SEA STARS, FREEDOM MUSINGS, and BACK TO NATURE

Hello everyone!  For several years SEA STARS in our area have been endangered by a “wasting disease.”  My daughter Mindy Hardwick lives part-time in Cannon Beach, Oregon, and sent me the video (click on link)  https://vimeo.com/610802534  

The video was produced by the Cannon Beach Gallery Group for Earth and Ocean Festival, Sept 18, 2021.

Mindy tells me she is in the video as one of the “black shirts.”  Mindy volunteers at Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach and has served on their board.  Her new book “Some Stories Are Not Seen” speaks about the wasting disease in sea stars.  The book is written for middle grade young people but many adults also find it captivating.  The book is available at Amazon and your favorite independent bookstore. For those near me it is also available at Cameo Boutique.

We have also witnessed the disease attacking Sea Stars on our beach at Orcas Island but have seen some recovery the past two years.  

ON FREEDOM:  Remember in my last BLOG I asked for stories about freedom?  Below is one that arrived from my friend Minta Napier who lives in North Florida. She holds a doctorate in Curriculum & Instruction with a focus on Composition and Rhetoric from the University of Missouri, Columbia.  She presently teaches Public Speaking as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, FL.

She writes:

“What is freedom?

My courtyard is surrounded by a wall below and a screened cage above, yet all forms of nature make it their home.  Among the residents was a solitary frog.  Each night he croaked loudly, seeking company, but no other frogs answered his calls.  Then, one night I opened the screened door and he hopped out of the courtyard to his freedom.

“I miss his croaking but like to think he’s in a better place now and not like the hummingbird that found itself captive in one of my neighbor’s courtyards.  The poor bird dashed against the sides of the cage continually until its wings could not move.  My neighbor found its body beneath a bush.

“Humans are no different.  My grandparents immigrated from Scotland searching for freedom in the United States.  They were able to make a living and raise their family, something they had been unable to do in the economic conditions of Scotland.

“Immigrants today often are not as fortunate.  They swim over the river only to be blocked by a high wall which they are unable to scale.  If they make it over the wall, they may be separated from their children or languish in a prison cell.

“All of us want freedom; we strive to achieve freedom.  Times change and so does access to freedom.  Changing times don’t stop us from seeking freedom whether human or other life form.” 

Thank you Minta!  I promised to send a republished copy of my book THE BUTTERFLY CHASU but that has been put on hold after running into some snafus.

MY CONTEMPLATIONS ON FREEDOM 

I have spent most of this past summer contemplating freedom.  I have watched angry people push their objections against masks and vaccines and mandates, etc. They seemed to find freedom in yelling and screaming and raging against anyone who does not believe as they do.  They hit, scratch and even shoot those who disagree with their views.  Most appalling is the degree of hatred that has seized our country.

I have found some good books:  two by Timothy Snyder, professor and author at Yale University ,(See ON TYRANNY).  Another just appeared and is called ON FREEDOM:  FOUR SONGS OF CARE AND CONSTRAINT by Maggie Nelson (Graywolf).

I am reading Rebecca Traister’s ALL THE SINGLE LADIES, for book club.  She insists most marriages are like prisons for many women unless they are financially independent.  Having been married twice, I would agree with her.  No marriage is perfect. In my first marriage I experienced abuse and although I worked, I was not financially independent.  In my second marriage I have been financially secure by myself and I have experienced kindness and love.  However, despite the fact that I pay most bills, I still find myself responsible for housekeeping and cooking as well. I do not feel fully equal to my male partner.

Lately, I find myself reworking my spiritual journey for comfort using all that I have learned.  My journey goes like this—reared in the Presbyterian Church, I married in my early twenties.  My first husband was drafted out of college into the Air Force during the Vietnam War.  As I moved with him to Springfield, Massachusetts,  and then Belleville, Illinois, and Wichita, Kansas, I sought out other Protestant avenues of religion including Methodist. I worked for a shoe company in St. Louis run by a Mormon/Jewish combination of CEOs and later, in the l980s for a Baptist Hospital in St. Louis.  When I lived in Kirkwood, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb, I joined a nearby combo United Church of Christ/Presbyterian church. When I joined Al Anon, I discovered a “God of my understanding” not influenced by religion.  That felt like freedom! After a divorce and a second marriage to my present husband (now 34 years),I explored the possibility of becoming Catholic but this meant denying my first marriage and children. That was not going to work for me. We lived in Rochester, New York at that time (late 1980s and 1990s).  We spent Sunday mornings at Catholic Mass and then at the United Church of Christ service near our home.  Becca and I could not take communion at the Catholic service so we sat patiently while others climbed over us.  I remember Becca, who was in kindergarten at that time, swinging her feet from the pew as she could not touch the floor.  She was confused about why we were not included in the communion participation.

We moved to Seattle in 1993, where we joined another United Church of Christ but ran into problems when disagreements soared over cutting trees for a parking lot and fund raising.  We moved on to a Unity Church where we studied “A Course in Miracles.”  I also taught Memoir and other writing classes for a handful of years at a Catholic home for nuns, called the Dominican Reflection Center, that became a Center for Creativity near my home in Woodway, Washington.

At Unity we learned about the spiritual teacher Ramtha and eventually moved closer to his school, Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment in Yelm, WA.  We became students from 1997 to about 2020 when the school made a sharp right turn and we became alarmed at the sudden narrow inclusion of politics and conspiracy theories in a place we’d found open to many beliefs and choices.  The school is also physically demanding and this became more difficult as we entered our seventies and eighties. I felt sad to leave a place that had taught me so much about God. 

In our retirement, we commute between two beautiful places—our home in Union at the foot of the Olympic Mountains overlooking Hood Canal, and our cottage on Orcas Island.  I find myself returning to my original commune with nature, always my inner urging.  We don’t attend any church but our entire day uses bits and pieces of our lifetime spiritual study.  I begin at dawn or before, often with a candle focus on the deck before sunrise. Sometimes a local seal barks at me out there. Then I create, plan and celebrate the day.  I read a daily meditation from the Unity monthly magazine “The Daily Word.” I write “Morning Pages” (see books by Julia Cameron). I often take a walk.  I like to think my God is with me throughout each day, that his presence is in those around me whether in nature or fellow humans. I relish being in nature and often observe the seals and birds and ducks swim below our deck. I see kayakers, people on paddle boards.  I watch gulls swoop, hummingbirds at our feeder, listen to Kingfishers chatter.  The clouds crest and rise over the Olympic Mountains.  The scene from our windows in Union is ever-changing and often breathtaking. As the last part of my day, before surrendering to sleep I review my day (Al-Anon Step 10). Is there anything I did that needs amending? Are apologies needed anywhere? What were the day's highlights? Did I tell my husband Rich I love him? I thank God for the day.

In am presently reading Suzanne Simard’s book FINDING THE MOTHER TREE: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.

This author writes about something I have long suspected—the interconnectedness of nature.  Living in a cedar forest on Orcas, I began to realize that the trees not only knew us since we’ve been coming there since 1997, but they formed a connection underground as a way of communicating with one another.  An arborist once confirmed this for me and now Simard’s book takes it farther to explain exactly what she has found happens underground. 

A final word on Freedom--something said by author Norm Ornstein on a cable network resonated.  (Forgive me as I did not write this down and am doing this recitation from memory!)  He spoke of democracy in our country as being rare. Why?  Because our form of democratic government puts the common man/woman first, above a ruler, demagogue, even a representative or senator or president.  We are a country that follows and honors the Rule of Law.  No man or woman is above that, which is why each person’s vote is so important.  Tampering with our votes and voting system is a crime as it works to destroy this fragile system.  Following one person and honoring and serving him or her works against our democracy and heads us into a different form of government. We are in a difficult place right now and will see if democracy can survive.

I have also learned living in community with others, that sometimes I have needed to do what is best for the whole, not just myself.  I saw this with the draft that called my first husband to serve in the Vietnam War and during the polio epidemic when everyone willingly got vaccinated although the vaccine took years to evolve to its present form.  I saw this happen when AIDS appeared.  I personally fought seat belts when those were mandated but came to see how they enhanced safety in our cars.

I wonder now if our future will have room for love and kindness or will it be ruled by power and control to enhance and empower the few?

Above, (from left) Cover page for Mindy's new book, photo of Mindy Hardwick (left) and Lisa Habecker, Education and Volunteer Coordinator of the Haystack Rock Awareness Program, in front of Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach (with masks)

Sea stars around Haystack Rock this summer