STRATA OF LIFE

  HOLIDAYS!  They are here, along with the joy of family, unabashedly wonderful food and friends.  It is also the season when I watch all of my worlds either come together in a dance or collide with each other to see how much attention they can get.  And this year there is politics as well.  
   For many reasons when we lived in Alaska it was easier to give each season, each project its due time.  Maybe it was because I was younger and had more energy.  Maybe it was because we were limited by seasons and no stores and not as much sensory input in those earlier years.  
   What I really think, though, is that we did not think we could be in charge of so many things.  We lived in a land that was big and no matter how important we thought we were, the land taught us that we were a small part of the strata  of that environment.  Feeling small and not trying to be in charge of everything, while we ask, "What is our place?" can be freeing.
   We all exist in a place where  the environment has made room for us and it is important to keep our band of influence small, to protect and not interrupt the natural flow of nature, to narrow our influence when needed.  And in that band of influece comes our history, our dances, our storytelling.
   My blogs are never political, but my thoughts about nature are.  When you live in a remote area you realize how unimportant uninhabited, rural areas can seem. We tend to forget that they are the breathing space for the earth.
     I am proud of the strength people have shown in the Dakotas, the coming together and realizing that when the infuence of man on nature and water is too large, when the strata inhabited does not take its proper pacing in the dance, it can affect all men.