July in Stillmeadow

Doesn't the name Stillmeadow, as a place that is, evoke peace and quiet.  A place outside the city where nothing but aspects of nature stop the eye's gaze.  Maybe the road, and it should be a road and not a street, passes by, but not too close by.  A still meadow.  Now that has a lot of appeal to me at the moment.  My monthly forays into the pages of this book, and into the inner space of my imagination are a very welcome distraction from how frazzled I have been feeling of late.  

July is lazy in my opinion, or it should be anyway.  It has a lazy feel in this chapter, too.  Gladys Tabor writes about July at Sillmeadow in her usual meandering way.  Some family news and reflections on the weather and nature in general.  A few recipes are included, and a story or two about the dogs and grandchildren (not that I mean to pair them like that, but it seems in her eyes they are all equal.  Everyone is family and so worthy of mention).

I think sometimes I reach for older books, books published in the early part of the twentieth century, to get away from the noise of today.  I am finding that watching or listening to the news is increasingly dispiriting.  I need to listen to it, but I don't want to.  Part of the charm of Stillmeadow is the feeling of nostalgia the book has.  It is a lovely escape, but Tabor is critical, too, of the world about her as much as she appreciates her family and home and the natural world.  I sometimes think why didn't we listen harder then (this book was published in 1967) and do more, and every day I wonder if now it is too late and we are heading so quickly down a path that I wonder if we can ever turn back from.

So I have only two excerpts to share for July.  One is a gentle critique, which now in hindsight feels even more critical for our lack of action.  But I will also share one that is a bit more hopeful, as Gladys Tabor seems a most hopeful person.

"Nature replenishes herself unless man interferes.  It was a man who made he dust bowl.  As I read Stewart Udall's book The Quiet Crisis, I wished it were required reading for every American.  It is a beautiful book, although parts of it are heartbreaking.  It maybe that no country in the world has such varied natural beauty and wealth of rivers, lakes, mountains, plains, and forests.  But we have been busy destroying it since we first took it from the Indians.  It is time, now, today--not in fifty years when it will be too late--to realize we must conserve every resource.  The quick dollars we acquire ruining the land will not feed our children and their children."

*****

"Perhaps, after all, our best thoughts come when we are alone.  It is good to listen, not to voices, but to the wind blowing, to the brook running cool over polished stones, to bees drowsy with the weight of pollen.  If we attend to the music of the earth, we reach serenity.  And then, in some unexplained way, we share some of it with others."

Comments

[Readerlane]

Her language is so evocative in the last quote I felt I was sitting by that brook with bees buzzing in the sunshine. But it sounds as though in some ways she is calling the reader to action to save those pleasant settings — quite ahead of her time and not restful at all!

[Linda]

I am smiling at this entry because we all say this today, Gladys was saying it back in her Stillmeadow books even earlier than 1967, and on one of her podcasts, that I just listened to yesterday, Gretchen Rubin read this passage:

"We are so overwhelmed with things these days that our lives are all, more or less, cluttered. I believe it is this, rather than a shortness of time, that gives us that feeling of hurry and almost of helplessness. Everyone is hurrying and usually just a little late. Notice the faces of the people who rush past on the streets or on our country roads! They nearly all have a strained, harassed look, and anyone you meet will tell you there is no time for anything anymore."

This was written by Laura Ingalls Wilder in 1924!

[Danielle]

I am not surprised that she was thinking about these things even back then--it was not SO long ago and of course that was when the conservation movement was picking up steam. Such a pity we didn't start to make real changes then. Now it feels like we are just throwing it all away-whatever progress was being made is just being ignored and abandoned, which makes it sad to read this. She seems to have been such an enlightened and passionate writer. I really enjoy these chapters and my monthly reading.

[Danielle]

That's crazy, isn't it?! What would LIW think of the world today? I guess it just keeps getting busier and busier. I think Gladys must really have been a progressive and ahead of her time. I mean were there more people on board at the time with the conservation movement than seem to be so today? Maybe little has changed but now we are seeing the effects far more obviously and to a point where we cannot go back?

[Kathy Johnson]

I completely identify with your words: "I think sometimes I reach for older books, books published in the early part of the twentieth century, to get away from the noise of today. I am finding that watching or listening to the news is increasingly dispiriting. I need to listen to it, but I don't want to." I feel exactly the same. And this has been a difficult week for me personally as well as for the Amazon rain forests. I'm reaching for comfort reads (The Tuesday Club Murders) and something sweet and romantic (Evvie Drake Starts Over).

I don't want to give up hope, I can't, but sometimes it just all feels like too much.

[Danielle]

I get a daily news feed from Time Magazine and it is so totally disconcerting I tend to just read the headlines and shake my head and can't bear to open the link and read on. It seems fitting that lately the email has been delivered into my junk/spam filter, which is pretty much what I feel about all the terrible things that are going on--I wish they would all be dumped in the garbage and we could start over again. Is the Tuesday Club Murders an Agatha Christie? I am reading The Mirror Crack'd and it is nicely distracting. I saw a movie adaptation a long time ago and I think I already know who did it, but I like seeing the story play out anyway, so will keep reading. The Evvie Drake novel looks like fun, too. [Sadly, I am not very optimistic these days for things to change in the next election either, which is very depressing indeed].

[Kathy Johnson]

Yes, The Tuesday Club Murders is by Agatha Christie. It should be right up your alley, as it is short stories and the first appearance of Miss Marple.