sleepless for hours last night, with churning thoughts and emotions, including despair and anger and tears, over the tragedies in Japan as well as the messages in the Suzuki film (see previous post)
sitting in the dark with only the monitor’s light and a cup of hot cocoa and typing somewhat incoherent thoughts into a list seemed to help ease a grandmother’s pain

later, in the light of another grey morning, after weeks of grey days of heavy heavy rains and thunderstorms, I read the list and decide to leave it barely edited. it’s not saying anything new nor is it poetry so don’t be too hard on me….

we need hope and optimism
especially for all our children
traumatized or not
as parents and grandparents (even Suzuki is one)
nurture, nature, healing
in gardening, in the presence of nature
spring’s promise, fall’s harvest
like Suzuki, I identify with first nations’ and early peoples nature ‘worship’,
thanking the earth for providing
save the forests
reduce depletion of fish
organic farming
not factory farming of plants or animals or fish
without chemicals on land or sea
no GMOs
grow food close to home, save agricultural lands from development
backyard gardens, chickens, composting
clean potable water
not wasted on golf courses and ‘retirement’ homes in the deserts
need massive change fast,
time is running out for our planet!
reduce consumption and waste
no more nuclear!
drastically reduce dependance on oil, coal
reduce plastics
increase solar, wind, geothermal, wave energy
mass transit, bikes, trains
(building them will provide jobs – look at Germany and Denmark!)
less travel, fewer planes, cars, cleaner ships
change philosophy of constant growth, constant focus on shares and profits at all human and environmental costs
(isn’t it disgusting that Japan’s disasters only make Wall Street types worry about stock market drops?! – where’s the compassion?)
and how come Haiti and New Orleans and Aceh and so many ‘poor’ places are still struggling to recover from natural disasters while more money is quickly made available to wealthy nations – is it because business and corporations see profits in rebuilding in industrial nations – again the corporate bottom line, not the human line???

Now I need to somehow make some art to heal some of the heartache since it’s too wet and cold to go start some seeds….

Later: Please read this, a calm, reasonable, intelligent voice in the wilderness and madness of CNN style reporting: What Japan’s nuclear crisis means for all of us