Greater Good Magazine “who publishes science-based Insight for a meaningful life” writes A doctor explains why he prescribes time outside to his patients. Here’s one silver lining to the pandemic: with gyms, museums, and stores closed, many of us were forced to spend more time outside. Read more at How Nature Helps Us Heal | […]
How Nature Helps Us Heal — Natural History Wanderings
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US Congress to recognise historical and religious significance of Diwali – PTI — BHARATA BHARATI
“For Sikhs, Jains, and my Hindus here in the United States and across the world, Diwali is a time for gratitude as well as a celebration of the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil,” – Raja Krishnamoorthi Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi has introduced a resolution in the US Congress recognising the religious and historical significance […]
US Congress to recognise historical and religious significance of Diwali – PTI — BHARATA BHARATI
Swan of climbing wings
Swan of climbing wings,
Below
Slips by
The hour of the rhyme of time unraveling.
Raindrops.
Where now will
The footsteps of the ancient ones tread?
On the moon – the dark side?
On the mountain height?
Aloft, Hamsa – you who ride
On the mist, undeterred,
Through the red
Pillars of the sunset
Through the cliffs of darkened flight,
Do you see,
Or have you heard
Such a string of mis-imaginings?
And yet
The old one saw the donkeys
On the winding streets of Egypt
Among the catacombs and the crypt.
For a long time,
She rescued them.
Fly now to join the birds in the clouds,
Only the clouds,
Gray,
Over the medieval rooftops
Of the crags above the lost towns.
Crowds in dusted cities,
The mind gone
Astray,
In disarray,
Betrays
The darkness
And the quiet,
Until
Only the mighty wings of the sparrow
Understand
The patterns of the falling snow
And go on to a newer, older land,
Found by grace.
Become then the white crowned sparrow,
Only the sparrow
Who flies
Toward the face of the dawn,
Only the gull who rises, who cries
In gladness
Over the wintry bay,
Free,
Beyond the misted, ethereal rooftops
Crowned
In pointed hats of snow.
© Sharon St Joan, 2021
Happy New Year!
May 2021 bring renewal and blessings to the earth – to the mountains, the forests, to the air and the oceans, the animals, the plants, and to all people – with a new vision and a new perspective!
Kamakshi’s Light
In a meandering land of mystic moons,
At the waystation
Between the worlds — unremembered, translucent,
Walking, not yet understanding,
Beyond the shifting sand dunes.
At the crossroads by the river
Of fish glimmering, shimmering,
In a sliver
Of moonlight
Waits a boat of mist,
In a time that is no
Time,
In a place that is no place,
We walk before the dawn
In a land of gentle grace,
In a land of stars and mist,
As we climb a tilted rise,
There ahead a mountain looms alone,
Home of fir trees, of summer’s moss,
And winter’s cold,
Of crystal stone,
Eclipsed in silver wings of snow
Of thrice-weathered rocks,
Of beings old
Older than the earth – from long before,
Of grandfathers that go along on a bent cane,
In the time that never was – sure-footed, wise,
Beyond a fog-inducing year
Of history
Come unpinned,
In a land that will wait,
Just past the wooden post of the gate,
There, where an angel’s footstep shone
On the dark
Valley floor – benevolent,
And be waiting, for the dawn that breaks,
Transcendent,
For the golden eagles to lift into the clear sun,
Once more,
Into the deep blue,
To fly,
To cry,
To lift their sky-
Engulfing intent
In awakening days
Of lakes
And the white, waving wildflowers,
The rose-enchanted nettles,
That sing songs of ancient powers
In the cool wind
Anew,
Where Kamakshi,
The black, opalescent one, ringed in every mystery,
She who is mother of the forest,
Of springing deer
And sparkling fawn,
Of flocks of horned lark,
Of the long-billed curlew
Who tiptoes across
The water’s edge then turns to glance
Again at the light-calling pinion jays,
While Kamakshi gathers up her winged petals
Of joy – anew,
Now to dance
In the bright-
Singing rain.
By Sharon St Joan
© Sharon St Joan, 2020
Trees walking
By Sharon St Joan
Within the rose
Shining in the night,
A shimmering cloud
Grows,
Within the night
A crowd
Of trees walking,
Walking through bright
Hills of mist,
Back to the beginning
Again,
Back to the sacred – not forgotten – forest
Of rains and stars and winged beings,
Of boats that sail long in the rushing rivers of the skies.
There floats
Within the lake-enchanted eyes
Of the tiger;
In an ember of perception,
The presence
Of Durga,
Who holds up the resilient dagger
Of truth,
Imparting the courage
To be walking
Through fields of lilies,
On dimming days,
Through the magic of the gloam,
Guided by the long-known
Beings of light,
By the souls of the trees
Going home,
By the trees
That remember
Always.
In the night of the swan
Who knows
All things
Within the fire,
The river of eternity,
The beings walk on
Within the voice, lone, not far away,
Of the great-horned owl
Who calls,
In reply to the howl
Of the winds of the night,
And who guides lost feet
In the frost
Of winter’s time,
In the sleet,
In the snows,
In the reflection,
Dancing on the ice,
Breaking in the spring,
In the sound of the chime
Of the ancient day,
Returning.
The higher
Truth of the light
And the walking, not alone,
Where the souls of the trees
Breathe
In the holy darkness
And in the brightness
Of the day that is yet to be,
Shining.
© Sharon St Joan, 2020
Written August 28, 2020
Celebrating Biodiversity
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY – June 5, 2020
VIRTUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW: CELEBRATE BIODIVERSITY
Gujarat National Law College, Gandhigram, Gujarat
CELEBRATING BIODIVERSITY
by
Nanditha Krishna
In 2002, the Indian Parliament enacted the Biological Diversity Act followed by the National Biodiversity Rules in 2004. The main objectives of the Act were the conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. Earlier, the Wildlife Protection Act, 1973, and its 1991 Amendment provided for the protection of birds and animals, while the Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980, a vast improvement on the earlier Act of 1927, was intended to provide a high level of protection to the forests and to regulate diversion of forest lands for non-forestry purposes.
Biodiversity – or biological diversity – includes all the organisms found on our planet, the plants, animals and micro-organisms, the genes they contain and the different ecosystems of which they form a part. India is one of only seventeen mega diverse nations in the world, with over 85,000 out of 12,00,000 animal species in the world, and 45,000 out of 3,90,000 plant species. It is estimated that the world knows only about 17,70,000 species out of 5 to 10 million. We hardly know what we have, leave alone what we have lost.
Biodiversity is essential to the survival of every species, as each organism is linked to another in a fragile web of life. These form a food chain that links food producers to consumers, and maintains ecosystem diversity. The amount of green plants in any environment should be much more than the animals or insects that feed on them. Humans are only a strand in this delicate web of relationships. Every living creature is a part of a food chain. There are several food chains which, depending on the environment, could be simple or complex. But all food chains are fragile, and if even one link is broken, it sets off a series of reactions that could cause the collapse of the ecosystem. If predators are killed, the herbivores will multiply and eat up green plants and grains, leaving the land barren and unproductive. This is how a biologically-rich region like North Africa became the Sahara Desert. What would happen to public health if scavenger birds like the vulture were wiped out? Every species has its role, making species diversity essential.
Loss of biodiversity impacts immediately. There is the example of the genetic similarity of Brazil’s orange trees causing a terrible outbreak of citrus canker in 1991. The rapid deterioration of the ecology due to human interference is aiding the rapid disappearance of several wild plant and animal species.
As natural resources are depleted, there is less to go around, less to share. Economic, social and political problems are a natural corollary. Water, the most important natural resource which comes from hills and forests, is a source of discord today.
Loss of biodiversity is a threat to civilization, second only to thermo-nuclear war in its severity. The consequences could be quite incalculable. Other environmental problems like pollution, global warming and ozone depletion could be overcome, but not the erosion of biodiversity or extinction of species. Species once lost cannot be brought back.
The current Covid 19 pandemic, which has emerged from the wet animal markets of Wuhan, China, is the result of human interference with nature, the destruction of the intricate web of life and the loss of biodiversity. The virus always existed. Its predator is missing. Habitat destruction, air and water pollution, indiscriminate poaching and killing of wildlife, intensive farming of animals and the disappearing green cover have combined to cause global warming, climate change and now this destructive pandemic.
In this lockdown, people are celebrating the return of avian and terrestrial wildlife, or birds and animals in cities and in the countryside. Air and water pollution have decreased, while the North Pole’s largest-ever Ozone hole has finally closed. What humans could not achieve despite spending millions of dollars or rupees, Nature has achieved – a rejuvenation of planet earth. Humans are a very small part of the web of life, but cause the greatest damage. Celebrating biodiversity is celebrating Mother Earth.
I would like to end with a hymn to the tree and the forest from the Rig Veda (IX 5.10.):
The cosmos is a tree with a thousand branches…
The tree is the lord of the forest…
Which is a symbol of life that is self-regenerating and immortal…
And a Hymn to the Earth from the Atharva Veda’s Bhoomi Sukta (XII.I.26, 28):
Earth, my mother, set me securely with bliss…
The earth, which possesses oceans, rivers and other sources of water;
Which gives us land to produce food grains on which human beings depend for their survival;
May it grant us all our needs for eating and drinking: water, cereals and fruit.
Let us celebrate biodiversity by making time and space for nature, by remembering that the earth was made for animals and plants too. Ahimsa is non-violence in thought word and action, and non-violence to all creation would be the best celebration of biodiversity.
June 5, 2020 global online broadcast, World Environment Day, 2020:
https://www.wedonthavetime.org/events/worldenvironmentday
Hinduism and Nature, as well as several of Dr. Nanditha Krishna’s other
books, can be found on Amazon.
Lecture: Reluctant Brides, Deviant wives, Cunning Witches….
C.P. Art Centre: Cotton handloom exhibition
Lecture: Chidambara Rahasya, Secret or Science?
