Earth Day in West Marin

Earth Day in West Marin – Saturday, April 23, 2010 by Claire Peaslee

Early spring is such a wild ride, on so many levels, don’t you think? Nature tosses us eccentric weather: placid warmth one day, a dark blast the next. Songbirds shout out louder every day, even as some of their populations decline. Bugs and frogs and blossoms claim their places in the sun, even as the changing climate starts to mix up their time signals.

A person hardly knows how to feel! Exaltation one day, faced with the spectacle of flowers’ and whales’ and watersheds’ resilience. Despondency the next, faced with a mass extinction in progress and the likelihood that all of our homes are ultimately Japan and Haiti and New Orleans.

 This is where Earth Day comes in handy. Joining with your neighbors in a celebration of the living planet, and some hands-on communal activity, is the ideal way to repair and rebalance our energies. And Earth Day – April 23rd this year – occurs in the season of renewal, a time when people have always been moved to thank and praise our living planet.

 That tradition comes alive in West Marin this year on a full day for connecting with our place and one another. On Saturday the 23rd, starting at 10 AM at Bear Valley Park Headquarters and ending with a big gathering at Toby’s Feed Barn, everyone is invited to become an earthling and an active member of the human community.

 Want to create prayer flags and dye them with natural colors? Care to build working bicycles from salvaged broken ones? Get your hands in the soil of a communal garden? Clean up a trail?  Clean up a beach? Learn to track wild beings and/or your innate wisdom? Join a Main Street peace demonstration? Envision Miwok living? Make music?

All this and much more is part of the schedule for Earth Day, found online at www.TransitionWestMarin.org.

 Begin the day in the circle of gratitude, outdoors at Bear Valley at 10 AM, led by Penny Livingston of the Regenerative Design Institute and Edward Willie from the Coast Miwok tradition. This powerful healing (“making whole”) gathering will ground us in our place and send us on our way through Earth Day.

Later, after immersing yourself in one or more of the group activities, come to Toby’s Feed Barn at 5 PM for food, music (Tim Weed and friends), talk (Steve Kinsey and others), and photos from the day (bring yours on a USB drive).

Does this remind anyone of the full day of work parties for Earth just half a year ago? The so-called 10-10-10 work day, spawned by 350.org, was a commitment by people worldwide to work together locally to slow global warming. Transition West Marin coordinated that great day of weeding, planting, apple-cider-and-fresh-tamales making, and celebration.

Recognizing that planetary health and community resilience are ongoing priorities, Transition West Marin has reactivated an impressive local network for Earth Day 2011. As a coordinating council, TWM serves to align the good energies of many groups and individuals toward responsive cohesion in a time of great change. All of us ultimately are included in this network.

See you on Earth Day!