Keeping Maine a Blessed Place
by Becky Bartovics, Sierra Club Maine Chapter ExCom Member
I live in a blessed place. We live in a blessed state.
We have no idea how blessed we are and perhaps that is our job here: to help us remember what a blessed place we live in, in a government that is designed to be interactive in a state where there are far more trees than humans, where migratory species are still able to fine water to bathe in, seeds to eat, and nesting material with which to make homes. Where water is free flowing and mostly clean enough to drink. Where the air is mostly clean enough to breathe.
Tonight the snow is sifting down on a quiet that is unheard of in most other places. Quiet while the owls are softly finding prey, where otters still have stream beds to winter over where clams, mussels and oysters still reside. We live in a blessed place.
Where wind whips the ocean and mountains where trees collide with wires and outs our power, where children can still go sledding, where we can still look up and see the stars to find some sense of the enormity of the universe and our real place in it. Where it is possible to lose ourselves in the wildness of this beautiful planet where the sky is clear, stars are visible, where the moon and its light move us in ways we can feel.
We have much to be thankful for in this New Year. The energy of interest is driving young and old to speak “truth to power” to tell the stories of their lives. We are awakening to the infinite needs of people and places where we have often remained uncaring. We are awakening with the sound of the alarm as species decline, vast numbers of sounds will never more be heard, vast arrays of courtship will no longer excite the new found mates, vast expanses of lands will be inundated, vast breathing forests will be plundered, and vast aquifers will be tainted. We can do something about this. Even if our leadership seems deaf to the needs. Even if the monied interests seem all powerful.
We can move forward in our communities. In our towns and in our homes we can make the changes needed. We can be warm, we can share resources, we can make it happen. Making changes locally is cathartic and inspirational. Resources are available. Tapping them is essential.
Perhaps most significant and encouraging to me, what makes me believe we can do what is needed to address resiliency in our world and communities, what inspires me when I think of it, when I try to grasp its enormity, when I imagine it: that thing is the moment of silence that 400,000 people honored- at once- in the most thrumming of cities during the People's Climate March in September, That moment of silence is what inspires me with hope for my brand new granddaughter for the lambs and kits, salamander eggs and lobster spry. We have the power to join with our neighbors, and friends and take back this world.
This month, our Climate Action Teams will benefit from a planning support to move us forward in local actions, be they installing solar banks, or building storm windows for those in need, or putting pesticide elimination ordinances in place, or standing up at a selectman's meeting to prevent out-of state businesses from taking advantage without respecting the value of our resources. We welcome all neighborhoods to join us. This is about justice, about democracy, about the future of our species and all species.
We can do it. So we can continue to say “We live in a blessed place.”