The Granary Tree Vol #4

What is today teaching you about tomorrow?

Today and Tomorrow The The Granary Granary Tree Tree -- 2

Celebrating The Joy Road Until recently, I lived in Reno on Joy Lane. It was a thrill to have that address since joy is a life intent as well as part of my name. I had been mourning the loss of that inspiring address, however, a conversation with my friend Barbara, and her root canal, changed my thinking.

Because she was no longer in pain, she said “I’m on The Joy Road again.” Suddenly, I realized that the joy road is not a street address, it’s a way of being that we can hold onto forever, regardless of where we are in the world.

My renewed commitment is to not only live life on the joy road, but to also celebrate everything joyful I find along the way. That resolution is reflected in the new tagline for this journal: celebrating the wonders of the journey.

Spending the summer at Lake Almanor offered me an opportunity to join a community of artists. The Blue Goose Gallery is a rather remarkable local gallery which has been here for 32 years and features the work of over 40 amazing artists.

Also, I was honored recently to receive a Special Merit award for “Today and Tomorrow” in the Light, Space, and Time online exhibit. See previous page.

Unfortunately, a Monster wildfire hit mid-July, bringing hazardous air and devastation, as well as life insights … more about that on page 10.

Cover Art: Here on the lake, the small town of Chester is the home to the Collins-Pine Nature Trail, two peaceful miles of a trail that meanders through a forest and along a tributary of the Feather River.

James Cooper Harris of Troop 29 in Rocklin, CA, built this bench as part of his Eagle Scout project.

Chicory hardy, roadside beauty of disturbed ground, despised as non-native, invasive weed, planted and cherished as medicinal and tasty beloved by bees, this light purple cousin of dandelion, reminds me to stand tall and be me, flaws and favors, quirks and qualities, all.

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Love the Earth

***

“Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate.

But when you feel that the Earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.”

— Robin Wall Kimmerer Braiding Sweetgrass

Everything we eat, drink, breathe, wear, live in, on, or around comes from the earth.

So, yes, I think we could safely say the Earth loves us in return.

The The Granary Granary Tree Tree -- 44

Dedicated to:

firemen, health care workers, first responders … heroes all!

Granary treesare acorn storage units created by woodpeckers pecking onehole at atime in order to store asmany as50,000acorns.

Copyright: Joyce Wycoff, 2021 created, written, photographed

by Joyce Wycoff unless otherwise noted. contact: jwycoff@me.com 5 - Volume 4, August, 2021

Fantasy Bazaar … play now; play later

I

was a walk-on, an evacuee from the wildfires of my summer life, not expected to attend, not expected to participate.

However, the fantasy of my friend Dolores pulled me toward the creative fire and warmed my spirit as I was encouraged to capture the outtakes, the b-roll photos of a creative day.

The idea was born as a marketing photo shoot for Dolores’s jewelry business; however, it took wing and became a little girl’s dress-up day for women spanning five decades.

With a loose script for the day, it

The Granary Tree - 6

evolved into a gay and chaotic jumble of color, clothes and jewelry from around the world, giggles, laughter, and false eyelashes, all sprinkled with a bit of wine and chocolate.

Alexis and Dustin, the set direction and photography team, pushed, pulled, and cajoled childlike joy from eight women through the stately house and garden on a perfectly lit summer day in Coronado, creating an island of colorful delight while the outside world turned to its own, unheard beat.

In this odd, softened-boundary time, the theme of the day emerged from a tattoo: play now; play later.

Normal thoughts of family and work, disease and disappointment, travel and pandemic, all suspended in this moment of fantasy and fun.

And, through the magic of sleep and dream time, an unexpected answer appeared for me.

As I have meandered from place to place, the questions of where I should live and what I should be doing tagged along like shadows, growing longer, shorter, then longer again with the arc of

the sun.

Taking pictures of these women, listening to their stories, watching their play, set something in motion which crept forward in the four o’clock hour, carrying the message: I can play every day … regardless of address.

The world needs fantasy and fun as much as it needs work and striving.

Click here to see more of the day.

See more jewelry at: dForsythe.com 7 - Volume 4, August, 2021

Life in My Lime-green Kayak "Where's water?

Of course, there's no new water.

The raindrop that dripped down a dinosaur's forehead is still on earth somewhere."

-- Kimberly Ruffin

B

efore there was Lake Almanor, there was the land, Big Meadows, filled with streams and life, embraced by mountains and pine forests, home of the Northern Maidu tribe fishing the river of Western Water Hemlock feathers, living at the foot of a mountain where they believed evil spirits resided. group of settlers to California. However, when he A blacksmith immigrant from Denmark left his returned, the people of his new town were gone, mark on this place. Among the thousands of lured away to the gold fields. A steamboat he young men who heard tales of a golden land, Peter bought in order to profit from the gold rush was Lassen headed west and arrived at Sutter’s Fort in sunk on a river voyage to Sacramento. While he 1840. Lassen was an ambitious man, and, in 1844, was on that unlucky journey, his cattle were stolen. after becoming a Mexican citizen, he was granted The rest of his luck ran out when he travelled to 22,206-acres of Native American land by the Mexican government.

Lassen was also a star-crossed man. In order to bring settlers to his land, he found a shortcut from the Oregon Trail, a cutoff used by about one-third of the 49ers and which became known as the “death trail” as it was longer and more dangerous than other trails. Lassen developed a townsite known as Benton City which needed new settlers so he went to Missouri to lead a The Granary Tree - 8

Nevada to prospect for silver. He was murdered, probably by one of his traveling companions.

Despite Peter Lassen’s streak of bad luck, his name is attached to the mountain which became the first active volcano of the US in June, 1914, and the site of a national park in 1916. In addition to Lassen National Forest, which crosses seven counties and includes the geological diversity of the granite of the Sierra Nevada, the lava of the Cascades and the Modoc Plateau, and the sagebrush of the Great Basin, Lassen’s name has been affixed to the county which forms part of the eastern border of California, and to the notorious Lassen Cutoff, part of the emigrant trail lore.

Big Meadows, which lies in the shadow of Lassen Peak, continued to attract outsiders long after Lassen was gone … lured by beauty and abundance, seduced by gold, hungry for land, they brought the idea of electricity, built a dam, flooded

a Yamani Maidu village site, moved a town and its cemetery, created a lake and named it for the three daughters of the project leader … Alice, Martha, Elinor … Almanor.

So, here on this peaceful water, formed by Canyon Dam on the North Fork of the Feather River, I float, creating a lime-green reflection on the dark waters of history, wondering if the water below me remembers the time of the dinosaur, or perhaps, life in the miraculous fountain of Lourdes, or even being a drop in the Delaware river as Washington fought to form a new country.

Every drop below me is older and more travelled than I am. It has passed through a million bodies: fishermen, artists, hitler and christ, as well as trees, viruses, camels and kangaroos.

Water is part of every bat and the mosquitos it eats, ever opossum and the ticks it consumes, as well as every one of us reading this story.

Life is water: pure, polluted, repurified, toxinated, recycled, filtered, aerated, evaporated, falling and streaming into this lake that now holds me and my kayak in a buoyant caress.

Lake Almanor Sunset with Lassen Peak in distance 9 - Volume 4, August, 2021

Remembering Dixie In the rugged Feather River Canyon, on the second Tuesday in July, a spark fell unseen in a dehydrated forest on a road named Dixie.

Born as a hungry hot spot in a singular moment of spark and circumstance, the bottomless demand for fuel began, devouring centuries of peaceful growth, wind-tossed across canyons and roads, ignoring human policies and preferences, burning a black and weakened swath across a drought-desiccated land, shifting forever the future of water.

We talk about wildfires in numerical terms: - thousands of acres burned, - hundreds of structures destroyed, - lives lost.

Beyond those numbers lie stories of heartbreak and loss while Dixie becomes a name we will long remember as one who reminded us of the fragile preciousness of life.

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Wolf Lichen grows throughout the forests of Northern California and the Pacific Northwest but is sensitive to air pollution.

Will it survive Dixie?

Flower of the Lake 11 - Volume 4, August, 2021

Water: a Critical Footprint "The water footprint is a measure of humanity’s appropriation of fresh water in volumes of water consumed and/or polluted."

-- Water Footprint Network

I

t’s a lovely, warm summer day in Julian, CA, where I’ve evacuated to what is supposed to be my winter place but has become my refuge from the Dixie wildfire. I’m sitting in the shade of my RV awning, writing this, drinking iced tea, and snacking on almonds, one of my favorite healthy snacks.

My mind turns to almond orchards and water.

The hot, dry Mediterranean climate of California’s Central Valley makes it an ideal location for growing almonds and source of 80% of the world's almonds and 100% of the United States' commercial supply. However, the multibillion dollar California almond industry depends to a great extent on California’s water infrastructure to feed the thirsty almond trees.

Critics have pointed out that the state's 6,000 almond farmers use roughly 35 times the amount of water as the 466,000 residents of Sacramento.

Others report that every almond I eat has taken 1.1 gallons of water to produce. I’ve just consumed a bathtub of water.

“Almonds are the second-thirstiest crop in California—behind alfalfa, a superfood of sorts for cows, that sucks up 15 percent of the state’s irrigation water.” — New Republic The average rainfall, or what farmers call “god water” provides only 20% of what is needed to produce almonds. (Mother Jones) Other nuts are almost equally thirsty, but almonds are the most popular. Also gaining in popularity and wildly The Granary Tree -12

profitable, pistachios net an astounding $3,519 per acre—4 times more than tomatoes and 18 times more than cotton. (Mother Jones) Another chapter in the almond story is the rapidly growing market for almond milk, a popular alternative to cow milk. See next page for an analysis of plant milks.

And in case you’re wondering about wine, the Water Footprint Network has estimated that it takes 29 gallons of water to produce a single glass of wine, although UC Davis studies put the number between 6 and 16 gallons per glass for California wineries. And, unlike almond trees, mature grapevines can survive a summer with little to no water if necessary.

Our future may depend on our water footprint as well as our carbon footprint as we sort through our options … minor ones such as which plant milk should we drink … or would it be better to drink wine? Major ones such as agriculture allocations and selling water to bottlers.

Fascinating Reading: “Meet the California Couple Who Uses More Water Than Every Home in Los Angeles Combined How megafarmers Lynda and Stewart Resnick built their billion-dollar empire.” Mother Jones, Josh Harkinson, August 9, 2016.

Choosing a Plant-based Milk There seems to be a consensus that plant-based milk is healthier and more environmentally friendly than cow’s milk. Beyond that, the choices get complicated, depending upon the criteria used: health factors (protein, fiber, sugars), water usage, social impact, and carbon emissions.

From a health perspective: goodhousekeeping.com offers us the following criteria: - At least 7-8g protein per serving - As few ingredients as possible - The word "unsweetened" and "0g added sugar" - Limited saturated fat (especially in ones made with coconut or added protein) - Less than 140mg of sodium per cup - Fortification with calcium and vitamin D - Nutrients you’re personally concerned about (like the omega-3's) Their recommendation: unsweetened soy or pea protein milk.

Almond milk - 130 pints of water to make 1 glass of almond milk. Overuse of bees - nearly 70% of commercial bees in the US are drafted every spring to pollinate almonds. Requires same amount of water in a drought year.

Coconut milk - sweatshop farming conditions, including animal abuse, rainforest being cut to produce coconut forests.

Rice milk - little nutritional value, methane makes it one of the worst polluters.

Soy milk - high protein, rain forest destruction, fears about breast cancer may not be true.

Read More: “Which Plant-Based Milk Is Best for the Planet? You'd Be Surprised”, The Beet, Cameron Alvar, October 27, 2020

More environmentally sound: Pea protein milk - uses less water than other milk alternatives and generates lower greenhouse gas emissions than most non-dairy milks do.

Hemp and Flax milk - higher protein and fiber, need little water, Seeds, in general, take less water to grow than nuts and deliver healthy fats, minerals and nutrients ounce per ounce.

Oat milk - high protein, better taste, low environmental impact. Higher Roundup pesticide risk although Oatly brand oat milk company maintains that its oats are certified glyphosate-free.

Hazelnut milk - rising star, pollinated by wind not bees, favor Pacific Northwest where water is more plentiful.

Less environmentally sound: Cashew milk: Less water than almonds, better land use, but harsh labor conditions.

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Falling in love with ospreys

Photo: Rick Lamplugh

Y

ears ago when the story about the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone caught my attention, it sparked an idea for a novel. I made a research trip to Yellowstone where I met Rick Lamplugh, an author and advocate of wolves and nature, who generously shared his time and information about wolves and the political climate around them.

Rick shares his passion for all things Yellowstone on Facebook and gave me permission to share a recent post (lightly edited for space) about an osprey nest he found while walking along the Yellowstone River.

This is from Rick with great appreciation: “The large size of the nest high on a cliff overlooking the river indicates that it has been reused and expanded over the years—perhaps by these two since ospreys mate for life. The female is the larger bird on the left with the chest streaking, sometimes called a necklace. This mated pair and others return to Yellowstone each April to breed.

But Yellowstone’s osprey population has dwindled The Granary Tree - 16

over the last thirty years because of human-caused challenges inside and outside the park.

Inside the park, the challenge to ospreys began when someone illegally introduced lake trout into Yellowstone Lake twenty-some years ago. Non-native lake trout are a voracious predator of the lake’s native cutthroat trout, the shallow-dwelling fish that osprey once subsisted on. As the lake trout population swelled, the cutthroat trout population plummeted. Since ospreys eat only fish and lake trout dwell too deep for ospreys to catch, ospreys had less food. With poor nutrition, their reproduction rate and population decreased.

Fortunately, the National Park Service’s efforts to remove lake trout has allowed the cutthroat population to slowly increase.

In 1917, the park’s first naturalist, Melvin Skinner’s research found thirty osprey nests along just the west shore of Yellowstone Lake. He estimated that 120 pairs of osprey bred in the park. In a recent year, Yellowstone Lake had only one active osprey nest, while twenty nests were found elsewhere in the park.

The challenges outside the park are also caused by humans. The population of ospreys (as well as that of bald eagles, pelicans, and others) crashed in the mid-1900s, when ingestion of the pesticide

DDT caused birds to produce fragile, thinshelled eggs that could be broken by the adult sitting on them during incubation, killing the unhatched young. After the 1972 US DDT ban, populations rebounded, and the osprey became a conservation success symbol.

Human development still threatens. Many ospreys build nests in the tops of standing dead trees. But as power poles (another form of standing dead trees) have proliferated, ospreys have selected them as nest sites. After many birds were electrocuted, utility companies and concerned citizens installed safer and more welcoming nest platforms near power poles.

Another threat is the twine used around bales of hay. Once bales are opened, the twine is often left on the ground. Ospreys like the soft Photo: Sandra Whitteker twine and incorporate it into their nests not knowing that adults and chicks can become entangled in the twine and die.

The opening picture of the osprey nest rests upon a column of rock not a power pole. The pair has not used any bailing twine. They are not exposed to DDT. Having avoided these challenges, hopefully they’ll produce two to three young to add to Yellowstone’s struggling osprey population. (btw … Rick gave me great advice but the novel still sucked and never made it out into the world.)

Rick Lamplugh writes, speaks, and photographs to protect wildlife and wild lands. His bestselling In the Temple of Wolves and its sequel, Deep into Yellowstone are available on amazon or as signed copies at RickLamplugh.blogspot.com. Also available is the prequel The Wilds of Aging.

Sandra Whitteker is a landscape and wildlife photographer living in Carson City, Nevada, a photography heaven just minutes from the beauty of the Eastern Sierra and Lake Tahoe.” You can find more of Sandi’s work at Fine Art America.

Photo: Photo: Sandra Sandra Whitteker Whitteker 17 - Volume 4, August, 2021

The Cancer Chronicles by Wendy Denton

E

veryone knows someone with cancer. A parent. A husband or wife. A child. A coworker or a friend. And yet so often we do not talk with each other about cancer. We don’t examine out loud the effects on our lives.

When my husband Ken was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, we pledged to be conscious and awake throughout the journey together. We decided to use our art to help us process the twists and turns of this process.

Through images, we captured feelings, ideas, sadness, humor, and outright fun along the way.

The result is The Cancer Chronicles, a 23-piece exhibit of 24” x 32” images with a short text for each image. Our hope was to inspire others to be creative, talk about the experience of cancer more openly, and even have moments of grace beyond the bodily bother of symptoms.

Our project was three-fold: 1) We wanted a rich form of expression to process our experience.

2) We wanted to impress upon other artists the value of dealing artistically with painful or The Granary Tree - 18

difficult life events.

3) We wanted others dealing with cancer or other illnesses to bring up their fears, ideas, uncertainties, and other feelings.

During a gallery show when someone didn’t like an image, I could hear them begin conversations and talk out loud – sometimes for the first time—about how the image made them feel.

The first image in the series: “Missing Words.” In the oncologist’s office, hearing the news, the mind tunes in and out. Now focusing on what the doctor is saying. Now attention sliding sideways to random thoughts: “Did I put gas in the car … French fries sound good … What about my students…” Many people said it took them multiple visits to actually get what the doctor was saying.

In dealing with a terminal illness and actually being present, people begin to question what it means to be here, what permanence means, what’s real and not real. I discovered a wonderful warehouse called Mannequin Madness and photographed countless mannequins, many of them rather battered or beat up.

The first image of Ken shows him surrounded by male mannequins made to look like real humans that would outlast time, right? Ken’s “Rental” sign speaks to this illusion of the permanence of the human body.

Throughout the cancer process we dealt with letting go of things: material things, relationships, selfconcepts and beliefs. This image shows Ken walking up a hill, with his suitcase springing open and the contents falling out.

What a great opportunity for conversation! In the exhibit of The Cancer Chronicles, I listened to a family discussing what each of them would let go. Even the kids got into the discussion. This family experienced an honest opening to each other as they grappled with such a difficult concept. One said, “I would gladly let go of my stupid job,” and they all laughed. A teenager said, “I would let go of caring so much about what others think of me,” as the family members looked at each and nodded in understanding.

Some people have asked if this series exploited Ken and his situation. All I can say is, about three days before Ken died, he

turned to me and whispered, “Isn’t it time for another picture?”

You can see more of Wendy Denton’s work at WendyDenton.net.

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Camp Fire: Devastation and Beauty

I

first met Ron Schwager through his amazing book The California Camp Fire Reflections and Remnants which somehow manages to capture the horror and beauty created by this wildfire which took 86 lives and turned the community of Paradise into a relative ghost town. Special thanks to Ron for sharing this moving reminder of the fragility of life.

Ron: When the devastating November 8, 2018 Camp Fire rampaged through a community in my home county in Northern California, I felt compelled to document it in some meaningful way.

I am a photographer. I look at things closely, emotionally. Maybe that’s why I decided to wait eight weeks before witnessing for myself the aftermath of that conflagration. The images I chose are but a few of the madness of the images and haunting patterns which could have filled many books. Along with the images are verbatim stories from several of the survivors.

It started quietly enough on a cold autumn morning. It is suspected that a single PG&E power line failed and a resulting spark lit the dry California brush like a golden fuse. High winds and dry fuel quickly sent the flames downward.

By 8:00 a.m., with little or no official warning, the fire entered the town of Paradise. Minutes later the entire community attempted to evacuate amidst the few log- jammed, inadequate roads littered with burning cars in a maelstrom of flames and exploding propane tanks. In a panic, many people abandoned their vehicles and The Granary Tree - 20

tried escaping on foot. At least 19,000 structures burned. Damages have been estimated at $16 billion. At one point air quality in the Chico-Paradise area was the worst on the planet.

Included in the book are fourteen harrowing accounts tape recorded and transcribed by Phil Midling. Ron's monochromatic interview portraits are beautiful in their simplicity and starkness yet convey a rich complexity undetected at first glance.

It is an amazing book. More details are available at: ron@schwagerphotography.com or online at: https://thecampfirebook.com

“What fire does not destroy, it hardens.”

– Oscar Wilde

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“Once you’ve had your life burn down, it takes time to be a Phoenix.”

– Sharon Stone

Clara Nartey: The Story Behind the Art

F

rom Clara: Fabrics in Ghana, West Africa, where I was born, have meanings.

Their bright colors evoke emotions, their patterns are a non-verbal form of communication, telling of proverbs, and ancient wisdom for the people to live by. Every major life event - birth, marriage, or death - is celebrated and memorialized with a specific piece of fabric.

However, that security blanket was yanked away from me when the company I worked for went under without any prior warning. That life experience pushed me into rediscovering my creative spirit., incorporating into my art the bold, bright, and joyful colors which are an intrinsic part of who I am and connecting me to my childhood.

(Details)

Essential Worker Now, looking back, it seems natural that this is the creative path I would have taken, however, it wasn’t always so clear. Like many people, I chose a path that would provide financial security.

The Granary Tree - 24

My art questions societal standards of beauty and its expectations of women; especially Black women. I create work that reflects the people who view my work, as well as introduces cultures and stories with which viewers may not be familiar.

(Details)

My desire is to honor those who’ve gone ahead of me and empower the women of today to live true to themselves. Moreover, I’d like my work to inspire the youth with confidence so that they’ll know that they can become whomever they wish to become.

In addition to the stories I tell with my art, I want my personal story and the winding nature of my creative path to be an inspiration for women to make time for their creative gifts, create their best work, and share with the world.

Hats Don’t Fit For more details about Clara Nartey’s work, her blog article Amandla -The Empowered Woman is fascinating.

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The Miracle of Friendship: Barbara Gaughen-Muller

R

ecently, I’ve realigned my definition of miracles from the winthe-lottery or walk-onwater idea to simply encompassing those unexpected delights that make you smile and say “Wow!” Some miracles happen instantly: a call out of the blue, a sudden connection that takes you in a new direction, an insight that greets you when your eyes open in the morning. Other miracles develop over time, building momentum until you’re finally gobsmacked by their magnitude. My friendship with Barbara Gaughen-Muller has been one of those slow building miracles.

I met Barbara about 30 years ago in Santa Barbara and had the fun of watching her fall in love with Robert Muller, a life-long leader of the UN and often called "the philosopher of the United Nations". Together they traveled the globe meeting with other world leaders and establishing the University for Peace in Costa Rica. She lost Robert a few years ago but still pours her energy into the peace movement and played a key role in establishing the Rotary World Peace Conference.

Barbara is a whirl-wind of enthusiasm and a gift to everyone she meets. She is a beautiful, larger than life presence who sweeps you up into her energy field. The early part of her career was The Granary Tree - 26

focused on public relations and her talent for connection created magic from Hollywood to New York.

Barbara loves great conversations and coauthored a brilliant book titled Revolutionary Conversations which I wish I had read in my 20s.

Barbara sees the best in everyone and never holds back in telling them how wonderful they are.

Over the years, amidst her busy life, she has always found time to be a cheerleader for me.

Talking to her for just a few minutes always gives me an "OMG I can do this” shot of adrenaline.

And, sometimes, that’s all it takes … one person who believes in you. Someday, I hope to be the person she thinks I am.

Recently, Barbara became a podcaster and her 68th podcast was with Helen Peacock, a Canadian peace activist whose mission is to use the power of the Rotary Club’s world wide membership of over a million people to create a World Beyond War. Here are links to just a few other fascinating podcasts: ▪

Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris, Evolutionary Biologist, Futurist

▪

Dr. Scilla Elworthy, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee

▪

Dr. Larry Dossey, Physician

▪

Sojourner Kincaid Rolle: Poet, Playwright

It’s completely irrelevant, but interesting, that Barbara recently celebrated her 80th birthday.

Why do starlings murmurate? rational thinkers say it’s for warmth or protection, maybe to share information, yet I wonder … just before dusk on some fall evenings, hundreds gather above their roosting site then take flight. bees swarm when they need a new home, other insects swarm when mating or migrating. but starlings? starlings murmur: back and forth, up and down, in waves, in flowing shapes, stretching, pulling apart, weaving back together, in what seems like a dance, what looks like joy, what feels like freedom.

I wonder if their dance is their celebration of life, their call to the world … their invitation to play?

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Three Book Synchronicity

T

here is so much we don’t know about the Universe that I have to wonder if there’s a Synchronicity Book department somewhere beyond our reckoning. Perhaps a bustling World War II quonset hut in a Kansas cornfield, filled with thousands of air-traffic controller types directing the landings and take-offs of books, passengers and their destinations.

My last three books feel like one of those controllers flipped the wrong destination switch. I was bound for Non-fiction: Ecology and wound up in True, or sorta true, Animal Stories, a destination I had deliberately scratched off my list of book categories.

Don’t get me wrong, I like animal stories well enough; they just tend to be rather sappy, with the predictable happy ending … or even worse, the tragic, tear-jerker.

Currently, I’m into the microcosm, the microbiome, those life forms we can’t see but are beginning to recognize their impact on our world. I believe I spoke my intentions quite clearly to my Kindle master.

So, how then did I wind up, first with a puma in the outback of Bolivia, then time traveling back to the 1930s where I crossed the U.S. on its poorly developed highways with two hurricane-tossed giraffes, a dustbowl orphaned teenager, a crusty marshmallow of an Old Man, and a heartstopping redhead?

From there, I found myself plunged onto a fishing trawler in the all-too-near future with a crazy woman chasing arctic terns on what might be their last migration as the ocean becomes an empty and lonely place.

Danielle Marshall, the editor of West with Giraffes, says “Grab a blanket and a cup of tea, and enjoy this wild road trip.”

With The Puma Years: A Memoir, you’d probably be The Granary Tree - 28

better off with a hazmat suit and a flask of rot gut.

I don’t like jungle stories. I tend to “be there” when I read and I don’t like being hot, dirty, bugbitten, smelly, and constantly afraid. I’m not sure Laura Coleman wanted that either when she quit her job and headed off to an animal rescue sanctuary in Bolivia.

Then she met the heartbroken and fearful orphaned puma, Wayra. It wasn’t love at first sight and, in the beginning, Laura just wanted to go home. “But after several weeks of barely showering, being eaten alive by bugs, and doing work that pushes her to a physical and emotional exhaustion she’s never known, Laura deliberately misses her flight back to England and spends the next two years learning how to trust Wayra, as well as how to trust herself.” — review from Mountain Lion Foundation.

And Migrations: A Novel is only for the hardiest reader willing to take a clear-eyed look at our all-too-possible future. The New York Times Book Review calls it a “Nervy and well-crafted novel, one that lingers long after its voyage is over.” I call it a heartbreaking dive into bone-chilling waters.

So, three books about people connecting deeply with wild animals, being changed by their efforts to serve those animals, and understanding on a deeply intimate level how our own actions have endangered them. There is a message here.

I think I will long remember Boy and Girl, the onion-loving giraffes, the traumatized Wayra who has to be taught to swim, and the soul-lost Franny hanging onto the last sightings of the indomitable terns, fragments of a disintegrating world.

I’m glad someone in that Kansas cornfield pushed the wrong button and sent these amazing books my way even if they do haunt me and make me wonder what our tomorrows will be.

My antidote to the terrifying future: megadoses of vitamin N (nature).

Flower of the Lake, before Dixie 29 - Volume 4, August, 2021

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Breaking Heart of Yosemite 500 years, making sugar from sunshine, sharing rain and snow, still sheltering life after the axe.

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"Beauty is created not just by desire but by diligence.

By circling again and again like a hawk round the well to what truly sends you both dizzy with admiration but also utterly focused in service.

Be mastered by beauty is what I’m saying.

Be defeated by it.

Rise to it in the weepy faithfulness of your response. " -- Martin Shaw Courting the Wild TwinB

-- Joyce Wycoff The Granary Tree - 32

I am water and stardust walking through sky treading on earth receiving a cedar branch receiving belonging watching sunlight make sugar in the graceful, bright Ponderosa needles watching a bee gather nectar in a yellow flower me witnessing him he witnessing me. time is not what the world wants. it wants my attention, my devoted, passionate attention.

– Joyce Wycoff

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