MAY 2010

I have been gathering materials for a 'Green101' workshop at my church later this summer. It has not been difficult to find ideas, that is for sure. But the most compelling to date is regarding PLASTICS. The thing is – plastics do not biodegrade. EVER. They just get broken down into smaller and smaller pieces.

I have embedded a link to a video from TED.com. It is from a talk by Charles Moore. Mr. Moore brought to the world's attention and has been studing what has since been termed the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."

A quote from Steve Fleishi, president of the Waterkeeper Alliance:

"Our planet is a closed system. So everything that happens on earth, stays on earth. What we need to do is accept responsibility at a local level and reduce the amount of plastic that is finding its way down our waterways and into the oceans."

Amen.

January 2010

I have been shopping at thrift stores lately.  It may just be one of my new favorite things.  There is nothing quite like finding a real treasure that someone else has grown tired of, or never appreciated the first time.  Sometimes I bring an item home and ‘Google’ it.  Recently, I purchased a beautifully made cashmere jacket turned out to be from the UK – the kind of jacket you can keep for a lifetime. The tags were yellowed, yet two of the pockets were still sewn shut, can you believe it?

One of my favorite thrift stores also donates much of their proceeds from sales back to help care for animals in need.  So, that makes it a double double good good thing. Less consumption, less waste, more good sense, more good deeds. 

Our family lives in an old house.  It is a treasure too.  I especially treasure the floors and the woodwork, the doors and the windows. And the shade of the big old trees in our neighborhood! But the toilets, water heater, air conditioner, storm windows – most of these have been replaced with more efficient cousins. This seems to make sense – blending the old with the new.  Keeping the best of the old and combining it with the best of the new. Like grandparents and new babies maybe.

Our affections for a place can be like that. We may visit a place from a childhood memory, to find it much smaller, less idealic, but perhaps just as magical as ever.  Perhaps we will share it with someone we care about – a child or significant friend or spouse. And the place changes in our minds.  The image is drawn in new colors, perhaps changes from impressionism to something much more contemporary – even photographic.

Many of us believe, I think, it is important to hold on to the things we hold sacred, but we can also leave room for new ideas. Ancient rituals like the migration of Sandhill cranes to the Platte River and grizzlies making a living on the Rocky Mountain front. New rituals like rotational grazing and burning prairie for diversity. A retired Lutheran pastor and his organic dairy farmer grandson.  

At favorite thrift shop, sometimes I sit for a moment and just pet the store dog.  His name is Tramp.  His happy, peaceful place comes right on over to me and I have been changed again. Oh, and that jacket?  $10.00

JULY 15, 2009

Today is my brother Michael's birthday. Happy Birthday little Bro! I do hope you liked my rendition of the 'Happy Birthday Song' this morning! I know your day would not be complete without it...

We have had our share of political and social 'conversations' – you may always be on one side and I the other. But where God and Family are concerned, our hearts are in the same place.

As a gift to you – and maybe even a few others – I would like to share a commencement address that Barbara Kingsolver delivered to the graduates of Duke University in 2008. Most of us who know Kingsolver at all are familiar with her best-selling novels such as Animal Dreams or The Poisonwood Bible. She is fabulous at weaving important social, environmental and economic issues through mesmerizing stories and compelling characters.

The last several years, she her writing has been more straight-forward. As in this address – I implore you to spend some time with her words. Thank you.

Barbara Kingsolver Commencement Address

APRIL 21, 2009

Earthday.net says that April 22, 2009 marks the beginning of "The Green Generation."

Earth Day 2010 will mark the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. That means that someone somewhere started this Earth Day thing in the year 1970 - I was not yet three years old.

Funny, I didn't grow up thinking there was anything to worry about. Really. I remember people tossing trash in ditches along highways and leaving wrappers along trails. I never thought twice about whether that stuff would accumulate. That it wouldn't just "go away somewhere" never to be seen again.

And water seemed to be plentiful. I never lost sleep about how much water anyone was putting on his or her lawn. Or how many chemicals we used on the grass or fields. Or how many birds migrated this year. Or where the bison went. They just went. I never knew them, didn't miss them.

So, when did this all change? Maybe it started changing when Michael and I spent more and more time in some of our favorite places. In the mountains, the deserts, the prairies, the oceans of grass. Cleaning up our campsite. "Pack it in - pack it out."

And then I started to read more from authors such as Cather and Sandoz and my friend Dan O'Brien. Somehow I missed the life that Old Jules had lived in his sod house. And I fell in love with Cather's grass and sky and occasional visits to trees. Dan changed the way I saw the landscape and everywhere my eyes saw bison that were no longer there. I could not shake the color and shape that these writers had added to my visions of the plains.

So, tomorrow is Earth Day.

We can all walk to work and shut off our lights, take a shorter shower, not use the dishwasher or the television or the vaccum, attend an Earth Day event. We have the potential of saving a bunch of electricity in one day and that is really great. We may even give real thought to recycling more and buying less.

But, after that, it will just be Thursday, April 23rd, 2009. A nothing special day. What we do that day - and the remaining 364 will define us.

early FEBRUARY, 2009

Perhaps it is in times like these that a person can be more thankful that the cranes still migrate, the meadowlark still sings, the pronghorn still chases the wind and the sun still rises every morning in this beautiful place we call the Plains.

Our family has found the television on much less often, and dinner cooked in our home more often. Michael has been off the road and busy with unending emails, writing, editing and phone calls in the last phases of his Great Plains book. Our definitions for friends and family seem to cross over more often than not. We have much to be grateful for in this land of Abundance.

But the world is not necessarily a Pretty place. Our girls are aware of that. Elsa's friends are bringing donations for the local Humane Society to her birthday. And Emme is determined to drive a hybrid someday, though she is sure she will have an electric option by then, and convertible. We feel the need to do much more than Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

It has been unusually cold in Nebraska this winter, but today is warm and sunny. Warm enough to feel the sun on your face. To remind me that spring will come again and give us another chance to get it right.

Yesterday one of the more vigilant volunteers working at the Platte River's Rowe Sanctuary reported that about 10 Sandhill Cranes had arrived. It is the beginning of another reunion. My heart lifts. Long, long live the cranes.