March

I've been contemplating the Earth and her incredible and delicate power.  It is springtime here and when I took the kids for a nature walk as part of school last week, we were marveling at violets, magnolia blossoms and tender shoots coming from the ground. 

Then, yesterday, the earthquake in Japan.  The earth shifts, moves, and half the world is in peril. Powerful almost beyond belief.  When an earthquake hits all equilibrium vanshes and the very ground we stand on rolls and jerks.  The steadiest thing we know moves islands, creates mountains, and sends waves crashing on distant shores. 

A favorite poet of mine, Wendell Barry says in one of his poems "What I stand on, I stand for"  I stand for the earth, attempt to protect her and love her as a Mother.  I also see her now as Kali, the destroyer, who can unleash her wrath at will.  A twitch and her children are destroyed.  How to reconcile the two?  The one?