My youngest child learned to ride last summer. I watched her front bike wheel wobble on the loose gravel as she sought to find that elusive balance that only comes with time and tumbles. On our return route, she stopped abruptly and gazed into the shadows and underbrush of a one-track dirt trail. With wild…
It’s the last day of a four-day cruise. I’ve been to Nassau, Bahamas, Princess Cay Island, and now a day “at sea,” before returning to Port Canaveral, Florida. I am cruising with three great women-friends! I love them. They each are so powerful in their own, unique ways! And we’ve been friends, each one of…
Each year, Spirituality in the 21st Century invites speakers and community members to come together to explore and expand our thinking about our spirituality and relationships with ourselves, others, Creation and the Source of All Being. Last year, Jeremy Lent explored the intersections of science and ancient wisdom. His words called us to work toward…
I have been fortunate in my life to get to connect with many places across the globe, in part as a result of my work as a climate scientist. India is one of those places and opened my mind to the diversity of life and the innumerable ways of living it. One of my first…
From across Iowa and around the Midwest, I invite you to join me at Spirituality in the 21st Century: Hope in Action, organized by Prairiewoods on Friday, April 26, and Saturday, April 27. Those of us who yearn for a safe, healthy, abundant, and sustainable future for all need a “come together” moment. This is…
Our friends were driving us home in their car. We were returning from a wonderful dinner on a summer evening. When we pulled up into our driveway there it was: a big barred owl perched on the top of our entryway roof. It seemed happy to stay as we all exited the car. I pulled…
Growing up on 200 acres of land in the hills of eastern Iowa, nature was woven into the fabric of my life. My family was farmers, and conversations about nature and the weather were commonplace: Were the crops too dry? Was it too wet to bale hay? Praying a new calf wouldn’t be born in…
On a hot and humid day in early August, I placed my hand on the smooth, gray bark of a centuries-old beech tree in Pennsylvania. I did so both to honor this magnificent arbor elder and to share greetings from another standing a thousand miles away, our own Grandmother Oak at Prairiewoods. I was at…
Recently I was treated to a late summer tour of Prairiewoods by Aaron Brewer, the Land Sustainability Coordinator. The weather was perfect, with clear skies and a lovely mix of late summer heat and autumn light. We rode in the “Mule,” the all-terrain vehicle that I’ve often watched Sister Nancy Hoffman drive fearlessly over the…
“Everything that exists has its true name. The power of magic is nothing more than the power to command, based on the knowledge of the thing’s true nature.” —Sparrowhawk, “Tales from Earthsea,” 2006, Studio Ghibli Tall grass, by any name, has given safe harbor to my enemies for most of my life. Initially lured to…