Thank you, Ms. Renkl, for reminding us to keep our eyes and ears open for the beautiful. Like you, I make a point every day of walking near the sea or in a park to observe the changes that make me hopeful and make me put our "pale blue dot's" problems on a manageable scale.
107
Hey Margaret, I love you because you see so clearly and with deep compassion!
24
Pollyanna is alive and well.
4
In the past four years l have relied on daily “nature therapy” more than ever...my hikes in the foothills of Colorado give me hope and gratitude. I follow the news as anyone who loves our country should...but I do not watch it after 5pm...because I need to find some peace before I go to sleep. I keep telling myself THIS TO SHALL PASS...just not fast enough. Thank you for sharing your hopeful thoughts...
82
This is one of those op-eds I needed to read aloud after dinner, to share with my family.
58
Another lovely column by a woman whose writing is a shining light during this period of extreme darkness in our nation's history.
37
Margaret, you are a treasure. Thank you for the lift.
29
Thank you once again Margaret. I'm a gardener and this week starting seeds, as I will be doing for the next month.The state of our country is just so disheartening. I too feel it is my duty as a citizen to stay informed.Gardening,walks on the beach with my dogs, the stars at night, will feed my soul and my gratitude for all the small miracles that happen everyday.
26
In these times, many of us are trying to calibrate our consumption of "news" - as we learn with anxious awareness of the crises and catastrophes in the greater world.
What is the balance point between necessary "awareness" of the greater world, and being overwhelmed by knowledge of it?
The responsibility of "witness" to the destruction of all we hold dear, and the responsibility to ourselves and our loved to not succumb to helplessness and despair?
I cannot turn off all news, yet I cannot anymore survive on a steady diet of it.
Nature is a refuge. So is the reading of history, literature, seeing live theatre, and arts of all sorts.
From history we learn that humans have endured colossal tragedy - and prevailed. From the arts, we are reconnected to the best of the human spirit.
But neither history nor the arts guarantee that we will survive the current moment. The threats are real, and enormous tragedy and disaster are real possibilities. Civilization itself is under constant threat, and no easy answers are apparent.
But even if we suspect the worst, even if (and especially if) the end is near, we are better off connecting with nature, the arts, our loved ones - along with material treats like chocolate or wine - then drowning in fear and despair.
The end might be near, or dystopian disaster. So, I'll go for a walk with a friend, listen to Mozart, pour a glass of wine.
And pray. But with no expectation of a miraculous salvation from the potential apocalypse.
21
Ms Renkl you never disappoint me. Your column is like a balm on my soul - each and every column.
Thank You.
"it makes more sense to seek out daily causes for praise than daily reminders of lack" - I came to a similar conclusion only yesterday. I intend to do just that (and turning off most "talking heads" on TV, as well as simply reading headlines to stay kind of informed).
14
How divine to remember the small miracles! I am grateful to you.
11
Love this column.
13
let's keep this going - "one tiny beautiful thing...every single day."
nyt - please find a space for this!
my entry: small stream in takoma park md, with no trash and water running freely and children tossing rocks in.
15
Yes!
4
There’s a large old Pin Oak tree near the 8th green at golf course in which a pair of Red Tail Hawks has built a nest where they raise their young. There is usually one or both of the hawks nearby and no matter what kind of day I’m having, it’s like seeing old friends staring down at me...
17
Walking the pristine beach on Amelia Island listening to the roaring sounds of briny ocean , sighting seagulls soaring and diving, passing shell seekers intently searching along the shoreline, observing toddlers splashing, I am a million miles from the troubles that besiege us and am feeling grateful to be alive. Your column touched me deeply. Thanks!
15
I look forward to your columns as respites from all of the political back and forth and yet I appreciate your engagement in the political discussion at hand today. If we do not respond to climate change the hope our species and many species is grim. As living organisms we innately respond to the hope provided by the observation of nature, the rebirth of Spring. Nature, however, cares not a whit for the activities of women and men. In the end Nature will prevail whether or not humankind survives. As the author has so eloquently stated on many instances if we do not heed the messages Nature is sending to us it is at the peril of the future for those human generations to come.
13
Enjoy it while you can. The Republican oligarchs want to pave i over. Little boxes and all.
7
From Robert Aitken, A Zen Wave: Basho's Haiku and Zen: "When I look carefully/nazuna is blooming/beneath the hedge."
7
This reminds me of "The Rural Life" column by Verlyn Klinkenborg. Please bring it back!
5
Thank you for this!
9
Of COURSE you can give up the President for Lent. Americans' lives have traditionally not even included worry or whatever else about the Chief Executive.
Maintaining your Loyalty Hate-Mania against the President is strictly a voluntary act. What is the real shame is the 20% or so of the country that lets this manufactured paranoia direct their thinking every day.
The Prez did not start this. Why do you let yourself be programmed in this way?
But the greatest sales job in human history isn't even about any particular leader, but this kooky idea that this government or ANY national government can stop the heating and cooling cycles of the various planets.
It should have told you something that not one approach or solution mentioned during the Obama years is regularly mentioned in general news coverage today.
OBTW: If the Obama economy (average annual GPD growth: 1.6%) was so wonderful, why did Hillary never bring it up in 2016 as something she promised to maintain?
@L osservatore Shame on you for such an awful comment on such a lovely heartwarming column.
Shame.
30
Grazie, grazie, grazie. Absolutely beautiful in words and spirit. My heartfelt thanks for inspiration in our troubled times and an approach to Life that I would highly recommend.
18
You’re going to have to look closer and harder for these natural wonders. In the last ten years I’ve noticed a huge lack of insects and I live in SW Florida. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had to clean them from my windshield. The environmental collapse tipping point has been reached, I’m glad I decided not to procreate and leave children to the dystopian future that is coming faster than anyone can imagine.
9
So happy to discover you! A timely reminder when the Bloody headlines are battering our hearts!
10
I've paused all news outlets on Facebook....I'm sick of this. I'm really tired of the Bernie Bros who will no doubt sit this one out if he's not the nominee...arguing with them is exhausting and I feel they are more Trump like than Democrats.
11
I am fortunate to live in northern New Mexico, where the sky is so brilliantly blue, it hurts your eyes to gaze at. At least Trump can't ruin that.
Or can he?
7
You may tune out of political news if it makes you feel better, and it's certainly great to appreciate natural beauty wherever it's found. But these days it's simply irresponsible to tune out of news about our natural world. Ignoring that news, which is unfortunately all bad, leads us to the situation of having given up. We don't have to. Margaret, you have such a great platform with your writing; you should not set an example of giving up and accepting an unacceptable situation. I wonder whether you would if you were on the other side of middle age. I know I'm on the far side of it, and I get more and more tempted to throw up my hands and leave the problems to the next generation.
@John it is possible to be aware without dwelling on it every waking moment
11
I think I will follow your lead and speak about the good things I see and the good things to come this season.
11
I'm lucky that I live two blocks from the San Francisco Bay and can walk along it's shore. I also live with an adorable, funny, affectionate ten year old girl named Maggie. She cheers me up considerably. I like hanging out with her. Forget Trump.
10
King Lear's tale was a tragedy. He was redeemed in our hearts by the fatal realization of his love for his daughter Cordelia. Trump will never be redeemed. Not in the hearts of decent people.
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conflict sells. compassion does not. it offers hope which is not for sale. but available to all for free.
8
As an avid hiker and daily walker, I too embrace the "sacrament" of creation as source for mindful self-reflection and healthy exercise amidst the diverse beauty of trees, grassy hillsides, birds and the occasional deer or coyote rummaging through the woods.
Yet, at the same time, the relentless news of Trump's environmental rollbacks, coupled with the documented (in this paper) and obvious loss in bird populations, cause me deep existential concern that despite our great advances in technology and science, we still fail to care for our natural home.
25
Yes thank you for this story - it’s a reminder that beauty is everywhere if we look for it. I too have been spending more and more time looking and seeing the beauty of our natural world....I think that will be the most important part of my life ahead- to see what I can see of our natural world ... for me it is a purpose of my life...before habitat destruction, invasive species and pests and climate change forever change the beauty I so love....
14
I loved this opinion piece and I love nature. Thank you so much for writing it. Just this morning, as I was walking my dog, we stopped to enjoy some nature. Fiona was watching a squirrel, and I was watching and listening to a bird singing. For all of us, we must stop and experience awe and some joy. We must rest and renew, as nature does provide at least "one tiny beautiful thing" to notice.
20
I so look forward to Ms Renkl's column. Thank you for the beautiful writing that so lovingly brightens my day during so many dark days.
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Margaret, you are a true gem. Thanks for this one, especially.
23
I always love your writing Margaret, but a special thankyou for this lovely piece. In the current climate (in all its iterations) I am sometimes grateful to be on the sunset end of my life because the thought of dealing with the projection of society today is so painful. But then I spot a plant, bird or other creature who doesn't watch the news or care about "wokeness" and some equilibrium is restored.
19
What a beautiful piece! And such good advice. In Maine, I am doing exactly as you suggested---going out with my camera to look for small miracles and treasures. A cedar cone in the snow. A beech leaf on the ground. Oak branches flaring with acorn hats. Yes, we need to keep up with the news, but we also have to keep our sanity. This is one creative way of doing so.
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Thank you for this not so tiny beautiful thing.
18
Really lovely Margaret, perhaps we should all take a break from the constant drone from all political parties: an overused cliche perhaps, but your vision of stopping to smell the roses is as apt now as it first was when pen met paper. Thank you and many of the other lovely commenters, we have so much to be grateful for whether a millennial facing today’s challenges or seniors such as myself facing eternity. I had the great pleasure of listening to several organists at rehearsal yesterday in a most beautiful Episcopalian church yesterday here in Palm Beach: knowing little about the music I was listening to I just sat back and took that time too reflect on the great life Ive had in my 78 years to remember my friends and relatives that are no longer here; it was melancholy to be sure but I thought about life as a cycle, there’s a time for everything, including being an old man fondly remembering those who brought joy to my life. When I got home I noticed the orchid I bought for the bathroom in the morning had issued another blossom, I somehow found that analogous to my musings at Bethesda, wow, what a wonderful world.
14
There was one summer where I think it rained 200 out of 270 days between spring and autumn. It wasn't a question of whether you'd see rain that day. The questions were when and how much? At the time, I was learning to long-distance backpack. The Appalachian trail taught me how to enjoy hiking in the rain. You found a way to be comfortable soaking wet all day. The right combination of gear and mental persistence pays off.
If you accept from the beginning you're going to walk soaking wet through the woods all day, getting wet isn't nearly so bad. Keep at least something dry for when you curl up at night but otherwise so what? As long as you don't go hypothermic or something, you're fine. Fewer mosquitoes when it's raining and almost never a snake.
I personally opted for a sunhat and an umbrella in warmer months. I like the rain off my face. Maybe a windbreaker or a fleece if things got really nasty. Basically though, I was just wet all the time. Bring merino wool socks and a pair a shoes that work well even when soggy. That's it.
7
I love reading your opinion’s. David Brooks used to be my favorite but you’ve surpassed by giving the voiceless a voice. Thank you for caring for nature.
10
The Almighty dispensing bad weather to punish bad behavior is somewhat iconic within the the Judeo-Christian faith.There's this thing called the Noahic Covenant. Noah's Ark. God promised without reservation that the Almighty would never again destroy the earth using flood.
"Thus shall I establish My covenant with you; Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth"
—Genesis 9:11
The Almighty never said anything about destroying parts of humanity with flood. Read carefully. No earth destroyed. Not all elements of humanity cut off by flood. God is pretty explicit in saying He/She/It reserves the right to punish humanity with bad weather. Assuming you subscribe to a Judeo-Christian faith of course.
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@Andy Personally, I don't describe to any traditional religion and am none the worse for it. Belief in The Almighty is completely beyond me - I'll take Darwin any day, but I respect our differences.
4
Trump is the most blatant symptom of a disease called Greedy GOP syndrome.
Still, thank you for expressing feelin9afflicting many of us so eloquently.
There is hope, there is always hope that this beautiful country will recover from whatever it has been gnawing at her these past 40 years.
5
Thank you for sharing your wisdom in this lovely piece. Great reminder to go outside and look around to put things in proper perspective. Here in Maine, a male goldfinch at the feeder is showing the first faint flush of yellow on his chest.
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@Kimberly Ridley Lucky you, they are uncommon at my home in North Central ID.
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@Kimberly Ridley Yes! This morning while walking my puppy, I heard and spotted a mockingbird on a neighbor's roof running through his repertoire of tunes. So much lovely music from such a small creature. Lifted my spirits on a dreary day (I, too, live in the South and am more than weary of the constant rain).
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@Beth That's another one I miss. I recall them from the outside work I used to do back in Maryland.
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Walking in the park, among trees, can act as a balm to your sanity. A park is a form of The Commons. They require taxpayer dollars to maintain and to staff. Tea-party folks whose sole political focus is to cut taxes? They enjoy parks too.
10
It is how I manage this very dark time - I look around my world every day and bless and thank all the miracles, from friends, to a home over my head, my dog, my health, etc. etc. Miracles like that are the balm that can keep us centered and able to keep going.
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The picture of that bit of bright new green in the gray bark's darkness is worth the proverbial 1000 words.
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Lovely.
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I will do this too. Thanks for your truly insightful essay.
4
I wish I could be as hopeful & write as beautifully as Ms. Renkl. Unfortunately I cannot...I’ll just have to settle for reading her inspiring thoughts in the NYT.
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Thank you, Margaret. I have children and grandchildren and I mourn for the loss of a great country that I hoped they would love as I do. I fear they will not know of our goodness and their lives will be diminished by the excesses and embarrassments of a president and political system gone mad. Like you, I walk in the woods every day and find comfort in knowing that nature’s beauty will endure.
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Beautiful! Thank you!
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Margaret has soul and vision: thank you 🙏🏻
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There is a bobcat roaming about.
Huge flock of goldfinches, 30, 40, more.
Heard what might have been a few notes of a spring tune.
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It is wrong to associate malevolent behavior of our president with weather-related calamities. He may or may not be the cause of environmental problems, but he commits misdeeds on a daily basis. This just means that we cannot link his ugly behavior to any single specific bad consequence.
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Unfortunately, this, otherwise beautiful, piece is an example of the rot: it found publication by hitching its wagon to the current president. Fight for the right of freedom from trumpian conflict as a vehicle.
1
In my yard, in Portland OR the Honey Suckle is budding out around Feb 20th. That's early here about and it looks like we may not get our two weeks of freezing so some of the plants will winter over and get an early start as well
4
"I pay attention because that’s what responsible people do,..."
Yup....that's been the way I think, too. And I suspect from all the angst being expressed, and with each and every day more clearly, that this is pretty much how everyone else feels, too. If you're a thinking adult that is, and a NY Times reader to boot (heh). But increasingly I'm coming around to another sentiment.
"I cannot effect it; not even one bit. It's all beyond my ability to directly control; so why bother to track the banalities of a corrupt administration? "
So I don't. Not any more. I ignore the constant screeching headlines; all of which seem more a case of "Look at me, look at me, LOOK AT MEEEEE!" that comes in a never ending flow from our childish idiot of a POTUS.
But don't misconstrue. My mind is made up; and come November I will vote. And though I may not know exactly who it will be that I shall choose I will say this; I will not vote for the current holder of the job.
His has been a tiresome, inept reign and I'm sick of it. So is it a case of anyone but him? Yes, yes it is. I know what this means in saying this to you, and I don't care. I have had it. Haven't you?
John~
American Net'Zen
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Yours is one of the few articles I read today from the NYTimes. Your words keep me sane from a world that is far too insane.
10
Your description and photograph of the life-affirming knothole reminds me of the gift-giving knot-hole in To Kill a Mockingbird in which Boo Radley leaves gifts of carved soap likenesses of Jem and Scout amongst a broken watch and other goodies. The knothole was his way of communicating with the children before it was tarred closed by Mr. Nathan Radley who had kept Boo locked up.
Trump tars up our country, dividing us instead of helping to heal.
We need some green growing in our lives to heal the damage he has wrought upon our land and to keep our spirits alive to bring about change.
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It is not just in the simple beauty of nature where one can find a moment of peace from the political madness in which we are living. It is in giving to our fellow human beings. All thoughts of despair and angst disappear when I spend two hours tutoring the formerly homeless, disenfranchised ex felons and addicts in recovery at a local non profit community center. They give me restored hope and release me from my anxieties at the same time. I struggle to keep those feelings alive when I leave but am sucked back into the madness when I turn on the nightly news. I guess that is when I should program myself to get out for a walk in nature like this writer and observe other signs of hope. It takes effort to do so but just might restore me to a modicum of sanity.
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In the day-to-day political chaos that raises the blood pressure and drives us to turn away, it’s the ongoing quotidian instincts of nature that we can turn to for levity and solace, if we allow ourselves, and then maybe renewed, carry on!
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Thanks for this reminder, Margaret, of the small things that actually make up our Universe.
Your columns are one reason I continue to subscribe to this newspaper.
Beautifully written.
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Looking for light in this dark tunnel: On a mild Sunday I jogged 2 1/2 miles over old, broken sidewalks fronting large, Victorian-era homes. Several folks I passed smiled in greeting. A pretty girl walking her dog smiled, too, always a bonus. I found my good pace and didn't labor. A man sitting on the porch of his pre-War home waved at me as I passed. I was born when the President wore a pince-nez on his aristocratic nose--and I'm still running. A good run and a nice reminder that civil behavior is still alive and well. And I've never needed that reminder more than I do today.
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This was a great piece on what really matters. The planet was here, evolving, billions of years before humans showed up just as it will be after we're gone if we continue to be arrogant enough to let that happen to ourselves.
8
What a relatable column and an essential piece of advice! When we need to release ourselves from the very man-made problems of our country, beauty and spirituality in nature can be the best reminder of something bigger and better than politics. But I don't think I'm alone when I say that finding motivation to look for it is hard. Here in Chicago, spring can be devastating because there are so many starts (54* yesterday) and stops (winter storm warning tomorrow) that our sense of hope really takes a beating. It takes commitment and resilience to keep looking for bright spots amongst all that mud.
9
Yes, wonderful. So important. We are being scared into forgetting about real life, new growth. On the other hand, something such as a curious toddler, s
warily checking out a stranger's eyeglasses left on the pew during a service, or watching the enthusiasm of a small group of cooperating millennials starting up their own restaurant based upon traditional foods of their ancestors on on a tv show, have a luminosity in stark contrast to the isolating, anxiety producing news of the day.
7
This is just an absolutely wonderful piece. My Psyche thanks you.
19
The hummingbirds returned to my yard last week. What a joy. Thank you for reminding me to look beyond the narrow focus of our dystopian political mayhem and see the real life.
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In one of Robert Fulgham's books, is a delightful chapter about a visit to Crete. He attended a conference on peace and reconciliation at which a wise man was asked about what we should strive to accomplish in life. His answer was to tell of his childhood during WWII. He had come upon a wrecked motorcycle and found a shard of mirror. He used it to reflect sunlight into dark cavities in the rocky landscape. He used this as a metaphor as to his life's goal - to shine light into dark spaces.
Your column reminded me of this. Thought you might enjoy this thought.
Dave Dawson
17
Thank you for putting into words many of my thoughts. My son and I hope everyday for things that should not be hoped for when it comes to trump. My son at 26 thinks all is lost. I keep reminding him to look for the positives in life. I, like, you look for signs of Spring and other happy points of life each day to ward off the feeling of despair that gets worse each day trump remains in office. trump has given us a swamp with a depth never seen before in an administration.
12
There is a pair of nesting eagles across a field from our house, on the other side of our grove. They don't spend much time at home and when we see them it's like watching the ocean. You feel like you could watch them for eternity.
This morning, after reading you, I strapped on snowshoes and went for a walk in the grove. The eagles were sitting side by side on the limb above their nest. It made "my heart ache for reasons too far beyond words to explain."
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Thank you. It is welcoming to read a hopeful piece that seeks out nature and cherishes its small wonders.
If only there were as many comments/readers here as there are on the other opinion pieces, maybe people would be happier!
5
I already responded to Ms Renkl’s column today but in thinking about it was reminded of that lovely Emily Dickinson poem about hope.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me
Soothing and hopeful for all of us. Thank you Emily and Margaret.
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Lovely; thank you. As a latent Catholic (raised but no longer practicing), I still practice Lent but instead of giving up something (usually a selfish act that has no impact on others), I commit to doing something more positive. Seeing One Tiny Beautiful Thing daily is something we can all do. I always say that life is so hard but so beautiful, too. Peace out, all.
11
I've been hearing robins for a couple of weeks and noticed the tips of hyacinths prematurely peeking through the soil. I know more dark days are ahead, but even little signs remind me that the it takes only a little light to push away the deepest despair.
9
What a beautiful essay Margaret. Thank you for brightening my day - I needed this!
22
What an inspired suggestion! Stay grounded by loving the small. After the Northridge earthquake in 1994, I found solace through strolling the grounds of the Huntington Gardens witnessing the survival of the small, as well as the big. Celebrating the small we overlook is a great way to survive our current earthquake.
12
Ms. Renkl writes sweet, evocative prose.
But I, an older guy who finds religion in nature and cherishes small moments of beauty, don't find any comfort in Renkl's discoveries of tiny, beautiful things in the darkest places and the smallest nooks.
They just make me sad, knowing that each small thing of beauty is at great risk because too few people are paying attention.
Just sad, not hopeful.
18
Please see the Emily Dickinson poem I just posted or look it up - Hope is the thing with feathers. It may provide a little solace.
4
As always, a lovely beautifully written essay by Margaret Renkl. But I would like to offer a point that is unpleasant to consider by many Times readers, and also by Ms. Renkl, based on her columns. There are two great environmental problems. They are related, but they are not the same. One is, of course, climate change, which is an existential threat (and actually no longer just a threat, but a present reality). The second, at least as, if not more important, is the paving over of our world, which is caused by too many people and to much development. This not just a problem in other places in the world, but is very much a problem in our country. And this increase in population in our country, a more than doubling in the past few decades, has been driven by immigration. This is the reason that I will not vote in the coming election, because as bad as Trump is, the (what are effectively) open borders polices of the Democratic candidates are at least as destructive environmentally. If we wish a world where we see birds, and insects, and the other species with which we share this place, we must seek to discourage families of more than two children, and also to limit immigration to the point that we have a zero (preferably negative) growth rate.
1
@Wan the D's are not for open borders, we need to be more empathetic towards our fellow humans. that the population is growing will not be solved by a cruel immigration policy.
14
Thank you for your response. I repeat that the policies are “effectively” open borders policies. When one says that one would not deport anyone here illegally, which is what several of the candidates have said in the early debates, that is “effectively” an open borders policy. I also believe that everyone, whether that person is here legally or illegally, should be treated humanely and in full accordance with the law. Nevertheless, one cannot truly be an environmentalist and not recognize the immense and negative effect that population growth has had on our natural world, and in the United States. I know that I shudder when I see a new housing development, or shopping center, or highway, being built, and consequently more and more habitat being lost. That population growth has been driven since the 1970’s by immigration. This is unpleasant for many good people to consider, because there are so many good people who are suffering and who would benefit from being able to immigrate here. And we should definitely aid in helping the countries from which many of these would be immigrants come, to develop their own societies, including strong birth control measures. But everyone cannot come here. This is a point which many will not consider because it is unpleasant. And, of course, the conflation of anti immigration sentiment with racism has made a reasonable conversation impossible.
We should be helping people who don’t really want to migrate to stay where they are. Spending billions on a useless wall is not to get to the issues, some man made, that force millions to flee. And second, why in god’s name do the Republicans fail to encourage birth control. Nay, discourage birth control. We could start taking better care of our environment with those two things alone.
8
Thank you for stating how many of us feel and helping us remember the good things.
9
This has been a hard winter that seems to drag on without end. Part of the despair is because of the weather. The rest is because of Trump.
13
Ms. Renkl, your statement that "Paying attention to what is happening in Washington is a form of self-torment so reality altering that it should be regulated as a Schedule IV drug" is priceless and spot in. In the darkness and despair we all experience daily, your comments are a ray of sunshine that gives us hope. Thank you.
22
Amen. The beauty and power of reflecting on the beauty of the natural world we live in and creating appreciation, balance and perspective outside of Washington politics and fears in this one dimension. Such a thoughtful essay prescribing a therapeutic simple daily dose of nature in turbulent political times to take mental energy away from the cable news onslaught and caustic opinions that in the end don’t leave us feeling much better. Thanks for writing helping us reflect on the larger picture of our beautiful natural world that we are lucky enough to get to experience. I hope we do all we can to keep it beautiful for future generations and address now the threat we as a species impose on other living creatures with respect to climate change.
15
Since the announcement of his candidacy, corporate media have made it their business to mainstream Trump because it is good for their business. We have Les Moonves' Kinsleyan gaffe as corroboration. Add this to the advertising truism that conflict sells and it's no mystery how we've arrived at this juncture.
Here's wishing you success as you find your way out of the alternate reality you had a hand in constructing.
5
More often than not in this Trumpian Era, we’ve had a bad day, a bad week, a bad month. It’s hard to be specific about the exact cause, as it’s often a feeling of despair, gloom and hopelessness. For those middle aged and older, it’s the feeling the Country we grew up in has been diminished, damaged and shamed. It will never fulfill the same promise and rewards for our Children and, especially, Grandchildren. I truly mourn that.
But, Spring IS coming. It’s always been my favorite Season, by far. Renewal, renaissance, a rainbow of magical colors. Glorious and fresh Scents. The soft mist of spring Rain, now landing on my Gray Hair, even some wrinkles. A long time ago, it landed on a Girl waiting by the Road, for the School Bus. Waiting for Her Future, excited by all the wonderful possibilities.
I must find that Bus, again. It’s called Hope.
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@Phyliss Dalmatian
Such a beautiful and poignant comment PD.
I too am in search of that bus called Hope. I refuse to believe that it is broken down somewhere alongside of a country road or worse yet, no longer in service.
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@Phyliss Dalmatian
The country I grew up in had police dogs and fire hoses aimed at black people trying to access segregated eateries, the Vietnam War where my husband was in the Army infantry, the days when women had no reproductive rights, and horrifying assassinations. People back then suffered greatly but the difference was ATTITUDE!! They acted.
Shake off the gloom and spend that wasted effort on people in your neighborhood or town who need reading skills or help at a food bank, or volunteer to register voters.
Our politics have been diminished by one corroded soul. But this remains a beautiful country full of creative, resolute people of grace. Hanging out too much in the news is hanging out too much at the wrong cafe.
Our children and grandchildren will be fine. I faced desperate times too and emerged joyful and grateful. Get away from the news swamp and live.
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@Phyliss Dalmatian
If winter is here, can spring be far behind? ;)
14
February 1st was my first sighting of a Robin here in Atlanta. The sun rises to the right of Stone Mountain, a sure sign that Spring is not too far off.
I cope rather easily these days, I'm in the twilight of my life at almost 77, married for 56 years to my beautiful wife. Everything that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren propose, is something I've enjoyed in my lifetime, a free college education at a maritime academy, Medicare, and a strong middle class, homeownership.
Focus on Sanders and Warren, forget about Trump, he's not worth the worrying.
Just get out there and vote.
688
@cherrylog754 - Fellow maritime academy grad here although about 11 years behind you. Great comment and I agree; 'Just get out there and vote'.
Personally I cope by watching the sun rise over the Casco Bay islands each day with my coffee. It all helps.
38
@cherrylog754 Well said, sir! And I will be turning 75 soon, married to the same wonderful man for 54 years, with beautiful children and friends. You are so right...Trump is "not worth the worrying." Think positively...it works.
23
@Don S Or going to our nearby coast and watching the whales migrate back north....with coffee from Peet's in hand.
14
Margaret,
In reading your column, I had hoped I wouldn't read about anything political. Alas, that's how persistent the news is today. What is going on in Washington, and the political divisiveness of the nation, is difficult to escape, even during a walk in the woods. I don't connect the persistence of heavy rains this winter with the discord in the nation's capital; I seriously doubt that the gods have any care or concern about the ethical decline that is catalyzed by President 45. What's happening there, and producing repercussions nationwide, is purely human.
But there's still plenty else on which to focus our concerns. There's no denying the climate is changing. Every year, the migratory birds appear earlier than previous years, now from late January to late February. We've already seen hordes of redwing blackbirds, robins, and waxwings making their way north, feeding on all the berries they can find. Trees and shrubs are blooming early. As soon as these rains relent, I'll be mowing the front yard, and before the 1st of March!
But Nature persists. I pray the rains will end for a few weeks, so that I, too, can enjoy our now-muddied trails through the woods. There is still beauty on the Earth, both natural and human-made. We should regale in it.
3
Love this! My post-traumatic-trump syndrome is also alleviated by being in nature. One night after a New England ice storm, I walked through the woods with my dog. When my path was blocked by downed trees, I just sat down in the snow and enjoyed (with my silly shepherd sitting in my lap!). I’m sure everyone benefits from these moments, no matter where people find them.
5
There's no religious condition required to appreciate sincerity. Your words are gentle and effective. Your outrage is refreshing.
Nature constantly seeks equilibrium. Humankind cannot escape the consequences from imbalance and excess.
Loud voices only drown us out temporarily. The scriptures promise a reckoning.
Evil sows the seeds of its own destruction. We should stay aware and informed. Trust the forces of nature to cleanse this troubled land.
3
Beautiful. Thank you. The ugliness surrounding trump is difficult to ignore, however. How one man can spread hate, distrust, and ugliness is a mystery. But history tells us that it has a way of creeping up on us when we're not paying attention. But this too will pass, maybe.
4
One click. That's all it took for entry into the living world Margaret Renkl has created and the reminder to trust this. Only this.
4
These states all deny anything is happening. We should thus deny it as well, and let them fend for themselves. The people who bring this are those who continue to support fossil energy and coal is the worst.
Self destruction takes many forms.
2
Thank you for reminding us of the gifts in front of our eyes and ears.
In the bright sunlight of yesterday's 40-degree Minnesota morning, a Downy woodpecker hammered away loud, making despair dissolving drumbeats. I took a deep breath and the environmental terrorist in the White House vanished.
3
Thank you, love your writing and observations.
5
Join the Cloud Appreciation Society
look up even when the future is cloudy
5
Thanks Margaret Renkl and NYT! Just as I imagined “more of that please,” there was your invitation to share. This kind of writing and perspective shifting so sources me. I’d love to hear more from others —-in a continuous cascade of pieces like this—-a daily dose of hope. Fueling our sustainability. From others’ comments, there’s a hunger here. Please keep feeding that—-our best, rooted selves—-to our best, rooted selves. Kind of like the sweet “human interest story” at the end of the news broadcast. No less real. So good for the soul!
Also, perhaps we can mainline Margaret’s writing (to counter the deft substance analogy)—-a Daily Dose of Margaret? One good line. I’d subscribe to that! And look forward to drinking her in each morn.
5
Nature and animals have always given me the connection to life that seems so threatened by so many events in the world.
Trump personifies the attitudes of exploiters the worked around, who do not value either nature, or animals, and lack the imagination to grasp the connections between all that lives.
Ms Renkl, like others here, I look forward to your musings.
3
Unsinkable hope of nature,
branch we cling in rising water,
cancer patient's beautiful morning,
children born against mortal warning.
Hope that makes us deaf to all
the birds of spring that now
forever stop their singing,
you still drive your green
through our tired clay.
3
last weds. we went to a snowy state park to see migrating bald eagles. afterwards we had a late lunch at a family owned Mexican restaurant. It was a lovely day. but every part of that day is under threat. Bald eagles-public land- immigrant families. Every aspect of my daily life feels under attack while Trump and the repulsive minions in the Senate destroy our country.
10
A wonderful column. But you have to have an escape route in order to survive and keep us informed.
2
Your engaging references to beauty can't help but implicitly underscore the horrible ugliness of the President whose name shall not be spoken. It is, most of all, a moral ugliness, a delight in being as awful as he can and punishing those who won't join him.
If there is an all-powerful and benevolent God: well thanks, said being, for the gorgeous trees, skampering animals and solace of beauty in all its forms. But please do something about the Devil so obviously at work in the Donald.
9
Beautifully and charmingly expressed as usual.
1
Yesterday, after steeling myself to read more news detailing the president’s continuing crusade of cruelty and destruction against minorities, the poor and sick, the environment, and our most cherished institutions, I came across the article about children (in Margaret Renkl’s state of Tennessee as it happens) as young as six, being taught by health workers how to administer the drug NARCAN to reverse opioid overdoses in family members in emergencies. Looking at the pictures of those little girls and boys with their blue drug pouches to carry home, I thought my heart would break and I read no more “news” for the rest of the day.
I’m only sorry I didn’t see Margaret Renkl’s column before I went to bed, as her reminders of the coming spring, and beautiful prose like “...a cluster of tiny seedlings colored the bright new green of springtime, so bright it seemed to glow in the gloaming,” might have helped me to fall asleep with a less heavy heart. Her columns are a balm for the soul.
8
About this: “ I would like to give up the president himself for Lent this year.” You are supposed to give up self-indulgences, pleasures or habits for Lent. Things that you will miss (chocolate or alcohol, for example). The intention is that you choose something that, in going without it fir forty days, will make you suffer a little bit. Giving up That Man would be a pleasure.
4
thank you for an uplifting column...i picked some witch hazel yesterday, and had the same feeling that the first sign of spring brings
1
Loved this!!
1
I just got a new cat who likes to sleep on my feet, and she is helping me deal with my problems.
7
Margaret your writing and subject matter is all someone needs to read for their day to start out on the right path.
2
Margaret: Thank you, thank you, thank you. We need more sane, gentle voices like yours in times like these.--Ed and Marie
5
Very nice. I always enjoy Margaret Renkl's columns.
2
"It rained here the day the Senate voted to acquit the president of the United States of wrongdoing..."
The sham "trial" held by McConnell and Senate Republicans was a disgraceful violation of 2 oaths: One to protect and defend the US Constitution, and the other to conduct a fair and impartial trial.
If a deity were acting in response to this blatant Republican betrayal of America, she should have sent rain as described in Genesis, limiting the destruction to the spineless, conspiring Republicans.
Genesis 7:4 "I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth."
5
Never in my 75 years did I ever imagine we would one day have a president void of a single worthy trait; one who doesn't even take the time to speculate between truth and fiction, just blurting out what suits his purpose at the moment; one who believes the law exists only to punish whoever he thinks deserves it; someone who believes the best examples of human behavior reside in people like Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, and Mohammed Bin Salman; who has decimated our government of almost every worthy member.
And, as if this wasn't enough, has the unflinching support of the entire Republican party, and close to 50% of the voting public.
It is indeed difficult, if not impossible, to comprehend all this, much less accept it.
13
That has been my strategy for dealing with my worst times. I had not considered using it against this onslaught of terrible news, but now I will.
1
"All across the South this year, flooding has been nothing less than Shakespearean, even biblical..."
Honest question: what works by Shakespeare involve floods?
for Lent:
I will pray for those addicted to heroin and those addicted to power to heal
I will pray for those who burden our souls with lies and hatred
that they can repent
and I will pray that I do not despair.
3
Ms. Renki, your simple metaphor to highlight the moral decay of our current administration remains so timely. This piece is another demonstration of your effortless literary finesse.
2
Watch the sun set into the Pacific, and think about the big things. Walk a low-tide beach, see the life in a tide pool, and think about the small things.
Stay informed about things, big and small.
Vote.
4
I am fortunate enough to go into OUR national forests as a volunteer clearing trails, along with other like-minded old folks. We don't talk politics; we can't hear the news; our phones don't get reception. We remove obstructions with saws, fill in holes, make drainage possible to avoid erosion, frequently looking around at the rivers and streams running near us, listening to the Pacific wrens that are now calling. At lunch, we sit on the soft duff to have lunch and later come home muddy, wet, and tired, but we've made a tiny bit of America better, and for the whole time it was all about us and the forest, not a word about HIM.
8
Thank you for this column. I needed your words today.
1
Brava, Margaret. It's tough to find gentle words to describe a monster.
I hope the teenaged boys in your neighborhood don't drive big trucks with Trump bumper stickers.
4
I cannot possibly improve on the many comments already submitted. Yet I feel compelled to say thank you in print. You are a gift that I welcome.
5
Wouldn’t it be nice if the New York Times and other major media outlets went Trump free for a day or two every so often.
It certainly would drive him nuts and would give everyone else a nice break.
12
Renewal and resurrection. "All else is sinking sand." Thank you, Margaret.
4
As has been noted, "It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature".
I would not have Trump's karma for any of his millions...
5
Indeed he appears to be the most miserable creature on the Earth the hates. one can only hope kand pray if so inclined) that he gets what he deserves, karmically.
2
Every time you feel discouraged by the latest Trump news, please go to your favorite democracy - championing website, such as Stacy Adams Fair Fight, or Indivisible, or ActBlue and donate whatever you can. Even the price of a cup of coffee.
Surprising how empowering it is to take even one small action and not just wring your hands. Cheers.
2
Thank you for this beautiful respite from all the “noise!”
2
Tell me again what we did that was so bad that the Almighty imposed Donald Trump and the rest of the haters on us.
Well done.
1
Send some of that rain out west to us, please.
1
Fantasizing about God changing the weather depening on political corrective in D.C. may be the most pathetic version of the wascally Wussian theory I have seen yet.
But every writer deserves being stuck with their worst story, they trip to the beach in an explodable Pinto. Thanks to this fantasy, M.R. has gotten the basement story out of the way.
The only future step HAS to be up.
Your story about the little hole reminds me of where Boo Radley hid the carvings for Scout and Jem.
2
Thank you, Margaret, for a reminder that nature is not only a force to be reckoned but a holy place accepting of everyone.
3
Good luck.
Keep watching the grass grow. It is a much better way to live today. Tune out the world.
However when the damage this short fingered bigoted narcissistic vulgarian and his republican administration has perpetuated on our planet catches up with you.....toodles.
Vote blue no matter who. Focus on the state senate races.
Go out and help get the vote out in those 4 states that gave him the electoral college votes...Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida.
Then you can go back and look for and celebrate the tiniest signs of life.
If you don’t, there won’t be any.
5
I believe that Yahweh is a very entomologically astute deity. When the plagues of locusts and biting flies arrive, you will know that the God of Israel is officially peeved. Of course, Mitch McConnell will spin it as democrat-inspired and Donald Trump will bring the much maligned DDT out to poison the landscape. He can help kill off all of those pesky birds that climate change is already dispatching to extinction. We would do well to remember that Nature bats last.
1
I love you Margaret Renkl. Thank you.
1
In a rally in Denver Pete Buttegieg was asked by a 9 year old boy how to cope with his own gayness. We are talking about a 9 year old kid worrying about being gay and Buttegieg took him seriously. Since when do 9 year old kids know anything about sexuality? What happened to childhood? These kind of things that happen in our culture today worry me.
1
Each bird, each tree, each flower holds all the beauty of the world. So does the guy illegally smoking at the bus stop. And even that creep that just cut me off in traffic. And even myself, when I falter and let my damaged self erupt.
88
@bill
Thank you.
2
Way, way too many diatribes against Trump when they ought to be aimed squarely at the entire far-right wing - those in elected office and those bloviating from the media and the political sidelines. I am honestly afraid that this over-attention to Trump, the symptom, will be what costs us another 4 years of disgust.
114
Thank you, Ms. Renkl for your message of hope. It helps me believe in the somewhat cliched aphorism, “This too shall pass.” I do wonder, however, what else will pass with the, “Perfidious red-faced man hollering out his hour on the national stage.” So many good things are already lost.
122
It strikes me that there is much to learn in this moment if we have any prospect of a better future on this fragile earth. We learn more about our neighbors every day, in the granular and in the gross. We are gaining a clearer picture of the world as it is!
It seems to me we must work on the new story, the story to replace that which is bringing rot, decay and a profoundly shallow understanding of life.
As you say, something is growing. Let’s all do deep work and nurture the world we want to live in - not the one that looks and feels like separation, degradation and despair.
This superficial veneer of vanity will be washed away in fire, flood and famine. Future peoples can benefit from our deep work, and will suffer from our shallow.
Look deeply at the small, notice pattens that nurture life - offer deep love to all you’re able.
1
This is one of those columns that instantly calls out for sending to a dear friend. But it left me with an odd feeling. Upon beginning to read it, I thought, “Oh please, Ms. Renkl, I do not come to your columns to read of the monster, but of gentler, enlightening, things, seeking solace from the monster.” But it left me feeling sorry for the monster, who seems incapable of grasping and appreciating nature and would be bewildered by the woods.
78
@Dale Irwin, I did indeed send this to my dear friends, and he indeed would miss the beauty of the woods. Exquisitely written essay with an inspiring message.
11
@Dale Irwin True, certainly, that he would be bewildered by the woods. But he also believes he is entitled to destroy the woods (and anything else that holds no meaning for him, therefore leaving only his pocketbook safe) and is proceeding to do so with more and more unfettered power. So I can't feel sorry for him. The woods might be all we have left.
20
@Dale Irwin
I hear you. Sometimes my own resentment of said monster, and his utter disregard for all living things outside himself, is tempered by pity for his utter disregard for all living things outside himself.
Thanks for what you wrote. Take care.
7
You brought the right kind of tears to my eyes today, and I am deeply grateful for this respite. I have far too often welled up for the wrong kind of late.
4
Ah, Margaret. The poetry of your words made me smile, and the implicit hope that you bring to us feels like a soothing warm blanket at times. I find myself watching the news like a train wreck, wondering each day how we as a country are going to dig ourselves out of this mountain of negativity. You manage to offer new focus for my day. Thank you.
5
Thank you, as your writing is a beautiful ray of light, sorely needed right now.
3
Amen! In addition to more closely observing and appreciating the natural world as a counter-balance to the unrelenting bad news, I've turned to novels and many authors I haven't read before. Immersing myself in beautifully written stories helps to calm despair so I can rest.
6
@naturegirl please do tell which authors - i am on the brink of a nervous breakdown. i just saw 30 seconds of donald trump in india.
1
@jennifer mc farlane Most recently James Salter, Alice Hoffman, Anthony Doerr, Brian Doyle, Tayari Jones, Emma Hooper, Chris Offutt. Try short stories too.
1
@naturegirl Also poetry by Jane Kenyon, Wendell Berry, and Mary Oliver! The gentle Mitford series by Jan Karon.
1
Beautiful, and beautifully written, as always. Ms. Renkl, you are one beautiful thing. Your family and friends are fortunate. And we're fortunate to share you in NYT.
26
It's important for all of us to keep ourselves balanced and out of depression. This isn't easy when our country appears to be disintegrating before our eyes.
I try to keep myself updated and then I live my life. I also spend time appreciating nature and animals. It helps and keeps me grounded.
When everything else fails, I turn on one of my favorite movies and have a good laugh or cry.
We're only human.
6
Oh my, you sound like me, only you write so much better. I’m heartsick at what is happening to this country, but every day, I walk my dog around busy and quiet parts of my mid-sized city and see trees and dogs and people and kindnesses that make me feel renewed. Thank you to all the wonderful people and dogs and living creatures and plants and ... everything growing and living and lifting me out of this sadness.
18
when I see a column in the NYTimes by Margaret Renkl, I immediately smile. It makes me think of my mother who loved birds, flowers, trees and little sprouts here and there. I miss my mother but thank her for making me aware of nature and my appreciation of Ms. Renkl. We must take care because many creatures in are disappearing. I don't see certain birds any longer.
13
Uplifting and beautifully written prose Ms. Renkl. I always love how you connect with nature and animals including your own pets.
13
And meanwhile trump continues his assault on "tiny beautiful things".
Frogs and bees, tiny little things are becoming extinct because trump and others are more interested in "economical resources and transactions" (Catherine Ramirez).
And so yes, I guess it is important to focus on "tiny beautiful things" while they are still around to enjoy. Like the hole in the tree it reminds me of the ostrich with it's head in the sand.
Ask the people in Venezuela what "'tiny beautiful things they have to watch when they don't have enough food to eat..
9
@esp Focusing on what is lovely does not mean forgetting or ignoring suffering. A moment of such rest for the spirit nourishes hope, and nourishing hope makes action possible. Without hope we can feel listless, dis-spirited and unable to act. Those in the middle of great suffering especially need such moments of rest.
13
@MDM
Remember German Nazi. People didn't do anything (except maybe hope) until it was too late.
I enjoy nature, but I don't necessarily find hope there. And yes, it is a respite.
Many people cannot even enjoy nature. They are too busy finding food in garbage dumps.
As a nurse, I have seen too much suffering and most of the time hope does not help much.
Ask the children from central America in the cages.
2
I walk about an hour most mornings. Hot or cold, as soon as I get up. It starts my day off positively.
I don't walk anyplace special; just at the two supermarkets close to home and the surrounding small businesses. I choose which one I'll walk at each day, each offers something different. I don't walk much in front of the buildings; I walk behind them. It's early and mostly quiet. I enjoy the sun and the sky, listen to the birds; observe the change in seasons as they occur and look at the untrimmed greenery. I notice when one group of plants is fading, something else is growing. I observe all the things it takes to support a business including the comings and goings of the delivery trucks. And as I walk I pray and try to remember to thank God for all the blessings he's bestowed on my family rather than begging for something all the time. It helps keep in perspective that we're just a small part of the universe. And when I finish walking, I'm in a good state of mind ready to tackle what the day may bring.
The papers and social media are skewed towards the latest horror. Reporting on every tweet. Stoking fear and outrage fostering hopelessness. Evil has always existed but no one is omnipotent. History has taught us that eventually the pendulum swings the other way and we survive.
I've dropped some of my online subscriptions and stopped looking at the news. I'm very aware of what's going on, but I don't need to dwell on it all day
17
@Ann
LOVE your post. We have much control over what we wish our lives to be. You become what you hang around with.
1
when i was growing up in nyc if you scored high enough on the regents exams and had need you could go to cuny or suny for free, which was life changing for so many people. help was given then to those who were bright and worked hard and were poor. no more.
12
today our son came over to help me prune roses. his dad washed my car as we did so. we had a lovely dinner post chores. but behind the bucolic is this ghastly trump and GOP. I question every day how best to prorceed. Not a happy time, in spite of the birds, which I love with all my heart.
18
You have a beautiful mind. Thank you for sharing it with others.
17
Thank you, Ms. Renkl. For bringing me the twin joys of nature and beautiful writing.
15
I focus on nature when I feel despair. I try to look at my surroundings and paying full attention at the beauty that is all around me and how special it is and how fortunate I am to be alive and living in a beautiful place. I try to focus on my marriage and how lucky I am to have such a great husband, I focus on my dogs, how wonderful it is to have them as my constant companions, at my horse, how special and kind he is, and I feel better. if I focus so much on what is going on in terms of politics I dive into a very deep abyss because the cruelty and horror of this man in the White House knows no end. I want to be informed and I read, I listen to podcasts, I seek some consolation on the people whose opinions I respect and I try to move forward in life. I encourage everyone to vote, vote democratic, no matter for who because right now all the candidates are better than the alternative, all of them have good within and I do not think we can go wrong with any of them. we need to VOTE in large numbers because otherwise we risk our voices from being heard, ever again.
20
"I pay attention because that’s what responsible people do, but I sometimes wonder how much longer I can continue to follow the national news and not descend into a kind of despair that might as well be called madness."
Ha!
Try working in News.
After 34 years, I have a target on my back. And day after day after day, it is all Trump chaos. With a mass shooting thrown in here and there, they keep coming at a quicker pace. Hate crimes have escalated under Trump.
I was planning to retire the end of 2022.
But if Trump wins?
It may well be 1/01/21, in order to keep my sanity.
Every day I think it can't be worse, but it always is.
Help stop the madness.
Vote Democratic this year.
Every office, every seat.
We need a huge turnout.
Vote.
41
Very bittersweet. Lovely writing.
I cope by reminding myself I am merely a mortal on this spinning core and Mother Earth will survive in some form long after I've returned to clay for the makings of beer keg stoppers.
11
'With Georgia on my mind, we traveled into Alabama for the first time on our way to celebrate the 90th birthday of a relation, and two police men asked for the car licence. We did not hear, but sensed they felt it was a sorry sight to see an elderly Jewish woman and a black man together on the road', leaving this viewer of Daisy and Hoke on their journey, wondering how much has changed.
Later in the early evening, Truman Capote sent an invitation to read his young stories of The South; so beautiful and tender are his observations of nature, and late in life, he expressed regret at having killed a mocking-bird.
The cat, once a stray kitten, now a magnificent panther, insisted that we go early at dawn on one of his intrepid expeditions, where he is picking up the scents of an early Spring.
And then came Margaret Renkl offering her readership another treasure-trove of beautiful things, and they are bright and uplifting, but never tiny, in the panorama created by The Great Architect of the Universe.
13
Thank you for this essay. In a world gone mad, seeking out the small wonders, the ones that will continue brings enduring solace to my weary spirit.
13
I know I'm probably not only one who thought of Wendell Berry's poem The Peace of Wild Things while reading this beautiful piece by Renkl today.
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
77
@Gary I keep a framed copy of "The Peace of Wild Things" in a hallway through which I walk every day. It has always comforted me. Thank you for mentioning it here.
11
@Gary So sad that trump and republicans don't care about the survival of herons and wood drakes or any other wildlife. I can't think of one decent way to describe trump or the GOP.
9
My wife is reading your book to us aloud in the evening before I make dinner. It's lovely and wonderful to discover you.
4
A great companion piece to the article about the conflict between the pipelines and the AT.
5
Thank you for for this beautiful essay. So many of us are affected by what is happening in our country, and some days I feel deep despair. Your writing reminds me to shift focus to the the people and the beauty of living things around me. I believe that the actions of one individual can influence others in both positive and negative ways. If I choose to be positive, with kindness as my leading motive, perhaps another person will choose that way too.
13
"Giving up Trump for Lent" is of course exactly the wrong thing to do. In order to be responsible and honorable Christian citizens, we must look clearly at the horror that pervades America (and the world too, really) under this administration. We should reflect daily on all who have suffered already from the cruelty and corruption of Trump and his cult, and look ahead with great concern at what might befall many more, should Trump be reëlected. And those who suffer include, not just humans, but our fellow creatures all around us. Fortunately there may still be a path of hope open to us, if only we remain attentive and committed.
15
Thank you ... very much. For people of Easter, it’s like that ... though not always easy or convenient because Good Fridays still happen. Yet, as in this column, Easter has and is the last word. And in that, the prayer goes on that all ... no exceptions ... will be included, reconciled in charitable and just and life-yielding ways of being.
4
Beautiful reminder of the powers of Nature. I have always found peace, grace and comfort in my hikes as I look at the magnificent Rockies, the endless blue skies and everything else lovely that greets me on my path.
Indeed, Nature is my escape from our crazy times. I will do whatever I can to get the vote out to ensure that the anti environmental/ anti science/ anti nature fool will not have a chance to destroy our country anymore.
19
How very moving. Thank you.
15
You are so right. One small consolation is that you can ignore the news for the next 8 months without any feeling of guilt, since you already know that there is only one responsible way to vote in November and that, unfortunately, isn't going to change.
10
Ms. Renkl continue to remind us that Nature is sacred and to despoil it, as is now being done, is to plunder the human soul. Thank you for keeping the spiritual alive in these tragic times.
19
Renkl's column is manna. I wish she would publish a collection of them as a book. Thank you, Ms. Renkl, and greetings to the kindred spirits who also cherish her.
15
She did! The book is A Late Migration: a Natural History of Love and Loss.
4
“It rained here the day the Senate voted to acquit the president of the United States of wrongdoing even as many of them publicly admitted he had done wrong. It rained here the night the president pretended to be an environmentalist during the State of the Union address. It rained the morning he turned the lovely, bipartisan National Prayer Breakfast into a partisan rant and when, later that day, he continued ranting in a profanity-laced news conference...”
In the above paragraph Margret Renkl mentions...’it rained.’ This seems to be the core concept of her opinion piece.
Climate Deniers, listen up! I read in the comments section here words like ‘greening’ and ‘rebirth.’
No! Climate change does NOT mean extra CO2 and water for the plants. It does NOT mean ‘slogging’ through these few, rough, months until everything becomes lush again, more lush than before.
What it DOES mean is melting glaciers and a hotter atmosphere that evaporates water vapor on an unimaginable scale. It means more water in the atmosphere. And since gravity is a staple of our world, it means water reaching the surface via whatever means necessary, e.g. snow or rain, in extreme amounts.
Climate deniers, the rain will not end. You may experience drought. You may experience unparalleled heat, but the rain will not abate. There may be a temporary lushness but...
At some point, the ecosystem around you will collapse. And then you will collapse.
That’s pretty much it.
21
Thank you for this. I belong to a poetry group and recently some of us were commenting on how coming to our poetry meetings was saving our sanity just now. That...along with my morning walk and playing classical music most of the day instead of listening to opinions is also sanity saving.
Yes, we need to know what's happening in D. C., but what you write about is also what's happening.
8
Beautiful miracles abound abundantly all over our landscape but especially in the bountiful God-preserved locale of pure nature. To fixate on the little pleasures allows our primitive mind to fixate on little problems which are easier to commiserate and deal with. The little miracles prompt bigger and more extreme joys. Thank you for the reminder that the little things are often the most important and have the largest impact on who we are as humans.
6
Thank you for this lovely piece. I always enjoy your writing.
For me I have resigned myself that the news will only get worse with climate change ruining our stable environment, automation taking jobs and now corona virus — these are dark times that will only get darker. My only solace is that these are manmade messes so I try to do small acts that might alleviate the situation. My comfort comes from the Buddhist notion that one cannot tell the impact of a good deed. As a large good deed with lots of money behind it might not have the impact of a small good deed with the right intention. For instance Greta T movement started out as a lonely one girl Friday protest. That’s all I have to say — Other than we best buckle up Trump might be a symptom; the problem might be much greater.
14
Many of us are there.
I've been a 'news junkie' for years.
Retired. Lots of time on my hands.
It becomes more difficult with each passing day to read the paper.
All Trump all the time.
If I live to be a hundred I will never understand how roughly half of Americans support this administration.
It's not like this is a close call.
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@two cents
Then don't read it! Read Mary Oliver peotry instead.
You have authority over what you allow in your home and your head. Why steep yourself in a nightmare? Why?
3
Thank you for sharing your humanity, honesty and relentless optimism. It too acts as a cold frame, offering warmth and fellowship. I take heart in this protection of sorts from the relentless, sodden days we’re slogging through on our way to a rebirth and greening.
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@cooktench
WOW! What an incredible comment.
I especially loved the "cold frame" reference.
So very cool.
19
There is hope every spring as shown by our delight in tiny plants pushing through the ground with Herculean strength. And it is a delight to see the rich green after a winter of grays and brown.
If the tiny shoots can prosper in this swamp of ours, so can we. If enough of us grow, the swamp disappears into a life sustaining field of beauty.
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Beautiful. Thank you for this. I am an Atheist and found it moving.
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@Kathy B I love her writings. They always seem to make me feel a bit better.
1
The apocalyptic weather came from conditions that the representatives in Washington are making worse, allowing companies to pour more gases into the air.
Voters should realize every vote for a climate change denying party, the GOP, is a vote for the destruction she has been seeing. We all have been seeing.
Vote blue.
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@joanne c I just finished reading about the fracking gas lines planning to cut through the pristine Appalachian Trail! This is beyond horrifying. Just think of it!
2
A nice, picturesque essay that starts out with a universal appeal a positive message for all...that becomes small, focused on Easter, and ends a mundane Christian exercise leaving aside those of us who do not celebrate Easter or Lent but who do love the beauty of nature and the renewal of spring. Ironic, no? The author can't help but bring her personal religious beliefs into what could have been universally engaging message and divides those who believe from those who do not. Just like Washington's politicians.
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@KG I am a "non-believer" who found the very wonderful message in this essay. I will use it to try to repair the damage that our current division has caused to my inner peace. We must learn to listen to each other.
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@KG I guess this goes to show that two people can read the same piece and come away with a totally different take on it. I'm an atheist and didn't find the mention of Easter or Lent offensive at all as religion was not the main point. The piece spoke to how we can focus on the beautiful small things, the beauty of nature, and yes, the rebirth that happens every spring, and this focus can help to ease the outrage and weariness felt under the Trump administration. Of course, here in Vermont, spring is still just a speck on the horizon.
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@KG
Easter is a pagan holiday co-opted by the Resurrection holiday. There has been a spring festival ever since we learned to grow things celebrating new life after winter.
There's your universal message. Life after the apparent death of winter.
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Dear Ms. Renkl,
As always a beautiful piece, full of insight and reassurance in these difficult times. You are a treasure. Thank you.
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I made a resolution years ago to skip trying to reach for all of the farthest places, which requires an unbelievable amount of effort and complexities, in favor of simplifying my life and focusing on really seeing and experiencing the things close by that Mother Nature has provided.
25
A beautiful piece. Thank you.
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Beautiful. Moved me to tears. Let's all make it a point to look for and see the beauty that is all around us. we are surrounded by gifts.
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"Tiny beautiful things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world, and I am going to keep looking every single day until I find one."
Such a well written, beautiful story of nature. Thank you.
When I left my rural, East Texas Farm, 140 acres down a long oiled road, then, down another dirt road, I left because as a youth I had grown tired of hard work for almost no money.
But, every day that I lived way out in the sticks I saw the natural world. Of course, it had been substantially abated by previous generations of deforestation, hunting, trapping, oil and gas productions....etc.
But, you could still hear, once in a great while, a great panther scream, and, whippoorwills at night.
Meadowlarks and bluebirds abounded, this was the last decade before the introduction of insecticides that kill everything and all the birds....the 1970's.
Hawks and owls floated overhead, and, once, while walking through a quiet pine stand of trees, a great horned flew up off the ground not more than 20 feet from me, landed on a branch facing away, then, turned his head all the way around to look at me. He made direct eye contact, and, then, flew away.
I was surrounded by silence, nature, poverty and beauty as a young man.
I left for A&M, survived A&M then went on to a career in engineering surrounded by American suburbs and cities and manufacturing as it waned.
I miss the nature that was.
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@Michael Such beautiful sad thoughts beautifully expressed. You've made your life palpable. The owl story is breathtaking. Thank you.
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It occurs to me, after reading this piece and many others like it, that writers such as Renkl employ metaphor, allegory and simile in a way that is looked down upon by sophisticated critics. The trend towards this dates back to the embrace of the modernist approach to art which was has held sway since long before the time that I became aware of the cynical, seen-it-all nihilism affects of the posturing elites. There is something undeniable in the way that the natural world whispers in the ears of those who listen.
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This column made my day! I agree 100% with the main point the author was trying to make... keep looking for the small, beautiful things until you find them all. So be it!
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@R. L. Oliver Me, too! I started the day off reading the news and being sad that nothing seems to have improved in our damaged Government...but I am printing this article out so that I can read and reread it’s message of hope.
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“Paying attention to what is happening in Washington is a form of self-torment so reality altering that it should be regulated as a Schedule IV drug.”
Thank you, Ms. Renkle! I was just thinking yesterday that I’ve got to wean off the drug that is the current news, because it fills me with so much despair. Your column is such a good reminder I am not alone. And yes, nature! Daily miracles!
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@Anamyn --when I initially ead this sentence I immediately texted it to a friend --even before I had finished the whole column. Quote of the month for sure!!
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@not my ancestors YES!!
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Excellent column. My sense of frustration and despair over current events, global and domestic, is overwhelming at times. Then I walk through my garden, greeting the early daffodils. I watch the constant to and fro of the birds and the acrobatic antics of the squirrels. I play ball with my dog, who is almost ten but still in touch with his inner puppy. I feel better.
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@Liberal In a Red State Despairing over politics is unhealthy.
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Thank you for this column. It’s a beautiful reminder to breathe and take pleasure in the beauty that nature persists in giving us. This too shall pass but I wish it would hurry.
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With such overwhelming headlines day after day after day, I sometimes feel as if I cannot breath nor take another emotional punch in the gut. What Trump does and is allowed to continue to do sets my brain reeling with such disbelief, my head is always hurting.
I honestly thank the guy upstairs for giving us Margaret Renkl and her words of comfort, hope, and inspiration.
She is one of the main reasons I proudly continue to be a subscriber to the New York Times.
A heartfelt thank you to her and all of the commenters for sharing such wonderful and rich words. You all continue to give me hope and help make my Monday mornings positive so I can face yet another week of political bleakness and despair.
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Yours is an exquisite tribute to this wonderful opinion piece that I would like to second. I am going to spend the next few weeks looking for these tiny signs of life in the garden and beyond, and decrease my focus on the news. I would like to believe “this too shall pass” but the daily onslaught has indeed become too much to bear. I will also finally call my relative in Tennessee, I didn’t know it was so bad there! Thank you both author and commenter, my Monday morning is now calmer...
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@Marge Keller Marge, just think of the collective mojo we commenters and Margaret are capable of when we unify during this election year. We can perform magic, really, where it is so needed. Correction: Make that magic into a miracle which can become a reality!
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@Marge Keller
Thank you Mary and Kathy for such sweet and kind words.
No matter how difficult my day may become, I know I can count on folks like you to keep my spirits up and my energy strong. You both continue to rock!!
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Ms. Renkl, thank you for this beautifully written piece. Since January, 2017, I have found myself engrossed in news and politics like I never was before, which has been enlightening, but mostly depressing. The immoral and unlawful acts committed by those in power have been stunning in the sense that they are repeated daily and those that committed them have not been held accountable.
We have an old growth redwood forest nearby and I find that walking there with my dog gives me a renewed sense of purpose. That, and cuddling my grandbabies while planning ways that I can make contributions that will bring about a positive change for their generation. And, news junkie that I have become, I was searching online for "One Tiny Beautiful Thing" to inspire me. Thanks for doing just that!
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Some individuals are understood to be "addicted to pain" (See Women Who Love Too Much by Robin Norwood). It's healthy to be able to be selective in our focuses. It's healthy to find the irreducible kernel of positivity that is most people's birthright. So can we stop watching the awful president forcing us to live by his rules, and return to our own life with its wide horizon? That is the question.
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Thanks for reminding us once again that life is greater and more Beautiful than what we're experiencing in the News!
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Thank for such a fresh, lovely column, itself a small, beautiful thing in which so many of us can take heart.
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This is a really nice article, a fine way to now close this Sunday. Optimism is my fare, and this is a fair purchase on a lot of it.
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I take considerable comfort from the knowledge that trump doesn’t matter.
None of this (waves hands around head) matters.
Soon enough, on a scale beyond our imaginings, another Permian-style extinction event will render all this moot. The sun will expand to swallow the earth, and the galaxies will tumble on without us.
But you’re right; it is pretty to see the new sprouts grow.
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@Dan in Orlando
Of course, you are right, Dan. Humans will go extinct regardless of whether they create their own demise or not. Geologic time is of infinite duration no matter what the evangelicals of any religion say.
Thank you Margaret. I, too, take comfort in nature. You write so beautifully.
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Thank you for sharing these thoughts. Your description of how Trumpian news is affecting you is shared by many, myself included . Sometimes I really do question whether I can take another 4 years of this insanity. I try to take at least 3-4 hikes per week and always return home in better spirits than pre-hike.
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Two routine things and one out-of-the-box idea you might consider as a complement to where you're going with this.
I concur with the commenters about the sweetness of this piece. I'll also have to remember to try your method when the weather gets a little better.
(Ironically, I believe that the large scale practice of getting to know nature better will be an essential part of finding our way towards a sustainable society, beyond its help in getting us through the mess we're currently in.)
I sent you my own remedies through the other input mechanism included in the column.
The area you bring up here has also been coming up in corners of the climate change/academic/psychology profession areas. I would say that there are currently dueling philosophies about how do deal with it, that still remain to be sorted out: e.g. Versions of your method versus an even more gloomy, but, it is argued, more realistic "It's over folks. Learn to deal with it the best you can" approach. A third is to acknowledge the grief, find useful ways to get through it, and then something to address the challenge. If interested, try this to get you started, https://grist.org/climate-energy/a-talking-cure-for-climate-based-depression-it-worked-for-renee-lertzman/.
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I share our sentiment. But, you said it way better. Thank you for this beautiful bright spot in a day filled with creeping despair over the fate of our democracy.
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This is beautiful, and practical. Thank you.
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A beautiful, elegiac column, today, Ms. Renkl, written with such melancholy, that we might rise up even as we despair.
I read it quietly, at first, and then, softly, out loud.
I thought of my lovely afternoon mulching a line of dogwood trees and how the weather was just right for me but wrong for the season...for some birds already here and some plants about to bloom only for all to get knocked back by the inevitable cold snaps.
Why can't we resist the commercialized world in order to save the real one? That's what seems so hard to accomplish and, if we don't give up living for "stuff", we will lose the world we know if it is not too late already.
In an effort to rethink my accepted practices, I recently committed a little mutiny, myself. I have 'rethunk' my compost bin. Instead of trying to make compost, I am making gnats! I decided to just layer the top with several pieces of newspaper and then open it up every day or so to release anything flying into the air for the "early" birds that came before their time. I was rewarded, as I looked out my kitchen window a short time later, by seeing a variety of birds catching them on the fly.
So, maybe, I thought we can do these little things, that, in total, might make a big difference.
Thank you for a beautiful essay.
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Dear Ms. Margaret...
Reading your essay was a respite for my uneasy and confounded brain. It has sought refuge in prayer(yes, there are no doubt many who pray with sincerity for our president) and sleep(surely this is a nightmare). Thank you! I shall do as you suggest.
26
Here in New York,there’s nothing like a museum visit to take shelter from the daily flying shrapnel that passes for news these days. A moment or an hour spent in the quiet contemplation of transcendent creations is my antidote.
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@Dreamer9 I must copy that clever statement...”flying shrapnel.....”. Cuts right to the heart of the subject, indeed.
3
Oh Margaret, you help us all keep our heads above water when the swamp becomes too deep to tread. Thank you for the reminder that there is always beauty, if we will but look for it. The Painted Bunting at my bird bath gave me a spot of beauty today.
41
This is beautifully written. I am also deeply distraught by this president and the destructive things he has done to our country and global community. I too have found the need need to look for hope and joy in tiny places.
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Thanks for sharing this - this is the first piece I've read by you and I will be looking back at what you've written previously and looking forward to what you write in the future.
Dan Rather, Nicholas Kristoff and you have truly helped in remembering that there a TON of good things out there, among the melee.
28
I love everything you write, but especially this. Spring is too far away where I live, but your words give me hope and even strength to wait and work for the better that is coming.
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Today in vanishing snow I found the prints of otters..I saw a Pileated woodpecker flicking thru the woods. Nuthatches dancing up trees and red squirrels calling. The first of the boat tailed grackles arrived with their iridescent blue heads..hungry for life.These sublime moments give me hope and respite for the ugliness of the orange.
It makes me believe that YES WE CAN.
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My country ‘‘tis of thee, I hear in my mind. It helps me to think of the natural wonders of America when I need a sense of hope. I know there are pipeline problems and all the rest but also there is powerful, moving beauty that we all share. Thank you for this reminder.
20
Margaret Renkl has again with eloquence shown us the beauty that surrounds all living creatures every season of the year. I could get into politics with this lovely essay about life and nature's never-ending recycles and resurrections, because one can not help but grieve nor deny our present social and environmental threats by way of this rogue and calloused Trump Era. However, I will instead talk about the sweet scent of my Daphne Odoras now blooming in my front yard. And after lying dormant all winter, the Trailing Lantanas are beginning to sprout rich green leaves with purple flowers to follow in a few short months. These rebirths inform us that as long as there is life, there is hope. When things seem at its worst, there is always a path that will treat and heal. It is just up to us to take that path and bring others along with us.
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@Kathy Lollock
What a lovely metaphor! Beautifully evocative writing, too. Thanks for the soothing words and for your care of nature.
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@NM Thank you, NM. This whole essay from Margaret and all you commenters is a ray of sunshine during too many dark days. Spring is coming!
2
I look for wild beehives in the cavities of trees.
In the Spring, if a beehive has made it through the winter and is strong, the community will create a new queen and the old mother queen will swarm with over half the worker bees. They'll hang on a branch of a tree while scout bees look for a new home. Sometimes beekeepers will find the hanging swarm and put it into one of their empty hive boxes. But if no beekeeper finds the swarm, the swarm will find a new home of their own. Sometimes this might be in the siding or chimney of a home or an empty compost bin. But many times, they will make their new home in the cavity of a big old tree. Life within life indeed.
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A favorite thing of mine is to find new ways to support the natural world. They can be small things. Mine has been planting a native flower in my garden every so often. Over ten years this has become a 'blooming buzzing miracle' of many insects, more than you can count. It's a very small garden, but it brings me hope when I think of it year round.
I also have done larger things in my community and politically. But the heart of it for me as I write just now seems to be this small garden. I love the plants, insects, birds, and small mammals there.
Joining a community garden or teaching someone how to plant vegetables have been things like that for me in the past.
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@Kathleen If only your sentiments were as contagious as the proclaimings of superiority ubiquitous in our national discourse. The choice made to separate and cage migrant children turns on the same feeling that either observes with tenderness or ignores with indifference the nest building of birds.
Whenever I walk along a country road I bring a bag for the refuse I pick up as I move along. It' a ritual that that has become symbolic of my politics. There are those of us that fling trash out their car windows and there are those of us that stoop low pick it up.
4
Thank you for this poignant reminder. It's not escapism. In these increasingly dark and dangerous times, we must find balance if we are to live to fight another day.
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@Kathleen
I agree with your assessment Kathleen. I just would prefer to fight a little less, if not a LOT less than what we have been confronted with and having to endure.
But if we don't fight, what is our option? To lay down and die? That is not an option in my play book of life.
Thanks very much for sharing your keen thoughts.
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@Marge Keller It is truly exhausting, isn’t it? The dark powers want us to just give up but I, for one, will at least go down fighting.
8
You always remind me that the slog is worth it. It's so easy for me to get caught up in the minutiae and then feel weighed down. A local college is having their annual Environmental Film Festival. We saw Aga on Friday night - filmed in Siberia.
Some people who intended to come to the movie didn't want to because it was too cold and windy (it was 50 degrees). I am consoled by the belief that whilst I must be a good steward of the environment, Nature always plays the long game - the Earth will do what it needs to to find balance and karma will come knocking on Trump's door.
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@theconstantgardener
Amen...from your comment to Mother Nature’s ears and heart.
1
Fascinating piece. I think it's a bit escapist to run from the news to find the sublime. Surely, it's odd for a journalist to let us know that you'll be giving up news for Lent. It's been a while since I went to Sunday school, but aren't you suppose to give up a luxury during Lent so that you can replicate Christ's sacrifice. The advice seems bad theology.
I think news can be sublime: even presidential political news. Yesterday, I thought about following Obama's campaign in 2008 and reading the unlikely news that he won the Iowa caucus. And then, Edward Kennedy throwing his support and Obama smiling on the stage in South Carolina. Sublime. I felt similarly seeing Bernie Sanders in San Antonio delivering his victory speech for Nevada's caucus. The background was filled with young Latino who's been the punching bag for the Trump administration. When Sanders delivers the victory speech on Super-Tuesday in California with another group of young Latinos, I'll know that justice is coming and that God exists.
18
@UC Graduate Thanks for reminding me of one of the bright spots in recent news! Yeah, we take things for granted and miss the forest for the trees and vice versa.
But I do think reading the news is a waste of time in balance (including the time taken to comment, etc.) but here I am. I've had many years where I've been away from the news and it was blissful (and blissfully ignorant) but then I come back. It is like a habit I have to work at to stop and I do succeed eventually and then I slip back. I'm looking forward to my next break. (When Bill Clinton became President I was in college and I didn't know for many months and likewise when Nixon died - I am proud of this.)
I am doing more important things (to me and others) with my time normally but nothing can be done with 100% attention 100% of the time or close to it. I think the human mind likes change. So I tend to be gravitated to the news when other things are taking up less interest (particularly during winter where one of my big hobbies of astronomy and astrophotography is harder) and then I break out of it when I get tired of the pointlessness of it.
5
@RamS
Agree with your lifestyle. When all other pursuits and interests -- from walking in the woods to watercoloring on my diningroom table in view of dormants lilacs to socializing with friends (and my very high energy kids who live elsewhere but sometimes visit), my life is robust without the news.
That said, of course I need to stay engaged with the wider stories so I can keep up on issues, particularly when it comes to voting. But I don't watch news matter over which I have no governance.
Life is waiting elsewhere and I cannot allow the turkeys to dilute my optimism and joy.
1
@UC Graduate I believe that if you will re-read Ms. Renkl's statement, she did not say that she is giving up the news for Lent, nor was she advising anyone else to do so.
1
Your comments are always edifying, heartfelt, and nourishing to our spirit.
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Margaret Renkl - you wrote from my heart.
Tears running down my face because your words express my rage and despair better than I ever could. The darkness, the madness, but also the unique power of the natural world to bring me peace.
Thank you. So in love with your writing.
225
This is brilliant, uplifting, poignant, instructive, enlightening and arresting. The onslaught of angst from the tube, the pad, the rag and the air is stifling and strangling. Knowledge is power, they assert, but in the case of the new tyrannical normal, to know is to weep. Colleagues and friends share their demoralized state, and we debate how best to cope with the ceiling coming down, the walls moving in, and the floor moving up. What seems to work, we concur, is self-enrichment. Paint. Draw. Walk, Play music. Read novels. Watch movies. Commune with nature. Cook. Call friends. Do puzzles. Plan outings. Feed the birds. Watch the sky. Forget that tyranny has overtaken us and remember the real presidents of the past. Read Lincoln’s Second Inaugural. Read “Profiles in Courage.” Pray that the agony wrought by an angry narcissistic fraud is fleeting. Hope for a new dawn in January 2021. Work to make it happen.
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@H. Clark Strong words from Long Island.... wonderful writing is apparently contagious. Good to know we have company in strangers that introduce themselves as kindred spirits.
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@H. Clark I just finished watching History Channel’s George Washington..Rebel. Amazing that our Democracy even exists...and how fragile it now is.
4
@H. Clark
And volunteer to help those who don't have the basics or any outlets to engage in as respite from their reality.
7
Politics is not the bigger picture. Nature is. Nature ignores politics and so can we (until it is time to vote).
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@Jay Orchard
And we won’t have nature as we know it today, if we don’t vote blue no matter who and focus on the down ballots senators seats, reclaim the senate and keep the house.
We need to protect the innocents even if this administration and their republican brown noses don’t care about their own grandchildren and all other sentient beings.
3
Beautiful! Thanks for the reminder to keep looking for those tiny beautiful things that bring us joy. Observing those daily little joys and sharing as much kindness and love with others helps during these tough times.
67
There's just so much cringing I can take. It's hard to read about our environmental laws and our National Parks being compromised. It's impossible to listen to the radio when that unctuous, pathological, unpresidential voice comes on.
The sky is my respite. I look up a lot.
185
That was a lovely respite, even if it was laced with references to a man whose idea of nature is a carefully manicured and chemically controlled golf course where dandelions come to die.
I hate to add to your the melancholy, but the Boy Scouts have filed for bankruptcy as American boys have become addicted to the surges of adrenaline released while playing video games...indoors.
Our culture is drifting away from the love of wilderness as we wantonly destroy it, most of us only subconsciously aware of the loss.
We multiply, slash and burn what we don't remove and multiply some more and those of us in the most technically advanced countries, who have already destroyed most of our forests and prairies and replaced Eden with fields of corn and soybeans or rows of houses and stretches of strip malls have stopped reproducing so expansively but still manufacture and consume at the intolerable expense of the natural world.
I agree that we need to allow ourselves respite and find some peace from the slivers of primitive beauty that are still around us, if only to gather strength to try to save what is left of the world that we love.
45
@alan haigh one quibble with your comment. The Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy because of all the suits filed by young men who were molested by Boy Scout leaders, not because of falling membership. There are many dark places in this world, beyond what is happening to our environment. Many find the outdoors a comfort in these dark times, but we cannot ignore that there are terrible things happening to our fellow human beings.
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@Duchenf Yes, that was the reason they filed for bankruptcy, but I assume their economic situation would be better if membership had been rising instead of falling by almost 50% in recent years.
2
Thank you for this, Ms. Renkl. I am finding it very difficult to persist in the current political environment. Your exquisite writing has helped.
265
I feel more encouraged just from reading this column and responses. Thanks all for the hopeful writing.
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@NM Me, too! Btw, how are you feeling these days? Hope you are on the road to recovery.
4
Such a needed reminder. Beautiful! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and words with us.
70
Your words so perfectly capture my own feelings. We must find hope in all the tiny places where it lives and trust that it will get us through. Peace to you.
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