As a new Board Member to Prairiewoods, I just want to say why I think Prairiewoods is important. The first thing comes from my faith: “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1). So caring for creation should derive from your faith, which it does from the foundresses of Prairiewoods, whose spirituality comes from the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. For that, dear Sisters, I am perpetually thankful!
Second, we are in a critical period of time. Most scientists give us until 2030—less than seven years—to make critical changes to our lifestyles and to the way businesses and governments do things. Prairiewoods is a place where you can fall in love with the Earth again, and where you can teach your children to fall in love with the Earth for the first time, even if they don’t have immediate access to nature. At Prairiewoods, they do. And when you kindle or rekindle this love, you will fight for the Earth.
Finally, if you are an older person, and by that I mean anyone over 50, then it is time for you to pay reparations to the Earth that you have been using. Here I will quote Bill McKibben: “We’re used to the idea that people get more conservative as they age—’if you’re not an idealist when you’re twenty you have no heart; if you’re still one at thirty you have no head,’ or at least no bank account. But as we live longer, that aphorism needs amending. If you’re not an idealist when you’re seventy or eighty you have no grandkids. We are about to leave the world a worse place than we found it” (The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon, pages 212–213).
Let’s leave the world a better place than we found it by supporting Prairiewoods in whatever way we can, with our volunteer time, our money, attending its programs or just hanging out in its beauty.
—Charles R. Crawley, Prairiewoods board member