Margaret Atwood, Outside

The Earth Forgives

The Earth forgives the Miner’s blast That rends her crust and burns her skin;

The centuries bring Trees again, And water, and the Fish therein.

The Deer at length forgives the Wolf That tears his throat and drinks his blood;

His bones return to soil, and feed The trees that flower and fruit and seed.

And underneath those shady trees

The Wolf will spend her restful days; And then the Wolf in turn will pass,

And turn to grass the Deer will graze. All Creatures know that some must die

That all the rest may take and eat; Sooner of later, all transform

Their blood to wine, their flesh to meat.

But Man alone seeks Vengefulness, And writes his abstract Laws on stone;

For this false Justice he has made, He tortures limb and crushes bone.

Is this the image of a god?

My tooth for yours, your eye for mine? Oh if Revenge did move the stars

Instead of Love, they would not shine. We dangle by a flimsy thread,

Our little lives are grains of sand: The Cosmos is a tiny sphere

Held in the hollow of God’s hand.Give up your anger and your spite,

And imitate the Deer, the Tree; In sweet Forgiveness find your joy,

For it alone can set you free.

I wrote about Margaret Atwood in my Lion Lamb blog as she celebrated her 80th birthday and I figured I should do so here, in my "earthy" Groundling blog as well. In her Maddaddam Trilogy of novels there are sermons and hymns bringing together faith and Earth-care in the dystopian world of God's Gardeners. Those hymns have actually been set to music.



Margaret Atwood and her father 1942

Atwood's father was an entomologist -- an insect guy -- so the family spent a lot of time in the wild, including at their cabin on Lake Temagami in Northern Ontario. When asked to share a story about her late partner, Graeme Gibson, in a CBC interview she spoke about a canoe trip on Temagami in their earlier years during which they stopped at an isolated cabin to ask an elderly couple for some bacon. She figures they acquiesced out of fear of the sketchy looking pair at their door.

Atwood has supported A Rocha, a Christian Creation-Care organization and she and Gibson were board members with the Pelee Island Bird Observatory. 

I hope this remarkable Canadian is able to continue her own exploration of God's good Earth for years to come, and to be an eloquent advocate for the causes she loves. And that she'll continue to bring home the bacon. 


Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson as quintessential Bird Nerds