Sometimes, our runaway media/marketing machine causes us to fear the world, expect the worst, feel unprepared and vulnerable. It is good to be prepared, awful to be perennially alarmed. This morning, I was reminded to look for the beauty amidst all of the hype and storm-selling that goes on. It seems we are coming to see the very earth as our enemy, as a danger. It seems we are being constantly manipulated to be afraid, to be prepared, to be watchful.

Ours is now a culture of alarms and fear. There is big money in fear, and the corporate ghouls who have taken over our culture understand this well, they make certain we are frightened and disturbed all the time, they know this binds the spiritually bereft to them, and makes them fat and swollen, like ticks on dogs.

I don’t wish to be turned against Mother Earth, she needs me as much as I need her. If we travel across the earth to rescue dogs and animals, why, I wonder, can’t we look up at the sky and think of her? She is heartbroken and bleeding.

We check our weather alerts, go online for up-to-the-minute details. Really, all I need to know this morning is that a winter storm is coming that will last a day or so and drop a foot or so of snow. I have dealt with this many times, we will deal with this together. Maria and I are keeping up with it, we are shoveling, raking the roof, keeping the cars clean, making paths for the animals. Tyler will come by each day to help keep up with the snow.

This morning, my camera gave me yet another gift, I look over to see Red in one of his favorite watch positions, keeping an eye on the sheep from under the apple tree where Simon is buried. I stopped, it was a beautiful scene, touching, it reminded me to stop and breath and remember the beauty that comes with everything, even a storm. It is my job to find it, I take it seriously, share it.

The camera caught the power of the new storm, the sense of being inside of it. I saw something else. Red and the tree were connected, they were twin elements of the natural world, they seemed to be communicating, working together, existing in tandem. They seemed to be partners. All of these elements seemed to be one thing, I was fascinated by them. I am not feeling like complaining about the weather any more than I wish to speak poorly of my life or work.

We have suffered this winter, as have many people, and we feel the cold and the storms every day, life has been hard this month, as so many of you know. Yet this storm seems to me to be a beautiful thing, Spring is really not far a way and I am reminded to seek out the beauty around me, it is even more meaningful now in this white landscape. I feel close to Mother Earth today, grateful to be in her beautiful world, grateful to share a life of love and purpose.

This is my purpose, the purpose of the writer. To share the light and color and mystery of the world, to prod and provoke, to touch and inspire. This is the message of my apple tree and my dog, both sentinels in a storm. And my spiritual quest. God says in the Kaballah that he never promised us a perfect world, he only gave all of us the gift of grace, of responding to the world with love and growth and compassion.