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Bare Trees in Fog

It's in the name . . .

Writer's picture: Marie LaureMarie Laure

 Anastasia State Park is one of the crown jewels in Florida's 175 Parks system.

Walking along the seashore, just last week at dusk, the full super blue moon rose up out of the ocean as the sun sank into the dunes. It doesn't get much better than this!



The next morning the news broke that the Florida Environmental Protection Agency, charged with nothing less than PROTECTION of the land, together with Governor DeSantis, planned to build a 350-room resort on this pristine site on the National Historic Register, i.e., more rooms than remaining Florida panthers!


People's reaction was swift outrage! News coverage was slow to catch up with the online mobilization of everyone who loves that park and the other nine slated for development.

Peaceful, but angry people raised up signs to draw attention to the next grave decision that will ultimately destroy the natural habitat, along with nesting grounds of sea turtles and piping plovers, beach mice, gopher tortoises, while disrupting migratory birds relying on the Atlantic flyway from North to South. Being no stranger to the parks or protests, I showed up to say HELL NO! Some used stronger language, justified in such an unfathomable moment.



"Unfathomable" was the word that the young woman working in the boutique next to the park entrance used when I asked if she had grown up here. "Born and raised here in St. Augustine", she said proudly. "This has certainly brought some tears". Her family had operated a kayak rental launch within the park."Until someone from up North came with more money and took over. This is just another hit. I put out buckets of cold water for the protesters because I have to be in here today". She was visibly upset as she offered overheated protesters a cool place to duck in out of the noonday sun.


She is the voice of reason.


Will her voice, and others' voices be heard on this crucial decision? Here's a hint: The EPA (P=Protection) with less than ONE week's notice, and without notice to county or city officials, scheduled ONE, ONE-hour meeting, to present their plans to the public without comment. This information spread like a California wildfire across online platforms, prompting the EPA to announce a postponement because of a lack of sufficient meeting space in their chosen venue which can hold 500 people! You have to ask yourself, what's going on here? Answers can be found in the past history of the EPA in Florida:


One of the main reasons that there are fewer than 200 Florida Panthers remaining goes back to a decision to build the Tamiami Highway across the Everglades, cutting it in half. This major change to that National Park's fragile ecosystem made it impossible for the natural wildlife to move freely as needed to find food and partners while cars and trucks zoomed without regard killing numbers of them*. Naturalists who spend their lives in these habitats say they hope to see a Florida Panther, at least once. One dusky evening, returning home from a walk, I stopped dead in my tracks. In the distance was the biggest cat I have ever seen. Its tail was high and curled. In the blue twilight, its tan coat was a certain clue. When it stretched itself into a long stride, it was unmistakably the rare Florida Panther. The sheer pleasure of seeing it pass by is indescribable. Nearly extinct, these wild cats are worthy of protection and have remained on the endangered species list since the 1970's. My up-close amazing encounter happened by chance in Northeast Florida, home to the pristine habitat known as Anastasia State Park. https://www.floridastateparks.org/anastasia


If you have ever seen the manatee floating in the Blue Springs, or slept in a cabin surrounded by a thousand natural acres at Princess Place Preserve, or had a picnic at Faver Dykes Park, family land donated for our pleasure, or walked through woods under the canopy of live oaks at the Suwannee River Park, home to Stephen Foster's American folk songs, you understand something special that can never be replaced when lost, like the panthers. It brings tears!


Please, raise your voice by signing this petition whether you live in Florida, visited once, or never have. You just might save a baby turtle trying to get to the ocean on its own. Or one mother deer with her young.










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Guest
Aug 26, 2024
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

C'est moi! Thank you for using your precious blog platform to share this. Words cannot express my dismay that $$$$ could buy State Park Land. Hello, God is not making any more land. Lets cherish what She has given us in the respectful and dignified manner with which she has bestowed this planet to us. 💔

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Guest
Aug 26, 2024
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You said it! Merci.

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© 2023 by Marie Laure

​Six Stages of Pilgrimage:

  • The Call:

  • The opening clarion of any spiritual journey. Often in the form of a feeling or some vague yearning, a fundamental human desire: finding meaning in an overscheduled world somehow requires leaving behind our daily obligations. Sameness is the enemy of spirituality.

  • The Separation:

  • Pilgrimage, by its very nature, undoes certainty. It rejects the safe and familiar. It asserts that one is freer when one frees oneself from daily obligations of family, work, and community, but also the obligations of science, reason, and technology.

  • The Journey:

  • The backbone of a sacred journey is the pain and sacrifice of the journey itself.  This personal sacrifice enhances the experience; it also elevates the sense of community one develops along the way.

  • The Contemplation:

  • Some pilgrimages go the direct route, right to the center of the holy of holies, directly to the heart of the matter. Others take a more indirect route, circling around the outside of the sacred place, transforming the physical journey into a spiritual path of contemplation like walking a labyrinth.

  • The Encounter:

  • After all the toil and trouble, after all the sunburn and swelling and blisters, after all the anticipation and expectation comes the approach, the sighting. The encounter is the climax of the journey, the moment when the traveler attempts to slide through a thin veil where humans live in concert with the Creator.

  • The Completion and Return:

  • At the culmination of the journey, the pilgrim returns home only to discover that meaning they sought lies in the familiar of one's own world. "Seeing the place for the first time . . ."

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