Issue #9, August 2024

On Medium

Here are two of my recent posts on Medium. You can find links to other posts on the Sacred Wonderland website.

Native American Holy Ground in US National Parks—The contentious history of sacred lands: Some of the most sacred places for American Indian nations are located in national parks, but access to their holy ground continues to be contentious.

The Abundant Life of the Hoh Rain Forest—Wisdom older than memory: The Hoh Rain Forest waits as a patient guide, a moss-embroidered forest of wisdom, lined with ferns and storied over with trees older than memory.

Featured Photo

Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands National Park in Utah is near Arches National Park, but it gets far fewer visitors. The scenery is equally stunning, and Canyonlands also has arches, though not as many as its more famous neighbor. Mesa Arch gets much attention, often showing up in calendars and posters, usually with the rising sun pictured through the arch. It’s also impressive in the afternoon, which is when I made this image on a cold December day. You can view other Canyonlands photos on the gallery page.

News, Commentary, and other items of interest

Hawaiian creation story defends the sea: The translation of an ancient tradition is being used to make the case "that the ocean is sacred to Hawaiians and that deep-sea mining would irreparably harm it." How the last queen of Hawaiʻi is influencing the debate over deep-sea mining | Grist

Sustainable wine: “Growing grapes and making wine is probably one of the lowest impact agriculture crops in the world.” Climate-friendly wine: Four tips for responsible drinking (imagine5.com)
 

Churches transformed into affordable housing: As congregations face declining membership, "some are repurposing their property to provide affordable housing, as the housing crisis intensifies across the country." Affordable housing in God’s backyard: Some religious congregations find a new use for their space (theconversation.com)

Plantation history retold: “Our mission is to eradicate the legacies of slavery ... for us, it's the intersection of historic preservation, the preservation of our communities, which are also historic, and our fight for environmental justice.” Woodland Plantation house, site of Louisiana slave revolt, under Black ownership | NPR

Trees do more for the climate than we previously thought: "Microbes in the bark of trees play a vital role in removing methane from the atmosphere, scientists have discovered." Tree bark plays vital role in removing methane from atmosphere, study finds | Greenhouse gas emissions | The Guardian

National park or private development? Land adjacent to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, "an important migration corridor for moose, elk and pronghorn antelope could end up in the hands of private developers, who would find it attractive for its picturesque views of the park." Wyoming offers to sell land to Grand Teton park -- or it could go to developers | NPR

A book worth reading:

The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow: The Mystical Nature Diary of Opal Whiteley
by Opal Whiteley, with biography and afterword by Benjamin Hoff

This book amazed me. Through a child’s experience of her rural surroundings in early-twentieth-century Oregon, we get an unusual view of the world as she narrates the lives of her neighbors and her animal companions. The book also had me thinking differently about language. From the opening paragraph, when she explains, “I found the near woods first day I did go explores,” you realize Whiteley interprets her world with an unorthodox syntax of a child. I found it refreshing.

      Equally intriguing is Benjamin Hoff’s biography of Opal Whiteley and his sleuthing the truth behind the controversy this book stirred up when first published in the 1920s. I'd be curious to know what you make of his conclusions.

The going away day of one William Shakespeare

This month’s poem was not written as a poem. It is an excerpt from Chapter 23 of Opal Whiteley’s diary The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow. She is commemorating the anniversary of “the going away day of one William Shakespeare, in 1616.” Opal has gathered up several of her animal friends “to go to the cathedral to say prayers of thanks for all the writings he did write.” Her descriptions, like much of her diary, is quite poetic. I have arranged her paragraph into lines of a poem.

Voices of the Earth

Everywhere there were little whisperings

of earth-voices—they all did say

of the writes of William Shakespeare.

And there were more talkings.

I lay my ear close to the earth,

where the grasses grew close together.

I did listen.

The wind made ripples

on the grass as it went over.

There were voices from out the earth.

And the things of their saying

were the things of gladness of growing.

And there was music.

And in the music, there was sky-twinkles

that was come of the joy of living.

I have thinks

all the grasses growing there

did feel glad feels

from the tips of their green arms

to their toe roots in the ground.

             – Opal Whitely
 

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