Green Tribe of Belonging

  Thank Heavens for Weeds! Thank heavens they are not always mowing the roadsides anymore Or spraying to remove unwanted vegetation. The earth is too manicured as it is, Every hill and valley planted with crops. Lawns cultivated to grow only grass  Kept clipped so it can never mature. When I drive down the highway and Come across an area too steep for the big mowers, Or too damp, or too rough, I feel like shouting hallelujah!  Here the rightful residents are allowed to flourish, Shooting up tall in their natural life cycle, Flowering, seeding, and then sending sun energy Back to roots for another season. Free enterprise of the plant world!  What a smorgasbord of color, size, texture. Here creativity can get a toehold. A treasure chest of life and growth, And source of food for other lives: Seeds for birds, leaves for insects and animals,  Wonderful and vast root networks in which Microorganisms flourish underground. Nature set free, if only peripherally,  o...

  Tree Dream If truly we have a chance  for another life, my deep wish would be to come back as a tree. Standing tall at the edge of a forest, roots tangled with my neighbors’ roots. And as a small sapling, I’d be nourished by the wise mother tree above me. As I get older, I would join the stand of tall strong trees at the edge of our land, some my own kin, all taking our turn, holding up the whole, reaching out to others. When storms come through, we’d stand grounded, solid, bracing each other as the wind whips past, sending warnings to the trees across the valley by our roots. In summer, I would hold out my arms to welcome beings in different shapes: animals, insects, birds,  as I host a wide ecosystem of life, all thriving together in the small world around my body. Squirrels scampering up and down my branches, birds digging out homes in my trunk, insects nestled in my bark that feed the bigger life. Eggs and seeds buried in my leaf mast below. And maybe a little girl,...