Pamela Loxley Drake

I held you in my hand. Tossed and turned, smooshed and smooshed again, the fragrance’s healing powers eased my soul. Lavender you filled my senses. You calmed my heart.

As the hummingbird drank from the pink flowers, two bumble bees visited the bee balm next to me. I contemplated life and my present condition asking the earth to calm my worries and frustrations. Ease mine that I might ease yours.

The healing power of nature is under attack. Our bees are dying. There are fewer in our yard and neighborhood. How do we heal what damage has been done?

Our yard is a bit unusual. I plant flowers and plants that feed and protect the birds, bees and butterflies who come this way. Water is available that they might drink. The deer walk in the yard among the flowers and drink from the bird bath. But this isn’t enough, is it?

Our protected lands are being threatened. We fear for the forests here in Oregon. Our democracy, our way of life, our world is being threatened. We live in a garden of peoples as varied as the flowers that grow throughout the world. They are all beautiful yet they, too, are under attack by prejudice and hatred.

The climate is changing. There is no denying it. Man/womankind are losing their homes, their livelihoods, their hope to a climate change that goes beyond the weather.

Yes, we are threatened. There is no hope if there is no acknowledgement and action to save all that we enjoy and cherish. The signs are bold. The world is in pain! Denialism doesn’t work, does it?

For what we leave to the powers that be, destroys us in return. You and I are the voices of and for the people and this lovely earth we have inherited. This is what we are about.

One butterfly that I have seen has visited our garden this year. A few bees buzz but only one bumble bees has come to hang out with me. Our mason bees hatched and filled the cocoon tubes, but how many will make it next year? We are the gardeners of this chaotic garden of color and life.

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Pamela Loxley Drake is a Beaverton resident and self-described lifelong “farm girl.” You can contact her at pamldrake@gmail.com.