Tag Archives: nature

Dreams Out of Africa

I watched Out of Africa again yesterday. Love that story, perhaps because it is based on the real-life memoir by Isak Dinesen (the pen name of Danish author Karen Blixen). Africa was her great adventure. I remember a long time ago, a high school teacher asked our class if we could travel anywhere, where would it be? Some of my classmates wanted to go to the next town, the next province, the country next door. I put my hand up and said, “Africa”.

Pregnant pause; the teacher looked at me like I was from Mars. I guess I dreamed bigger than most, because I read voraciously as a child and teenager, and books were seeding big dreams in me.

Fast forward to now, and I have traveled and lived in various parts of the world. But, I have yet to see Africa. It’s important to keep one dream unspent for a while, I think. It gives one something to aim for. 🙂

Some day I hope Africa and I will learn a song of each other:

“If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?” ~ Isak Dinesen

Of course, watching the movie this time was tinged with a some sadness with the death of Robert Redford just 4 days ago. The character he played in Out of Africa, Deny Finch Hatton – Karen Blixen’s love – was killed in a plane crash before she left Africa. Denys was buried in the Ngong Hills. Later when back in Denmark, Karen wrote this about some correspondence she received about his grave site:

“‘The Masai have reported to the District Commissioner at Ngong, that many times, at sunrise and sunset, they have seen lions on Finch Hatton’s grave in the the Hills. A lion and lioness have come there, and stood, or lain, on the grave for a long time…After you went away, the ground round the grave was leveled out, into a sort of big terrace. I suppose that the level place makes a good site for the lions, from there they can have a view over the plain, the cattle and game on it.’

Denys will like that. I must remember to tell him.”

Trees Are Family

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This postcard features a painting I created a few years ago from a trip to California, where I visited Yosemite National Park, and Muir Woods. The original is quite large, and the medium is watercolor painting, with very detailed graphite pencil work layered on top.

Being a lover of trees, I was very taken with the giant redwoods on that trip, which some years later became the setting for my fiction story The Turquoise Heart. So, the painting and the story became closely tied together. In the story, the protagonist 14-year-old Anna makes the observation to her mentor Elsu that the trees in the forest they are walking through look like a family.

“Elsu, did you notice that group of trees that we just passed? There were many very tall ones, plus a giant one like the one I hid in. They stood in a circle with their branches reaching out to each other, and there was a little tree in the middle. It was almost like they were holding hands and protecting it. They looked like a family.”

“Very good observation! You are not just imagining they are a family. They really ARE one.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Trees communicate with each other underground through their roots and fungi. They have their own intelligence. For their survival, they have learned to cooperate, not just with each other, but with other tree species, too. They are very community-minded.

“Trees share space so they will all hopefully get some sunlight. They also produce sap that feeds the fungi, which in turn feeds sugar back to other surrounding trees. That little tree you noticed is actually being nourished by the big trees. It is all one big family in the forest.”

This weekend I am offering a free copy of The Turquoise Heart if you are interested in reading it. The free download link is here.

The Trees Weep

The willow weeps,
the pine trees moan,
all Nature’s feeling it,
deep to the bone.

Humans out of sync,
not hearing their hearts,
the soul of the Earth’s
being torn apart.

“Technology’s call
mesmerized them all,
and why can’t they see,
their hate is a wall?”

The mountains watch,
their strength eons old,
the oceans too have
seen centuries unfold.

They will endure, but
will humans be here?
“It seems they don’t care,
they don’t hold us dear.”

The eleventh hour
draws swiftly nigh,
trees watch us, crying,
will this be goodbye?

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Can You Call a Whale?

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My partner took me on a humpback whale watching excursion a few years ago. We always seemed to miss them on our travels. They were arriving as we were leaving, or, they were leaving just as we arrived. Always ships passing in the night. So, I was very excited about this trip.

Days before, I meditated and pictured the whales, and telepathically asked for one to come and say hello. That day, unfortunately, the whale watching was dismal. Any sightings were brief breaches far away. I was on one side of the boat by myself, just looking out over the water and giving up inside, when the guide came over excitedly to pull me to the other side of the boat. “Come. Come now.”

As I reached the other side, a whale slowly and gently surfaced right beside the boat, looked at us, and gave his best whale hello. Was it for me? I like to think so. 🙂

Everything is connected. Never doubt it.

Whale

Our telepathy
meets in a monumental
hello of two hearts.

I call, you come, and
brush gently against the boat,
crooning your love song.

Pausing a moment,
is that a wink I detect?
You flirt, then farewell!

Will you invite me
to frolic in frothing waves?
Besotted, I wait.

Susan L Hart / Author

Tag Archives: nature

Dreams Out of Africa

Trees Are Family

Can You Call a Whale?

It’s a Blue Sky Day

City