May the stars carry your sadness away,
May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
May hope forever wipe away your tears,
And, above all, may silence make you strong.
Lakota Prayer
Wakan Tanka, Great Mystery,
teach me how to trust
my heart,
my mind,
my intuition,
my inner knowing,
the senses of my body,
the blessings of my spirit.
Teach me to trust these things
so that I may enter my Sacred Space
and love beyond my fear,
and thus Walk in Balance
with the passing of each glorious Sun.
According to the Native People, the Sacred Space is the space between exhalation and inhalation. To Walk in Balance is to have Heaven (spirituality) and Earth (physicality) in Harmony.
Early Spring
by Rainer Maria Rilke
Harshness vanished. A sudden softness
has replaced the meadows’ wintry grey.
Little rivulets of water changed
their singing accents. Tendernesses,
hesitantly, reach toward the earth
from space, and country lanes are showing
these unexpected subtle risings
that find expression in the empty trees.
“I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman’s cares.” 🇺🇸 – President George Washington
“You might think that after thousands of years of coming up too soon and getting frozen,
the crocus family would have had a little sense knocked into it.” — Robert Benchley
“When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination,
the whole world opens up to you.” — Susan Sarandon
The glacier has recently come to the forefront of the international debate on global warming. The US Forest Service, which manages the Mendenhall Glacier, says “because glaciers are a product of climate, they respond to climate change.”The Mendenhall glacier has been in retreat since the end of the Little Ice Age in the 1700s. In a joint article for the Juneau Empire Geologist Cathy Connor and Geophysicist Roman Motyka, both professors of the University of Alaska said “climatic warming coupled with ice loss through iceberg calving are the reasons the Mendenhall Glacier is retreating and shrinking.” It is expected the glacier face will soon pull out of the lake. * Source: Wikipedia
The retreat of the Mendenhall Glacier and other glaciers in the area is believed by some to be a result of broader retreat and breakup of the Juneau Icefield. The Juneau Icefield is the fifth largest icefield in North America. For many populations near glacial areas these glaciers are a source of fresh drinking water. Once these glaciers are gone the people relying on this fresh water will be out of their familiar fresh water source. For example, Anchorage is one of the most populated cities in Alaska and many people in this city rely on the Eklutna glacier for their freshwater. If the recession of this glacier continues they will be out of their main source of water.*
Although there are many negative effects of the recession of the Mendenhall Glacier and glaciers in general, there are also a few positive outcomes from it as well. With the retreat of the Mendenhall Glacier, the Mendenhall Lake has formed. The lake is a result of the run-off from the glacier and is increasing in size as the glacier continues to retreat. The lake began formation in 1929 and has continued to grow since then. The lake has its own unique ecosystem and is a nursery for a variety of fish including several type of salmon, Dolly Varden char, and cutthroat trout.*
"Anyone who has ever stopped to watch a hawk in flight will know that this is one of the natural world's most elegant phenomena."
-- John Burnside
As a Spirit Animal, Hawk teaches awareness. The universe is trying to send you a message. ... Hawks have the sharpest eyesight of all Raptors.
Love’s Philosophy
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another’s being mingle;–
Why not I with thine?
See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower would be forgiven,
If it disdained it’s brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;–
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?
Maverick Mist 