Tag Archives: Spirit

What a People!

Posted on by
1
Jeff McCollough and others prepare to help animals affected by oil disaster

Jeff McCollough and others prepare to help animals affected by oil disaster, photographed July 14, 2010.

Training workshop for the peer listening program presented by Dr. Steve Picou

Training workshop for the peer listening program presented by Dr. Steve Picou in Bayou La Batre, photographed July 14, 2010.

The gulf coast is not just home for tragedies and crises. It’s the home of incredible people! In 2004 numerous hurricanes struck Florida and the northern gulf coast including Hurricane Ivan. Other areas suffered greatly too particularly with Hurricane Jeanne. 2005 brought more destruction with numerous communities all along the coast from Central America to United States and throughout the Caribbean being devastated from severe hurricanes including Dennis, Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. With barely a breather if that, rough economic times came our way and are indeed affecting the whole world. And now we’re in month three of the oil disaster.

Today we are shocked at the inept care that was given to our environment and shocked at the long-term environmental destruction of our home and the home of so many other creatures too. Yet positive energy is the focus of so many people! “I love Dauphin Island!” “I love Bayou La Batre!” “I love Louisiana!” “I love Mississippi!” “I love my community!” “I care about you!” “Let’s help one another!” “Let’s take care of our environment!” We are a people who have kept coming back! We are a people who are still coming back today!

With confidence, even after all this and with whatever will come in the future, be it natural or unnatural disasters, I know that we will continue to live positively. There’s an incredible faith inside all of us, a faith that creates an unconquerable, spirited synergy between us, a faith that is lived out in innumerable acts of kindness, friendship, and generous initiative.

Volunteer update

There is a new volunteer program being offered on the gulf coast called “peer listening.” Peer listening is a community service that proved valuable in the wake of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Training workshops are currently being conducted in Alabama and Mississippi coastal communities. According to the program’s website (which contains lots of helpful information), “peer listening is a type of support that occurs when people provide knowledge, experience, emotional, social or practical help to each other.” Pictured above is a training workshop that was held in Bayou La Batre yesterday.

Don’t let no Oil Spill Turn You ’Round

Posted on by
1
Reddish and snowy egrets together

Reddish and snowy egrets weathering the oil spill together, photographed June 12, 2010, Dauphin Island

Today I was told, “This oil spill’s going to last for the rest of our lives.” Hopefully not, but one thing’s for sure, the human family has storms enough coming and brewing now to fill our lifetimes. “Constant vigilance!” as Mad-eye Moody vowed needs to be our motto too. In the last blog entry, I spoke of encouragement. But right now southerly winds are pushing the oil toward the Gulf beaches. Hurricane season is beginning with the warmest waters on record ready to fuel the cyclones. The economy worldwide is in disarray. So, ultimately, encouragement needs deeper roots.

That’s why, right now I’m humming African American spirituals which helped sustain deep encouragement in the midst of great trouble. “Sometimes I feel like a motherless chile …” “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen …”

The spirituals proclaimed a firm, rebellious hope as well. “Trouble Don’t Last for Always …” “Don’t let nobody turn you ’round!” And later, “Don’t let segregation turn you ’round!” Today, let’s say together, “Don’t let no oil spill turn you ’round!” Today, like before, for all our problems, let it be a hope held inside. A hope held in common. The spirituals did not offer a quick fix, but an intergenerational hope passed from the old to the young, from parents to children, from friends to friends. A hope engraved in hearts by generous service. A hope sustained by the winds of the Spirit.

 

Beached Oil

Posted on by
18
Oil paddies on Dauphin Island beach

Oil paddies, photo by Joe Denton, June 5, 2010

On Saturday, while doing volunteer beach work, I got a harsh, unwanted kick in the pants. Paddies of foul smelling oil and toxic dispersants were all around me. How toxic to me? … to my wife? … to my children? I don’t know.

The birds, crabs, and fish at Katrina Cut have little choice. Two birds huddling together stared at me with a look of deep uncertainty. Nearby dolphins fed on schools of mullet. The animals there were nesting, resting, and swimming with the oil … a paradise lost. Large horseshoe crabs once flourishing in these waters were washing ashore dead.

I’m upset because I’m losing this paradise. I feel cheated. But why am I upset? Why, when so many people around me live in daily fear, rejection, and denied opportunities. Perhaps the oil eruption will crash my attachments and illusions … prompt me to care more and fear less … to regain reality. The crucified live all around me. The oil eruption is toxic … symptomatic of all that I have neglected. It’s a rude awakening, but I needed a real kick in the pants.

We as a human family need healing just as our environment needs healing. But healing can only be found with the crucified … jobless … unnoticed … lost … hurting … imprisoned … mourning … all of us included and active.

Energetic cooperation between all of us is where we find the Spirit, our All in All, who boundlessly enlightens, empowers, and heals. Fears, illusions, and attachments can hold us back, but now is the time to share our lives, needs, and talents. Our promised future is passionately reaching out to us but it is unwritten.

Mia Rose singing Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield