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The Peace of Wild Things

This is my absolute favourite poem. It used to comfort me greatly when I was struggling through the pain of raising two young children by myself, and juggling those responsibilities with a full time job. Now twenty years later, I have significantly more time and less money to juggle, and my children have grown into two wonderful, wacky and compassionate adults. The poem is still wonderful. I now have different fears, now my fears are for my grandchildren and the Wild Things that are struggling themselves with Climate Change and loss of habitat. This poem still has the ability to calm me; to remind me to rest in the grace of the world; to savour that grace and be thankful.

The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light.
For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Wendell Berry (Thank you SLOWest Times, March 1, 2011, for printing this poem)

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Beavers – Canada’s Eco-Saviours

I’ve always respected the hard working beaver – the watershed engineer of nature – and figured that we would do better to leave them alone and appreciate their indigenous knowledge. They know better than we do the ultimate purpose of their work and the interconnectedness of it all.

Now it seems that at least the Globe and Mail agrees with me:

The beaver’s new brand: eco-saviour

Erin Anderssen

From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Feb. 18, 2011 7:24PM EST
Last updated Friday, Feb. 18, 2011 11:18PM EST

Our bucktoothed icon is hard-working and monogamous, steadfast and stable in the Canuck way. But beloved? Not when one drops a tree on your cottage or floods your land with its dam. These days, however, the beaver has a new brand: eco-saviour. An increasingly vocal group of scientists and conservationists believes the dam-building rodent is an overlooked tool to mitigate climate change – a natural remedy for our sick rivers and ravaged wildlife. Fly away with that, bald eagle.

Engineers with tails

It’s the beaver’s avid dam-building that makes it a star with conservationists. In 2002, when University of Alberta biologist Glynnis Hood was in the middle of getting her PhD, the Prairies experienced the worst drought on record. She watched the wetland dry up “right before her eyes.” But where beaver dams existed, the pond water remained. Poring through 54 years of historic aerial photos, records of beaver populations and climate data, she discovered that the ponds with active beaver lodges had nine times more water during droughts than ponds without dams. In dry summers, the beavers kept water from trickling out and built channels to guide the water in; they had more impact than any rainfall or drought.  …Read More

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Hello Sustainers!

This is my first post on this blog. I am interested in exchanging ideas on making our communities more welcoming and supportive of all who live in them; more vibrant and more protective of the environment.

Our species increasing dependence on fossil fuels over the last 100 years has created huge amounts of pollution, pushed many other species toward extinction and resulted in galloping climate change all over the globe.

It has fostered many myths- one of the most pernicious being that businesses and economies can and must grow – ever expanding towards infinity. The last 2 Western generations expected to do better than their parents, to have more possessions, more vacations, a better education and a better job.

But my spidey sense is telling me that the infinitely expanding economies have gone off the rails, in the brand new year 2011.  You may have noticed examples of how the ever expanding economy and prosperity is not quite happening in your corner of the world. Should we expect that this is just a momentary recession, a slow couple of years that’s all? That we’ll get back into the expansionary mode any day now –  or should we be dreaming up new myths and pictures of a different future?

This blog will be devoted to describing a new future, one where we commit to reining in our consumption and finding beauty and satisfaction in  supportive and  embracing communities.

Francine