It's spring and the world is puddle-wonderful, as e.e. cummings once wrote. All depends on your location…and your point of view. It's not puddle-wonderful in Denver, although it could very well be so fifty miles west. And puddles may not be wonderful if you're constantly having to slog through them or there's a flood watch.
I was asked for feedback on a new screen name recently, and one of the words was "wind." As I began writing my reactions, a stream of imagery flowed out:
For me, "wind" is the rush of air by my cheeks,When we choose the names by which we wish to be known, it often reflects hidden heart imagery. "Skyearth1" was chosen, oh, at least six years ago, when I first logged onto aol. Of course, my preference was without the "1", but someone else had already chosen an unadorned "skyearth." For years I had a vanity plate on my Vermont car: "skies" and no, it was not "skis." (A few people always needed an English lesson.) I love to watch the sky, particularly when the sun rises and sets, or when clouds create remarkable lighting effects. (By the way, there is a website devoted to sky-watching.) Unfortunately, I couldn't transfer the plates to a leased vehicle, so I stopped using it, and simply haven't chosen to buy a vanity plate in Colorado yet.
the soft flow of coolness draining down a hillside on a hot night,
the crispness of March boughs rattling in those melting spring breezes from the south (definitely New Englandish);
the chilliness of an off-mountain breeze balancing the hot sun on my back;
the clean and brisk northwesterlies clearing out the smog-smuggered haziness of summery Vermont days.
But that heart imagery of watching "skies" definitely is reflected in "skyearth." The other heart imagery is "earth," for it is in the luscious places of earth where I am grounded in spirit. And the raped places of earth are what make me sick at heart.
April 22 is the 30th anniversary of EARTH DAY. There are many websites with activities and information associated with it, one being my own organization's, The Wilderness Society. There is also Earth Day. I strongly encourage you all to reflect on what living on this earth means to you and then do something that reflects that meaning (and hopefully, it is a reflection of gratitude for the earth).
If you do nothing activist-oriented on that Saturday, then at least be outdoors in a place of natural beauty — your favorite place, if possible — and give thanks that it still remains. And if you can't be out of doors, prop up a photograph of a wonderful place and meditate with it, perhaps play some of George Winston's "Spring" or Marsha Webb's "Winding Roads" or Marina Raye's "Liquid Silk" and listen to the birdsong.
Thirty years and it's a pityTruly,
That Americans…and the world…
Still need a special day to remind them
To consider the earth
I look forward to the time
When this special day
Will be celebration only,
Because we will have finally
Understood and resurrected
Absolute respect for the
Bountiful gaia
And all our actions will first
Consider the earth
P.S. A new addition to our regular columnists is Avant Soul, who appeared in my email last year and whose examinations of spirit and soul are humorous and brightening. Be ye welcome to these pages, Avant Soul.