Marina Martin November 2012

Marina Martin is surrounded by nature ~ she lives on a rural road in Haldimand County.  For over twenty years her writings and especially her poetry have reflected that world of flora and fauna.  That, combined with her profession as a physiotherapist working with people, Marina's work "inhabits the liminal space where the boundaries between ourselves and the natural world are permeable.*"

A new book of Marina's poems, BREATHING WATER, Meditations on the Plain and the Profound, is now available at The Neat Little Bookshop.  A wonderful little gift for someone special at Christmas time.

The Neat Little Bookshop is pleased to host an afternoon with Marina on Saturday, December 8 at 1:00 p.m.  Circle your calendar.

* Book Review by Marilyn Gear Pilling

"The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book."

~ American writer, Walt Whitman.

"A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking."

~ Jerry Seinfeld

"The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot."

~ Salvador Dali

"You're only given a little spark of madness.  You mustn't lose it." ~ Robin Williams

"If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it!"  ~ Johnathan Winters

"Laughter is the closest distance between two people."  ~ Victor Borge

"Laughter gives us distance.  It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on."  ~ Bob Newhart



To our Followers:  There is hope.  For seven days the bookshop blog has been without illustrations or photographs.  Peggy in "Google Group" has volunteered some information.

There is "Blogger forum," ""Google Drive forum" and "Google Discuss forum."  We may have posted our woes in the wrong forum!  (Are we trying to purchase additional storage for the Picasa web album associated with our Blogger blog OR or we trying to purchase Google Drive space?  That is the question.)

Fact remains:  "Continue to Checkout" in our blog will not work.
Our blog is not only a quick visit to the bookshop but also our bulletin board for up-coming events.  Thank you Peggy.  ~ lbw

"There is scarcely any less bother in the running of a family than in that of an entire state.  And domestic business is no less importunate for being less important."


"A man should keep for himself a little back shop, all his own, quite unadulterated, in which he establishes his true freedom and chief place of seclusion and solitude."

~ Michel Montaigne, Essais (1580) French Moralist and essayist 1533 - 1592


The Oxford Dictionary of QUOTATIONS, Oxford University Press, 2001.

Dogs ~

"The good Lord in his ultimate wisdom gave us three things to make life bearable, hope, jokes and dogs, but the greatest of these was dogs."
~ Roblyn Davidson

"The dog was created especially for children.
He is the god of frolic."
~ Henry Ward Beecher


Command:  he thee obeys most readily.
Strike him:   he leaves his game and comes to thee
With wagging tail, offering his service meek.
If so thou wilt, a Collar he will wear;
And when thou wish to take it off again,
Unto thy feet he crouchest down most fair,
As if thy will were all his good and gain.
~ J. Molle

"Animals are such agreeable friends ~
they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms."
~ George Eliot

The Tables Turned ~ by Wm. Wordsworth

Up! Up! my friend, and quit your books,
Or surely you'll grow double;
Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?

The sun, above the mountain's head,
A freshening luster mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet*,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.

And hark! how blithe the throstle* sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher;
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless~
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.

One impulse from a vernal* wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Misshapes the beauteous forms of things~
We murder to dissect.

Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.

* linnet ~ a small common Eurasian songbird related to the finch.
* throstle ~ a song thrush.
* vernal  ~ appropriate to spring.
~ The Canadian Oxford Dictionary

"At length the winter set in in good earnest, just as I had finished plastering, and the wind began to howl around the house as if it had not had permission to do so till then...
"The snow had already covered the ground since the 25th of November, and surrounded me suddenly with the scenery of winter.  I withdrew yet farther into my shell, and endeavored to keep a bright fire both within my house and within my breast. "

~ Henry D. Thoreau (1817 - 1862) American author, poet, philosopher.

Walden A Fully Annotated Edition, edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer*, Yale University Press, 2004. (based on the original 1854 edition)

*J.S. Cramer is curator of collections, The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods.

"I went to the woods..."  ~ Henry Thoreau

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived  I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation,  unless it was quite necessary.  I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion...

"Our life is frittered away by detail.  An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest.  Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!  I say let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen..."

~ Walden, A Fully Annotated Edition, edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer, Yale University Press, 2004.

Henry David Thoreau, American philosopher, essayist and ecologist cried out "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!*" urging man to follow the lessons of nature and "spur the seductive marvels of the new technology."

Today, I confess this bookshop blogger cried for "Simplicity!"  Cried out more than "simplicity" actually.

Google/Picaso/Blogspot will not allow The Neat L'l Bookshop to "Continue to Checkout" in order to add a few GB to our photo storage and to our GMail.  This is important if we want to continue posting photographs.  Considering "the marvels of the new technology," we are optimistic that we will soon be able to make it to "checkout"  and go wild adding photographs.

~ *Walden, Life in the Woods, 1854.

Joseph Heller, perhaps best known for his novel Catch-22, wrote "in airports, on airplanes, between appointments."

"To me, writing is largely a matter of memorizing.  I will have in mind what I want to write, often to the extent of language, phrases and sentence structure.  I walk from where I live to where I write, and by the time I get there I know most of what I'm going to do in the next two hours."

Oh, the Advantage of the computer!

"My method of work is to get a very good idea of what I want to cover ~ assign a time percentage ~ and I will rewrite each page, then each few pages, moving ahead very slowly with the handwritten page.  When I finish a whole section I go back and type what I've rewritten.  That is an extensive rewriting process ~ largely with language; usually it will be taking out much and then getting new ideas to put in.  Then I'll read it again and pencil it and give it to a typist to type."

~ Interview with Lawrence Grobel, Endangered Species, Writers Talk About Their Craft, Their Visions, Their Lives,  Da Capo Press, 2001.

Joseph Heller, American novelist (May 1 1923 - December 12, 1999)

Gypsum, one of Haldimand's First Industries

Jean Farquharson will speak today at The York Grand River Historical Society.  For the book, Stories Along the Grand*, Jean researched and wrote the chapter on the gypsum mines.  The first mine opened in 1842.  A flourishing little settlement grew up, the only one in Ontario dependent exclusively on gypsum mining.  The village of Gypsum Mines was three miles south of Cayuga on River Rd. (#17) consisted of a post office, various general stores, sawmills, blacksmith shops and a log school house.
Everyone welcome.  2:00 p.m. today, Tuesday, November 20, Caledonia, in the lodge opposite Tim Hortons beside the railway track, Hwy 6.

~ * Published by the YGRHS, 2010.

On the Prolific writer, Joyce Carol Oates* ~

"Recognition is not a word one would apply to Oates's writing style.  What differentiates her from most other writers of her distinction (and what may be keeping her from having the huge popular readership of, say, Stephen King or Larry McMurtry) is that Oates doesn't have any particular style.  Like some virtuoso coloratura, she changes her voice according to her subject...
"Oates's writing, like her subject matter, is neither predictable nor comforting."

Lawrence Grobel writes, "Oates is a powerful, unflinching writer who isn't afraid to take on the most searing issues, from the rotten morality of our politicians to the self-abortion of one of the "invisible" and powerless people she so often champions."

New York Times Review: "It has been left to Joyce Carol Oates, a writer who seems to know a great deal about the underside of America, to guide us ~ splendidly ~ down dark passages."

"I can't stop taking notes." ~ J.C. Oates

~ Lawrence Grobel, Endangered Species, Writers Talk About Their Craft, Their Visions, Their Lives, Da Capo Press, 2001.

*Joyce Carol Oates (b. June 16, 1938 - ) American writer.

VI ~  Emily Dickinson

Besides the autumn poets sing,

A few prosaic days

A little this side of the snow

And that side of the haze.

A few incisive mornings,

A few ascetic eves, ~

Gone Mr. Bryant's goldenrod,

And Mr. Thomson's sheaves.

Still is the bustle in the brook,
Sealed are the spicy valves;
Mesmeric fingers softly touch
The eyes of many elves.

Perhaps a squirrel may remain,
My sentiments to share.
Grant me, O Lord, a sunny mind,
Thy windy will to bear!

Websters Falls, Ontario

Mature Man

The happiest man

I ever knew

Was scarcely

Clad at all;

He had no bath

Like me and you,
But owned a waterfall.
And every sunrise he would wade
The streamlet silver bright,
To stand beneath the clear cascade

With sheer delight.

The happiest man I ever knew
Lived in a forest glade;

His hut of palm-leaf and bamboo

With his own hands he made.
And for his breakfast he would pick
A bread-fruit from the tree,
Or lobster he would gaily flick

From out the sea.

Thank you Neil Paul for yet another fascinating reading.  Also thank you to Elizabeth for sharing the above poem "Mature Man" by Robert Service.

Photo of Websters Falls:  Courtesy of Michael Rozon.




Brantwood Villa ~ Cayuga

 

25 years ~ Residents and Staff Celebrate

Photos:  lbw.  November 15, 2012

Brantwood Villa ~
Opened  in 1987 the culmination of many years of planning and unrelenting commitment on the part of individuals who saw the need for affordable housing for seniors.  The street leading to Brantwood is aptly named:  Robert Dell after our former councillor.

Robert Service c. 1905 Wikipedia

Poet, author, Robert Service*  is the topic today in The Neat L'l Bookshop.   Join us in the afternoon anytime 1:00 p.m.

The following poem was written while Service was staying comfortably in a friend's "little house" near the sea.  He speaks wistfully about someday having his own place.

I HAVE SOME FRIENDS

I have some friends, some worthy friends,

And worthy friends are rare:

These carpet slippers on my feet,

That padded leather chair;

This old and shabby dressing-gown,

So well the worse of wear.

I have some friends, some honest friends,

And honest friends are few;

My pipe of briar, my open fire,

A book that's not too new;

My bed so warm, the nights of storm

I love to listen to.

I have some friends, some good, good friends

Who faithful are to me:

My wrestling partner when I rise,

The big and burly sea;

My little boat that's riding there

So saucy and so free.

I have some friends, some golden friends,

Whose worth will not decline:

A tawny Irish terrier, a purple shading pine,

A little red-roofed cottage that

So proudly I call mine.

All other friends may come and go,

All other friendships fail;

But these, the friends I've worked to win,

Oh, they will never stale;

And comfort me till Time shall write

The finish to my tale.

* (1874 - 1958)

Complete Poems of Robert Service, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1907.

The Neat Little Bookshop  will be closed today in order for us to attend a family funeral.  We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.
We will return tomorrow and look forward to Neil Paul's visit.  Join Neil for a reading of the poet Robert Service.

Lake Erie Haldimand County

This world is not conclusion

a sequel stands beyond,

Invisible, as music,

But positive, as sound.

It beckons and it baffles;

Philosophies don't know,

And through a riddle, at the last,

Sagacity must go.

To guess it puzzles scholars;

To gain it, men have shown

Contempt of generations,

And crucifixion known.

~ Emily Dickinson, XXX1

"The Rhyme of the Restless Ones"

~ Last two stanzas of Robert Service's poem

And you'll find us in Alaska after gold,
And you'll find us herding cattle in the South.
We like strong drink and fun, and, when the race is run,
We often die with curses in our mouth.
We are wild as colts unbroke, but never mean.
Of our sins we've shoulders broad to bear the blame;
But we'll never stay in town and we'll never settle down,
And we'll never have an object or an aim.

No, there's that in us that time can never tame;
And life will always seem a careless game;
And they'd better far forget ~
Those who say they love us yet~
Forget, blot out with bitterness our name.


~ Collected Poems of Robert Service, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1907

Join us along with Neil Paul

Thursday, November 15 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

Neil will be reading poetry and prose

of Robert Service

"Bard of the Yukon"

Robert Service is the author of the ballads "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee."  "He has caught the spirit of wanderlust latent in every one of us and his verses will live on forever." ~flyleaf of Complete Poems of Robert Service.

R. Service Cabin in Dawson City, Yukon ~ Wikipedia



My Book

by Robert Service ~ on witnessing a would-be author who appears homeless, occasionally scribbling on bits of paper.

Before I drink myself to death,

God, let me finish up my Book!

At night, I fear, I fight for breath,

And wake up whiter than a spook;

And crawl off to a bistro near,

And drink until my brain is clear.

Rare Absinthe!  Oh, it gives me strength

To write and write; and so I spend

Day after day, until at length

With joy and pain I'll write The End:

Then let this carcase rot; I give

The world my Book ~ my Book will live.

For every line is tense with truth,

There's hope and joy on every page;

A cheer, a clarion call to Youth,

A hymn, a comforter to Age:

All's there that I was meant to be,

My part divine, the God in me.

It's of my life the golden sum;

Ah!  who that reads this Book of mine,

In stormy centuries to come,

Will dream I rooted with the swine?

Behold!  I give mankind my best:

What does it matter, all the rest?

It's this that makes sublime my day;

It's this that makes me struggle on.

Oh, let them mock my mortal clay,

My spirit's deathless as the dawn;

Oh, let them shudder as they look...

I'll be immortal in my Book.

And so beside the sullen Seine

I fight with dogs for filthy food,

Yet know that from my sin and pain

Will soar serene a Something Good;

Exultantly from shame and wrong

A Right, a Glory and a Song.

~ Complete Poems of Robert Service.  Dodd, Mead &Company Inc., 1907

RBS (1877 - 1858)

"Row on row..."

~

We are the Dead.  Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

~

 

~ Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McGrae, M.D., "In Flanders Fields"
(November 30, 1872 - January 28, 1918)

"NO ROAD TO GLORY"
by Major A. R. Thompson, late 4th Battalion, C.E.F.

"Suddenly, out of a dawn that had seemed tired of strife, burst the thunder of guns as blinding flashes rent the parting shadows.  A figure, eerie in the half light, ran shrieking towards the line.  A sharp command brought the shell-shocked fugitive to a stop and haltingly he told what had happened.  On the ground his head blown off, lay Smith, with others nearby dead and dying.  One shell had knocked out eight men before the rest had scattered.  Jones hurried along to see the extent of the casualties, and found all who had been hit were dead except O. and one other who was grievously wounded.  Another man who had returned to the spot waited nearby and lent his help.  Between them they managed to drag the two wounded men into a blind trench not far off.  All the while the shelling continued furiously; crumps crashing one behind, one before, now nearer, now further like some fierce beast of prey who waits to tantilize before the kill.  Poor O., his body badly split, lay groaning quietly.  The other, with a strangely similar wound, first cursed, then cried aloud in so weird a medley of prayer and blasphemy that Jones trembled and his blood ran cold.  at length help came; stretcher bearers from the 4th Battalion who had learned the plight of the wirers arrived and carried off the two sufferers.  The party had scarcely gone 50 yards from their recent cover, when a shell tumbled into the trench so nearly their grave.  When they reached the Dressing Station, O. had taken his discharge in full.  His was the soul of Bayard; it rests in peace."


~ Canadian Military Gazette, February, 1941, VOL. LVI ~ No. 2

"NO ROAD TO GLORY"
by Major A. R. Thompson, late 4th Battalion, C.E.F.

"The Major was studying a paper by candle light.  As Jones entered he looked up and grinned evilly.
"Hello deb.," he said, "Brigade Headquarters want a smart young officer and twenty men, to meet another young officer of equal merit and twenty more splendid fellows, the whole to form a party to be known by the distinguished name of Brigade Wires, whose duty it will be to erect barbed wire entanglements in No-Man's-Land, for the purpose of impaling and ensnaring the curious or venturesome Hun, and to protect from surprise and attack the units of the First Brigade.  Now, Jones, this does not apply directly to you, but there are two good reasons why you might volunteer your services in so worthy an undertaking.  I wish to emphasize 'smart young officer' and 'the ensnaring of the venturesome Hun'.  You see, don't you, what opportunity for a young man?  Hang enough Fritzies on a wire and you might hang a medal on your chest."

Jones blushed.

"I'm on, Sir,"  he said, "when do I start and where do I go?"

~ Canadian Military Gazette, January 1941, VOL. LVI - No. 1.



Studio Babette ~ "From Ruthven to Passchendaele"

Sunday, November 11 at 2:00 p.m.

The Coach House, Ruthven Park

"From Ruthven to Passchendaele"

"Astonishing.  A presentation not to be missed." ~ lbwalker
Admission:  By Donation

Photo:  Studio Babette Puppet Theatre, Facebook.  Scene from Studio Babette's presentation of the Thompson family of Haldimand County and their contribution to the wars.

www.studiobabette.ca www.ruthvenpark.ca

Tomorrow:  In the Trenches with "Jones."

Cremation of Sam McGee

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

~ First stanza of popular poem, "Cremation of Sam McGee," by British poet, Robert Service (1874 - 1958)

Robert Service Commemorative Plaque in England

Reading Robert Service

Neil Paul, Thursday, November 15, 1:00 p.m.
~

Don't miss Neil Paul's reading and discussion in The Neat L'l Bookshop.  Robert Service was born in England, the first of ten children.  He wrote his first poem at age six.

God bless the cakes and bless the jam;

Bless the cheese and the cold boiled ham;

Bless the scones Aunt Jeannie makes,

And save us all from bellyaches.

Amen

Photo & Grace:  Wikipedia.

Upcoming November Events ~

Thursday, Nov. 15, 1:00 p.m.  Neil Paul Reading Robert Service.

Word Watching ~

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master ~ that's all." Lewis Carrol (1832 - 1898) Through the Looking-Glass VI.  British author, mathematician.


"Few faults of style excite the malignity of a more numerous class of readers than the use of hard words...But words are hard only to those who do not understand them, and the critic ought always to inquire whether he is incommoded by the fault of the writer or by his own."

~ Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784) The Idler No. 70.  British author, lexicographer.


"The word is half his that speaks and half his that hears it." ~ Montaigne, Essays III.xiii.

"I understand a fury in your words,
But not the words."  ~ Shakespeare, Othello IV.ii

~ DICTIONARY of QUOTATIONS, Bergen Evans, Bonanza Books.

"An Evening of Mystery" ~



Authors Maureen Jennings & Brad Smith



Maureen Jennings, author of the Murdoch Mysteries, and Brad Smith, author of All Hat, Red Means Run and Crow's Landing, were special guests tonight at a River Arts Festival event, Dunnville, Ontario.

Answering questions from the audience, the authors talked at length about their writing styles and techniques ~ relating personal stories and describing their upcoming books. 



Moderator, David Richardson, Introducing Murdock Mysteries Author Maureen Jennings





www.riverartsfestival.ca

www.sceneofthecrimebook.com



Don Longmuir of ~ Scene of the Crime Books ~ & Jodi Orr



"I have never been more hopeful about our future."
~ U.S. President Barack Obama, speech November 6, 2012

Closing paragraph from The Audacity of Hope, Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream ~ 2006

"At night, the great shrine [the Lincoln Memorial] is lit but often empty.  Standing between marble columns, I read the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural Address.  I look out over the Reflecting Pool, imagining the crowd stilled by Dr. King's mighty cadence, and then beyond that, to the floodlit obelisk and shining Capitol dome.
And in that place, I think about America and those who built it.  This nation's founders, who somehow rose above petty ambitions and narrow calculations to imagine a nation unfurling across a continent.  And those like Lincoln and King, who ultimately laid down their lives in the service of perfecting an imperfect union.  And all the faceless, nameless men and women, slaves and soldiers and tailors and butchers, constructing lives for themselves and their children and grandchildren, brick by brick, rail by rail, calloused hand by calloused hand, to fill in the landscape of our collective dreams.

It is that process I wish to be a part of.

My heart is filled with love for this country."

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty"

"WHAT the Declaration of Independence had proclaimed ~ the heady concept of a man's "unalienable" right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" ~ the Constitution forged into reality.  Independence had been won, and the government that followed had proved a rope of sand, when delegates from the floundering states met in Philadelphia's Independence Hall on May 25, 1787.
Remarkable men all ~ Jefferson called them an "assembly of demigods" ~ they came to amend weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation that bound the Nation.  But daringly they launched a new government, working behind guard doors, the cobbled streets outside earth-covered to muffle traffic noise.  On September 17 their work was done:  a document destined to "...secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity..."

"BUT first the infant Congress ~ to meet criticisms that the Constitution lacked clear-cut guarantees of freedom of speech, religion, and other vital rights ~ drafted 12 amendments.  Ten were ratified by the states and became known as the Bill of Rights."

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."  ~
Words at the doorway of a room housing the Declaration, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. U.S.A. National Archives.

~ We, the People, United States Capitol, Historical Society, 1978.

"The sweetest creation of childlife yet written" ~ author Mark Twain.

Gift Shop Edition, 1998

A 1908, first-edition of Anne of Green Gables, just sold for ten thousand dollars.  Shown here, the  1998 Green Gables Edition (produced exclusively for the Boutique Green Gable Gift Shop). 

Canadian author, Lucy Maude Montgomery used the old family farmhouse in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island as the setting for Anne of Green Gables.  The author is buried in nearby Cavendish Cemetery because she said, "it overlooked the spots I always loved, the pond, the shore, the sand dunes and the harbour." 

(L.M.Montgomery ~ November 30, 1874 - April 24, 1942)

There is a longing

There is a longing among all people and

creatures to have a sense of purpose and worth.

To satisfy that common longing in all of us we

must respect each other.

In the olden times man

and creature walked as friends
who carried the beauty of the
land in their heart. 
Now each one of us is needed to make
sure the salmon can find a
place to spawn and the bear
cub a tree to climb.
There is little time left
and much effort needed!

~ Chief Dan George, excerpts from My Spirit Soars, 1982, Hancock House Publishers Ltd.

The Bear is Closest to Man

"When I was born my grandfather took me from my mother and wrapped me into a black bear's soft fur blanket.  It gave me warmth! It gave me security and comfort!  How can I be anything but grateful to the bear?  Of all the creatures he is closest to man.  Yet it seems there is little place for him now."

The Wolf

"The wolf has been driven from the land.  Without him the wolf clan cannot celebrate the wolf ceremony.  To lose a ceremony is to lose the past."

"I appealed to the wolf to come and preside over us while I would perform the wolf ceremony so that the bondage between my grandson and the wolf would be lifelong....
When I had ended, it was as if the whole world listened with us to hear the wolf's reply.  We waited a long time but none came.
Again I sang, humbly but as invitingly as I could, until my throat ached and my voice gave out.
All of a sudden I realized why no wolves had heard my sacred song.  There were none left!
My heart filled with tears.  I could no longer give my grandson faith in the past, our past.
At last I could whisper to him:  "It is finished!"
"Can I go home now?" he asked, checking his watch to see if he would still be in time to catch his favorite program on T.V.
I watched him disappear and wept in silence.
All is finished!"

Dan George died September 23, 1981 at age 82.  According to his biographer, an eagle appeared overhead and flew, in silent circles as the chief was buried. ~ excerpts, My Spirit Soars by Chief Dan George and Hirnschall, Hancock House Publisher Ltd., Surrey, B.C., 1982.

Photos:  Credit River, Ontario, Canada. lbw

"You come from a shy face,

Ours are the silent ways.

We have always done all things in a gentle manner;

so much as the brook

that avoids the solid rock

in its search for the sea

and meets the deer in passing.

You too must follow the path

of your own race.

It is steady and deep,

reliable and lasting.

It is you,

~ if you let it happen."

~ Chief Dan George, the best of Chief Dan George, Hancock House Publishers Ltd., 2005.

Chief Dan George (1899- 1981) was born Dan Slaholt.  Author, poet, actor.  Chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, North Vancouver, B.C.

Tomorrow:  My Spirit Soars, by Chief Dan George.
Photo:  Forks of the Credit, Ontario.  lbwalker

Ecology and Taking Care of Our Earth ~

Organic Gardening

A handful of people fondled a handful of dirt yesterday in The Neat Little Bookshop ~ Anne Vallentin's poignant message was that we must change our ways if the planet is to survive.

Photos:  Friend Sharon Jackson's Beautiful Organic Garden, lbw (Please click on photo for larger image.)

Organic Gardening Doesn't Have to be Boring

Organic Farming ~

What is our understanding of organically grown food and does it really deserve our attention? 

Fruits & Vegetable ~ Entries Caledonia Fair

Fascinating Personality, Anne Vallentin, Co-Chair of HALT,* is our guest this afternoon in The Neat Little Bookshop.  Sustainability, ecology, environment ~ all topics for discussion at the round table today.  Are we taking care of our land?

As the season of festive entertainment approaches, can we strike a balance ?  Modern excesses can overshadow common sense and an awareness of how we are impacting our world.

* Haldimand Against Landfill Transfers