My daughter leapt into the world

After nine months of uterine back flips

(and back pain)

Writing graffiti

on the walls of her womb

Head-first-diving into life

like a supernova.

*

My daughter dove into existence

on a day when all over the world

people were dying before they lived

not paying attention to their wide, wondrous world.

She cried out to them

(I heard her)

Wake up! I am here!

*

My daughter brought forth her world on a day like any other:

the wide, soft earth cried out beneath the suffering of her children

who–some of them–took their blink-of-an-eye existence & danced upon suffering

singing Calliopean songs of rebirth.

Even on the day her father tearfully called his mother

sitting by his brother’s deathbed.

We needed some good news, she said.

*

My daughter brought forth an entire universe

from her speck-of-dust soul–

We had waited so long for her:

Since the day I saw her mother,

on that porch,

drinking homemade wine

So many years ago

*

Since the day when I watched my own little brother

(my daughter will do better than I did)

come home from the hospital

Since the days when the ancestors wandered over seas and mountains

to lose themselves

and to find

Each other.

*

Still longer, we have waited:

Since the days when the entire universe was written

in a single book

–the original speck-of-dust–

& danced its dance, sang its song

& wrote its new poem: stars pressed across the sky

(is this what you painted on the walls of your womb?)

*

& now, you are here:

Like the rest, you will get only a blink of an eye

(I cannot lie)

but we’ve waited for you so long

to sing your Calliopean song.

We needed some good news:

& you are it.

September 18, 2013

From the website of a student of Brian Swimme’s; https://theodorerichards.com/http:/theodorerichards/the-day-my-daughter-was-born-part-ii-a-gestational-epic

by Vincent Di Stefano of Melbourne, Australia

Link to article on original blog posted April 19, 2012

thehealingprojectweblog.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/thomas-berry-healing-savaged-earth.html

Despite the fact that we have clearly entered uncharted territory in relation to the effects of industrial civilisation on the fate of the earth and her creatures, big government of all persuasions seems intent on relentlessly pursuing economic growth, environmental plunder and social and political control at every level.

In view of our gathering predicament reflected in such intangibles as steadily rising carbon dioxide levels, deepening ocean acidification and accelerating methane exhalations from formerly locked under-sea and tundra deposits – to say nothing of the numerous social, political and environmental pathologies that continue to assail humanity – it may be instructive to revisit the thoughtful offerings of Thomas Berry, a wise elder who sought to awaken us all to the changes that have already occurred and those that will inevitably follow.

“Healing a Savaged Earth” is a tribute to the prophetic insight, vision and integrity of cultural historian Thomas Berry. Though others viewed him as a depth theologian and cultural guardian, he chose in his later years to call himself a “geologian” as an acknowledgement of his earth-centred philosophy which drew strongly from the insights of Taoism, Confucianism  and the mysticism of Teilhard de Chardin and Henri Bergson.

This post offers an audio presentation drawn primarily from “The Ecozoic Era”, a lecture given by Thomas Berry in 1991.

thehealingprojectweblog.blogspot.com.au/2012_04_01_archive.html

Thomas Berry. Healing a Savaged Earth can be streamed using the media player above. A CD quality mp3 file is also available for download here.

In bringing this program to formation, I am grateful for the inspiration offered by chazk of Virtual Renderings in his remarkable 2008 tribute to Thomas Berry, Notes on Thomas Berry’s Great Work, and for his more recent exploration of the transitional time within which we presently find ourselves, Notes From the Great Turning.

www.youtube.com/watch

Published on April 29, 2012 by thegreatstory (Connie and Michael)

One of the last videos made of Thomas Berry (1914 – 2009) speaking to an audience (Asheville, North Carolina). This performance captures the artistic, playful side of a beloved and influential leader in “Earth literacy” and a deeply meaningful celebration of an evolutionary understanding of this ancient cosmos and of the human journey within it. Filmed by Lou Niznik (1932 – 2011).

Here are the time stops below to instantly access that portion of the video:

00:45 – “Awaken to a Youth”

02:24 – “We are all children of the forest”

06:00 – “The Quiet Hills of Carolina”

10:05 – “Valentine Season” (“The Great Red Oak”)

14:40 – “Earth’s Desire”

18:05 – Late Summer in Carolina

20:52 – (story of his family and especially of his mother)

24:23 – “The Old House” (“There were lilies in the field”)

33:03 – “A Solstice Poem” (winter celebration at Cathedral St. John the Divine)

43:53 – “An Appalachian Wedding”

Listen to short excerpts of Thomas Berry reciting from his book “The Great Work”
https://thegreatstory.org/tb-audio.html

Other websites on Thomas Berry:
https://www.earth-community.org/
https://www.thomasberry.org/

“We have a new story of the universe. Our own presence to the universe depends on our human identity with the entire cosmic process. In its human expression, the universe and the entire range of earthly and heavenly phenomena celebrate themselves and the ultimate mystery of their existence in a special exaltation. Science has given us a new revelatory experience. It is now giving us a new intimacy with the Earth.” — Thomas Berry, “The Dream of the Earth” 1988.

This intelligent, spiritual, philosophical, upbeat, VERY INSPIRATIONAL music video and MANIFESTO came to me yesterday via Paul Hoffman.

My body chemistry changed – in a good WAY – when I saw it. I had to stand up straighter, breath more deeply the sacred breath of life, remember how rare and precious it is to be human. And remember that something bigger is coming through us that we might not understand but that we must trust in and ride, like a wave.

WaySeerManifesto.com: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPR3GlpQQJA