Tacks from the local hardware store to affix my ArtCrank poster to its newly painted frame.
Apricot face scrub.
A road carpeted with pink crabapple petals on my bicycle commute into work.
Purchasing Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions, at long last.
It’s been a late April like any other.
I’m finally catching up on some of my favorite blogs (and should note that I have an insane 69 blogs in my Google Reader feed, though they don’t all post frequently, and some of them ever anymore), and came across this great piece from Transition Voice on what’s really in and out for 2012. A few highlights:
Out: Jobs. In: Free Time.
Out: Lawns. In: Edible Landscaping.
Out: Seth Godin. In: Wendell Berry.
Out: Wii. In: Climbing Trees.
A few I’d add for my own life, some of them reframed from items in the article’s list:
Out: Cell phones. In: Handwritten letters.
Out: Screen time. In: Garden time.
Out: Worrying. In: Creating.
Whether 2012 brings the apocalypse, a dreadful natural disaster, even more political upheaval, or nothing negative of substance at all, I want to live it heartily, in real time, doing what I love and spending time with the many marvelous people I am lucky enough to call kindred spirits.
“That is what the world needs above all else: not people who “say prayers” with greater or lesser regularity, but people who are prayers.”
How can my whole life be a prayer, a hymn to something greater than myself and any understanding of reality than I will ever truly grasp?
In the midst of the busy work that is often the to-do lists of day to day life as well as my general pessimism about the future of humanity and the planet as we know it, I often forget that even this one life I have to live is something holy. Beyond any religion, beyond doctrine, beyond language even. Mere existence is breathtaking, and my thanks should be living as prayer.
A poetry morning
neighbor’s golden tree raining sunlight
liquid lemon, luscious leaves
fluttering
azure sky exquisite backdrop.
Cat watches in window too;
autumn’s ancestral song
is strong in all beings.
____________________________________________________
This
.
is.
where.
we.
live.
A number of great organizations and projects have been shared during my time at the Summit today. Here are a few:
*i-Tree, tools from the Forest Service for assessing and managing community forests
*Minnesota Weather Almanac, a quirky, local, weather-specific cousin of Farmers Almanac
*Mississippi Watershed Management Organization and Capitol Region Watershed District, two great organizations that I work with on water and environmental issues
*Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, a place you should absolutely visit if you haven’t already
*Minnesota Shade Tree Advisory Committee, particularly their Guide to Creating an Effective Tree Preservation Ordinance
Now go hug a tree!
Space to simplify. 