Green Tribe of Belonging

  Was This a Good Idea? As I survey the mess that my two kitties have made, I wonder for the umteenth time: Was this a good idea? At the animal shelter, these 3-month-old sisters, adorable, small and fluffy, called to me: take us home! Why not? My 19-year-old Shadow had left her life years ago. Maybe it’s time to get some pets. This could be a real joy. So I brought them home, rearranged my furniture loaded up with food, litter, scratching boards and turned my place into a cat haven. This should be fun and easy! But, well, not always! Nothing is safe. These little creatures get into everything! Their curiosity takes them to the smallest corner. I open my bedroom door in the morning (they are still too active to be sleepmates), and survey the damage: lamp toppled onto the floor, water bowl turned over, curtains pulled off their rods,  strong smell coming from the litter boxes, and two kitties meowing for breakfast. I go about repairing the damage, wondering again whether this w...

 I turned 80 in June. By some amazing coincidence, all four of us who live in a string of townhouses in our Prairie Hill cohousing community also turned 80 this year! Of the 50+ residents here, we are the only ones who were born in 1945. So we invited our whole community to celebrate our birthday year at a beautiful pond and cabin out in the country. It felt good, getting to that milestone together. However, I've discovered that it is not always fun being an "old woman". I never thought of myself as elderly until this last birthday. But culturally, I've stepped into a whole new category. My first negative old woman experience was with a young doctor. I had some confusing symptoms and called the 'nurse on-call' who instructed me to go to the emergency room immediately. She must have thought I was having a stroke. She even insisted that I go by ambulance, so I took my first ambulance ride, a bit of an adventure in itself. While in the ambulance, they did all kin...

Our Earthcare Working Group started up again several months ago, after taking a 10 year hiatus. We now meet every month at Prairie Hill Cohousing, and each session is focused on a theme related to caring for our earth. We watched the movie Common Ground a couple months ago, and this month we're excited that we can go to a farm where many of the innovative things we saw in the movie are taking place. Here is the announcement I just sent out to our earthcare mailing list, and I thought there are people who read this blog but are not on that list and are local enough to attend this event if they'd like. I know we are all super busy, but this should be a wonderful and educational visit to an inspiring farm. This announcement mentions including an attachment to my cousin's chapter in Connie Mutel's book Tending Iowa's Land . But I can't seem to figure out how to attach it to this blog post. If you're interested in this, send me an email and I'll forward it to...

 Until recently in human history, plants were our main source of medicine. And the early pharmacists of this age studied the scientific make-up of healing plants to make our modern drugs. I imagine if we transported a healer from ancient times to the 21st century for a bit of a peek, they'd be astonished at the tiny round pills that people take now to improve their health. We'd need to explain to them that there is a reason for this. In contrast to ancient communities and landscapes, modern humans do not have healing herbs growing outside their homes or any knowledge of what is good to use for different conditions. To make the healing effects of plants available to everyone, we've had to make artificially-made drugs that copy the plant healers. Of course these pills can't give all the helpful effects of the original plant. But they can target specific results and also make them much more concentrated. We've become so used to using pills for all medical treatment tha...

 I hear more and more reports about the inadequacy of our health services, especially since covid. Doctors and nurses are too busy, and sometimes you have to wait many months for treatment of some conditions, or even evaluations. Now the government is threatening to eliminate tax-supported medical services to people who have been depending upon them for a long time. And who knows what will happen next. Eradication of Medicare? My own personal experiences with the health system are somewhat unique and frustrating, and I've heard this is a trend. Young male doctors have no time or patience for old women (!). Three times in the last year, this has happened to me, all with different young male doctors. "There is nothing wrong with you, Miss Fawcett! Go home and get used to it. This is just how you feel when you're old." That was said by a doc before they found that I had a bad UTI. Hmmm.  Like all of us living in these increasingly chaotic times, I wonder what's comin...

 I didn't grow up in a singing family. My mother was told when she was in school that she should not sing, for she couldn't carry a tune! So sad. But my father was often whistling or humming. He was the musical parent, and he had an accordion in the attic. Sometimes his little children (including me) would beg him to bring it down, and we'd sit around him while he played dance tunes. Even though we didn't sing at home, I loved my music class at school. Our music books were full of wonderful songs, and I was always asking to sing some of my favorites. Our school also had a marching band, and we could choose an instrument and get lessons. I chose the saxophone. I was looking forward to marching with my sax when I got a little older, but in the meantime my little brother was born. He was one of those babies who cried a lot and his naps were a treasure. The last thing my mom needed was a daughter practicing a loud saxophone! So I returned the sax, and settled for taking pia...