Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere will enjoy our longest day, including my favortie part…the longest twilight, of the year. Tonight, the sun will not set at all at the North Pole. I’ve always loved the phrase, “Land of the Midnight Sun! And I like thinking about our Earth cruising through space. It reminds me that regardless of whatever little drama may be going on in my life, the Earth still turns and travels around the sun. The song in the video is “Always with you, always with me, by the incredible guitarist, Joe Satriani. A nice way to think about Gaia…we are always together!
Without the power of our sun, we wouldn’t be enjoying any of Gaia’s great goodness. “Earth, brought to you by sunlight!” The Summer Solstice is the perfect time to step outside and feel a bit o’ gratitude for the sun.
Enjoy the video; the Kurdistan Planetarium created wonderful visuals to help you understand how the Solstices happen.
(Oh, and happy WINTER solstice to any Gaia-friends in the Southern Hemisphere!)
This is definitely my favorite video this week! It speaks to two key issues for this Gaia-writer: context and imagination. (I have removed the video, because it always played automatically! Check it out on his website!)
I am constantly maneuvering around Big History as I write Gaia Girls. I acutely aware there is context to the conditions I’m talking about. But, how much context do my middle-reader fans need? A certain pace must be kept. An excellent plot must propel a reader forward; a beating heart at chapter’s end is a wonderful thing!
But the story marinated in history is juicier. So I go down history’s paths and find myself lost in other stories. I may spend a day striving to understand what mindset a character’s parent had, that shaped that character’s behavior at this moment. It may never make it on the page, but it makes the character more real to me. I’m not entirely sure this is a good process; but it feels more honest, so I’m going with it.
What was I thinking taking on “writing the whole world?” As a newbie writer, I decided to write Gaia as a character. In my books, she speaks, and sounds very individual. An yet, the whole point is…there are no individuals. We are a collective as surely as an ant colony. And our collective labors must yield to our environment. We cannot clever our way out of certain immutable, and very dynamic laws. It’s all connected, whether we have the sight to see it or not. So how does one develop such sight? I believe by living our history through our imaginations. If you send your mind into the past, you will find some of your memories flare to life. You may actually feel the memory. Some personal: the time you got the scar on your knee. Some generational: a grandparent telling the story of how their parents came to the United States, perhaps. Some jingoist:when you were 9-years old, you imagined yourself on the gold rush, or in a little house on the prairie, pushing westward and building a country!
Do you think our historical memories inform our behavior? And do you think historical memory is strongest in you where you once applied your young imagination? What history has “come alive” for you; and how does it play into your current decision-making?
I think the Big History Project will be fabulous and can’t wait to see the results of the pilot program! You can also view historian, David Christian’s wonderful 2011 TED talk on Big History.
I love to camp. Love to be outside, feeling the sun and hearing the birds. I love the way the trees give voice to the wind and the soothing lap of lake waves. I like waking up in the morning and debating in the morning whether I really have to face the chill, or whether my bladder will hold out for another 45 minutes.
And I love bears.
However. If you are going to be where there are bears, (and where I live, that could be practically anywhere outside the city limits!) you should be prepared. Check it out.
I’ve come to the conclusion that we have failed to effectively address climate change because human beings aren’t using their imaginations. Part of my struggle in writing Gaia Girls Air Apparent has been to write in a wayt that stretches the readers imagination halfway around the globe. Weather is local. Climate is global. You must think big. Stretch your mind out and bend it over the horizon to land and people you have likely never met. Your thinking must reach miles and miles skyward, to a hostile place that can freeze you to death or boil your blood! We spin within this wonderful cloak, paper thin really. And this cloak is operating as preditcted.
Weather is local. I bet everyone has experienced some wild weather in the last few weeks. Watch, as the red dots indicate satellites show us as many as 875 tornados spinning to life through the month of April. I love this video, because it shows the big picture. Thanks to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, for these great images!
A great little Gaia Girls I know is turning EIGHT today! As my giftie to her, two videos: a birthday song, of course; and a little bit of Gaia!
Happy Birthday, Katelyn!
I can’t think of a better way to jazz up a Monday than watching the second episode of Bears of the Last Frontier. In this episode, “The Road North, biologist Chris Morgan takes a look at the places bears and people cross paths.
I have a long-standing love affair with great nature cinimatography/documentary. Check out “Bears of the Last Frontier” from Nature on PBS. Ecologist and bear biologist, Chris Morgan illuminates the bear’s world.
ПодаръциWhat can I say? We have an awesome little planet. And we can’t order ourselves up another one.
Turn on your speakers, lean back, enjoy the amazing spectacle and miracle that is our Earth. (Video by Burrell Durrant Hifle)
Ever since I found this rockin’ video, I’ve had one line rolling about my head: “Every piece of plastic ever made, still exists.”
Do people know this? Do they know that just because you put it in the garbage or recycling bin, it doesn’t “go away?” Have you ever noticed how many times a day your handle plastic? Could you even get through one day without touching it? Probably not.
Plastic is a 60-year experiement on this planet. Subsequently, nature doesn’t have the tools to breakdown these massively large polymers/carbon chains There are places in the ocean where the bits of plastic outnumber the zooplankton…you know, the base-level of the food chain? And our sea creatures eat this, and are eaten, and pick up the little bits because plastic bits look tasty; and every piece of plastic ever made, still exists.
And, (Suprise! Surprise!) we are not seperate from the rest of the animals in suffering the scourge of plastic. Today on Fresh Air: Science-writer Susan Freinkel talks about how plastics effect the human body and talks about her new book, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story.
Next time you touch plastic remember, every piece of plastic ever made, still exists.
This is stunningly beautiful. Turn up your speakers and full-screen the player. This is a MUST WATCH/MUST SHARE!
The video was created by Terje Sorgjerd out of 22,000 photograpsh! Information about it is at Discovery.com
Remember, you always have the option to unplug, go outside, and enjoy what is given to you for free. Thank you, Gaia!
