What are you noticing as we begin the autumn season? What are you seeing, now several weeks after the derecho storm? I am noticing trees and stumps and so much beauty. The forest in my neighborhood has opened up again. As I move along with the trees, the light pours in. The canopy is open…
As the Prairiewoods artist-in-residence, I have the privilege of spending time at Prairiewoods in a variety of seasons, meandering through the prairie, visiting Grandmother Oak, slowly turning in circles as I walk the labyrinth. A little over a year ago, I waded into Dry Creek—not dry at all!—and perched on a rock with the water…
“To make a prairie, it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee, And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few.” —Emily Dickinson When I was a child, I was known for being able to fall asleep anywhere. Once I laid down on a busy sidewalk to snooze while…
“The spiritual function of fierce terrain … is to bring us to the end of ourselves, to the abandonment of language and the relinquishment of ego. A vast expanse of jagged stone, desert sand, and towering thunderheads has a way of challenging all the mental constructs in which we are tempted to take comfort and…
Pleased to meet you, Little Oak. I see you’re growing at an angle. Growing like you’re reaching. Like you’re stretching yourself. Like a pre-teen searching the sky. I’m rooting for you. Praying for you. Singing songs for you in your sleep. I’ll be thinking of you, dreaming of your future. And you may see me…
In last Monday’s blog (https://prairiewoods.org/interior-wilderness/), we offered an exercise to plunge deeper into our interior wilderness in the aftermath of loss. Whatever “storm” we have recently endured, environmental, communal or personal, the loss profoundly affects our sense of self, our identity. Once we have begun exploring our interior wild-scape after a loss, and we begin…
(Prairiewoods tree that fell on the labyrinth due to the derecho) Often over the years since I first learned Maya Angelou’s poem “When Great Trees Fall” in 1990, it has consoled me during the deaths of many loved ones. These weeks in light of the derecho and hurricane destruction, the wild fires, the Pandemic, the…
Grandmother Oak still stands! I was so happy to read those words in a text from Prairiewoods Director Jenifer Hanson following the derecho storm. Like many others, soon after the storm ended, I thought about Prairiewoods, hoping and praying that everyone was all right. I was sad to hear that many trees at Prairiewoods were…
Thank you to everyone in Prairiewoods’ mycelial network for the outpouring of love and support and shared sadness in the aftermath of the Aug. 10 derecho, which decimated the tree canopy in Cedar Rapids. This poem was composed for love of our fallen arbor-elders in the wake of a devastating loss for this bio-region and beyond.…
You’re always welcome to pray the outdoor labyrinth at Prairiewoods. Walking the labyrinth is a powerful, embodied prayer experience. I love this particular prayer form and have had a unique experience each time I do it. I remember years ago, the first time I walked the labyrinth at Prairiewoods, I actually felt some discomfort. Am…