Waking to the Earth - March 2009

For several years now a family of red-tailed hawks has lived in the Quaker graveyard for which my husband serves as caretaker – we live in the caretaker’s house, and so these hawks have been our neighbors. Four years ago was the first time we noticed a fledgling, crying for its parents when it was hungry and careening from tree to tree as it clumsily took its first tries at flying. That year we were away for quite some time caring for my dying mother. When we returned after her memorial service, the now full size fledge was perched on our back porch on a railing, very close to the door to the house. He peered at us for a long time, waited for us to get out of the car and begin walking towards him before spreading his wings and flying off toward the oak grove. Since then, we have been graced with a young hawk or two each year – and we have the privilege of witnessing each as it grows and as it cries its first cries and tests its wings. We often see a hawk settled in an old magnolia near the house, watching the sparrows, finches, and cardinals visiting the bird feeders. It stays very still and if it stirs, the smaller birds all disperse.

A couple weeks ago Graham was looking out the kitchen window and saw two hawks resting in the oak grove. They were seated far from one another and every now and then one of them would fluff up its feathers, then the other would do the same. Eventually, they flew to a branch and sat next to one another, with their backs to each other, sitting still for some time, pretending to ignore one another, until finally one of them took flight and rounded the oak grove before speeding away. It was clear they were courting and it made us think Spring is nigh.

It was in 1972 that DDT was banned and it took a long while for birds to recover from the devastation from its wide spread use. The publication in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 was instrumental in raising awareness of the pressing need for attention to the environmental damage humans were causing. Though Silent Spring helped to ignite a movement and helped to bring about the ban of DDT, clearly we have not fully heard the resounding call to transformation within its covers. The current economic crisis is an opening which invites us to unearth the roots of a rotten system and re-examine deeply, introspectively the way we live in relationship with the earth. I believe true change occurs in being willing to understand that there is no economy other than that which arises from the earth; to continue with a system which relies on overusing and destroying the earth is ensuring our own demise. Recently there have been several books published, which extend the insights of Rachel Carson’s book and offer real alternatives to our current economic system and our current ways of thinking.

Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy by Peter G. Brown, Geoffrey Garver and several other Quaker authors is a project of the Quaker Institute for the Future. The authors propose a new economic system that combines an acute awareness of ecological limits with a fundamental focus on fairness and a concern with the spiritual, as well as material, well-being of the human race. They outline the changes needed, recommend international institutions which could help to support those changes, and make clear and understandable recommendations for bringing such a system into being. Curt Meine, conservationist says of the book, “Out of the rich Quaker tradition of personal commitment to peace, equality, and justice comes this powerful call to transform our relationship to the earth and its commonwealth of life. In recognizing the inherent connections between ecological health, social well-being and a moral economy, the authors have provided for Quakers and non-Quakers alike, light amid the darkness.” Philadelphia Yearly Meeting chose Right Relationship as their ‘One Book, One Yearly Meeting’ selection for grown-ups this year.

The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution can fix our Two Biggest Problems by Van Jones proposes that connecting a cure for poverty to greening the nation is simpler than it might seem – if there is the political will, putting millions of people to work weatherizing homes and installing solar panels wouldn’t be such a reach. Jones also connects racial disconnection and marginalization with disconnection from the earth and proposes that greening the economy is fundamentally an issue of economic justice, as well as environmental justice. He says, “To give the Earth and its peoples a fighting chance, we need a broad, populist alliance – one that includes every class under the sun and every color in the rainbow. By ensuring that as many people as possible have a financial stake in the green economy, we have a real shot at that outcome. The key is to ensure that, having learned the lessons of the past, a critical mass commits to ensuring that the green wave lifts all boats.” Jones started out as a prison activist and then, influenced by Julia Butterfly-Hill and others, began to link prison and anti-poverty activism to green solutions. “The Green Collar Economy outlines industrial society’s path towards a just future.” – Winona LaDuke

Red Bird: Poems, Mary Oliver’s latest collection, was just released in paperback. Here, as in many of Oliver’s books, she explores her connection with the natural world and its transformative influence upon her, her love of the slightest creature in her environs, and her grief at their destruction. She writes, “It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in this broken world. I beg of you do not walk by without pausing to attend to this rather ridiculous performance. It could mean something. It could mean everything. It could be what Rilke meant when he wrote: You must change your life.”

Earth Care: World Folktales to Talk About by Margaret Read Macdonald is a collection of little koans of stories with much wisdom in each one. Each story arises from the oral tradition and is intended to be read or told aloud, and the language is very rhythmic and compelling. Included are stories from China, Haiti, Bali, Nigeria, Thailand, India, England, the Ojibway, and more. Stories about harvesting wisely, taking care of the land, respecting all life, seeking balance in nature, and believing you can make a difference are all included. Each of the traditional stories offered in this collection would easily work in multigenerational settings, as there are layers of wisdom in the tales. I’ve told several of these stories and the messages and images within them are very rich. This title was selected this year by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting as the children’s title for their “One Book, One Yearly Meeting” program.

Planting the Trees of Kenya: the Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire Nivola is a lovely picture book that tells the story of Maathai’s “simple and big idea” to begin planting trees to re-forest Kenya. Maathai said, “When we see we are part of the problem, we can become part of the solution.” The women of Kenya “did not wait for the government to help them. They could begin to change their own lives.” From the trees planted by the first few women, this book tells the story of the movement Maathai helped to build, planting thirty million trees in Kenya. “When the soil is exposed, it is crying out for help, it is naked and needs to be clothed in its dress. That is the nature of the land. It needs color, it needs its cloth of green.” “The tale of Wangari Maathai is a tale of hope… and the purest example of how one person can change the world. Read it and be inspired!” – Laurie David

Watching the red tailed hawks courting in the oak grove gives me some hope that we can wake up and learn a new way to live, in right relationship with all our neighbors, human and non-human. I hope Spring is revealing herself to you wherever you are, in snow drops, magnolia blossoms, or courting hawks.

Posted by QuakerBooks on March 9, 2009 6:26 PM | Permalink