Meeting New Trees

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…

Interior Wildness & the Wider “We”

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…

When Great Trees Fall

(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…

Not Our Trees

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.…

Praying the Labyrinth

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…

Beans, Butterflies and Cosmos

This probably sounds like an odd combination, but I’ve been pondering beans, butterflies and cosmos these days. All are abundant in my garden and yard. The vegetable garden is in full harvest mode—beans, peppers, tomatoes, kale, dill, basil. And then there are all the herbs just outside my back door—sage, oregano, thyme, garlic chives, mint…

“Wild Thing! You Make My Heart Sing!” 

Relating with Our Creature-Kin, Part 2 On last Sunday’s blog, we began exploring the wild world of our creature-kin. (https://prairiewoods.org/wild-thing-you-make-my-heart-sing/) We looked at our perception of other-than-human kin in their own integrity, rather than who they are solely in relationship to us humans. Now we shift our attention to our ethics, our practical ways of relating…

Hidden Things

Each day—sometimes two or three times a day—I go outside for a contemplative walk. Sometimes I walk far into the woods, sometimes to the edge of the river and sometimes I’ll just walk right outside my door to touch my bare feet to the Earth. Sometimes I find myself singing a prayerful song called “Hidden…