Green Tribe of Belonging

 It's such a busy season! Not enough hours in the day! So rather than writing something new here, I'm going to paste a poem I wrote before I moved to Iowa City. I was living on the family farm, growing medicinal herbs for the farmers market, and enjoying country life. I remember the morning I wrote this poem, and reading it again brings all those memories back. At Dawn Pulled from bed by the sound of waving treetops, I make my way down the long staircase, across the study, and out into the dawn, moving from stillness to an outside world electric with movement. I sit on the top step of the south porch, letting the cool moist air wash over me. A regiment of clouds approaches from the west, full of the promise of something significant, a mixture of blacks and grays,  morphing into rounded shapes, and then stretching thin and long  as the wind carries them on. Wrapped in the stillness of an observer, I watch small birds soar high above the trees and then swoop down, moved to ...

  Back when the earth was early in its evolution, it was made of inert materials. This was 4.5 billion years ago and the earth was just forming in our galaxy. What we know now as our planet home went through many stages before it settled into a solid globe with scattered land masses surrounded by oceans. About .8 billion years after its initial formation, the very first life appeared. In the beginning, this life was made up of mostly one-celled bacteria: tiny and simple, tentative experiments in living form. About 1 billion years ago, multi-celled algae came on the scene. These first more complex life forms began in the water but eventually moved up onto the land. And gradually there was an explosion of diverse plants and animals spreading into every crevice of our world. Looking from the human vantage point, where a year is a long time, the billions of years before us in the evolution of our planet can be mind-boggling. So much has happened over such a very long time span. So many...

  Returning Home Earth moves through rays of sun, turning, balancing. All of us part of that round bright whole. Her life force brought us here, all of us from the smallest amoeba to the largest whale, even our intrepid species homo sapien, who’ve used our brains and hands to manipulate the earth, the land.  Even our species is part of the whole. Does Earth Mother feel us as a blight? Does she still have patience to nurture us though we continually harm her? Once we worshiped her, gave her tender care, talked to her, honored her as our source. But over time we set ourselves apart, placed ourselves at the top, ruling over all. We forgot our place, we forgot our grounding. Now our blinders are pulling back, we see our world in peril. Our grandchildren will have no home here, unless we mend our ways and right the wrongs. Let’s lay aside the illusion of power turn toward the web of life and take our place as fellow creatures, not dictators, open our eyes to the fabric of the livin...

 For most of my adult life, I was hardly aware that many people watched sports on TV or in person. I was too busy raising a family, maybe. And the culture of the small mountain community where I lived did not seem to notice the whole phenomenon of national sports events like football, basketball and baseball. Then I moved back to Iowa in order to be a support to my aging mother. I worked and lived at a Quaker boarding school nearby (Scattergood) and drove the couple miles to my mother's farmhouse several times a week to check on her and help her with things. Whenever I turned up at her house in the evening, I would find her in the kitchen in front of the big TV watching a game. Depending upon the season, it was football in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring and summer. And she was an avid fan. Her feet would be stamping on the floor when the excitement of the game was at high pitch. She would praise or bemoan different plays depending upon how it turned o...

 I was centering down, zooming into Quaker Meeting Sunday morning after a good night's sleep, when out of my window I saw a V of geese heading southeast across the sky. At once my heart lifted and I smiled as I took a deep breath. That sight rooted me in the world and blew away my scattered thoughts. There is something about a formation of geese high above, heading forward together, that catches my imagination. I am not an expert on birds, but it seems somewhat unique to have birds flying together in formation. In so many ways, it is inspiring. For one thing, they fly as a group. Being a person, I know that for us it is no easy thing to gather together and move in formation. It takes having one purpose, a united motivation. Geese flying in formation seem to be a gathered group of one mind. Yet the leader has a pivotal position, in front of the flock and guiding the way. We have leaders too. But an inspiring thing about goose leadership is that it changes all the time. One goose gui...

  Weather Forecast Weather systems from the west come storming across our skies,  sometimes staying for days  carrying rain, turbulence, unrest. Light is dim and darkened, as we head for shelter. The gods of sky and earth are fighting, thunder and lightning crashing around us. Then there are the sunny days, a clearing after the storm, ground moist, plants thriving, air fresh and clean. We smile as sunlight warms our bodies, lights our path. Energy fills us with purpose as we get to work in our green world. The weather of mood can be much the same, a stormy time settling in for awhile bringing memories of anger, regret, impatience, and suddenly nothing seems quite right. Even if the sun is shining outside our internal landscape is dreary and sad, whipped up by some long ago storm whose impact never quite leaves. Yet just as suddenly our internal sky can clear, the clouds blown away by friends or events, things to remind us of our blessings, our treasures. Our hearts lift, ...

 One of the concepts of permaculture that I particularly value is the deep observation of a site. Before you plant or even plan, you get to know a particular landscape intimately. This comes before placing a garden, a building, an orchard, a playscape, or any other developed area. You use your many senses to take in the particulars of a place. How does the sun hit it? How does the wind come? Does rain gather in pools, run off, or sink in? Is there shade? What is already growing there? What is the slope of the land? The way to discover all these things is to be there, quietly taking it all in. Rather than sitting in your office at your computer, intellectually making a plan, you need to experience the site first hand, get comfortable, and turn off your thoughts. Be quiet. Begin to notice. Let your body pick up signals: wind on your skin, your ears catching sound, your nose noticing fragrances, your eyes looking for insects, undergrowth, birds, sky. Be part of the landscape for a bit...