Gwen Frostic, Michigan ecologist and artist, wrote in 1973 that activism on behalf of working for a better future for our planet is not in creating big groups, big plans, unions and community ties. It is in being one who goes deeper into the world. To not belong, but to become. When I was a…
My personal experience, and I know I’m not alone, is that it takes considerable courage to look the climate crisis in the eye. People dislike the climate crisis, to put it mildly, and people are afraid. I am afraid. People who lived through the Cold War are once again living with a kind of existential…
I grew up on a hobby farm in North Branch, Minnesota, studied Environmental Science at Cornell College, and now am working in Social Services and am on the board of Prairiewoods. I love exploring all the different ways of connecting to nature, which is why in my ideal world, I would want it to be like the…
As I walk among the trees adorned in golden morning shadows, much of the ground is still hidden from sight. The sky has caught the first threads of sun and is transforming the darkness into an array of pinks and reds that I do not know how to name. The air is crisp and jacket-worthy,…
Part of my unplanned ritual every dawn involves the consciousness of awakening next to my husband, my partner. There is the warm feeling of gratitude before the more reality-driven thoughts of what this day might hold and how we will intersect during the day. This partnership/relationship has been shaping itself for many years and continues…
HOW IT BEGAN: In the fall of 2008, I returned to my hometown, Cedar Rapids, after living 30 years in Milwaukee. By the fall of 2009, I felt the need for a retreat and stopped by Prairiewoods, a retreat center I’d heard about located on a new (for me) road—Boyson. After the retreat I asked Sr.…
This universe This world This life Is a murmuration Thought stream and physicality rejected Protected within the universal tribe Larger something, larger everything Surrounded by those close Strangers distant Neighbors and lovers of lovers Whole unknown Constantly changing Shape shifting, role switching Protected to protector From suffering expected Suffer inevitable Systematic knowing Not a needing…
These are difficult times. Events unfolding in the Middle East are unimaginably horrific. How do any of us imagine a way forward from the terrible violence we are witnessing now, and how do we find a new way that does not perpetuate more terror and pain? I have returned to a poem by Denise Levertov…
Recently the ongoingness of my life journey has become clearer. I have become aware of some wide patterns I seem to live, one in particular. Throughout my life I have enjoyed “moving on”—I start an adventure/experience, dig into the learning and practices, become knowledgeable and/or somewhat proficient; and then something new will catch my attention…
Self-described “author and integrator” Jeremy Lent, who will be visiting Prairiewoods in April for Spirituality in the 21st Century, calls for creating a new web of meaning to enable the development of an ecological civilization in which “all humans flourish as part of a thriving Earth.” Following the flood in Cedar Rapids in 2008 I…