A Ludicrous Sign
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photo by Craig Smith
This pic was taken by Craig in the 1990's, and the inscription on the billboard below the flag was as rediculous then as it is now!
"After The Garden Is Gone"
After the Garden
"...what will people do?
after the garden is gone
what will people say?
after the garden
...won't need no sunshine
won't need no purple haze
after the garden is gone
...where will people go?
after the garden is gone
what will people know?
after the garden
after the garden is gone
after the garden is gone"
lyrics from one of the songs by Neil Young on his new CD "Living With War" www.neilyoung.com
In the book "Farm Aid: A Song For America", Neil, one of the founders of Farm Aid, states a simple truth: He's just "...tryin to keep America from losing all its roots."...and I think that's what many of us are also trying to do.
Save the Earth ~ Play Guitar, click here to "Voice Of The Woods"
Visit "The Voice of the Woods" click on link above.
Communities all over America are made up of the human family. I think about our humanity a lot....our humaneness to each other.....and what an important role that plays in us being able to solve some of our biggest problems.
When I was a child, my father was a Navy pilot and later became an airline pilot. In both positions, he travelled to other places in the world and brought back stories and gifts from many nations. I always thought "how wonderful" that was, and those experiences are part of my "roots".
I have lived in and visited many towns and communities, and the ones that seemed to be most infused with life and spirit had a tremendous diversity of people and walks of life and there was something intrinsic in each person that made them truly care about their town and what it meant to live there....people allowed to be who they are, coming together with all their diversity present as a community. There is just a feeling of more fun, acceptance, and caring in places like that....there's more kindness, tenderness, mercy and sympathy....the qualities of humanity that are the heart of civilization.
Communities nurture the "opposite" of greed, corruption, and obsession with power...which carry the seeds of violence and destruction. In good communities, each person's individual roots become part of the fabric of a healthy thriving whole that respects and honors each others differences.
Like plants and trees, all of us need stable roots and nurturing. A community that allows
each individual to grow and be truly alive is allowing each person's unique roots and gifts to be a building block for their whole community.
America was founded as a democracy that would flourish in equality and liberty for all people who came from all parts of the globe to settle here. It was built by immigrants from many lands. And, I look at that as something to enjoy and celebrate!
When I was a child, my father was a Navy pilot and later became an airline pilot. In both positions, he travelled to other places in the world and brought back stories and gifts from many nations. I always thought "how wonderful" that was, and those experiences are part of my "roots".
I have lived in and visited many towns and communities, and the ones that seemed to be most infused with life and spirit had a tremendous diversity of people and walks of life and there was something intrinsic in each person that made them truly care about their town and what it meant to live there....people allowed to be who they are, coming together with all their diversity present as a community. There is just a feeling of more fun, acceptance, and caring in places like that....there's more kindness, tenderness, mercy and sympathy....the qualities of humanity that are the heart of civilization.
Communities nurture the "opposite" of greed, corruption, and obsession with power...which carry the seeds of violence and destruction. In good communities, each person's individual roots become part of the fabric of a healthy thriving whole that respects and honors each others differences.
Like plants and trees, all of us need stable roots and nurturing. A community that allows
each individual to grow and be truly alive is allowing each person's unique roots and gifts to be a building block for their whole community.
America was founded as a democracy that would flourish in equality and liberty for all people who came from all parts of the globe to settle here. It was built by immigrants from many lands. And, I look at that as something to enjoy and celebrate!
The Beginning of May
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photo/art by Craig Smith
Early May marks the midpoint in the Sun's movement between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice. Since the abundant growth of plants in May converges with this solar event, May 1 has traditionally been celebrated as the coming of summer.
"Life constitutes an organic, interconnected whole which undergoes constant transformation." ~ the Tao
Be Good To Your Heart
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Be good to your Heart
Every time we become inflamed
with fear or anger,
we are hurting our arteries.
Be good to your heart.
Let love in.
Let go of judgment.
Your heart is your home.
The heart is the central power point within the human energy system, the symbolic doorway into our internal world. It carries the knowledge that love is the only authentic power. The heart and sun within the human body, pulsates into each of us the energies of compassion, harmony and beauty. Violations of the heart must be rectified or healing will not be possible.
~ a compilation from various "Wise Ones"
A Generational Mission
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photo by Craig Smith
Saturday, April 22, 2006
A few quotes from Al Gores article "The Moment of Truth" which is in the May 2006 issue of Vanity Fair magazine.
"The rapid accumulation of global-warming pollution in the Earth's atmosphere is now confronting human civilization with a crisis no other we have ever encountered. This climate crisis is, indeed, extremely dangerous, but it also presents unprecedented opportunities. Before we can get to the opportunities, however, it is crucial to define the danger, and to discuss how it is that we in the United States seem to be having such difficulty perceiving that danger....We are melting virtually all of the mountain glaciers in the world....Since the entire climate system of Earth is formed by the planetwide pattern of wind and ocean currents, which redistribute heat from the tropics to the poles, there is growing concern that the relatively stable pattern that has persisted for 11,000 years - since the last ice age and before the first appearance of cities - may now be on the verge of radical and disruptive changes. The Gulf Stream, the monsoon cycle in the Indian Ocean, the El Nino/La Nino cycle in the Eastern Pacific, and the jet streams, among the other circulatory phenomena, are all at risk of being pushed into new and unfamiliar patterns....inconvenient truths do not go away just because they are not seen. Indeed, when they are not responded to, their significance doesn't diminish; it grows....where there is a blinding lack of situational awareness, the people perish....many Americans now believe that we have entered a period of consequences - that Katrina, as horrible as it was, may have been the first sip of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us over and over again until we act on the truth we have wished would go away....we can solve this crisis, and as we finally do accept the truth of our situation and turn to boldly face down the danger that is stalking us, we will find that it is also bringing us unprecendented opportunity....I'm not referring to new jobs and new profits, though there will be plenty of both....the new understanding we will gain - about who we really are -will give us the moral capacity to comprehend the true nature of other, related challenges that are also desperately in need of being defined as moral imperatives....Ultimately, it is not about any scientific discussion or political dialogue; it is about who we are as human beings. it is about our capacity to transcend our limitations, to rise to this new occasion. To see with our hearts, as well as our heads, the response that is now called for."
Thank You, Al Gore!
Thursday, April 20, 2006
A famous love poem by E. E. Cummings ~ Beautifully recited by Cameron Diaz (as Maggie Feller) in the movie "In Her Shoes".
"I carry your heart with me, I carry your heart with me, I carry it in my heart, I am never without it, anywhere I go you go, my dear, and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling, I fear No fate, for you are my fate, my sweet, I want No world, for beautiful you are my world, my true, Here is the deepest secret nobody knows, here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud, and the sky of the sky of a tree called life, which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide, And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart ~ I carry your heart, I carry it in my heart."
A famous love poem by E. E. Cummings ~ Beautifully recited by Cameron Diaz (as Maggie Feller) in the movie "In Her Shoes".
"I carry your heart with me, I carry your heart with me, I carry it in my heart, I am never without it, anywhere I go you go, my dear, and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling, I fear No fate, for you are my fate, my sweet, I want No world, for beautiful you are my world, my true, Here is the deepest secret nobody knows, here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud, and the sky of the sky of a tree called life, which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide, And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart ~ I carry your heart, I carry it in my heart."
What Is Art?
photo by Patty Ann Smith
"All of life is a work of art that each of us create everyday. All of life is a struggle to achieve awareness; and that struggle to be fully awake and alive to all things around us ~ our loved ones, our neighborhood, our environment and our impact upon it ~ is our art." ~ Christopher Childs
"...When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world."
~ Mary Oliver
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