Dear Ones,
Last week's blog was about "hot"… this week's seems to be about "wet", or shall I say flooding!
And the flooding is not just in Vermont - there's flooding across the world. India, China, Japan, last month Italy, the list is long and very particular. I had to stop searching for specific places as the details of water coming down, overwhelming rivers and streams, bringing mountains and bridges with them was an inundation in itself. Compound that with the heat on land, and the heating up of oceans -- think of the bleaching of coral reefs between the coast of Florida and Cuba, or the undermining of the Antarctic Ice sheet.
According to the 2021 Gund Institute for the Environment, University of Vermont, publication Vermont Climate Assessment: Climate Change is Here the Northeast is experiencing some of the most pronounced weather changes of any region on Earth due to global warming.
The historic 2°F increase in temperature is acting like a meteorological engine whose heat energy is driving us toward a climate that frequently generates extreme weather phenomena, both wet and dry. On average, Vermont now receives 7.5 inches more rain each year than it was receiving in 1900. Vermont’s storms and weather patterns are ranging from this week’s historical rainfall and flooding and the 2011 two-month long Champlain Basin floods which were followed by Tropical Storm Irene in the fall (dropping 11 inches of rain in some areas) to prolonged dry spells such as we had in 2020-2021.
These new weather patterns and extreme meteorological events are impacting everything from public health, energy use and tourism, to water quality, agriculture and ground water supplies [re. www.sustainablewoodstock.org].
We're not alone in this changing condition -- the devastation is not just to humans, but the trees, animals, birds, insects are all losing their normal habitat and way of life. And yet we persist. We are the strength of spirit which transcends. Our changing conditions surround us, perhaps as they always have... but still I watch the swampy snapping turtle walk its heavy body with prehistoric tail thru the culvert, up the incline, into the field to lay her many eggs.
We seek comfort in stability, in that which is unchanging and everlasting, in that which is beyond climate, and beyond our aging bodies. In that which is forever is the ultimate reality.
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्
नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः ।
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो
न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे
"The soul is unborn and eternal, everlasting and primeval. It is not slain by the slaying of the body."
— Bhagavad Gita 2.20, "[2]: 225
Of course, there's Gallery news too. But not much, please check the website. This seems to be a quiet time to reflect on what matters, where we've come from, and how to keep our hearts whole. Thinking of the flow of life as it shines through us each day. Beauty is.
