Green Tribe of Belonging

 Sometimes I just need to get away from all the bustle. I feel a call to go to a wilder place, and I hop in the car and drive to a beautiful large park not far away. It's full of huge trees, stretches of prairie, many trails, a lake, hills and valleys. And it's easy to find a place to be alone with the wildness. I usually find somewhere quiet and comfortable, and sit down in the pine needles or on a bench along a path. My whole body relaxes, my breath comes more slowly, and I keep smiling as I recognize familiar trees, flowers, herbs, birds and insects. It feels like home in a different way than my house feels like home. It's a wider belonging, a web of life covering the whole planet. And no matter who we are, we are all part of it. Today as I was walking, I ran across a number of plants that I know are strong healers. And it got me thinking about what we do these days when we are sick, or when we feel the need for some healing. Probably most of us do what I was taught to d

  What Might Have Been What a hoot! New evidence shows Neanderthals were smarter than homo sapiens. The joke’s on us now, after we have mercilessly painted these predecessors as bumblingly stupid, ugly, so inferior that they died off. And we, the victors, carried our species into the 21st century, rulers of the planet. I wonder. If the Neanderthal had survived that ice age, would we be in such trouble today? A fluke of location meant they were caught inescapably by the perils of climate. So we with our inferior brains were left to hold down the fort. Or not. They say we have remnants of Neanderthal genes in our DNA. That might help. And surely at this point we need all the help we can get.