I am an avid reader, though I don't read as much as I used to. One of the most hard-hitting books I've ever read is one by Sherri S Tepper: "Beauty"

It's an incredible weaving of the classic Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, science fiction, time travel and a gut-wrenching social comment. One of the basic premises of the story is the link between beauty( as in Natural beauty) and Magic. You are shown a world in the future( and not that far either!), a world where Beauty has died.

We rarely go out to dinner, but the other night we went into Wilmington for a Pub counter meal. We live 25 km from Wilmington, and we are always blown away by the awesome beauty on the drive....even though the landscape is so sere and droughtstricken, there IS an incredible harsh beauty in it, and we love it! Just after we hit the bitumen, there's a small bridge, and I saw something in the middle of the road....I thought it was a goanna...belly up, skittled by some unaware driver.  On the way home, I slowed down to check, and, yes, it WAS a goanna, and quite a large one. I said to DH"How could a person NOT see the goanna on the road??? How could they NOT have plenty of time to avoid hitting it??"

As we drove on in silence, it dawned on me, that that dead goanna was just one of the many casualties I am witnessing as Beauty is slowly dying...right NOW, not some sci-fi time in the future...but NOW!

And it's true. Beauty is dying, piece by piece, in our endless pursuit of money, instant gratification,consumerism,greed and all the other horros of our so-called "civilised culture". As we tear up more of our planet in our driving WANTS, Beauty is being destroyed, one tree, one animal. one smoggy sunset at a time.

Just after we moved to Hammond, we had a youngish bloke out to check our roof.....as he was standing on the highest part, I said to him " I bet that's an amazing view up there"............He said" It would be, if there was something to see."

Beauty IS dying, and it tears me apart to see it happening. 

One of the things I love about places like the ALS Forum, and the Earth Garden Forum, is the "concentration" of people who SEE Beauty, and who are trying so hard to stop it from dying. I despair sometimes though, because the juggernaut of our Global destroyers seems too strong to overcome. My biggest comfort is to go outside and drink in the view of ancient rounded hills, softened into almost gentle slumber, like gargantuan creatures who have curled up, and are sleeping, and I hope that one day they may waken to a world where Beauty has NOT died- it is only sleeping too.