My New Cathedral…

I’ve missed you! Of course it’s only been a couple of days, but my last note to you was so brief. I wrote it on my phone in that new spot I was telling you about, and while it is nice, there were too many distractions there that night. In other words, there was more I wanted to say! So, here goes.

I feel I’m settling into this place better than you might expect. Sure, at first I was paying attention to the things I disliked about the town, the house, and so on, you know how you do; but I gave myself a shake, which included a lecture on ‘perspective’, and decided to focus only on the beauty, and the quiet and colour of the place. That strategy is working brilliantly, I’m happy to report. My mood stays elevated, and I am quite contented, most of the time. It’s easy to laugh about the “parking lot” streetscape now that I’m not overwhelmed by it. And since drivers here stop, or at least slow down if I’m don’t manage to get to the curb, I’m a-okay. (Seriously, the streets are that wide!) Oh, and they don’t honk, either. Gotta love that.

My effort to make friends and find a social circle continues. It’s important to get out and explore locally from within rather than always the outsider. Getting connected will remain a work in progress, but I’ve already taken some decent sized steps in the right direction and continue to meet the loveliest people. I suppose there is an ease in a small community that can’t survive in the city. If you don’t include Dublin, my recent time has been spent in the countryside, and quite isolated. I am not that here, which is good. The fully stocked grocery store is only a few minutes by foot, not an hour like my abode in Devon, and offers cosy seating, Internet, coffee, and yummy take away. The quay is not far, either. OH, and I’m getting a bus schedule today. For a mere $2.00 which includes transfers, I can get to some of the more distant spots on my own. I’m looking forward to further exploration of one spot in particular.

This town boasts a natural wonder called Cathedral Grove. Deploy your Google skills and take a gander at one of the planet’s few remaining old growth forests. I am learning about this rarity and cannot wait to visit. There I will stand among trees that are 800 years old. They have stories to tell me, certainly, but I have a feeling the entire ecosystem is going to remind me that our relationship to Mother Earth is fractured – badly fractured. Oh, how we have wounded her! And my only response is that we need to start healing her, caring about her, and caring for her if for no other reason than to show our gratitude for her. We need to seek her forgiveness and try to make amends for our careless, thoughtless treatment of her. We have no excuse now, you know? We know better.

And so my wish today is for the grace needed to accept culpability for what is. We waste precious time pointing fingers when we are all responsible. Do not attempt to escape by saying, “I’m not the lawmaker or the logger. I did not rape the forests like the big bad company did!” We have bought the furniture, demanded more products, more herbs, more medicines, more – more – more, without ever asking where they came from. Our insatiable need to “have” has led to the destruction of air and land and water at such an alarming rate that even if we choose to disavow evidence of global warming, we cannot further deny that our water is polluted as is our air which has led to the extinction of countless species. And, have no fear, we will be among them. So I wish to take responsibility gracefully and learn what I can do. I believe we can all make changes. Small, simple changes are enough because thousands of us will be making them. Mother Earth will thank us, as will our children, and their children.

Until tomorrow…