Tag Archives: ecology

May 30, 2021 · 2:39 pm

Did We Forget Ourselves Again? – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Stylidium – Trigger Plant – at Beelu National Park.

“The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else.” Barry Commoner

Did We Forget Ourselves Again?

Did we forget ourselves for the umpteenth time today,
dislocating our circularity of existence in favour of a myth,
that we are refugees from our own interconnectivity,
an ignorance of our interdependence with all that breathes.

Dislocating our circularity of existence in favour of a myth,
the long held shadow of self-deception celebrating plenty,
an ignorance of our interdependence with all that breathes,
ironically diminishing the circle of life that sustains all things.

The long held shadow of self-deception celebrating plenty,
the smoke and mirror of self-congratulatory independence,
ironically diminishing the circle of life that sustains all things,
in favour of a fleeting feeling of euphoria vested in ego.

The smoke and mirror of self-congratulatory independence,
that we are refugees from our own interconnectivity,
in favour of a fleeting feeling of euphoria vested in ego,
did we forget ourselves for the umpteenth time today?

Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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March 6, 2021 · 12:58 pm

The We Of We – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: shutterstock.com – an Echidna

“Hell is truth seen too late.” Thomas Hobbes

The We Of We

I want to tell you that I
love the echidna and the kangaroo,
I love them for them and not for
their objective value or their two
dimensional post card symbolism,
I and they are the we of we,
of life and blood, of oxygen and
spirit, if it were not so I would not 
be here writing this paean.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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June 16, 2018 · 3:26 pm

My Personal Ecology

Flourish – Word of the Day

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Moon’s Crossing, Pemberton, a place where nature flourishes. Here the winter creek flows and sings over the rocks. I flourish here too, the smells, sounds, sights, sensations and feelings that arise here are all part of my living.

One of the earliest thoughts about flourishing came from the great philosopher Aristotle, he thought that flourishing was the highest good of human endeavours, and that flourishing was the aim of all our actions. Somewhere that got derailed. Just as the Greek culture showed potential to pursue its own thinking, the Romans happened with their civic culture focussed on empire. And, as they do, empires come and go, not unlike plagues.

Happiness became the human endeavour, a purely hedonic pursuit according to Martin Seligman. Seligman prefers to talk about Authentic Happiness and he has pinned his career on Positive Psychology, and its ideal of human flourishing. Seligman based flourishing on “Perma” which is:- positive emotion (happiness, pleasure, gratitude, joy), engagement (a state of flow), relationships (feelings of support, familiarity and security), meaning (belonging to and serving something other than self) and accomplishment (having goals no matter the size).

In the mid 70s David Holmgren and Bill Mollinson developed permaculture, a relations or ecology system of farming and gardening. Permaculture’s three main principles are:- care for the earth, care for the people, setting limits to populations and consumption. Permaculture is more wholisitc whereas Aristotle was focussed on the benefit to the community, and Seligman’s Perma is focussed on psychology, but the three work together, they are not mutually exclusive.

For me flourishing is having a personal ecology that consists of  mutually suportive relationships, a positive relationship with nature, a spirituality, creative expression, learning, and reflection. These are the things that sustain me, give me pleasure and enable me to flourish and be creative. This is my manifesto, my mantra if you like, it has taken some time to learn the health of it, but it is a gift of life for me now.

Paul,

pvcann.com

 

 

 

 

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January 6, 2018 · 2:25 pm

Winsome Ways

via Daily Prompt: Winsome

Whales are more than cute, winsome, they are wonderful creatures who sing, communicate, feel, play, care for their young and contribute to the complex matrix of ecology. That calf is cute though, it won me over.

Paul,

pvcann.com

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December 21, 2017 · 3:30 pm

Miracle of life

via Daily Prompt: Miraculous

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Our precious friends the trees are nature’s great miracle. They give us oxygen in a carbon exchange, they water pump and transpire, they keep salts at bay, hold soils in place, give shelter to all life, are a habitat for many living things from spores and parasites, to insects, birds, mammals, and more, trees together also provide cool air, and they provide a rich resource for each generation when cared for. Really they are a gift that keeps on giving, miraculous, and without them we are doomed.

Although not perfect, some Oak and other species forests of Europe, Britain, and Russia have been intentionally managed over several centuries, whereas in Asia, the Americas, and Africa, deforrestation has been merciless. The ancient celts venerated trees as special participants in community, where ther ewere trees there was life, and the gods were said to appear in the groves which were ‘Thin places’ (places where the spirit world comes close to us). The first nation peoples have long advocated for the preservation of forests, their ancient wisdom knowing about erosion, salinity, polution, and imbalance when trees were disregarded.

Neil Young’s song ‘Comes a time’ and the line, “it’s a wonder tall trees ain’t layin’ down.” It was a rhetorical question.

But more pointedly, ‘Silent Spring’ (Silent Spring  ) by Rachel Carson sets us in our place environmentally. In regard to the preservation of life, the value of ecology and relationaship with nature, Carson made it clear we were heading in a disastrous direction, we were poisoning nature and thereby killing ourselves. The miracle of life that is a tree needs us to play our part in safeguaring the miraculous contribution they make, or they will be laying down.

The photo is one I took a few years ago of one of our Karri forests called Boranup, which means place of the Dingo (which have not been here for well over a century). Karri trees are our tallest trees (shorter than a Redwood), and these are a regrowth forest, on land reclaimed from strip logging and farming. it is a beautiful place to just be.

Paul,

pvcann.com

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