From the Editor

On Not Getting Bogged Down

I could make any number of jokes here about getting bogged down or swamped. I am often busy, by default, and slowing down enough to enjoy the places and spaces that offer the greatest opportunities for reflection, joy, and creative inspiration takes active planning. It also drives challenging changes, including our decision to end Owl Light with this final issue of 2022. 

Our Q4 front page article touches on some of the things that I believe are most important to preserve and cherish. We live on the border of a delightful swamp which dips into our property and we have dug additional vernal pools to encourage swamp creatures to move closer to us. As I walk the shoreline of our small pond, multiple Green Frogs, Lithobates clamitans, leap into the pond’s center where they stretch out and float most luxuriously, waiting for us to move on. We also own a section of swamp in Brockport, NY, which might inspire comments like, “If you believe that, I have some fantastic swamp land you just might want.” 

We love swamps and bogs, lakes and rivers, and meandering streams. Land acquisition is, for us, about preservation, and if I was in the millionaire/billionaire clubs, I would buy as much land (and water) as I could, before others who confuse development with progress do. Thankfully for us all (and all the species that we threaten with our oft errant and inconsiderate behaviors and greed) there are other like-minded folks who have acted by forming larger groups of like-minded folks to safeguard large parcels of land, thereby investing in the future of threatened and endangered species and offering some hope for the human species and more than “tree museum” (thanks Joni!) trees for the generations following in our soiled footsteps. Carole King –a contemporary of Joni’s—brings trees front and center when she points out, in an August 25, 2022 New York Times Opinion Piece, that, “It Costs Nothing to Leave Our Trees as They Are.” She asks President Joe Biden to take steps to stop logging operations in America’s National Forests (land that belongs to us all). Let’s hope that he listens and is able to bypass the quagmire of political bipartisanship to bring that small wish to fruition. 

I understand that change is inevitable. I was, from an early age, cognizant of the passing of time. The older I get the more I realize the impermanence in all things. Fields I once ran through and trees I once climbed have been replaced by housing developments. Buildings that have stood for centuries have fallen into disrepair. Trains have been replaced by interstates; their tracks turned into trails. Forests become shopping malls, and more shopping malls until they, too, fall into obsolescence. Mountains pushed into existence gradually wear to dust. Although some changes are inevitable (and welcomed) with the passing of time, there are also many obvious negative changes accelerated by us. As I spoke with the various environmentalists for this issue’s feature article, I was both enlightened by their past and continuing work and saddened by how so many of our fellow humans fail to see the negative impacts on our planet, our species — and all the species we share this one world with—of our personal greed. 

One of our goals in starting Canadice Press was to offer ideas and insights, to help foster positive social and environmental change. We contributed to this important objective for five years, a very short time given the history of newspapers in the Americas. Many that have shut down, including notable local examples, published for much longer timeframes.* 

We all live in a time when what might have taken decades—changes both positive and not so good—now happen seemingly overnight. Our lives, too, seem to be moving at a faster pace with more complications than in those earlier times. Nonetheless, we are gradually finding ways of slowing down, finding a pace that offers us time to linger in the Owl Light. For me, that includes creating more, in a variety of mediums. 

To say I will miss Owl Light does not even touch on the loss (for me and for many who have joined us in this part of our journey). It is never easy letting go, moving on (especially when it is something as cherished to all of us as the Owl has become). We never know what lies ahead, but to steal a line from Illusions by Richard Bach, “The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.”

Update: After Owl Light Q4 went to print, we heard that the Chronicle Express has been purchased and WILL continue to publish—hopefully making that 200 year mark…and beyond!

*Including the Chronicle-Express 1824-2022. This 198-year-old Yates County weekly newspaper ceased publication on Sept. 14, 2022, after almost 200 years in print.