Green Tribe of Belonging

 As humans, we naturally view the world through the eyes of our own species, and of our culture. As our species has developed, we've become more distanced from the other living things around us so that sometimes our worldview is totally focused on the doings of other people, the natural world viewed a bit like furniture, something in the background but not very important. I imagine this is a tendency with other animals too. Wolves may not think much about the interrelationships among their neighbors in the forest. Chipmunks' lives are probably focused mostly on their secure homes and navigating the dangers outside as they look for food. But it can be mind-blowing to let yourself imagine being some other species, even plants. As I was sitting quietly in Friends Meeting the other day, a little restless and unfocused, I began to look out the window at a tree limb blowing in the wind. Just a limb, covered in leaves, attached to a tall trunk out of my view. And I began to imagine th...

 We've planted two native short-growing grasses around all our buildings here at Prairie Hill. They are deep-rooted, allowing rain to soak deep without running off, and once these grasses get well-established, they don't need to be mowed often. Since we don't use herbicides here, we have been holding weeding parties for the past 6 or 7 years while these native grasses are getting established. And we're learning about all the weeds that try to find a home on our lawns. Weeds, by definition, are plants that you don't want. And it's easy to think of them negatively: bad plants! I resist that. My feeling is that all plants are here for a purpose and they all have worth. That doesn't mean I don't pull them out of the native grasses, but I do it with respect.  I'm curious about these unwanted plants, so I've done some research on all the weeds we're finding here. This time I've chosen to write about one that is getting more prevalent at Prairie...

  Compassion for Weeds My heart goes out to the plants we call weeds. How would we feel if we were treated as unwelcome even though we were beautifully growing somewhere? How do these strong and resilient unwanted plants feel when they are hated, eradicated, and labeled as undesirable? In truth, they are the strongest plants in our ecosystems, growing without human assistance, filling their own needs. Don’t we owe them our admiration? At least a nod of congratulation? I think of them as brave explorers, journeying through the world, finding just the right place to grow, to mature and spread seeds. These plants have evolved over time into their own unique forms, all different, all with special qualities that help them survive. Some have developed root systems that spread underground. Some  grow winged seeds that are carried by the wind. Some stretch tall enough to catch the sun even in a crowded field. Some attract the perfect foragers who plant for future generations. When I p...

 These are challenging days we're all living through on this earth. Yes, there have been hard times before, but what we know now is that environmentally, these hard times are directly threatening our home. Our home is the friendly and supportive planet we've been nourished and held by all our lives. When we have the courage to look at the statistics, to look at the projections into the future, it can be so scary that things feel hopeless. It might feel like we should just bury our heads in the sand, stay home and wait for the end! Even when I'm getting joy out of watching nature documentaries, always now at the end there is a warning: this wonderful natural world will not last unless we do something to halt the progress of climate change. Now. So though I am left filled with beautiful images from the films, I end up being reminded that we are in a crisis of huge proportions. All of us.  When we're alone in our homes, being reminded of the climate crisis and asked to do ...

  Pulled into Wildness Late afternoon on a hot and humid day. As I walk home, I sense a change in the air, A pause around me as birds stop their singing, A heaviness in the atmosphere, a quietness   that is the beginning of something coming. A panorama of clouds fills the wide open sky, Hazy and dull in the east, dark and looming in the west, And in the sky’s center, storm clouds moving fast toward me, Changing shape as they travel,  hovering nearer the ground. Lightning streaks from high to low as thunder rumbles in the distance. I stand still, waiting, watching, my breath coming slowly. A solitary raindrop falls at my feet, and then another. And suddenly a torrent of rain comes down around me   as I rush to the shelter of my front porch. Loud sounds of raindrops fill the air, steady and hard. And then comes the wind, whipping tree limbs,  Whirling the garden of flowers and ferns nearby. And piercing through the storm blares the siren from City’s cent...

 When I was a girl, I wanted to be a doctor. That was after I wanted to be an explorer in deepest Africa, and then a mail carrier bringing all those precious letters to people. There were so many professions to choose from! But by the time I got to high school, my dream of being a doctor was firmly established. And fortunately I grew up in a local culture where women were not excluded from important roles. I subscribed to Scientific American, read up on medical discoveries, and was really psyched about my future. Then I went to college. You would think that in college they would have encouraged even young women to follow their dreams. But time and again, my advisor discouraged me from pursuing that dream. He finally said that this kind of education would be wasted on me, for I would just get married and have children. And I was so deflated by that opinion that indeed I ultimately dropped out of college, got married, and had children. I doubt that my advisor's attitude would be as c...

I wish I'd thought to post this on the blog before now (just one day before this event)! But I guess it's better now than not at all. If you're in the Iowa City area and are interested in coming to harvest medicinal herbs Saturday morning at 10, you're welcome to do so!   I remember last year when I did an herb-harvesting day, some folks were wishing that we could do that earlier in the season. Good idea! Some herbs, whose roots are the main part we use, are probably best harvested in the fall when the energy has gone back to the roots. But we use the above-ground parts of many medicinals, and now is a great time to harvest them. I'm proposing that if any of you are interested, this coming Saturday morning (6/29) at 10 would work for me to be out in the garden to help anyone find and harvest the following plants (see below). I'm including a little description with each plant, telling you what we've found that they're good for in human health. If you'...