Jack Grunsky: Child of the Universe

My daughter's class sang this song at her primary school's Spring concert a few days back. Such an inspiring song urging children to love, care and celebrate the land that we live on.. by our very own Canadian singer Jack Grunsky!

To love the earth and all that lives and thrives on it .. 

"This song is a celebration of the beauty of the earth and its abundance and how we are all part of the cycle of life on this planet and the universe. It is about sharing the responsibility for providing our children with a better future and doing our part to leave a legacy of love and enlightenment."

I am a child of the universe
And I follow my destiny
I have come to inherit the earth
Cherishing the legacy
Caring for this gift to me
I have come to inherit …  the earth

The lakes and the land
And the soft shoreline sand
And the rocky mountains high and so steep
And the oceans so deep       ….          

The birds flying high
And the clouds in the sky
All the flowers and the forests and trees
All the fish in the seas       …. 
 
The sunlight, the air
Living things in our care 
All the precious seeds we plant and we sow
All the food that we grow 
All the rivers and streams
All your hopes, all your dreams
All the magic in the songs that you sing
All the love that you bring    

Everyone connected to the universe 
Everyone connected to each other
I walk in beauty -  I walk in harmony 
My spirit journey - Nothing but love I see  

I am a child of the universe       
And I follow my destiny
I have come to inherit the earth

She sits and I count ..

Goose nesting

To my alarm, this geese couple choose a very precarious spot to nest. The mother goose has made her nest on an empty plot very close to a busy intersection.

With a lot of their habitat flattened out for new housing developments, the geese migrate home thousands of miles only to find that all their breeding places are taken by humans. This mother goose has been sitting on her eggs since the end of April. I am counting days for her and worry endlessly as to how the parents will protect the little goslings from the speeding traffic on the busy roads either side of where she sits.

The eternal fountain of spring

It is in spring alone that the invisible universal power magnificently reveals itself in a dazzling show all around. The bulged, throbbing, moist tips of every shoot stands ready to burst out into a million flowers.

Just tuning into the sight and sounds of spring washes away any last remnants of listlessness in me. The mind and body is thrilled and spurred to inspired action casting away all pettiness. Not a day should go by, I pray, without drinking from this infinite source.

"We die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason" - Dag Hammerskjold

The lost canopy: Ash goes and Hemlocks follows ..

Infected Ash tree waiting to be chopped down

Everywhere in my neighborhood, the Ash trees lie chopped down. So far over 70 million ash trees have been lost in the US and Canada due to the Asian emerald ash borer infestation and many more will go the same way. With a heavy heart, I picked up the bark of an infected Ash tree to show my children.

Just a week later, on a trip to the breathtaking Watkin's Glen in the upstate New York area, I learnt that the majestic Hemlocks ..some that are hundreds of years old, are also being fatally attacked by a pest called the woolly adelgid all the way from Georgia to Massachusetts. Can you imagine Watkin's Glen without the Hemlocks?

So much will be lost for future generations. How much more dreary the world becomes without these trees ..

The barreness of a busy life ..

Slow down, says the little turtle..

I haven't written anything in the last two months. The realization struck me hard. Usually the full comprehension of all my observations culminate in writing. I see, I feel, I think and then I write. In the last two months I have been too busy to complete this cycle. Like one feels parched from the lack of water, my soul feels parched from the lack of fulfillment.

I must walk the long pathways in solitude
I must soak in the delicate scent of blossoms
I must listen to the sweet songs of the songbirds
The little turtle urges me to slow down..
Lest spring quietly slips by me...

And life begins again ..

It was just a week ago that the snow began to thaw. The geese have been flying back and forth bidding their time to make a final landing in anticipation for the days to come. There is much work ahead ..to mate, to nest, to incubate the eggs and to rear the young ones before its time to migrate again.

The geese have come home .. 

I noticed that the geese have now paired off to start the mating season. On a quiet afternoon walk yesterday along the wetlands, I chanced on this pair ..deeply engaged in the sacred mating ritual. Shiva and Shakti (the male and female energy) unite again for the continuation of life. There will be joy, trials and tribulations in the days ahead. For that is life!  

A gladness fills my heart in anticipation of the new life that will be here very soon.   

True Freedom: Only the Baul know what it means ..

A Baul is as free as the bird, free as the wind ...

The poet-philosopher Tagore was inspired by the Bauls, a little known nomadic people of rural Bengal. The Bauls are homeless wanderers who do not conform to any accepted social norms. The Baul shun materialism entirely and expound a simple, natural life. They shun everything of the past .. religions, scriptures, rituals, customs and draw inspiration only from the timeless, ever flowing wisdom of the present.

If you would know that Man
Simple must be your endeavor
To the region of the simple must you fare
Pursuers of the path of man's own handiwork
Who follow the crowd, gleaning their false leavings,
What new can they get of the Real?  - Baul song

They sing and preach of love, as the greatest wealth in life! In all their songs they seek a union with the universal spirit. Songs that stir our soul and makes us feel our connectedness with all things in the universe. Songs that teach us about love, life and what freedom really is!

As we look on every creature, we find each to be His avatar.
What can you teach us of His ways? In ever-new play He wondrously revels. - Baul song

I am in awe of the independent minds of these poor illiterate outcasts!! The Bauls are true free spirits relying only on the capacity of an individual to think, reason, feel and love. The Baul sing and dance out of pure joy, the joy of simply being alive!

That is why, brother, I became a madcap Baul.
No master I obey, nor injunctions, canons or customs
Now no men-made distinctions have any hold on me,
And I revel only in the gladness of my own welling love.
In love there's no separation, but commingling always
So I rejoice in song and dance with each and all..- Baul song