sacred

“There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.

Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech.

These wild things, I admit, had little human value until mechanization assured us of a good breakfast, and until science disclosed the drama of where they came from and how they live. The whole conflict thus boils down to a question of degree. We of the minority see a law of diminishing returns in progress; our opponents do not.”

~ Aldo Leopold, forward A Sand County Almanac, 1949

There are some authors that have a way of feeling, seeing, and of writing. Aldo Leopold is one of them. A forester, conservationist, wildlife ecologist, environmental philosopher and educator.Even though “A Sand County Almanac” was published, one year after his death in 1949, there is a spiritual ecological song it sings that can still be heard even today. Here is an excerpt that I have always found moving:

February Good Oak from A Sand County Almanac

There are two spiritual dangers of not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.

To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue. Continue reading “February: ‘Good Oak’ from A Sand County Almanac” »

Evelyn Vincent

Native Plant Landscaper, Gardener, Labyrinth Design, Feng Shui Practitioner,  Aromatherapy / Essential Oils, Big Fan of Nature and Living Simply.

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."
~ R. Buckminster Fuller