Earth Day 2018 and an Update...

I haven't posted here for a while, partly due to a couple of medical issues -- and they work as a team :) Also, time seems to be flying by. But there is a good reason, too:  I've been working on two songs to record later this week. One is the '50s hit cover song "Only You"; the other is a re-make (and re-structured version) of one of my originals, "Conversation". Vastly different from each other in genre and mood, they do go well together in expressing the singularity and attributes of the emotion that goes with my desire to sing and play them. 

My dog, Ruby, is wonderful ... she is a darling, affectionate, and super intelligent being and is now also a service dog.

Today is Earth Day and my thoughts and feelings about it are hopeful, painful, fearful, and apologetic to our Earth Mother. Of course, humans are what have brought conditions to a woeful level for our planet, ourselves, and the myriad of non-human inhabitants. We've seen the widely circulated picture of polar bears in the ocean looking for ice floes that are no longer there. We've read about the plight of bumble and honey bees. There are so many other examples of animal suffering and exploitation, environmental destruction, and threats to our own existence, brought about by ignorance and apathy ... and corporate and political greed. Even so, I can make myself say "Happy Earth Day" because I know that there are a great many of us who care about our planet and fellow beings. Let's make our voices be heard in whatever ways we can!  And let's vote for our environment. Earth is our home, we need to protect it.

Please send comments to the blog rather than my email address so that others can see what you say. It's easy ... just click on "anonymous". I always like to hear from you.

Clara's Eleven Imperatives ... aka Commandments, Requests

There are eleven instead of ten because  1) I want to avoid any hint of religiosity and 2) I like the number 11; I think it is auspicious. So here, in random order, are my Eleven Imperatives:

  1.    Show gratitude and give thanks to the Great Source of All/God/the Great Spirit/the Great Energy for life and all that is good.

  2.    Be compassionate and kind to all living beings.

  3.    Thank a tree (for oxygen, shade, beauty). Save a tree. Hug a tree if you’d like to. Trees like hugs and they are good listeners if you need someone to talk to.

  4.    Be loyal and kind to that special human with whom you are in love.

  5.    Become an environmental activist—Save honeybees, bumblebees, crickets, praying mantises, stink bugs (friendly), cicadas (friendly and attractive), beneficial lady bugs, and necessary earth worms (after a heavy rain, I often rescue those who get stranded on pavement and put them back in the grass). Do not let insecticide companies spray your yard with poison. Pick up and properly dispose of litter.

  6.    Become a humane activist—Save domestic animals (dogs, cats, horses) in our country where they are often neglected and intentionally hurt and in other parts of the world where they are raised in brutal circumstances to be eaten or otherwise exploited by humans. Appreciate and re-establish predator animals such as the majestic wolf to restore what humans have destroyed in Nature’s balance. Leave wild animals such as bears, horses, deer undisturbed in their natural habitat and do not harm or mistreat them. Help legislate for cows, pigs, sheep, chickens who are victims of a brutal industry and are not protected from cruelty by any laws. Consider switching to a diet that is largely plant-based.
 
  7.    Send vibes of civility out into the world. Love is the only way to conquer hate. Love is the ONLY antidote for hate.

  8.    Celebrate music, the true universal language. Even the planets sing as they spin and rotate in the heavens. Join in and play a musical instrument. Drum on a hand drum. Sing and give it your best effort. Tap your foot.  

  9.    Speak out for peace for our planet. Peace instead of war should be the motto.   

 10.   Do aerobic dancing every day. Dance, dance, dance! 

 11.   Meditate. Breathe deeply … inhale, exhale.  Do it unhurriedly.  Meditation can involve spoken prayer, silence, surrender to the will of the Universe, gratitude.

Animal Ministry Blog ...

Recently, I put together a fairly comprehensive list of organizations that rescue, protect, rehabilitate, and otherwise do very good things on behalf of our friends, the animals.  It is called Animal Ministry and/or Clara's Animal Ministry Resource.

The list is in random order and the blog itself contains wonderful pictures of animals very worthy of a look, along with my captions :)  This is a serious list and the intent of the blog is to provide information resources to people who are or would like to become advocates for animals and our environment.  I put it in blog format for several reasons:  1) I don't need to pay for domain name and space, 2) I'm familiar with blog format and design so I didn't need to learn anything new, and 3) people can send comments, stories, quotes, etc.

I hope you will check it out.  The link is http://animalministry.blogspot.com.

Love & the Earth Family --

Well, if there is anything that can upstage Fear and its consequences, it would be Love.  And I'd like to tell you about the program I've recently created to promote love ... the altruistic kind (although I'm a fan of the personal format too).  

Love & the Earth Family is a free program for organizations, clubs, and groups.  It's designed for adults, but I also have a version for kids.  The presentation promotes kindness, respect, outreach, and love ... for ourselves and all creatures, all beings. Included are the speaker (that would be me), print handouts, a beautiful film, and inspiring music.  I'll be offering this locally and regionally (Knoxville, TN area).  Why am I doing this?  I think my answer to that would be that I'm doing it out of a sense of personal gratitude.  For more info, please contact me at claralandau@yahoo.com. 

   

Book: “Eaarth” –

Another great book by environmentalist Bill McKibbon, author of at least eight previous amazing works . Yes, he has slightly re-named our planet to "Eaarth" and this book tells why and a whole lot more. I couldn’t put it down until I’d read every page.

In Or Out Of Character –

Lady Wolf’s Notes blog is finding my recent animal and environmental advocacy mini-series to be a hard act to follow. If you haven’t read the series posts, I hope you will. I know they temporarily changed the character of the blog somewhat, but for a good and needed cause. For those of you interested, I have scripted a church sermon (yep, I knew that day would come) and hope to have the opportunity to present it before the end of this year. Without giving away the title or key information about it prematurely, I can tell you that it is cleverly crafted around one of the principles of the UU church (and I hope of many other churches, as well) and speaks to the need of real-life advocacy for our environment – and all of Earth’s inhabitants.

Mini-Series...

Continuing with the pro-animal, pro-environment mini-series, I want to update readers about the Rep. Nicely (not nice) horse slaughter bill in Tennessee. It has (for the time being) been withdrawn and sent to committee for "summer study". To date, it has not been withdrawn in the complete sense. Mr. Nicely's ugly bill was opposed, overwhelmingly, by the general public and, very notably, by singer Willie Nelson. Sincere thanks to Willie and everybody else who rallied on behalf of Tennessee's horses, to defeat this bill. Hopefully, the bill will roll off the books and not resurface at a future session.

My current posting is about wolves and you will find it immediately below this paragraph. There are more topics to come ... some will be provocative. If you're reading me and my stuff, I think you'll want to stay tuned. I'll be putting up subsequent series posts weekly.

A Thrilling And Inspiring Event!

"It truly was remarkable to me, more than anything else, to watch the world celebrating with us and welcoming us back into the global community's embrace. It was like 'ding dong, the witch is dead' all over again. I never felt so good about my vote as I did this time. I knew I'd really participated in a very historically significant event." Those are the words of my friend, Sanman, a person I consider to be most wise.

Election night numbers felt like a miracle unfolding – at long-last, the eight-year pall was lifting and hope was becoming a reality; and then came that wonderful, defining moment when Obama was declared the president-elect! What an inspiring way to, at last, unite all Americans ... with pride and honor! It feels good.

There is an incredibly huge cauldron full of Bushist wrong-doing that now needs to be tackled, dumped out, fixed, renovated, reversed, cleansed, healed. The reeling and sinking economy, the chasm between the rich and the poor, the fractured health care "system", the ill-conceived war, the pulverized environment, the jobs that need to be brought back to the U.S.; all these are in the emergency zone, crying out for help. Obama has the intelligence, courage, leadership, and ethics to meet the challenge. It is monumental in size and scope. He deserves and needs the full support of each and all of us. Think about it. I am thinking about it. I’m very thankful our country now has a chance to save itself. Thanksgiving has, for me, renewed significance this year!

Public Lands

The related article chronicles the devastation of land and resources and the dangers to and injuries of hikers at the hands of or, I should say under the wheels of, off-road gas-powered recreational vehicles. Bush has pandered to the self-serving political interests of friends and allies in the motorized recreational vehicle (gas-powered) industry. Of course, given today’s situation with high gasoline prices and the belt-tightening we ordinary drivers are faced with at the gas pumps, the ORV issue stands out as a particularly sore thumb.

Fragile desert lands and forest ecosystems are being destroyed ... and other land users such as hikers are fleeing from dangers such as being run over by "a 12-year old on an ATV he can’t control". The report goes on to tell of cows being run to death; extensive vandalism and intentional destruction of flora and land; the seeming ineffectiveness of BLM (Bureau of Land Management), the agency charged with overseeing this and other public land matters; and the Forest Service’s shrugging off of complaints they say they can’t do anything about. Bush has opened these previously protected lands for this plundering use and, of course, it’s an industry dependent on gasoline and ... you guessed it ... Oil.

Horses, Wolves & Polar Bears...

There is legislation pending in Washington, DC that would protect American horses from being shipped into Canada and Mexico, under horrendous conditions, and then being cruelly slaughtered for a foreign market. These beautiful animals, so much a part of American history, can only be helped if enough people write, call, or e-mail their senators and congressmen as soon as possible, requesting passage and enactment of S. 311 (Senate) and H.R. 503 (House), the Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. For complete information, contact Front Range Equine Rescue at info@frontrangeequinerescue.org; visit http://www.frontrangeequinerescue.org/. Get names and addresses of senators and congressmen at http://www.senate.gov/ and http://www.house.gov/.

Unfortunately, the powers that be recently removed U.S. wolves from the protection of the Endangered Species Act. This is bound to result in resumption of the large scale and inhumane killing of wolves that stained so much of our country's domestic history. When I have legislative word on what can be done to undo this blunder, I'll report it on my blog.

Similarly -- polar bears are in trouble. Unless they are recognized as the important part of our ecosystem that they truly are, rather than as disposable impediments to North Pole industry, our world will soon have no more polar bears. We can't let that happen.