Nature

sweet spices of deep
wisdom flavoring life
heart and soul

Dear Friends: In its last issue, Western Friend published a letter to grandchildren everywhere talking about the environmental conditions we are leaving to our grandchildren. While I am grateful to WF for publishing that letter, I am concerned about editorial changes that were made that I was not given the opportunity to review before it went to press.

for E.D.

Like the meat

Is to the nut

Like the pearl

Is to the shell

Like the clapper

To the bell

So the voice

Within does dwell.

Like a needle

In a groove

So the earth

Around the sun –

Part your mortal lips to speak

And your being

Has begun.

Dear Western Friend:

Peace! May Life grant us the grace to stick our feet to the good way and the peace of being fully aware of it.

On this earth at daybreak
I step outside to find
that all the trees have hollows,
all the birds face east,
and the bells all swing
their open mouths into the sky.
Kling klang they shout!
The sound breaks out
of belfries, arcs its way
across the sky to fall
into the wild beastly trees that
sing along behind the leaves

Shelley Tanenbaum serves as clerk of Quaker Earthcare Witness and Quaker Institute for the Future.  She is a member of Strawberry Creek Meeting in Berkeley, CA. Shelley and her husband run a consulting company, ENVAIR, which conducts research on regional air quality trends, with an emphasis on ozone and particulates.

When I was a child I loved the cuddliness and innocence of animals, and I wished they could talk. A grownup and activist now, I look for ways to use art to awaken our empathy with the natural world and to increase our climate-change consciousness. As an artist and writer, I know what fun it can be to combine pictures and text.