Green Tribe of Belonging

(I've been sick with a stubborn virus for the last 10 days, and not feeling much like writing anything. But I found this (see below) piece in my file and it seems to give the kind of inspiration I need, and perhaps it will be good for you too.)  “Lessons from Geese” was transcribed from a speech given by Angeles Arrien at the 1991 Organizational Development Network and is based on the work of Milton Olson.  Lessons from Geese Fact 1:  As each goose flaps its wings it creates an "uplift" for the birds that follow. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.  Lesson 1: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.  Fact 2: When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting p...

 As an antidote to the dismaying happenings in our government lately, I've been spending a lot of time out in nature. I go to my garden where I've planted hundreds of seedlings I grew inside. And also to my favorite spot at Kent Park, where you can look out over prairie and sky, birds flying overhead, trees shading the landscape, a wide expanse of the earth with less evidence of human interference. There I can breathe deep, open my mind and heart, and join the other millions of lifeforms in our world. I can remind myself that I'm just another little being, connected to everything. And I can ask for guidance. I love to think about how life sustains itself. All of us beings (plant and animal) grow and thrive for awhile, and then when we're done, our bodies sustain the following generations of life. It's like natural recycling, there from the beginning. Our earth's natural rhythms perfected this process long before we coined the term recycling. As a follow-up to ou...

 I've been thinking about the theme of this particular blog post for days, but then I doubt that I can do it justice, so I busy myself with something else. Today, though, there's no excuse for putting it off. So I'll just start writing. Probably the same as many of you, it is hard to pay attention to what's happening in the world and still feel positive energy. I get twenty or thirty requests for money from Democratic candidates every day, and I've stopped even opening them. I imagine they are worthy causes, but any extra money I have goes to my family. So I delete and delete, and some days I even delete all the posts about what's happening in the government. Some days I decide I can tolerate reading only one, which is usually Heather Cox Richardson.  And that's just the political stuff. Then there's the planet. It is so easy to lead our human lives, surrounded by things we've created, and forget about what's happening to the environment outside ...