2012…A Small Town World?
Marquesan dancers performing the 'Dance of the Bird'. Photo courtesy of Mckenzie Clark, www.mckenzieclarkphotos.com
It’s midnight and the first seconds of 2012 begin. Among the faces of mostly Marquesan strangers, a warm feeling of love for all of them overcomes me…Rounds of kisses and well-wishes…and I wonder why we don’t keep that love faucet open all year long?!
…Children turn to silhouettes against white flashes of firecrackers, here and all the world over…
What if, with everyday, simple loving actions, the whole world took on a small town feeling…?
Happy New Year from the Voyage of Swell!!
8 Comments
Jim
January 4, 2012Morning Miss Liz ,
I live on a small island & have lived in remote locations most of my adult life , so I know that small town feeling . Changing the world seems like a daunting task…..changing human nature ??? When I think of the one person I ever knew who was the most promiscuous with mother nature , & I recall the time & effort & duress over years to effect change in that person…….our plight as humans seems dire to me . I feel that hopelessness the most when I look into the bright faces of any of my 10 grandchildren & recall the changes in the world just in my lifetime & it causes me to wonder what will be left for them & theirs .
Noodleqt Exonar
January 4, 2012Hi Liz,
Just stumbled in here by accident. What a beautiful blog. What a beautiful journey. What a beautiful thought. Let’s be more small-townish. So many people want to live in a big city, and that’s precisely where they’re taught to “not give a damn bout anything”. It’s like the bigger the population, the less they care for nature. Isn’t that strange?
Cheers and fair winds in the New Year,
Noodle
Bob Francis
January 4, 2012Hi Liz,
You make me wish I was sailing again. Still surfing and wishing I had a Cal 40 for sure!
Happy New Year !!!
Bob
Kevin
January 4, 2012Happy new year, Liz! Thanks for the inspirational writing durng 2011.
Victor Raymond
January 5, 2012Liz, Beautiful thought. And yes, it can become our reality once the awareness is open to it not once a year or once a week but 24 hours a day. It all starts from within because it the nature of life, our birth right and human right.
Rob
January 6, 2012Your comments reminded me of a print I bought at an artfair at UC Santa Cruz:
“We must not accept the memory of states as our own. Nations are not communities and never have been.”
Michael Lewallen, AI
January 7, 2012I have been reading your thoughts for a long time. They are so thoughtful. lately my son Gregory has been following you, he is an environmentalist teaching English in Beijing this year. The greatness of the ocean is small compared to mans selfishness and greed.
Thanks for making us all more aware.
Michael
Lisa k.
January 13, 2012Dear Liz,
An artist here, writing to you from the slopes of Haleakala, Maui..
More than a couple years ago I saw the article in SJ. I will never forget the feeling when I read the last two paragraphs, and especially the last sentence, “Living slightly closer to every sentient being that struggles in the coarser, chillier, riper, naked, more startling layer of existence makes the whole universe feel like home. “. …and especially dear to me, because I know this feeling…
“The lights are on and it’s full of friends”. YES ! Thankyou for writing that. That’s the feeling I carry with me much of the time, just wishing others could allow the feeling to trickle in .. I know we’re wired that way, it is only natural … Maybe more people harbor that than I am aware of..
Also wanted to say that being able to peek in to your world now and then brings me a much needed salty reality check and very dear connection to my childhood of living for months at a time on my uncle’s trimaran where I got to sleep in the wing nets in sailcloth …and get land sick when onshore ha ha..
Mahalo piha, Liz. Also your journey gives me more courage for thinking I could travel again.
Malama Pono,
LK