The
Wheel Keeps Turning
Spring
is bursting forth with life all around, but
illness and death stalks my home these days. The
human residents are fighting off THE VIRUS,
which has finally, finally caught up
with us after several false scares over the past
three years. Meanwhile, our beloved nonhuman
family member — an adventurous, talkative Bengal
cat named Bhima — is rapidly wasting away from
cancer.
It has been a tough two
weeks — emotionally and physically — trying to
keep the out-of-school kids cared for and
engaged, wrapping up our summer print issue, and
offering love and comfort to Bhima as his breath
begins to flow into the life of the
Universe.
“Please don't make
yourself super sick by, you know, ‘powering
through [at work],” my colleague, Brian, advised
me yesterday. They know me well — Brian and Zoe
— my teammates, my support system here at
the Journal. They know that, for me,
journalism is, what Brian calls, “a lifeway,”
not a job. Because it is the same for them. Yes,
I am, indeed, trying to power through, but I’m
increasingly beginning to understand what the
ancient Roman poet, Ovid,
meant when he wrote: “What is without periods of
rest will not endure.”
So, I’m
going to keep this missive short, and really,
truly, switch off this weekend and
spend time with my family to grieve and to
heal.
Hope you all are making time
to rest as well.
Maureen Nandini
Mitra
Editor, Earth Island
Journal Photo of Bhima by Ian
Umeda
|
