Very good solid writing. We live up in the mountains of Colorado, next to the boundary line of Roosevelt National Forest within which is Rocky Mountain National Park, all of it 1,000,000 acres. It is an honor to live here. You feel the tragedy unfolding around us and the one we've already lost. thanks
Thank you Weston, and thanks so much for commenting.
It's strange, don't you think, that such critical decisions are made in urban centers, places insulated from the rhythms of the planet, but to have a close relationship with nature is to feel the changes deep in the bones and to understand how far we've already toppled.
BTW, I don't know if you've read the first post here, Scribble And Shout, but it might appeal to your poetic leanings.
That isolation from having a close relationship with nature certainly contributes mightily to the terrific arrogance and ignorance of the critical decision makers. I'll check out Scribble And Shout.
Man, I'm glad I accidentally encountered this. I love your style and especially these lines:
"A place where everything of the past has been made archaic and pointless and thoughtless and childish and without substance or truth or value. A place where we have been recast as a people who have nothing to say and nothing to teach, as a people with only things to sell and things to buy, including, and especially, ourselves."
I find myself increasingly aggrieved by the way that consumerism has, well, *consumed* our entire existence. Living in a city and far away from nature, I feel like every second of my life is occupied by being advertised to, sold to, beckoned to join in with--in your words--the "Great Purchase." I wish we could shut it all out. I'd like my identity to be greater than the sum of what I can or do buy and sell.
I'm glad too, that you've happened upon this place. Thank you so much for reading. As glib as it sounds, I really do appreciate it.
I guess some of my writing is me endeavoring to come to terms with precisely that which you just described, this frivolous colonisation of our souls. As if we've all been wrenched from the world and now yearn to find a way back again, to a place we can't really remember, a place we're not sure we've really even seen.
That's something beautiful with Substack. The chance discovery that this feeling is shared. That we can wave at each other through this charade and recognise a kindredness where our true (greater) identities always shine on. So thanks for wandering in and waving Alexandra. It's nice :)
Thank you to Benny for approving the final draft of a glorious description.
Good boy!
Ranger to Benny ~
‘nice to meet you’ and ‘I have a new buddy that smells ,and likes to play with me, but I go closer to say hello and he tried to bite me’. ( Ranger met a new buddy yesterday , we call him Snappy 🐢🤭)
“…the dog and I will make our way beside them like spirits passing unseen through a once loved dream. And we’ll remember that we are born out of this Earth and we are but one more beautiful flicker in the flame of our ancient brethren,”
So glad I found this today.
Truthfully, I seldom have the lazy time to scroll through, ‘browsing’ for a good read. But there it was, just waiting for me. As winter is my favorite season ( if I must pick one) anything that starts with “…winter oceans of gently tumbling snow fall in heavy waves…” already has my heart. And the rest, well, beauty and sadness mixed together. The stark loss of all things nature, the bane of a city . Indeed something to “contemplate”.
And the dog! So happy to ‘ walk with him’ again.
Ok, the dog and I should really be on a first name basis by now. Ranger asked too…
I'm so glad that landed on your table and you enjoyed it Lor :)
The dog's name is Benny, he's a Kleiner münsterländer. Such a smart, warmhearted guy. Very affectionate and trainable, but also gently wilful, like he's got his own desires and opinions. I kinda encourage that too. Naturally he has to be obedient (for his own safety sometimes) but I also want a him to have a feeling of autonomy, like we're more of a team than a hierachy. He's an absolutely wonderful partner for forest walks, bit like having a stone-age drone that keeps a nose on all the smells, while I keep an eye on all the sights.
I often (mostly) have him off the lead. He's (almost) fully trustable to return when required, and he's always checking on me to see where I am, even when he's seen (smelt) a few deer or a hare or a fox that he wants to harass. There are places not far off where wolves wander and I'll keep him pretty close there, because, although I'm not interesting to them, he's a tasty looking snack.
He doesn't like snakes (who does) and was a bit freaked out by moose (too big for his tastes) until he realised they were just like forest horses and not too bad (although way more dangerous in the right season). He can run all day long with his enormous lungs, and he can equally mooch about happily lazing on the sofa or bed or wherever, although he need's to lean against me quite often, just being together.
So there yo go, a bit about Benny. I love him, he's a fantastic dog.
“This train hurtles through a world that glorifies the trivial and the shallow and dismisses the serious and the essential and I am blinded by the light we no longer see. I am deafened by the sounds we no longer hear. I am burning with the love we no longer feel.” What a perfect description/embodiment of the Buddhist “hungry ghost” realm of existence. I exhaled at the end as you and your companion returned to the forest and your lasting origin.
In the beginning of the writing, the seasons, Both Patris and I can assure the writer, not just Sweden, But Quebec. Is in the same Boat? It was like the writer had transported himself to my land.
I was once born in your land, Newfoundland, I think it's wild ways got deep into my soul. There's something moving for sure about the shared quiet scream we are all emitting, hearing feeling. Thanks you for reading and commenting and sharing.
We came and went, a fleeting few years, where children were born and myths of a land were carved into our history. But then wrenched away. No Tibbos. But then again, we are all Tibbos if you travel right right right back ;)
I really admire your ability to remain so eloquent in word even when the subject is so painfully and glaringly awful… I live how you combine the truly glorious with the utterly stark…
A bitterly beautiful writing….
This… “I’ve seen the forest become unsteady and bewildered as the ancient rhythms stumble…” so true.
I’m not surprised you get the way nature is “unsteady and bewildered”, considering your own sharp eye and observational eloquence. So strange that the decisions made that affect the world are made in cities by those with no eye for the subtleties of the natural world.
Thanks so much for reading this Susie. I so appreciate it.
Very good solid writing. We live up in the mountains of Colorado, next to the boundary line of Roosevelt National Forest within which is Rocky Mountain National Park, all of it 1,000,000 acres. It is an honor to live here. You feel the tragedy unfolding around us and the one we've already lost. thanks
Thank you Weston, and thanks so much for commenting.
It's strange, don't you think, that such critical decisions are made in urban centers, places insulated from the rhythms of the planet, but to have a close relationship with nature is to feel the changes deep in the bones and to understand how far we've already toppled.
BTW, I don't know if you've read the first post here, Scribble And Shout, but it might appeal to your poetic leanings.
That isolation from having a close relationship with nature certainly contributes mightily to the terrific arrogance and ignorance of the critical decision makers. I'll check out Scribble And Shout.
Man, I'm glad I accidentally encountered this. I love your style and especially these lines:
"A place where everything of the past has been made archaic and pointless and thoughtless and childish and without substance or truth or value. A place where we have been recast as a people who have nothing to say and nothing to teach, as a people with only things to sell and things to buy, including, and especially, ourselves."
I find myself increasingly aggrieved by the way that consumerism has, well, *consumed* our entire existence. Living in a city and far away from nature, I feel like every second of my life is occupied by being advertised to, sold to, beckoned to join in with--in your words--the "Great Purchase." I wish we could shut it all out. I'd like my identity to be greater than the sum of what I can or do buy and sell.
Anywho, thank you for writing this.
I'm glad too, that you've happened upon this place. Thank you so much for reading. As glib as it sounds, I really do appreciate it.
I guess some of my writing is me endeavoring to come to terms with precisely that which you just described, this frivolous colonisation of our souls. As if we've all been wrenched from the world and now yearn to find a way back again, to a place we can't really remember, a place we're not sure we've really even seen.
That's something beautiful with Substack. The chance discovery that this feeling is shared. That we can wave at each other through this charade and recognise a kindredness where our true (greater) identities always shine on. So thanks for wandering in and waving Alexandra. It's nice :)
Lyrical and furious. Beautiful writing. Was directed here and glad I was. May our children do a better job than my generation has.
Thank you so much Patris. I'm glad you came by and I appreciate your kind critique. I'll have another in this series up soon.
So beautiful..So bleak
The shopkeepers are selling trivia
They are also selling their bombs, missiles.tanks. We are so much better at killing each other than the Cavemen...will we ever learn?
Thanks for the comment Mike. Beautiful and bleak. That's a perfect review :)
Will we ever learn? Maybe we've just forgotten something we once knew. Maybe we just need to remember.
Thank you to Benny for approving the final draft of a glorious description.
Good boy!
Ranger to Benny ~
‘nice to meet you’ and ‘I have a new buddy that smells ,and likes to play with me, but I go closer to say hello and he tried to bite me’. ( Ranger met a new buddy yesterday , we call him Snappy 🐢🤭)
“…the dog and I will make our way beside them like spirits passing unseen through a once loved dream. And we’ll remember that we are born out of this Earth and we are but one more beautiful flicker in the flame of our ancient brethren,”
So glad I found this today.
Truthfully, I seldom have the lazy time to scroll through, ‘browsing’ for a good read. But there it was, just waiting for me. As winter is my favorite season ( if I must pick one) anything that starts with “…winter oceans of gently tumbling snow fall in heavy waves…” already has my heart. And the rest, well, beauty and sadness mixed together. The stark loss of all things nature, the bane of a city . Indeed something to “contemplate”.
And the dog! So happy to ‘ walk with him’ again.
Ok, the dog and I should really be on a first name basis by now. Ranger asked too…
( smart to post an older one)
I'm so glad that landed on your table and you enjoyed it Lor :)
The dog's name is Benny, he's a Kleiner münsterländer. Such a smart, warmhearted guy. Very affectionate and trainable, but also gently wilful, like he's got his own desires and opinions. I kinda encourage that too. Naturally he has to be obedient (for his own safety sometimes) but I also want a him to have a feeling of autonomy, like we're more of a team than a hierachy. He's an absolutely wonderful partner for forest walks, bit like having a stone-age drone that keeps a nose on all the smells, while I keep an eye on all the sights.
I often (mostly) have him off the lead. He's (almost) fully trustable to return when required, and he's always checking on me to see where I am, even when he's seen (smelt) a few deer or a hare or a fox that he wants to harass. There are places not far off where wolves wander and I'll keep him pretty close there, because, although I'm not interesting to them, he's a tasty looking snack.
He doesn't like snakes (who does) and was a bit freaked out by moose (too big for his tastes) until he realised they were just like forest horses and not too bad (although way more dangerous in the right season). He can run all day long with his enormous lungs, and he can equally mooch about happily lazing on the sofa or bed or wherever, although he need's to lean against me quite often, just being together.
So there yo go, a bit about Benny. I love him, he's a fantastic dog.
“This train hurtles through a world that glorifies the trivial and the shallow and dismisses the serious and the essential and I am blinded by the light we no longer see. I am deafened by the sounds we no longer hear. I am burning with the love we no longer feel.” What a perfect description/embodiment of the Buddhist “hungry ghost” realm of existence. I exhaled at the end as you and your companion returned to the forest and your lasting origin.
That’s a very thoughtful comment Kimberley, I really appreciate it. 🙏🏼
Wow Wow Wow
Is all I can say
In the beginning of the writing, the seasons, Both Patris and I can assure the writer, not just Sweden, But Quebec. Is in the same Boat? It was like the writer had transported himself to my land.
Moving
Very Moving
I was once born in your land, Newfoundland, I think it's wild ways got deep into my soul. There's something moving for sure about the shared quiet scream we are all emitting, hearing feeling. Thanks you for reading and commenting and sharing.
https://www.wewillbearwitness.org/p/rushing-headlong
My Ancestors are From Newfoundland
Never spoke about it in school for fear of being teased
Any Tibbo's near you
My Grandpa James Francis Tibbo
We came and went, a fleeting few years, where children were born and myths of a land were carved into our history. But then wrenched away. No Tibbos. But then again, we are all Tibbos if you travel right right right back ;)
Damn school. Foolish little urchins.
Glad I’ve stumbled across your writing. Thank you for this.
💔
I really admire your ability to remain so eloquent in word even when the subject is so painfully and glaringly awful… I live how you combine the truly glorious with the utterly stark…
A bitterly beautiful writing….
This… “I’ve seen the forest become unsteady and bewildered as the ancient rhythms stumble…” so true.
I’m not surprised you get the way nature is “unsteady and bewildered”, considering your own sharp eye and observational eloquence. So strange that the decisions made that affect the world are made in cities by those with no eye for the subtleties of the natural world.
Thanks so much for reading this Susie. I so appreciate it.
❤️