(I've been sick for a couple weeks, just beginning to feel good again. Here's a poem I wrote just before I moved from the farm to our cohousing community, and it seems a good one for us right now in our troubled world.) Centering I taught my two grandsons to use a potters wheel. They were excited, ready to engage, imagining beautiful vases, plates, creations. And then they found out about centering, a challenge only one of them finally mastered. There is the whirling surface, and the hunk of clay in the center, wobbling and bumping around, all cattywhompel, uneven, rough and stubborn. What is needed is firm, strong hands, braced on stability, urging the clay down and in, resisting the pull outward, resisting the pull to disorder. It takes slow patience, easy breathing, focus, unflappable intent. And once the clay is finally guided to the still center, it spins beautifully, smoothly, unerringly in place. It is only then that the potter can begin to shape, to carefully, bit b...
It's been too long since I wrote a post for this blog. Part of that is because my schedule was totally full of meetings when I got back from Asheville a week ago. And part of it is that I've had a hard time not feeling angry and depressed by what is happening in our country, at least politically. I read Heather Cox Richardson's posts every day, but I'm almost deciding to take a break for awhile since the news is so very terrible. I know there are still good things in the world, and I'm starting to actively look for them and let them inspire me. Last evening, walking back from a meeting in the common house to my front porch (a 20 second walk), I looked up and saw the moon, and it filled me with something big: gratitude, perspective, awe. When I got home, I wrote this cinquaine: Full moon. High in the sky. What a reminder that Some things in our world are still here, Touch point. Just looking up to something way out of my worried everyday life was such a gift. Some t...
I guess I would call myself an Earth Activist. Many of my activities are chosen because I want to learn from the natural world or support the healing of the earth. These days in the 21st century, when our planet's future is gravely called into question, it is easy to get angry at the folks who think climate change is a myth, or that it is crazy to let environmental factors slow down our manic rush for money. When I am frustrated by the divisions in this country along this subject, I make myself pause so that I can better understand why so many people are against caring for the earth. I think back to the culture that we baby-boomers were born into. Our philosophy in this country centered around individualism, competition, and succeeding in business (making lots of money). You knew you were successful of you topped the charts in whatever you did. Most of us increasingly lived in cities with paved streets and sidewalks, houses to be inside when we weren't at work, surrounded by m...
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