Small Kindnesses by Danusha Laméris I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying. And sometimes, when you spill lemons from…
“If we reach common ground, and can understand what everybody’s going through, we can really affect change. And make sure that everyone is treated equally and has the same freedom.” —Colin Kaepernick One day, as I walked the land at Prairiewoods, I saw the tree photographed above. Note how it stands in a place of…
Near Stonehenge, the recent discovery of subterranean Neolithic shafts forming a two-kilometer wide ring up to ten meters across and five meters deep around the “super henge” at Durrington Walls has caused quite an archeological stir. The structures have been carbon dated to about 2500 B.C.E. Research on Stonehenge itself has been the focus of…
As we continue to reflect on the peaceful world that our hearts know is possible, people across the global are realizing that we need to be more conscious about our thoughts, statements, behaviors, biases, prejudices, judgments of self and others. This short TEDxGenova talk, “Own Your Behaviors, Master Your Communication, Determine Your Success,” presented by…
“While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.” —St. Francis of Assisi We are living in a strange time of immediacy. There used to be a time when Amazon primarily evoked an image of a rainforest in South America, and it took effort and…
While we are all hanging out in this sacred cocoon of “PanDeepening,” it seems like we are trembling on the brink of something totally new, something profoundly alluring and terrifying at the same time. Perhaps it is a new “We” that is bigger, more inclusive, more complex and more dynamic than we ever imagined. How might…
Happy Juneteenth! Observation of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day continues since 1865 to spread across the United States and beyond. Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. A growing awareness of this celebration in cities across the country invites us to reflect how oppressive racism and pervasive violence imprisons. Amid…
It all began with an email. Sister Joann Gehling invited me to consider participating in a prayer vigil for several immigrants who have been detained in the Linn County Jail. Some of their hearings were to take place on Wednesday, June 3, at the US District Courthouse. Family members would be present as part of…
“The Chinese philosopher Confucius (551–479 BC) put forth the notion of a social self—a self inextricably linked to the life of others. Each person is not morally autonomous, but a social being whose identity derives from his interaction and conduct within the broader human community. Central to a healthy and enlivened social self is the…
Dear Prairiewoods Family, Hello and much love to each of you. This is my last blog post as the ecospirituality coordinator at Prairiewoods. I have been thinking about this post all week, and it is hard to find the words for all that I am feeling as I take my leave of Prairiewoods as the…