C’mon Spring!

For many, tomorrow, January 6, is the feast of the Epiphany. That’s when our Christmas decorations will start to come down for another year. It’ll feel like a long time until we celebrate Valentine’s Day next month. At least many of us will be able to  have some fun organizing to file taxes in April (he typed snarkily). Looking at what is claimed to be “normal” high and low temperatures in our area, we’ll begin to thaw near the end of the third week or start of the fourth in February. Then it’s only another month until Spring Equinox (March  20).

say "good-bye" Christmas

Photo by J. Harrington

If you got the impression I don’t like winter, you’re perceptive. We’ve been experiencing a polar vortex with windchills persisting below zero. At least (for now) the freezing rain, ice and snow are occurring well south of us. On the brighter side, there’s a forced bulb garden and another plant growing towards blooming, bringing spring early to our indoors. Plus I have a stack of books I’m enjoying reading and a list of those to be published this year that I’m looking forward to. We’ll try to avoid being overly grumpy despite the season, the weather and the incoming administration. I’ve noticed that all I accomplish by getting upset at others’ (or my own) incompetence is getting upset and being unhappy. It’s a habit I’m trying to break.

Thanks largely, but not entirely, to the vagaries of the weather, I’ve missed fly fishing the past couple of seasons. We plan on making a mighty effort to do better this year. (See above re: not getting upset as often.) Furthermore, some of my recent readings note that Native Americans focus on storytelling during the winter. Storytelling and reading are a lot alike, but I need to forego doomscrollling, news about the inauguration and the incoming administration, and focus on phenology, fly-fishing and successful responses to our climate and related environmental crises. These might be considered New Year’s Resolutions, but I made a new year's resolution decades ago to never make another and I haven’t yet broken that one.

Here’s a fine way to ground ourselves for what lies ahead:

Remember

Joy Harjo
1951 – 

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.

The future is ours to make

 It’s the middle of the last week of 2024. I’m contemplating a New Year’s Resolution to give up doom scrolling. That probably also means no more reading Guardian and slashdot. But, other than support the #resistance, there’s only so much you and I can do to increase sanity and kindness while we wait for evolution to do its job. Have you figured out how to not watch a MAGAt train wreck in progress?

On the other hand, one of the books I’m reading, What If We Get It Right?, is full of examples and good news on how smart, creative, folks are dealing with our “climate futures.” Based on what I’ve read so far, they seem to be having an awfully good time while they’re at it. Plus, the extended weather forecast, at least for the moment, has several days with sunshine (whatever that is) coming up around the start of the new year. I was about to write that we can’t create our weather when I realized that’s precisely what we’re doing by increasing climate volatility with our greenhouse gas emissions. Maybe we need to focus on fixing more than fighting while we wait for evolution to do its job.

early shoots in last year's forced bulb garden

Photo by J. Harrington

One of my Christmas presents from the Better Half is a “spring morning” forced bulb garden. Green sprouts have already appeared, much like last year’s version. I’m looking forward to an early spring, at least indoor, and maybe even in the yard. We’re now in the midst of an early January thaw. The snow is melted. Mornings and nights are foggy / hazy / freezing, making for slippery travel. I remember reading, several years ago, a report that asserted climate change would make Minnesota’s winters more like Missouri’s. There appears to be a fair amount of accuracy in that assessment.

I do believe the world has entered a period of major transformation. Perpetual growth isn’t feasible on a finite planet. Our global economy is based on the necessity of perpetual growth. We must develop and implement alternatives such as Doughnut Economics and a Steady State Economy. The knowledge is available. It’s up to US to provide the political will to use it. Maybe the incoming administration will provide just the impetus we need to do much better in the future we help create.

For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet 

Joy Harjo
1951 – 

Put down that bag of potato chips, that white bread, that bottle of pop.

Turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control.

Open the door, then close it behind you.

Take a breath offered by friendly winds. They travel the earth gathering essences of plants to clean.

Give it back with gratitude.

If you sing it will give your spirit lift to fly to the stars’ ears and back.

Acknowledge this earth who has cared for you since you were a dream planting itself precisely within your parents’ desire.

Let your moccasin feet take you to the encampment of the guardians who have known you before time, who will be there after time. They sit before the fire that has been there without time.

Let the earth stabilize your postcolonial insecure jitters.

Be respectful of the small insects, birds and animal people who accompany you.
Ask their forgiveness for the harm we humans have brought down upon them.

Don’t worry.
The heart knows the way though there may be high-rises, interstates, checkpoints, armed soldiers, massacres, wars, and those who will despise you because they despise themselves.

The journey might take you a few hours, a day, a year, a few years, a hundred, a thousand or even more.

Watch your mind. Without training it might run away and leave your heart for the immense human feast set by the thieves of time.

Do not hold regrets.

When you find your way to the circle, to the fire kept burning by the keepers of your soul, you will be welcomed.

You must clean yourself with cedar, sage, or other healing plant.

Cut the ties you have to failure and shame.

Let go the pain you are holding in your mind, your shoulders, your heart, all the way to your feet. Let go the pain of your ancestors to make way for those who are heading in our direction.

Ask for forgiveness.

Call upon the help of those who love you. These helpers take many forms: animal, element, bird, angel, saint, stone, or ancestor.

Call your spirit back. It may be caught in corners and creases of shame, judgment, and human abuse.

You must call in a way that your spirit will want to return.

Speak to it as you would to a beloved child.

Welcome your spirit back from its wandering. It may return in pieces, in tatters. Gather them together. They will be happy to be found after being lost for so long.

Your spirit will need to sleep awhile after it is bathed and given clean clothes.

Now you can have a party. Invite everyone you know who loves and supports you. Keep room for those who have no place else to go.

Make a giveaway, and remember, keep the speeches short.

Then, you must do this: help the next person find their way through the dark. 

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.