Wendy took this shot of me in my birding vest, Cape May Meadows and, in the distance, the town of Cape May behind me.

Dear Friends ~

I hope you are finding your way safely and in good health through this crucial presidential election season, the trials of the on-going pandemic and the storms and fires of the climate crisis. I pray our hearts stay open and our actions clear as we bear excruciating witness to the obvious brutality of life for so many in our country and world. 

To keep our spirits up and vision long, I want to share two creative offerings with you. The first is not my own, but a short film produced by visionary Naomi Klein. Please take eight minutes of your time to view this Message from the Future, and pass the dream along. It is my steadfast belief and fervent hope that, with love and solidarity, the story of our times will unfold in just such an exquisite way..

Secondly, I want to offer a new poem of my own. It has nothing to do with politics. Or maybe everything. This past week Wendy and I gave ourselves a couple of days in Cape May, New Jersey, one of our most beloved sanctuaries. We had not been there since before the pandemic closed us in at winter’s end. Sadly, we missed the spring migration entirely, and now here was October calling. So, with scrupulous attention to COVID-19 precautions, we went.

Fall Migration: Cape May Meadows

The wings of Shechinah* are millions.
They are monarchs’ and martins’ and
sharp-shinned hawks’— everyone flies!
Even the meadows’ goldenrod
is intimate with wind and
beyond the dunes the waves
lift and beat and lift again,
seeds fly, fruit descends—
bayberry, aster, purple and frost—
our own breaths soar as we sing
from our perfect perch, this
well-placed bench, thoughtful throne
among the cedar boughs,
into which the warblers in abundance
with the sun in their rumps
wing and wing and wing.

Blessed are we to be
alive amidst the feathers of this place.
Blessed are those who remember
even we who are lost
belong here.

*In Jewish mysticism, Shechinah is the divine feminine, the settling of the Eternal right here in earth

All love, all belonging~

Susan