This is my entry to week #3 of @ericvancewalton's mind-opening Memoir Monday initiative. For this week we've been charged to write about what we would say to future generations of ours.
Like the second week's prompt, this week's prompt gave me pause: how can I presume to know what the next generations should do? I pondered that prompt, fruitlessly, for a few days.
I could easily think of a few personal cooking tips/aphorisms, such as:
Never try to catch a falling knife.
Always wear shoes when you cook.
Wash both sides of your cutting boards.
If you have a hunch that something is wrong, something is wrong.
The above four sayings, while cutesy and true, are not the stuff a good post is made of.
So, I decided to let poetry tell my thoughts on this matter for me.
I went for a walk along a river bed, and asked the trees.
Here's what they said:
don’t stop
to smell the roses
plant roses
so that every walk of your life
is bordered by flowers
breathe and bathe in their fragrance
let your eyes and noses and ears and tongues and fingers
soothe your innards,
let your being
know the light
of coltsfoot and skunk cabbage -
ramps are not far behind!
know that
you are not
your gender,
nor are you
your house
your family
your job
or your appearance
if you do not feel beautiful
you are not being you
know that
your best efforts
will someday be erased
know that
forces that seek to control you
are everywhere -
be mindful of whom you answer to
ask them
to come when called
and for the older women:
always take a tissue with you
in case you have to pee
images are all mine
always take a tissue with you
in case you have to pee
P.S. I'm still reading this 1970-ish book (reprinted in 2018) and marveling at the stories of George Washington Carver and Jagdish Chandra Bose, and Goethe, and others.
The Secret Life of Plants: A Fascinating Account of the Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Relations Between Plants and Man by Peter Tompkins, Christopher Bird
The last chapter reminds me of you and Sam Stonehill.
Findhorn eco-community marks 50 years Published 17 November 2012
Ok, a few more excerpts, but you'll want to read the whole story. :)
@samstonehill I can see you building such a community around your electric garden - but you have surely read this "Secret Life of Plants" book (years before I found it!). And people will flock to you. Has it already started?
I read that book back in the 70's. It influenced me profoundly, I must say. I've communed with plants, especially trees, ever since.
A dear friend of mine was rejected for residence at Findhorn, so I have negative feelings about that place now.
Rejected!
I suppose an ecovillage can only house so many people, but if we want the concept to spread, we need more ecovillagers.
Well, I'm not surprised you already read the book, back when it first came out. I can see that it inspired you - that's why I thought of you (and keep thinking of you, and Sam) as I continue to read this book.
Closing lines from the bbc.com/news linked above:
But, but, if they're rejecting people like your friend who apply to be part of this community, how are they to SPREAD and grow?
She was very gung-ho about their lifestyle and has stuck to it pretty much ever since, fifty years now. She came with her then boyfriend, and they accepted him but rejected her!
There she was, thousands of miles from anyone else she knew, and they broke up the relationship. She's quite amazing, even today. I can't imagine what they were thinking.
They accepted her boyfriend, but not her: what the heck!
She does sound amazing. Their loss.
We need more progressive eco-communities but not when they revert to the same old small-mindedness that plagues society now.
Thanks for including me in this most interesting conversation.
I downloaded The Secret Life of Plants last year and very much enjoyed the read.
I also have the book, The Magic of Findhorn, but haven't had time to read it yet! Certainly i love the concept.
Am also looking at Kin's Domains. An idea put forward by Anastasia in The Ringing Cedars books. I will very likely write a post about Kin's Domains as i do believe this is the model i will be following and there will be no rejections as your friend experienced @owasco.
https://anastasia.foundation/kins-domains-ringing-cedars/
Here is an interview with a person who is actually doing it:
Thank you! So much like this has been coming my way. Glad to have another.
Looking forward to your post! (and your resolution, "no rejections")
Ooh, I love it, especially, "The trees know. Ask them."
Of course a song comes to mind.
But first - your photos are fabulous!! The skunk cabbage. Hazel in motion.
And the poems.
Now for the Inkspots!
Have you listened to every bit of music ever recorded?! And are able to remember every single one at the drop of a hat? It's amazing.
I love this tune!
LOL
Only recently I came across Bang Bang Boom Boom, a classic, but I'd never heard it until someone paired it with the Baltimore bridge collapse.
Bang, bang
Bang, bang, bang
Bang, bang, bang, bang
Bang, bang
Hit the ground, I hit the ground
Bang, bang
I shook the ground, hit the ground
Bang, bang
Bang, bang, bang, bang
So, I do get it, but it's not my kind of music.
Wonderful poem and it is ironic in a way. Whenever I want answers or clear my head, I just walk to our local woods and by the time I am out, I am back fully focused refreshed and answered!
when we are with the trees -
open to their wisdom -
they lead us to ourselves
It seems I am not done writing for this post! Thanks for connecting me to you and the trees, through your comment. This is what I blog for!
Hello @owasco
This is @tengolotodo and I'm part of the Silver Bloggers’ Community Team.
Thank you for sharing your excellent post in the Silver Bloggers community! As a special "token" of appreciation for this contribution to our community, it has been upvoted, reblogged and curated.
Thank you!! You know I love you. I also know no one is likely to read this comment, so I'm talking to the trees. In that way, you will know, whether you read this or not. How fun is this!
This is gold, I absolutely loved it! Reading this did what all good poetry does, it briefly took me to another place.
Over the last few years I've researched, planned, and pined to move away from the U.S. then ultimately came to the conclusion that it won't be in the cards for me. Lately, in retrospect, I can see I've been in a period of mourning, the kind you go through when you realize in your bones that something just isn't going to happen. Subsequently, I've come to the realization (sparked by something @lizelle said a while back). We can create our own sanctuaries of peace wherever we are. This is what I'll be striving for over the next couple of years.
Thank you for your contribution to Memoir Monday!
I understand considering moving, and deciding to stay put. The front lines of this war is not a certain place, or places, it's a war in our minds. (I could have put in "you are not your thoughts") It's so very possible to create a sanctuary wherever you are! I wonder if I could do that if physical bombs were falling around me, but right here and now, with the world devolving rapidly into ever more surreal realms, I can do it.
It was my pleasure to contribute. I get an awful lot for having done so.
Like many, I got a strong urge to become an expat in 2016 but, in retrospect, it wasn't for reason I originally thought. I see now if we would have moved when I felt that undeniable urge to we would have avoided quite a few of the negative effects of the pandemic..among other things. By now we would have been fluent in the language, would be citizens, and have put down roots. Now we must dig in and try our best to weather the storm that's coming. Quite a few people feel it, I think.
I'm so glad you're getting some value out of it. The project has exceeded my expectations so far. Already, it's the most personally rewarding of any I've launched in the past seven years.
2016 was a turning point for many of us. I became much more open minded. That changed my whole world. More and more of us are opening. I recently spent an entire day with an old and dear friend of mine, who shocked me with her hate of all things conservative a few years ago, when the Covington boys were demonized. This visit, she admitted that she and her friends were self-righteous, and that her mind had been opened. I thought that would never happen.
For me, the realization came a few years later. I knew there was corruption but I wasn't ready to admit that it ran so deeply, was working so hard to divide the country, conquer it with hate, and control everything to such a degree. Now I refuse to see fellow Americans as "the enemy" and recognize the true enemy to be the forces that drive that division. We so desperately need a new and different option but to make that happen many more people would need to wake up.
yes. This is a primary problem. Because so many of us see half of Americans as the enemy, we are very easy to conquer. This gives more meaning to what the trees told me:
I feel surrounded, and protected, by Ents today.
I agree. It’s a race against time at this point. There’s unfathomable wisdom to be found in nature. Our distance from it is one reason we’re in this predicament.
I really like this guy’s YouTube channel. He’s trying to educate his audience that are similarities are greater than our differences:
I love it and this is what we all should try to do
know that
your best efforts
will someday be erased
know that
forces that seek to control you
are everywhere -
be mindful of whom you answer to
see yourself in everyone else
I'm trying! The last line has blown my mind - everyone is having a human experience!
This is so lovely. And so true. <3
I feel personally attacked. xD
So so important. <3 Especially in this divided world. Reminded me of Pink Floyd's Echoes,
I love it when my poems bring music to mind. Thank you for that. What you've chosen is fabulous.
You have to wash both sides so they don't warp.
Great stuff! If we could all just see ourselves in everyone else we could solve most of the world's problems in a day.