Grieving a world of wars without end, always listening for rumors of peace / Robin Wall Kimmerer and Chris La Tray / Annular eclipse 2023 / Tiny Mandala #30 / Owls

Robin Wall Kimmerer and Chris La Tray

Braiding Sweetgrass: What does the earth ask of us? 

This talk will be accessible until October 17.  

Chris La Tray is the recently named Poet Laureate of Montana.  I've been reading his blog for several years now and recommend it.  I've bought two of his books of poetry and am looking forward to reading his book which will be published in 2024, Becoming Little Shell.

"... He maintains an online journal called "An Irritable Métis," where he grapples with matters of cultural identity, the natural world, and the path Montana is taking ..."

(quote from Native News Online)

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Annular eclipse 2023

From my porch, I took a photo of the sun just before the max view,

 

and was startled to see what appeared to be a reverse image of the eclipse on the right side of the photo.  Take a look.  A mystery!

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In a world of wars without end, I grieve and continue to listen for rumors of peace.

"Sunrise"

 

"Sunrise," by Joy Harjo, read by Chris La Tray

JOY HARJO

Sunrise

Sunrise, as you enter the houses of everyone here, find us.

We've been crashing for days, or has it been years.

Find us, beneath the shadow of this yearning mountain, crying here.

We have been sick with sour longing, and the jangling of fears.

Our spirits rise up in the dark, because they hear,

Doves in cottonwoods calling forth the sun.

We struggled with a monster and lost.

Our bodies were tossed in the pile of kill. We rotted there.

We were ashamed and we told ourselves for a thousand years,

We didn't deserve anything but this—

And one day, in relentless eternity, our spirits discerned movement of prayers

Carried toward the sun.

And this morning we are able to stand with all the rest

And welcome you here.

We move with the lightness of being, and we will go

Where there's a place for us.

From "An Irritable Métis" (Chris La Tray) / Late December 2021

I've been reading Chris La Tray's substack ever since discovering it by way of  Elizabeth's substack.  Grateful for the ever-widening community of kindred spirits who are connected through blogging.

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The snow and ice here have re-created something like the first days of COVID.  Few people out on the roads.  Many who might have gathered without vaccinations and without masks have had to stay home or near home here since Christmas Day due to snow and ice making travel not an option for most of us.  The forecast offers no end in sight.

This morning I was talking with a friend who teaches high school English in Baltimore.  She reports that the COVID situation there is as bad as it was before vaccinations became widely available.  

Looking out my windows to the east in the past few days:

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Some other gifts

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"It Is Your Duty To Love" (Chris La Tray's blog)

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Joni Mitchell