tar sands, pipelines and oil spills

Britannia, B.C.

"...if you're a poor forlorn oil industry feeling unloved and under assault, what do you do?

There's really only one answer: Flash your wad...

The other side -- that is, scientists, Nobelists, and the kind of average people who went to jail in record numbers this summer to block the plan -- doesn't have that kind of money. We've had to figure out other currencies to work in: spirit, passion, creativity... But if money's the only thing that matters, we're done for anyway. So we'll keep using science and art and courage."    Bill McKibben  

Blog catching up - dance /photos from several weeks ago... I have been so deeply moved by the peaceful protests occurring in both Canada and the United States against the Keystone XL Pipeline, the Northern Gateways Pipelines and also, more importantly, the Alberta Tar Sands themselves. I have been feeling that as much as we seem, as a species, to be evolving in very inspiring ways towards a 'unity consciousness,' a sense of being related to not only one-another around the planet, but also to other beings, we are also moving towards a directly opposing, but just as strong trend, towards destroying our mama earth and all that reside upon her, at all costs.

"But it is hard to speak of these things / how the voices of light enter the body / and begin to recite their stories / how the earth holds us painfully against / its breast made of humus and brambles / how we who will soon be gone regard / the entities that continue to return / greener than ever, spring water flowing / through a meadow and the shadows of clouds / passing over the hills and the ground / where we stand in the tremble of thought / taking the vast outside into ourselves."

Billy Collins

When I feel overwhelmed with despair for the destruction of our world, and the wild beings that reside upon her, I dance...  I wrote the following several weeks ago:

i am dancing because i have to... for the bears, the salmon, the caribou, the wolves, the migrating birds  and all the creatures whose lives are being threatened from the increased pollution and habitat destruction...  because i am canadian and it is unconscionable to me that the current government is supporting an oil extraction method that is the dirtiest energy project in the world, one that is devastating to all beings on our precious mama earth...i am dancing in solidarity with the indigenous peoples whose health and lives are being jeopardized by the alberta tar sands upriver of their communities... because human rights are being violated... i am dancing because i have to... because sometimes it feels my heart will explode with pain and anger at the lack of respect some human beings that run corporations have for all life and for future generations... i dance... i dance...

Thank you for viewing this post. I hope it may inspire you in some way. I am grateful for Momo and Company for being able to share our dance offerings here...

Lee

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

May all beings everywhere be happy and free from suffering, and may our thoughts and actions contribute to that happiness and freedom from suffering for all beings...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q4eLK35yAc

Music: Dean Evenson

Photos: Brooke

Visit Momobutoh collaborative blog here: Momobutoh Dance Company

white spirit bear

A few months ago I found it difficult to read three news articles while in Vancouver at my childhood home.

The first was the news about the starving bears and eagles in the early spring in B.C. - both starving due to the lack of pink and chum salmon returning to their spawning grounds last fall. Young starving bear cubs ended up in wildlife rehab centers and hundreds of eagles at a time were scrounging for food from a garbage landfill site near Vancouver, B.C.

I was also saddened and maddened by the second news I read of the proposed tanker route off the westcoast of B.C. that would transport oil from the Alberta tar sands. The projected route would take the tankers into the head of Douglas Bay - a pristine land and habitat to abundant wildlife including the black bear and the rare kermode or white spirit bears.

A disastrous oil spill in this region could wipe out wildlife in the area both directly and indirectly - indirectly, by destroying salmon runs, a spill would starve the ecosystems that rely on salmon for food - including bears, eagles, wolves, sea lions, orca and humpback whales... An online petition is available to sign: here.

I highly recommend the following film, describing the plans to try and save this unique ecosystem:

To top it off, the third news I read was about bear trophy hunting in the Great Bear Rainforest, located along Canada's Pacific coast, spanning 21 million acres of some of the world’s most spectacular landscapes. As one of the largest temperate rainforests on Earth, it's stunning mountains, forests, fjords, and waterways are home to thousands of species of birds, plants and animals – including grizzlies, black bears and also the white spirit bear. Although the spirit bears are protected, they are born from black bear mothers - it is a particular recessive gene that makes them white. Reducing the population of black bears in general could potentially wipe out the population of white spirit bears whose total number is less than 200. A petition is available to sign here: stop trophy bear hunting in British Columbia.

I have loved bears for as long as I can remember and feel a deep spiritual connection to them. When I lived in Whistler B.C. many years ago I had many close encounters with them while hiking in the wilds. Unfortunately, many bears began to rely more and more on garbage from the landfill site as their habitat was being developed into an all season resort. As a result, the bears were also coming more frequently into neighborhoods for 'garbage-food' where they were inevitably destroyed.

The more recent news of the bears and their habitat being threatened broke my heart. When it feels like I am carrying a lot of grief for the suffering of our world's wild habitats due to our actions, I feel like there is a mini time-bomb inside that is ready to explode... and it is what often is my inspiration to dance - to dance my grief, my prayers, my hopes, and my optimism...

When I met wonderful and talented Rex for a photo / dance session (see one of his sessions with Momo here: 'Tough Love in the Gravel'), he had no idea I had a dance of grief in mind, nor that I was prepared with a bag full of costumes and props! I was grateful for his willingness to capture this dance of connection to the suffering of the bears in film and to be my witness.

Spring

Somewhere

a black bear

has just risen from sleep

and is staring

down the mountain.

All night

in the brisk and shallow restlessness

of early spring

I think of her,

her four black fists

flicking the gravel,

her tongue

like a red fire

touching the grass,

the cold water.

There is only one question:

how to love this world.

I think of her

rising

like a black and leafy ledge

to sharpen her claws against

the silence

of the trees.

Whatever else

my life is

with its poems

and its music

and its glass cities,

it is also this dazzling darkness

coming

down the mountain,

breathing and tasting;

all day I think of her -

her white teeth,

her wordlessness,

her perfect love.

Mary Oliver

Thank you for viewing this post... I hope you may find some inspiration within it - to dance your own dance of grief, connection, optimism... Love receiving comments :~)

Heart-full thank you, Rex, for taking the photos and for your open mind and heart!

Grateful for this dance practice - thank you Momo, and the all of you who inspire so lusciously with your dances here...

(The above photos of bears are from the internet and I am sorry there were no credits to the photographers that I can share here).