a walk and inspired me when she told me about virtually travelling the Camino trail, Dancing!! Wow, do what you love!

The people I saw at the church when I picked up ingredients to cook meals for their community food program, buttering the muffins for many

The buddies who's ongoing text chatter about the happenings at the US capitol that gave me a lens to see beyond that iceberg

The friend who shared a question from a course she is taking: What colour is your fear? which is giving me much food for thought

And there are many, the list goes well beyond personal interactions, I have only to look and I see heroes everywhere, and they are not just people (and muffins)...

The Oak Trees I look at day in day, majestic in their beauty and alive in all stages. Standing tall, fallen and transitioning and the baby planted in memory of my father who is always my hero and epitomized the following quote:

“People who maintain their calm in times of global or local chaos are the most effective antidote against the poison of the chaos!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

Explanations

 “Don't waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.”

Paulo Coelho

I have a whole lot to say on this, but I'm not going to waste my time with explanations lol! 

Cheers

Jeanne

Putting this one out because I'm so frustrated with trying to explain that I will be in line for the Covid Vaccine when it becomes available. To me the priority is to be concerned about vulnerable people. I try to recognize that we choose who and what we listen to with our own filter, but if that filter does not include looking out for the greater good of all people and the earth, both natural and spirit world, then it is self limiting and well keep us always in protectionist victim mode and we will always live in fear someone else will treat us as we treat them. 

And this is not personal... the earth is like the Giving Tree by Paulo Coelho; she is giving her all, we are destroying her with our taking but she will give until her last breath is taken. 

Walk to Freedom

 

"I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended."

Nelson Mandela

If we want something we need to make it happen. One step at a time, one hill at a time, one obstacle at a time. Rome was not built in a day and nothing is going to be easy. Taking responsibility for ourselves and our dreams is not easy, it is really hard in fact, but when we do the hard thing the rewards are immense and progressive steps become more rewarding. 

It is not magic that some people jump out of the crowd, Goethe's quote below explains how magic works and miracles happen... this is not the difficult part, the most difficult part is to go deep inside and decide what we really want. That doesn't show up in a dream, it becomes honed and tuned as we walk. Nelson Mandela did not know what he was going to become when he took his first step. We can't go anywhere if we don't take a step out of our comfort zone.

Cheers

Jeanne

"Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Tombstone wisdom

 Doc Holliday: "What did you ever want?"

Wyatt Earp: "Just to live a normal life."

Doc Holliday: "There’s no normal life, Wyatt, it’s just life. Get on with it."

Wit and wisdom from the movie Tombstone

There is a lot of wishful thinking in the world these days. As if we think wishing hard enough will make things go back to "normal". In my opinion Doc's down to earth answer should be posted on billboards everywhere.

I've not watched Tombstone.. but I've grown fond of Doc Holiday's character reading his quotes so I'm putting it on my list of movies that I had never considered but now have a reason to watch.

Cheers

Jeanne

 Bonus quote to illustrate why this seems like it will be an entertaining movie.

“It appears he missed an excellent chance to keep his mouth shut.” — Doc Holliday, Tombstone

Response for growth and happiness

 "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies your freedom and power to choose your response. In those responses lie your growth and your happiness."

Author Unknown (attributed at times to Victor Frankl and at times to Steven Covey)

Responses be messy, awkward and uncomfortable but it leads somewhere. I think I get stuck sometimes in thinking that my response has to be the right one. But if I wait until I know the "right" response I will stay in one place forever (what? doesn't the world revolve around me?? aren't I owed happiness served to me on a plate???) 

This dance of life is about making mistakes and taking chances. I am learning that doing what scares me, doing what I think I can't do, challenging myself to shift out of the need to "know" and into embracing what comes as opportunities to learn, grow and serve is bringing energy into my life. Being Bored and Stuck are choices I do not want to be making. Living life waiting for things to get better is not living. 

I know this because I've been waiting for things more times than I care to admit to myself ... and every time it deepens my knowing that things just don't happen that way. I like to think that my responses are coming faster as time goes on and I know that I'm mistaking all over the place, but crazily enough, doing the hard thing is becoming easier than doing the easy thing, doing nothing or waiting. Paradoxes all over the place!!

Living is Messy and Messy opens up worlds

Cheers

Jeanne

From Lord of the Rings - wisdom to ponder today

"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

this too shall pass...what comes next is uncertain, but we can be assured that this too shall pass

time is fleeting but seems endless when change brings discomfort and inconvenience (for some, hunger and suffering for many others) 

Yet life is for living, not waiting for things we don't like to pass and what life was like in our memories can never be recreated.

Let us go forward with courage my friends and ease our fingers loose from the death grip on our past. Let's take a step into creating our future (we can plug our nose and close our eyes as we step into thin air, the exhilaration alone is worth the step, then we can trust that our imagination is ready with a parachute, it always does! This means to let go of striving for the illusion of security to follow a path that makes us grow)

If one needs a starting point we can never go wrong by being grateful for whatever we have, no matter how insignificant it seems, and starting there ...

Check out this 5 minute youtube of some examples...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaqZVBFsum8

... more wisdom from Tolkien ... we are all part of the same world and what affects some of us affects us all.

“The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Cheers

Jeanne

Arnold S and Lady G and Zeno of Citium

"Man conquers the world by conquering himself."
Zeno of Citium

"You can have results or excuses. Not both"
"When people said "We never want to look like you" Arnold replied "Don't worry, you never will"
"The worst thing I could be is the same as everybody else. I would hate that"
Arnold Schwarzenegger

“Well, that's your opinion, isn't it? And I'm not about to waste my time trying to change it.”
“Don't you ever let a soul in the world tell you that you can't be exactly who you are.”
“I am the excuse to explore your identity. To be exactly who you are and to feel unafraid. To not judge yourself, to not hate yourself.”
Lady Gaga

There is no beginning and no end. We never 'arrive' at a peak where the struggle is over. To live loud is to continually challenge ourselves to be better. To 'conquer' ourselves is to consciously go into the wilderness of our fears and face them. 

Strength is not nesting in a comfortable cave where we fight to retain these comforts at the expense of the rest of the world. We are hanging on desperately to the paradigm that this comfortable cave is our birthright. We have no birthright, our lives are a gift not something we earned. Everyone of us is a gift. 

Those who have done the work to live their passion and stay focused on their dreams are living examples of Zeno's quote. This is how we live in gratitude for the gift of life, how we honour it and ourselves and conquer the world.

2nd week of isolation March 2020

March 23rd

Monday morning; winter again! Silent except the spring birds who don't seem to mind the change in weather

I am on the farm still, trying to decide what next. Dad died in January and I am slowly getting used to life without him. This winter I've been relatively contented with dreaming about vegetable garden, starting seeds, experimenting with sourdough baking and other hobbies with occasional bouts of social consciousness.

Last Thursday morning here she is!!

Morgan drove home from Texas last week and is self isolating in her trailer and the downstairs apartment here. We are still communicating by phone mostly although we've conversed at a distance outside a few times... it is too cold for extended conversations outside.


I was supposed to be hiking the Bruce Trail from March 14th to 27th on the first segment of an End to End fundraiser for the Bruce Trail Conservancy. We got 4 days and 90 kilometers in before the BTC cancelled all events and organized hikes, our included. This is only a postponement for us, hopefully we'll be able to continue soon and finish this summer.

This global pandemic which is causing us to contract our physical mobility is making me think about all the people I know farther away and that I have not connected with in a long time.

Words and talk

"Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs."

Pearl Strachan Hurd  (1930's British politician)

"Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club" by Megan Gail Coles 

Just finished reading this haunting, heartbreaking book. I chose today's quote because words can be weapons that are manipulated by cowards to victimize and abuse people. Words are many times over more insidiously and overtly dangerous than weapons, yet we use them carelessly; tossing them out without thought of where and how they might land. And if we are called out for this we justify ourselves with more words. Like: people are too sensitive ...the "sensitive" ones are to blame for being hurt by our words. Yup, and the more we "desensitize" ourselves by blaming the target the more words we can use because hey, its not our fault if someone gets hurt, we are entitled to free speech too. Humbug! Free speech is a privilege to be used wisely, not an entitlement to carelessly utter without a care to the impact. The old saying "sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me" is bullshit. We can make ourselves numb to words, we can hide our hurt so often it becomes a habit, we can drown out everyone else with our own words, but the pain is still there and it takes more courage to face and acknowledge it than it does to be a coward who blusters our way by using our words to belittle anyone or anything that is different or thinks differently than ourselves. Respecting other people no matter how different they are and allowing them the dignity to be themselves is the only way we can deserve that respect and dignity we feel should be ours. That does not mean accepting abuse or victimization, it means understanding that those are symptoms and focusing on the symptoms without addressing the causes is perpetuating the weaponizing of words that are creating widening chasms between people. Time for change and change starts within all of us. Courage my friends!!

“Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows.” 

Native American Proverb  

Sharper Wits = Magic

“The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”

Eden Phillpotts  

So if the magical things are there waiting for us to discover them and all we have to do is sharpen our wits to make these discoveries why do we live each day stuck in the sloggy, mucky, murky puddle of what we believed was possible yesterday? Our wits are weighed down like boots clomping in clay getting heavier each step, as our familiar convictions get stronger and crush any budding idea that may challenge what we think we know until we are so deeply entrenched we can't even imagine a way out of our hole let alone see the magic.

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/180918110017354076/

Here's a quote I've shared before from Lewis Carrol's book about Alice in Wonderland. I think the world would be a very different place with a lot more magic if we all did this exercise every day. 

"There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."  

There is controversy over the Author: Eden Philpotts relationship with his daughter. Here I have to check in on myself because I usually choose not to use a quote from a source if I read there is public information about abuse they may have committed. I will never condone it, but there is nothing black and white about anything and relationships especially. I don't know if any of us is absolved from abuse and responsibility lies with a society that barely cloaks its own abuse and covers it up or justifies it with religion or colonization or politics or economics. Bullying breeds bullying. 

Dancing and Insanity

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

This quote is often attributed to Fredrich Nietzsche although it is not proven and there are others. George Carlin included, he used this saying in his book "Brain Droppings" (a potential resource for other quotes)

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears the beat of a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

Henry David Thoreau

It takes really deep listening to hear our own music, our own personal drummer. When we are busy judging everyone we can't hear anything else, and our own music fades into a whisper that gets fainter and fainter with each judgement we make. When we judge others (and ourselves), we understand that we are being judged. Judging is "ubiquitous". We hear people judging (our parents, our society, our politicians, our history books, our teachers, our friends...) and it is addictive because it means we don't have to do anything other than call something bad or good and by merely doing that we belong to our tribe that sees right and wrong the same way. We don't have to think for ourselves and we learn to quell our curiousity and questions. The act of making a judgment is our action and this action becomes a habit and also spreads because people like to be part of a group and it is more acceptable to agree than to buck the norm. Judgement is like a novel virus, with its insidious contagion and spread, that has caused its own global pandemic that will keep us at war forever.

A judgement is not an opinion. It says something is right or wrong. It doesn't say "That's weird, I'm curious about why someone would do something like that?" or  "wow, I don't understand but that must have taken a lot of courage" or "Hmmm, interesting dance! Here's an opportunity for me to learn something" or "That is cruel and innocent people are getting hurt how can we change the underlying system that is causing this?" or "What kind of pain and fear is someone dealing with to need to be a bully to survive?" or  "this is scary, I am afraid of what's happening! There must be other people who feel like I do maybe if I speak someone will hear the music I am dancing to" or an infinite other possible ways to learn and do something about what we care about.

A judgement is an absolute shutdown of anything other than "black" or "white" and absolves us of responsibility of looking for the issue (of which we may be a part), absolves us from having empathy, from learning and expanding our outlook, from doing the work of soul searching to find what we really believe, and from doing any other hard thing that might challenge us to change, grow and face our fears.

Maybe we could stop judging and start listening and having conversations that allow us to learn and cooperatively innovate and create and build acceptance that what we don't understand and what we fear is our biggest opportunity to dance with life ... 

Judging is distracting from real issues and is creating deeper fissures in our society and provides no answers because it allows no questions.

An Example from this week's news 

"Justin Trudeau was wrong to join the protesters in a pandemic when he is supposed to be the example of staying out of crowds". 

Yet if he did not join them what is the message from our Prime Minister and government about murder by the system designed to uphold our laws, about racism and about the complicity of silence in perpetuating racism and suppression of people because of the colour of their skin?

In my opinion, this would be a very difficult decision for someone to make. Knowing he was going to be judged no matter what he did.

Well what if he was wrong or what if he right?? How does this affect you and me?? 

We can and are contorting ourselves analyzing Mr. Trudeau's actions but basically we are stuck in our habit of judging and if we are looking for something to make a person wrong about we will find it, and if we are looking for something to make people right about we will find it... 

And who are we to judge someone following their own drummer?

There are opinions about everything these days, a cacophony of conflicting messages. If we were watching the dances what would we see??

The Jerk: Jerky, contorting, twisting 

The Serpent: Sinuous, slithering around, under and over 

The Robot: Repetitious, limited movements 

The Dreamer: Freeflowing and graceful, ephemeral. Like dust in the wind 

The Dictator: Power hand pumping, elbow jabs and deep squat steps knocking over anything in its way

The Thinker:

The Empath:

The Lemur: Photo by Shannon Wild

https://www.catersnews.com/stories/animals/i-like-to-move-it-move-it-lemur-shows-off-dance-moves-to-photographer/

“Greatness is hearing your truth and speaking it no matter how your voice shakes.” Mel Robbins

Fear Fences

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt  

"Vulnerability is the birthplace of courage. And courage is not doing something because you're fearless. Courage is doing something because you may be afraid and you do it anyway."

Col. Dede Halfhill

A BIG Thank You to all those in the Arena right now, risking your physical and mental health, and then being judged and slammed by the very people you are trying to help. I may not always agree with what you are doing, that is okay. There seems to be no circumstance and resulting action that everyone will ever agree on and if we all waited to find the perfect answer before taking any action this world would be unfit to live in so thank you for doing what you can for all of us in spite of all the criticism from the sidelines, What you are doing counts and I admire and appreciate your courage. 

There is no scale to heroic action... anything we do to face a fear and help someone else is heroic and has a ripple effect that cannot be measured. No act is too small to count!!

May those ripples inspire more of us to recognize that hiding from our fear gives fear the power and give us the strength to face and break through the cages fear puts us in. 

Today's paradox: in not standing up to our fears we end up a bully to ourselves trying to hide it. 

(yes I've used the Theodore Roosevelt quote before, I intend to make a copy for my wall framed in barbed wire to remind me everyday of how want to live and the exhilaration of breaking past fear's restraints)

https://ideas.ted.com/why-barbed-wire-yes-barbed-wire-was-as-transformative-as-the-telephone/

Acknowledgement: both of today's quotes were sourced from Brene Brown from this link:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brene-brown-cope-coronavirus-pandemic-covid-19-60-minutes-2020-03-29/  

Cheers

Jeanne

Oaks and Turtles

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. 

Greek proverb  

Everyday we are planting seeds that will grow well beyond our lifetime. We can choose the seeds we want to plant... lots of people are planting trees and by their actions our children may end up with a forest remaining here and there. 

It would be nice to have some people planting mighty oaks ... an acorn takes a very long time to grow and is subject to many perils, yet it can provide shade for centuries if it is allowed to mature.

We all have acorns inside us, its those darn perils that seem so daunting our hard shells never even crack let alone germinate. 

Great opportunity now - the times they are a changing - some are sprouting. For the sake of the future I hope they are prolific enough that a few survive the minefields, the plastic wastelands and toxic air to grow strong and free. 

(reminds me of turtle hatch-lings trying to cross the beach to the relative safety of water through the gantlet of  predators that scoop them up and gulp them down for an instant's gratification -  the few that pass this hurdle have a chance to swim into a new world and face new predators - and the few that make it there have a chance to grow and face new predators.... it's a miracle there are any grown turtles.

Yet everyone one of these turtles could not do it any other way... hiding in the bushes or under a stone is not an option nor is attacking back or growing a harder more encompassing shell  to protect their vulnerability)

Anishinaabe artist designs Twitter Turtle Island emoji for Indigenous History Month

A special edition Turtle Island emoji can be activated on Twitter by using certain hashtags during the month of June.

The emoji, designed by Anishinaabe artist Nancy King who goes by the name Chief Lady Bird, was created in honour of Indigenous History Month. (June 2018)

Cheers

Jeanne

Who wants Easier?

“There are a hundred paths through the world that are easier than loving. But, who wants easier?”
― Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems, Volume One  

“Have I lived enough?
Have I loved enough?
Have I considered Right Action enough, have I
come to any conclusion?
Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?
Have I endured loneliness with grace? 

- A Thousand Mornings, Mary Oliver

What does it mean to be alive? How do we awake to a life that fills us in the way we long for?

I think that the world is telling us to Wake Up and find the courage to be who we need to be to break away from the chains of being a superior human and thinking the world was created for us. It is calling for us to take our humble place in this world; we are no more and no less important than the tiniest and simplest of creatures, and when we cherish all we cherish ourselves. 

Go forth and cherish

Jeanne

About Mary Oliver

https://maryoliver.beacon.org/aboutmary/index.html  

Summer, 1964. Photo by Molly Malone Cook, from Our World (Beacon Press, 2007).

A private person by nature, Mary Oliver has given very few interviews over the years. Instead, she prefers to let her work speak for itself. And speak it has, for the past five decades, to countless readers. The New York Times recently acknowledged Mary Oliver as “far and away, this country’s best-selling poet.” Born in a small town in Ohio, Oliver published her first book of poetry in 1963 at the age of 28; No Voyage and Other Poems, originally printed in the UK by Dent Press, was reissued in the United States in 1965 by Houghton Mifflin. Oliver has since published many works of poetry and prose (the complete list appears below).

As a young woman, Oliver studied at Ohio State University and Vassar College, but took no degree. She lived for several years at the home of Edna St. Vincent Millay in upper New York state, companion to the poet’s sister Norma Millay. It was there, in the late ’50s, that she met photographer Molly Malone Cook. For more than forty years, Cook and Oliver made their home together, largely in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where they lived until Cook’s death in 2005.

Over the course of her long and illustrious career, Oliver has received numerous awards. Her fourth book, American Primitive, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. She has also received the Shelley Memorial Award; a Guggenheim Fellowship; an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Achievement Award; the Christopher Award and the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award for House of Light; the National Book Award for New and Selected Poems; a Lannan Foundation Literary Award; and the New England Booksellers Association Award for Literary Excellence.

Oliver’s essays have appeared in Best American Essays 1996, 1998, 2001; the Anchor Essay Annual 1998, as well as Orion, Onearth and other periodicals. Oliver was editor of Best American Essays 2009.

Oliver’s books on the craft of poetry, A Poetry Handbook and Rules for the Dance, are used widely in writing programs. She is an acclaimed reader and has read in practically every state as well as other countries. She has led workshops at various colleges and universities, and held residencies at Case Western Reserve University, Bucknell University, University of Cincinnati, and Sweet Briar College. From 1995, for five years, she held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching at Bennington College. She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from The Art Institute of Boston (1998), Dartmouth College (2007) and Tufts University (2008). Oliver currently lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the inspiration for much of her work. (Mary Oliver died January 17th, 2019)

"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees 

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

     love what it loves.                         

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

Cheers

Jeanne