At Prairiewoods, we are going through a time of great change. This transitional period can rock us or make us rock-strong. When your small staff of 16 is suddenly down three members, as ours is at Prairiewoods, it feels like a lot of change all at once. And that change can feel anxiety-inducing. However, it…
Humanity needs a break! Having endured the collective traumas of a protracted pandemic, geo-political discord, global upheaval from climate change, the Sixth Great Extinction, massive military conflicts that threaten fragile efforts at “peace,” terrorism, genocide, racism, sexism, misogyny, xenophobia, hate-driven crimes, eco-cide, and socio-cultural and religious melt-downs, we ALL need a break. We need a collective…
On a hot and deeply still July afternoon in 2015, I made my first exploration of the land at Prairiewoods. I didn’t know there were maps of the trails, so I just wandered. Stopping where the path overlooked a bend in Dry Creek I saw, many feet below where I stood, a single large blue-gray…
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it…
Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman asked this question in the first line of her now-famous national elegy: “When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?” Her question, posed in the context of generations of inherited cultural trauma, perpetuated in the name of manifest destiny, is one that gives us…
“Sarah laughed.” A brief lexicographical survey of biblical figures who were said to have laughed is a short list. Many are familiar with a famous matriarch from Genesis 18, Sarah (Abraham’s wife). When Sarah is told by a messenger of the Lord that she will conceive and bear a child in her old age, she…
One of my beloved spiritual friends emailed me a creative reflection template (pictured above) that invites an artistic way to reflect and journal about the past year 2021 flowing into our newly started year 2022. I love the flowy circular nature of this template and the gentle phrasing of the writing prompts. I find myself…
[Image: “A Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat (1884)] “White. A blank canvas, his favorite, so many possibilities …” “Sunday, by the blue purple yellow red water!” So begins the entry to Steven Sondheim’s magnificent choral rendition from the musical “Sunday in the Park with George,” an exploration of the…
Thin translucent thread of life and death Spinning and twirling in the slightest and soft held embrace of the earth’s breath Glistening in the sun, awe inspiring chaotic intertwined dance of perfection Viability and ruination front and center, all defining, but meaningless on this gossamer space ride An instance of landing with both grace and…
A long afternoon of light on the edge of the forest not in the thick of it yet, the door cracked open watching the wind stir the late-hanging leaves, the stems of grasses, the shadows stretching toward me while the sky stretches higher and higher and whatever I had in mind to accomplish is not…