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| Red-Backed
Hawk
Watercolor on Paper by
Roderick
MacIver
Unframed
Original (11" x 15") $350
Limited
Edition Print
(now double matted
with an option to frame) |
Dear
Heron Dancers,
Saturday
this last weekend was a particularly beautiful day. My friend,
John, stopped by and we headed out to the river to paddle a section
that is normally too shallow to canoe this time of year. I had
not done that section for fifteen years and John had never done
it. We paddled about twelve miles—several miles of which
were class II rapids. We found our rhythm. Working in unison like
that with another human being is a wonderful experience. Part
way through the trip, a melodious birdsong came bouncing out of
the woods. “A Winter Wren,” John said, “pound
for pound the bird with the loudest song in the woods.”
I looked it up. Per unit weight, the Winter Wren delivers its
song with ten times more power than a crowing rooster. You
can listen to the song by visiting the Cornell website here.
I’m at an advanced stage of the next issue, the theme of
which is Gratitude and Wild Rivers. I’ve been reading
quotes on rivers that I’ve collected over the years. Herman
Hesse wrote in an especially thoughtful and compelling way about
streams and rivers. I ordered a biography on his life, Hermann
Hesse: Pilgrim of Crisis. On page 10, I came across this
passage:
"…he
believed that in the interior life of the imagination there exist
reservoirs of power that allow men and women to overcome a threatening
and oppressive world."
And that, too, has become part of the theme of the next issue—how
a deep relationship with a piece of geography, with a wild, quiet
place, furthers one’s relationship with one’s self,
with one’s inner resourcefulness and power.
In
celebration of the Great Mystery of Life,
Roderick W. MacIver
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for Heron Dancers:
26,000 people now receive this weekly e-newsletter!
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| Renew
your subscription to the Heron Dance Nature Art Journal. |
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| Featured
Item: Heron Dance Books Over 60%
Off
Canadian Canoe Classics – Four Book Set, Now Just $29.92
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In a continuing
effort to simplify, Heron Dance is now offering a number of our classic
wilderness books at a 62.5% discount!
This week we are featuring our newly reduced Canadian
Canoe Classics Set.
The set contains four of the best accounts ever written on living a simple
yet challenging life of adventure in the northern woods: Black Spruce
Journals, True North, Sleeping Island, and A
Death on the Barrens. Previously offered for $63, this four
book set is now available for just $29.92.
Visit
here to order the Canadian Canoe Classics - Four Book Set.
Visit
here to view all of our books, including newly marked down titles. |
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A
Death on the Barrens
There
is a Buddhist joke about a pilgrim seeking enlightenment. He asks
his master how long it will take. The master replies: "Ten
years."
The pilgrim protests: "No! No! What if I work really hard?"
"Twenty
years," the master replies.
– George Grinnell from A
Death on the Barrens |
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| Black
Spruce Journals
I
had dreamed of a trip down the George River ever since having read
the trilogy of books on the Hubbard and Wallace exploits in 1903
and 1905. The logistics were daunting, but Kerck had that pretty
well worked out. We drove to Sept-Îles and took the Quebec
North Shore and Labrador Railway 360 miles northward to its terminus
at the iron ore mining town of Schefferville. We then took a short
truck ride to the seaplane base and flew to Cabot Lake in the headwaters
of the George River to start our down-river run.
– Stewart Coffin from
Black
Spruce Journals |
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True
North
November
7. Last night the river froze, all but a narrow channel down the
middle. If the wind would ever cease and let the water quiet down,
that would soon catch over too. The open lane is crowded with gray,
amorphous masses of slob, slowly drifting, ready to jell. The water
looks viscous, as though at any minute if the waves flattened out
it might wrinkle once, and lo, be stiff.
–
Elliot Merrick from True
North |
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| Sleeping
Island
Sitting
by the fire and half suspended over it to envelop myself in the
smoke and escape the mosquitoes, I wrote: “Both of us, I feel,
are tired from the headwinds, rain, and constant strain of rapids,
direction-finding, poor camps, and lack of sustaining heavy-work
food.” When I snapped the little diary shut, seventeen mosquitoes
were caught between the pages. . . .
–
P.G. Downes from Sleeping
Island |
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| Heron
Dance Offerings:
Canoes, Loons, & Wild Places Notecard Assortment |
 This
assortment of striking 5" x 7" cards includes Roderick
MacIver's, Loon
Morning, Secret
Pond, Loon
Cove, Mountain
Birches, and Loon
Mist watercolors. Each set contains ten blank notecards,
two each of the five different images mentioned, and comes packaged
in an elegant folio with envelopes.
Visit
here to order Canoes, Loons & Wild Places Notecards.
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| A
Pause for Reflection
Letters
from Pause for Beauty Readers |
Each
week, after A Pause for Beauty is sent, we get a lot of feedback
from Heron Dancers sharing their gratitude, insights, and stories.
We really appreciate your words and enjoy sharing them with others.
If you write to us and would prefer that we do not share your comments
in a future Pause for Beauty, just let us know.
I
just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your Pause for
Beauty publications. When I see it pop up in my mail box it
puts a smile on my face. I especially love your gift of words.
There's always something I can relate to or learn from. I enjoy
small inspirational bits of wisdom that help to keep my heart
and soul centered. I recently retired from 31 years of teaching
young children in WV and relocated to Florida to help care for
my Godmother and father. This has been such a big change and challenge
for me. That's why I especially appreciated your recent reflections
on the challenges and rewards of change, and the beauty of having
a grateful heart. Thanks again for opening a door to goodness
and beauty and inviting us in to share your gifts of art and words.
I appreciate it.
Barbara
(responding to A Pause For Beauty 261)
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Good
Works, Great Ideas:
International
Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC)
|
Since
1971, the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) has been
caring for aquatic birds and mitigating the human impact on birds and
other wildlife worldwide. IBRRC is the leading oil spill response and
rehabilitation organization in the world. Its teams have responded to
over 200 national and international spills.
Two state of the art aquatic bird rehabilitation centers in California
provide rehabilitation services and medical care for over 5,000 birds
every year. The birds treated in these centers suffer from a variety
of human impacts, such as ingestion of plastics, fishing line injuries,
cruelty, domoic acid poisoning, botulism, and urban encroachment. The
IBRRC centers not only return birds and other animals to the wild, but
also improve and advance the field of aquatic bird rehabilitation through
research and training.
For more information on the IBRRC, please visit www.ibrrc.org
There
is also more information on a few of the IBRRC’s projects on
the Heron Dance website, along with information on other groups working
to make our world more sustainable. Please visit
here to view our "Good Works, Great Ideas" page.
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| Heron
Dance News |
Book
Discounts
Heron Dance is getting out of book publishing and
is liquidating most of our books—in particular wilderness books—at
major discounts (almost two-thirds off). For more information on our ongoing
evolution, click
here.
HERON
DANCE
joins forces with It’s Only Natural Gifts!
Oops! When we introduced It's Only Natural Gifts last week, we included
two links to their "About Us" page, but didn't include a
link to the Heron Dance Tote Bags. To view those please visit
here or click on the link below.
It’s Only Natural Gifts is a small web-based gift company committed
to supporting Mother Earth and all of her inhabitants with high-quality
and environmentally conscious products. They are currently offering canvas
totes featuring five of Roderick MacIver’s most striking images:
Northern Parula, Indigo, Surya Namaskara, Deep
Woods Stillness, and Loon Morning. Using totes instead of
plastic bags is a simple way to help the environment. Please visit
here to view the totes or visit
here to learn more about It’s Only Natural Gifts.
WORKSHOPS:
HERON DANCE Personal
Exploration/Journaling Workshop: Scheduled for October 3-5, 2008.
Please visit
here for the particulars.
HERON DANCE Painting
Workshop: Scheduled for May 29th, 2009. Please visit
here for more information. |
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