Submitted by Claire O’Reilly
The Tobermory Muses held its inaugural Earth Day event “Rugged, Wild, A contemplative exploration of connectedness to the Earth” on April 19th. Mother Nature gave us beautiful Spring weather, for which we were grateful. The atmosphere was casual and friendly, but also respectful in accordance with intent of the evening.
Our thanks are extended to Priscilla Yellowhead Tobey who opened and closed the affair with prayer and smudging to cleanse the air and bring us into the room.
As the room gathered, Nolan Davis and Jonathan Newitt provided us with lovely music for which we are also grateful. The Tobermory Choir, which opened our musical evening with “O Beautiful Gaia”, sang beautifully, setting the tone for the evening to come.
Many thanks also to the Tobermory Drummers, who had us close our eyes as they took us through rain and water sounds, and the rhythmic flow of nature.
Olivia Mater sang, accompanied by Nolan Davis on guitar. Together they brought to our attention that there has been a wholesale removal of nature-related lexicon from dictionaries and resources in favour of including language related to electronic media.
We are grateful, also, to Nick Ferrence for managing acoustics, without which we would have had a much quieter event!
For our part, we the Muses generally kept our work to the lighter side of Mother Nature, expressing what a joy we share here, living in the Northern Saugeen Peninsula. We took great pleasure in bringing awareness to our rich environment, and are grateful to Tobermory United Church for hosting us.
Guests shared afterward that “Rugged, Wild” was warmly received, that the evening had a “sacred” sensibility and that more such occasions would enrich the community.
The Rugged, Wild Earth Day Celebration was our privilege to present. We the look forward to creating another program next Spring.
