Category: Animals and the earth

Animals and the earth, sacred earth, the natural world, Visions

The Living Earth – Ancient Perspectives

by sharonstjoan1 Comment on The Living Earth – Ancient Perspectives

As part of the Amazing Earthfest, taking place all this week, Forest Voices of India will present The Living Earth: Ancient Perspectives.

Here is the link to read about, and register for, the one hour long Zoom presentation this Friday, May 13th 6 pm, U.S. Mountain time.

https://amazingearthfest.org/events/the-living-earth-ancient-perspectives

Fifty minutes of this presentation is a movie which features Dr. Nanditha Krishna, well-known authority on the culture of India and the world of nature. Also featured are Josh Nunez telling Native American stories, Musuni Letura from Kenya, and Chris Gorzalski with the Great Old Broads for Wilderness. The speakers offer views of the earth as a living being — with humans belonging to nature, rather than dominating nature. There are beautiful musical interludes by Bobbi Cheney, along with scenes of nature.

Following the movie, there will be a short time for live questions and discussion.

Registration is free. To register, click on the link above!

Animals and the earth, NOT by Sharon St Joan - reblogged, Wild birds

Vultures are Cool — Jet Eliot

by sharonstjoan1 Comment on Vultures are Cool — Jet Eliot

Lappet-faced Vultures, Botswana, Africa Turkey Vulture, CA We were driving on a California country road this week surrounded by sweetly fragrant ceanothus wildflowers, when we came upon two lethargic turkey vultures standing in the road. Turns out they were doing us a big favor. Because they were not moving for us, we slowly drove toward […]

Vultures are Cool — Jet Eliot
Animals and the earth, NOT by Sharon St Joan - reblogged

Sometimes, You Just Have To Say… — Organikos

by sharonstjoanLeave a Comment on Sometimes, You Just Have To Say… — Organikos

Photo by Seth Inman taken in Kenya’s Samburu Game Reserve … Show me a photo. When atrocities dominate the news, and threaten to overwhelm, I lean on old photographs taken by family members that offer a meditative opportunity. Recently I have found myself leaning on those that transport me to some natural phenomenon I have […]

Sometimes, You Just Have To Say… — Organikos
Animals and the earth, NOT by Sharon St Joan - reblogged, sacred earth, the natural world

Earth Day Interview with Richard Weller: A Hopeful Vision for Global Conservation — THE DIRT

by sharonstjoan1 Comment on Earth Day Interview with Richard Weller: A Hopeful Vision for Global Conservation — THE DIRT

Richard J. WellerRichard J. Weller, ASLA, is the Meyerson Chair of Urbanism and Professor and Chair of landscape architecture and Executive Director of the McHarg Center at The University of Pennsylvania. He is author of seven books, including the forthcoming The Landscape Project, a collection of essays by the faculty at the Weitzman School of…

Earth Day Interview with Richard Weller: A Hopeful Vision for Global Conservation — THE DIRT
Animals and the earth, Artwork, earth, nature's designs, NOT by Sharon St Joan - reblogged

The Functional Beauty of Nature’s Designs — THE DIRT

by sharonstjoanLeave a Comment on The Functional Beauty of Nature’s Designs — THE DIRT

Wild Design: Nature’s Architects / Princeton Architectural PressThe new book Wild Design: Nature’s Architects by science writer and essayist Kimberly Ridley is a slim, charming look at some of the most interesting results of 3.8 billion years of evolution — the beautiful and always highly functional forms of plants, fungi, insects, spiders, avians, and mammals.…

The Functional Beauty of Nature’s Designs — THE DIRT
Animals and the earth, Poems, sacred earth

A long story

by sharonstjoan4 Comments on A long story
body of water and green field under blue sky photo
Photo by Matthew Montrone on Pexels.com

So, as they used to say,

The sons of the Early One

Made the sea and the sky –

Why

No one knew,

And, with the hint of a smile,

By the night’s melody,

They made even all the winds that ran, playing,

Along the shore.

But after a long while,

Things needed a shuffle – a toss or a turn,

So, they brought about a long churn

Of the sea – and the rain

Fell, then all curled up

Like the crinkles of a leaf in the fall,

And the Wakeful One closed both His eyes

And slept and will waken again one day

To a whippoorwill’s call,

Or the pinyon jays’ cries,

But the most ancient Holy One, beyond the beginning,

Is always, in the sleeping and the awakening,

Within and beyond the day and the night

Of Evermore.

After a while though, when no one was looking

The dragon of yore

Crept

Up onto the earth and arose again,

He who believed in nothing at all,

And stalked the whole land –

Shredding

And tearing,

Causing hurt and howling too

With a horrible hiss,

Over the smoking sea,

Scattering the sand,

Until he tumbled into the dark Abyss,

And fell down, down

And then soon

After, there was peace

For the startled curlew,

So, all the big ones and the little ones and the long sea, rolling

All closed their eyes and slept

In the comfort, deep blue,

Of the dark for a while,

Till stars sailed adrift in the ever-wandering skies,

Over the lake of the softly singing, glad-winged geese,

In their feathered gown,

While the gold cup

Of the moon

Went sailing on in her cloud-ringed light

Along the bright rim of the brave sky.

**

By Sharon St Joan

© Copyright, Sharon St Joan, 2022

Animals and the earth, Poems, sacred earth, the natural world, Trees

The gift of forest Gods

by sharonstjoan2 Comments on The gift of forest Gods
green trees
Photo by James Wheeler on Pexels.com

Mist-ringed towers drifting

And the snow petal

Remember the forest Gods

From long before

Who ruled all lands then.

It was exactly

Very, very long ago

When

The rains buffeted

The clouds in the sky

And much has happened since –

Betrayal,

Forgetting,

Diminishing,

Lessening.

The bitter knife of the wind prods

The memory;

Only the great-horned owl recalls,

And his friends.

Those Gods have gone to far worlds – away

And often hid,

To universes little known –

And yet they are not far,

Still here, alone,

While winds obey,

Because there are no moments now,

No distance,

No separation,

No illusion,

Only the reality,

Only the howl, laughing,

Of the coyote

Whose fur shines white in the moonlight,

Whose awareness is keen,

Like the eyes of the star.

Perceptions of snow –

Past worlds, wooded, green

The one true past is here now –

In the pinecone

That whistles in the January

Wind and in the juncos and white-crowned sparrows,

Who hop within the whiffs

Of the snow flurry,

In the winds of gold that fly

From the setting sun that falls

Behind the cliffs.

Gone now, the noble cow,

Wandering home in the mists,

Eternal mists of snow,

Of times that were and are

And are again to be

When the Gods guard the way,

To protect the sacred, snow-enchanted day

In the deep forests,

Now and yet again and evermore.

***

By Sharon St Joan

© Copyright, Sharon St Joan, 2022

Please visit the website, https://forestvoicesofindia.com. You can sign up for the newsletter too!

Animals and the earth, NOT by Sharon St Joan - reblogged, the natural world

Wepwawet, the Opener of Ways — Iseum Sanctuary

by sharonstjoanLeave a Comment on Wepwawet, the Opener of Ways — Iseum Sanctuary

Listening to the coyotes communicating in howls and yips just yards away from our Sanctuary, brings to mind one of the most ancient Egyptian gods, Wepwawet (also known as Ap-aut and Sed) a wolf-like god whose worship originated in Upper Egypt. His name means “Opener of the Ways” and this has been interpreted as opening […]

Wepwawet, the Opener of Ways — Iseum Sanctuary
Animals and the earth, NOT by Sharon St Joan - reblogged

Wisconsin Wolf News: Secretary Deb Haaland Upholds Treaty Rights — Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsin

by sharonstjoanLeave a Comment on Wisconsin Wolf News: Secretary Deb Haaland Upholds Treaty Rights — Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsin

“The law requires that states uphold reserved tribal treaty rights. Therefore, in the case of the Ojibwe Tribes in Wisconsin, the Interior Department formally requested that the state consult and coordinate with the tribes when making wolf management decisions and respect the tribes’ right to conserve rather than kill wolves. We will take similar actions…

Wisconsin Wolf News: Secretary Deb Haaland Upholds Treaty Rights — Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsin