Protecting the Parks and Protecting our Happiness

On this Sunday afternoon here in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina it is quiet with sun peeping in and out; just enough to make me think it might stay for a while. The temperature is cool, great for a walk, but I don’t do those much anymore. With back and hip problems, I could be courting pain that lasts for hours.

I watched the Sunday morning TV news shows and I feel I am listening to people who live in a faraway galaxy, not here in my country where the woods are still and silent around my house; where the blue mountains in the distance are home to bears, squirrels, coyotes, and deer, none of whom threaten my way of life. In fact, I am quite sure I will live out my days on this earth just as I am now. I will probably never see a Syrian refugee, a terrorist who comes to blow up our town, an outpouring of angry people marching on the square of Hayesville. I don’t live in fear for myself.

But I am concerned about the future of our world, our country and especially our beautiful national parks and our state parks. The last vestiges of wild and unspoiled land in the United States were set aside by past leaders who recognized the future needs of our people to have a place that was not concrete and asphalt, to have a quiet peaceful place to get away from our hurried and stressful lives.

For many years now, here in North Carolina, I have had the luxury of visiting the Smoky Mountains National Park. Millions of Americans and people from all over the world come to soak up the vastness, the spiritual feeling one absorbs here.

Far too many take our federal lands for granted with no thought of the cost of maintaining these special places. I remember my trip to Yellowstone some years ago. I will never forget the scenes I saw, the hot springs, the bison, the mating elk and the moose. What a vision it was to look out over the wide plains with the amber grasses tall enough to reach the bellies of the buffalo herds that stretched for miles it seemed.

Elk - We saw them everywhere in Yellowstone

Barry and I, while in Las Vegas on business, were able to take an extra week to visit Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. I wish all the people who spend their lives in dingy little apartments in dirty cities could travel to these glorious sites. When I was there I was so proud I was bustin’ my buttons thinking that these thousands of acres will be protected from the abuse of man and his greed.

Only recently have I worried that our culture might change so much that we forsake these national monuments and development might creep in and soon it will all be gone. I won’t be here to see it, but I have nieces and nephews who have children and they will have families who I hope will visit the parks and find them as fascinating as I do.

We must find a middle ground between those who will destroy our land for money and those who challenge everything for love of nature. We must find a way to make a living without polluting our water, our rivers and our oceans. No matter what you make as a salary, it is not worth spoiling our water resources.

I have lived a few weeks without water in my house. What a horror. I have a well for water for my home and since we drilled a new one, I have to use a filter on the line coming into the house, and also another on the water faucet in my kitchen. Imagine having a situation like Flint Michigan where all water is polluted and dangerous to drink.

When the protections set for our water and environment were put in place by past U.S. Presidents, I was relieved and had hope that we would be safe for the future. Now I am not feeling so safe. When regulations are removed, then our protections are gone.

We are a capitalist country where money has more value than almost anything else. When I was younger, I wanted more money and felt I would be happier if I had a better house, nicer clothes, and could travel. People who make 75,000 dollars a year are just as happy as those who make 300,000 dollars a year according to some studies. Our country is low in the happy countries list.

No matter how rich we become, we need more than money to make us happy. Our “stuff” will eventually be given away or thrown away. What really makes us happy? Freedom from fear, love from our family, and lasting friends who will always be there.

These are the non-material things we need.

To help support Yellowstone National Park, check out this link.

https://www.yellowstone.org/

BLUE HAWAII - Green and Yellow and Clean

Recently I had the opportunity to travel to the state of Hawaii as the guest of my sister and brother-in-law. Gay and Stu had been there before, but they gave me the experience of seeing that far off land I’d never seen and will not likely see again. The plane trip is far too hard to get over. 

We arrived in Honolulu and stayed one night in a hotel across the street from a beautiful Hilton. Because of my problems with indoor air pollution, I dreaded entering the Ramada Inn, thinking they would likely have sprayed chemical fragrance in their lobby and in the rooms. But I was surprised to find the hotel smelled clean -- not artificially deodorized with chemicals. No scented soap or personal body care products bothered me in the room. My first impression of Hawaii was great.

We flew to the island of Kauai the next day. We arrived at the airport in Lihue. My hosts said this was the least commercialized of all the islands. I loved the drive to the Marriott on Poi Pu Beach. Tall grass grows wild on the roadsides. I was told it was cane grass or buffalo grass. We passed wide open green fields with fat cows and sleek horses. We drove through a tunnel of trees and some small towns before reaching the coast. So much green, so many shades of green, and I didn't see one beer can on the side of the road.

It seems the residents of Kauai know the value of a clean ocean, clean air to breath and the natural world in which their native people depended upon for many generations. Never have I seen people so dedicated to recycling and caring for the environment.  

Plastic bags are banned on Kauai. 

Can you imagine that? If a store uses bags, they use paper and it is plainly printed on the side, Recycle.

I found the best method of recycling is a little fabric item called a market bag made by a lady selling them in a booth. It unzips and opens to a bag as big as one of the tote bags we find at the grocery store. This market bag can easily be refolded, zipped and carried in my purse so I will have it with me all the time. I wish I had bought several of them. 

Some retail stores in Kauai don’t offer bags at all. If you buy a blouse, you take it home in your hands – no plastic to fill the landfills and clutter the rivers, streams and oceans. Coincidentally, I heard tonight that our oceans are so dirty, oysters are dying out. The oyster farmer said this is like the canary in the coal mine. If the oyster goes, other things dependent on clean water will go also. Yes, I know he didn't say it was plastic in the water that was harming marine life, but all the junk adds up.

sunset on Poi Pu Beach

Gratefully, I breathed in the ocean air of Kauai and gazed on the blue water as I watched birds, some familiar, but most unfamiliar, in the sky, on the ground, and lighting in boughs of yellow and orange hibiscus bushes, and the multitude of flowering shrubs everywhere. 

It was easy to forget my responsibilities and worries. I couldn't have been more removed from reality--unless I had landed on the moon. 

Photos to Settle the Mind and Bring Peaceful Thoughts

You know how photographs can mirror your mood at times? Tonight I don't feel so much like using words but hope you understand my feelings and find something you like 

in a few of my pictures. 

Click on photo to enlarge.

A picture is worth a thousand words, it’s true. This is me, yesterday, after spending a week sleeping in a hard chair that makes into a hard cot.

Today, after a shower, after I shampooed my hair, and changed clothes, this could be me..

Water is a healing force that washes away stress, soothes our rumpled minds and un-kinks the knots of fear that climb up our backs and clamp on to the tendons in our necks.

If I could I'd head for this pool, one of my favorite places, winter and summer. I'd slip into the warmth of this oasis in the middle of my frazzzled world and wash away worries, refresh my senses and clean my lungs of the chemicals worn by almost every person I meet.