Last weekend it rained for 3 days and 3 nights nonstop for a total 5.5 inches of rain in our neck of the woods.  It felt appropriate that Barbara Kingsolver's newest book, Flight Behavior, had just become available at my local library; I had been on the waiting list, and was excited to read it.  I really enjoy her books, and love getting lost in them.  And what a perfect weekend to disappear, since the weather was so unusually miserable.

The book is so good that I just want you to just run out and put yourself on the waiting list at your library, or buy it at your local book store right now so I won't spoil it for you by telling you anything about it.

The only thing I want you to know is that it's about climate change.  Which no matter what you believe or don't believe, or feel or don't feel, is happening right now.  And since a few days ago, we have reached and gone beyond the tipping point of what the Earth can handle CO2-wise to keep the climate stable.  Which means feeling like it's winter is the summer, feeling like it's summer in the winter, and a lot of freakish storms.

Are you ready?  Will you choose to freak out and keep repeating the latest extreme stories that are on the news?  Or that it's not true - that there has always been unstable conditions called "the weather".  Or will you start to go inside more and feel the stability of that?

Here is a quote from the book:

“Entomologist Dr. Ovid Byron speaking to television journalist, Tina, who says, re. global warming, "Scientists of course are in disagreement about whether this is happening and whether humans have a role."
He replies:
"The Arctic is genuinely collapsing. Scientists used to call these things the canary in the mine. What they say now is, The canary is dead. We are at the top of Niagara Falls, Tina, in a canoe. There is an image for your viewers. We got here by drifting, but we cannot turn around for a lazy paddle back when you finally stop pissing around. We have arrived at the point of an audible roar. Does it strike you as a good time to debate the existence of the falls?" p.367”

I don't think there is any need for fear, or for trying to protect myself from the reality of our world.  Or arguing that it is happening or not.  I kind of knew that this was going to happen, didn't you deep down?

And being the emotional type that feels everything, I know I will feel sad and cry about things I hear about on the news.  Which is why I will stay where I am in a place where there are more trees than people, and where flowers and birds make me happy.  And paint when I can and surround myself with those friends and family that I love and that love me.

What about you?

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