The beauty of spring offers help in coping with these grim times

 Published in the Gananoque Reporter

 by Cameron Smith

These are grim times. There’s no need to go into details about how Canada has become a pariah among the multitude of nations trying to save the world from the worst impacts of climate change. Nor to revisit the politics of fear-and-tax-cutting that is doing its corrosive best to obscure commitment to the public good.

    Instead, what’s needed is to find a way of coping, so that day-to-day life is not overwhelmed by bleakness. I was mulling this over as I started the walk to our mailbox — due to a quirk in postal routes, our mailbox is about half a kilometre away — and was surprised to discover that by the time I had reached the box, my mood had changed entirely. I was lost in wonder. Everywhere I looked new life was emerging in a profusion of green, in every shade imaginable. All around me were joy and promise, reaffirming that beauty asks only that we pause and be refreshed.

    It brought to mind a poem by Chief Dan George. He was a wise old man from the British Columbia coast, who was born into poverty and lived through difficult times for most of his life. In his elderly years he was cast as an actor and received an academy award nomination for his role with Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man. He died in 1981, and left as a legacy the reminder that we are all part of the eloquence of life, and that strength comes from celebrating it. Here is his poem:

The beauty of the trees,
the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass,
        speaks to me.

The summit of the mountain,
the thunder of the sky,
the rhythm of the sea,
        speaks to me.

The faintness of the stars,
the freshness of the morning,
the dew drop on the flower,
        speaks to me.

The strength of fire,
the taste of salmon,
the trail of the sun,
And the life that never goes away,
        They speak to me.

And my heart soars.