Green Tribe of Belonging

 It is still winter here, though we had a week or two of unseasonably warm temperatures that felt like spring. Now the temperature is down into the teens again, and probably that is good for all the trees and shrubs, at least the ones who weren't fooled into blooming or leafing out too early. If the past is any indicator, it can still frost here in Iowa in May. Who knows what surprises the climate will bring this year, but here, the landscape is still brown. I have a wonderful south-facing window in my office/massage room, and I get lovely views of sunsets, wild geese flying over, clouds crossing the horizon. However, the view from lower down is just the straight lines of buildings and our paved Prairie Hill Lane.  It is during the winter months that I sometimes suddenly notice that we are surrounded by straight lines. Driving down a city street, without the lovely fluffy green of trees and lawns or the colorful flower beds, everything under the clouds is straight: homes built...

  Our small round planet of Earth, a perfect distance from the nearest star, slowly evolving through the ages, with shifting land, volcanic eruptions, drought and floods, as water moves through lakes, rivers and oceans. After millions of years, just recently, tiny life emerged. First in water, and hundreds of years later, crawling out onto the land, breathing the air, basking in the sun. Some were plants, pushing roots underground. Some were animals, finding homes in the forest, or alongside the flowing streams. And life changed to suit the changing climates, evolving with the evolving world, wonderful new life developing. In the measure of time, only an eyeblink ago, our own species appeared, part of the whole, living in harmony with the life surrounding them, a new creature with new abilities. And as we became more abundant, our communities more gathered, our communications broadened to words and paintings on the walls of caves. Our minds needed to have connection and understandi...

Our February Earthcare Working Group meeting is coming up this Saturday, February 7th, at Prairie Hill Cohousing, 140 Prairie Hill Lane, at 2:00 in the common house living room. All are welcome to attend! This time we are bringing reports on inspiring or helpful books we've read lately on the general topic of earthcare. By the end of this meeting, we will have chosen one of the books for us all to read, to be discussed together in a few months. It is not too late to finish (or start!) reading something that you've been postponing, and you can tell us about it on Saturday. We'll start the meeting with our usual go-round of uplifting reports from previous weeks about things in nature we've experienced. Then we'll have a time to share timely political things we can do or participate in, then a song we'll sing together, and then to the sharing of book reports. And as usual, there'll be snacks. If you're near enough to Prairie Hill (in Iowa City), I hope you...