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Dear
Heron Dancers,
My
life feels poised on the brink of change. Heron
Dance seems poised for change too. Partly the change
is driven by the economy—the old ways don’t
work anymore, particularly in print publications. From
year five to year twelve, Heron Dance grew
by a factor of fifteen. In dealing with the business
management aspects of that, I often lost my creative
momentum and equilibrium. In the last three years, Heron
Dance has been shrinking as I’ve tried to
better balance the creative and business aspects of
what we do.
A few weeks ago my two co-workers, Laura and Emma, began
preparing to leave. Today is Emma’s last day,
and Laura’s is around the end of this month. Laura
has been with Heron Dance for five years and
I’m particularly going to miss her. She moved
fifty minutes away several months ago and the commute
has become draining. Emma has a Masters in English and
is going to pursue work that better utilizes that skill.
I’ve hired two new co-workers, Joshua Newcity
and Justin Tiedemann. They both have extensive web experience.
They understand Heron Dance and believe in
its mission and message. They know what we need to know
to utilize the web to build a larger support base for
this work. One has business management experience.
So change, change is right around the corner and down
the hall. While the Pause for Beauty has grown
substantially over the last five years, our print publication,
The Heron Dance Nature Art Journal, has declined
substantially in terms of number of subscribers. I believe
in the print publication and want to make it viable
again. We’ll continue with two issues a year,
but experiment with the size. Our next issue will be
twice the size of recent issues and the one after that
half the size. The larger we’ll offer to book
stores, perhaps through a co-publisher we’re now
talking to. The shorter will combine nature art, words
and a catalog. Important to these plans is our annual
appeal which will mail in a week.
In about a month, after Josh and Justin get set up,
I’ll move my studio back to the woods. I’m
going to spend less time in the office and more time
creating out of the quiet and peace I find in nature.
We all, me included, need to be more tuned into the
peace and beauty of wild nature at this chaotic time
in our banking system and economy. The Heron Dance
expense structure has been reduced by about fifty percent
over the last twelve months. Another twenty percent
reduction is imminent. Simpler is better, I tell myself;
simpler is elusive has been the reality. But we are
making progress.
Onward we sail on this adventure called Heron Dance.
I’m re-energized.
In celebration of the Great Dance of Life,
Roderick W. MacIver
The
Man Who Planted Trees
 Jean
Giono's classic tale, The Man Who Planted Trees:
Generosity of Spirit as a Source of Happiness,
explores the themes of generosity, living in close
connection with the natural world, and persisting
with a dream through adversity.
This
hardcover book, featuring full-color watercolors by
Roderick MacIver, was previously priced at $45, but
is now being offered for just $27.
In
all, over ten thousand people owed their happiness
to the Shepherd. That one man, a man with not
much more than his health and generosity, had
turned barren hillsides into the land of Canaan.
With dogged persistence he had done his work,
a work worthy of God. When he died, at the age
of eighty-nine, I celebrated the Shepherd’s
well-lived life. His example had inspired my own
life, and in fact had changed it in profound ways.
He showed me by example the great goodness of
which humans are capable.
–
Jean Giono, The Man Who Planted Trees
Visit
here
to read excerpts from The Man Who Planted Trees.
Visit
here to order The Man Who Planted Trees.
Classic
Notecard Assortment
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