Hello Friends,
I’ve got a gift for you, two short videos from my morning walks that celebrate this transition time of spring sliding into summer.
But first, a reminder: the Terraphilia Book Club discussion of Terry Tempest Williams’ Finding Beauty in a Broken World is open now. Join via the comments at the end of the post. To make it easier for folks to find the book discussion, let’s start our comment posts with “BOOK DISCUSSION.”
Here are a couple of excerpts from the discussion to get you thinking. First, from author and editor
about the unusual fragmented structure of the beginning of the book:I’ve heard Christina Baldwin talk about a "contract with the reader." The idea behind that is that the beginning of a book lets people know what to expect. Here, they should get that the author won't use a very traditional way to tell a story. Also, that line, "Once upon a time, we knew the world from birth" is what Tempest Williams believes, I think, even though it's Eliot's line. … I think she may be using it to say that everybody, including her, has lost something in the world.
And this response to my question about how we readers deal with material that is painful to read, from
of Creative Late Bloomers:The loss of kinship with Earth and Others is on my mind every day. My responses to harm and destruction can be highly emotional at times: I once stayed inside my house for two days, because a nearby forest of beautiful old trees was being clearcut. … Reading the section on the murder of prairie dogs caused a similar response. But we must witness this destruction to build our ethical and moral foundations of kinship behavior. So I read and wince. And I am thankful that my reaction is so visceral.
If you’ve hesitated to join the discussion because you don’t know what to say, read the questions I posted and pick one to consider. And if you’re thinking, I don’t have time to read, consider this from the brilliant
of Great Books + Great Minds:[R]eading, at its best, isn’t a productivity hack or a badge of intellectual honor. It’s a mirror. It’s a medicine. It’s an invitation to go deeper.
Let’s go deeper together. Join the discussion here!
Gifts of awe and joy
What this video doesn’t show is where this remarkable and beautiful wildflower is growing: the steep, dry slope of an unreclaimed clay mine. The eroding soil of the mine is now carpeted with invasive annual plants who flourish on disturbed land like this. Their dense growth makes it difficult for indigenous plants to return, bringing with them their long relationships with pollinators and songbirds. When I see one of our native wildflowers thriving on this “waste ground,” I celebrate the beauty in what others see as a broken place.
These goslings going for their first swim in the irrigation canal that runs past my neighborhood made me laugh out loud. I hope it brings you joy, too.
On a personal note, I’ve got two weeks to pack up my household and organize all of the details of a move to my rental house just outside the little town of Paonia, an hour’s drive away. To say I’m a little terrified at this leap into the unknown of a new beginning is an understatement.
More soon.
Blessings to you all, Susan