Green Tribe of Belonging

 It is winter, when everything outdoors slows down. The trees have lost their leaves, the grass turns brown, the cold encourages us to cuddle up in our homes. Winter can be a quieter time for us, with more chances to reflect. And like many of us, I've been trying to understand how a man was elected to the presidency who seems to stand against everything that we thought were common values: care for the earth, concern about the climate, the philosophy that all people are equal under the law, the worth and rights of women, aid to the disadvantaged, respect for the boundaries of other countries....  The list goes on and on. And more people voted for this man than for his opponent. How have we gotten to this place? What is causing what appears to be a crazy detour into chaos? So let's look at our values, I thought. What values drive the majority of Americans? And how might that help to explain how we got where we are now? When Europeans first started to migrate to the Americas, the...

  It is Sunday in Iowa, and I sat quietly in our Quaker meeting this morning. It felt like such a special thing, no one fighting for attention, everyone sitting quietly, respectful, waiting for the spirit to grow within us. It is not very often that we do this in our everyday lives. Hardly ever do we have a room full of people sitting in silence, a friendly, warm, welcoming silence. What a novelty compared to our normal gatherings. This group quiet is a time to re-set, to go deep, to send our roots down. However, we’ve been vicariously experiencing the opposite setting in our current political scene. I sat there this morning thinking about this, about the contrast, and about human behaviour in general, about how we got to this current state of affairs. I couldn’t help smiling as I imagined the folks I was sitting with this morning in the guise of early humans, gathered perhaps in a cave or around a fire, close to the earth, banding together for safely, comfort and the sharing of es...

  I wish I were a bold old woman with beneficial super powers. I’d fly around on my walking stick and deal with the problems of the world. I’d hover over the battlefields sprinkling my magic dust and suddenly soldiers would pause and begin to love their enemies. I would wave my wand  over barren landscapes and watch while  green growth reappeared. I would take aim at corrupt politicians, the ones whose egos have taken over, and with a flourish of my fingers rhey would be stopped in their tracks. I would breathe a story of compassion In the ears of sleeping millionaires. And funnel out the taste for power In men who are hooked on domination. I would whisper tales of wild green places to the grand industrial executives, And then, at the end of a long day, I would ride home smiling.

  Life on Earth Imagine her beginnings, this Mother Earth of ours. Hot and twirling elements slowly becoming a ball. Then cooling, cooling, the surface becoming hard, the inside molten, spinning from light to dark, circling the bright hot star we call the sun, as mountains rise and oceans are carved. For eons this hard round rock had no life, and then who knows how, the tiniest life emerged. And then, the explosion of Earth’s life was like a science fiction adventure, the bounty and grand complexity astonishing if we let ourselves see it. And now among the billions and billions  of living beings, with life in and on the ground and in the sky, I stop on a forest path and am awed by one small miraculous flower.

  What the heck?!! We’ve been dropped into serious times,  dangerous times. Suddenly our very ways of life  are being challenged. Our values and our freedoms  are in jeopardy. It’s hard not to feel stunned and numb,  on pause. How tempting  to bury our heads in the sand And hope we survive  the coming 4 years. But it’s no fun to feel  discouraged and powerless, As we shake our heads  in denial and disgust. Maybe it’s time to rev up  our resistance mode, Start playing music  from the 60s and 70s, Fan to life the embers  of our rebellious selves, And stand up to authority  with truth and courage. Hard times bring people together, And together we can do  so much more than alone. Singing songs of freedom and justice, Working for the good of our communities. Instead of being spurred into discouragement Let’s be spurred into action,  into hope and light Let the challenges of the times make us rise up Ready to work...

 It is autumn. Leaves are falling and many plants have shot up stalks of seeds. I carried some seeds back from our herb harvest the other day and there are more just waiting for someone (me?) to notice them. Right outside my front door is a tall tall spike of the big seeds of Black Cohosh, and I think of it as a very special medicinal. Yes, I tell that plant, I will collect your seeds and plant them in the early spring next year. (Note to self: Do it!) Most times of year, I don't think much about seeds. But as the whole world turns toward winter, with plants dying and turning brown, the value of seeds starts to sink in. Many plants are dying and they're annuals, not perennials. What would happen to the population of these plants if there were no seeds? They would go extinct. Thank goodness for seeds! We don't want to lose all those fine plants. This makes me wonder about the evolution of seeds. When the earth was young, when things were cooling down and life was just beginn...