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July 17 2021 Interlude
I wanted clear the entire area of Himalayan blackberry regrowth. I wanted to hold my Asian neighbors close, to keep them safe from vitriol and hate. I wanted to dismantle the system that murders black people at the hands of the state. I wanted to shore things up. I wanted to repair the cracks. I wanted to make everything beautiful. I wanted to protect the salmon, tell them it was safe to come back, that there would be no stormwater runoff or hardened banks or dammed rivers to kill them upon their return. I wanted to reconnect the rivers to their floodplains, wildlife corridors to each other. I wanted to…
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July 11 2021 Work Party
A small wheelbarrow doing big work. An overheard conversation and the pleasure of connection witnessed. A candidate rolling up her sleeves. A story unfolding within the larger unfolding of the universe. Community. Reciprocity. Gratitude. Love. Thank you.
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June 12 2021 Work Party
Knotweed dug and cut. Cardboard spread and mulch hauled. In gratitude to the earth for abundant gifts freely given, it is the very least we can do.
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we needed to be outside
Outside the warmth of the sun reaches my core, birdsong delights my ears, clouds—my heart sentries—drift in the sky. My child’s mouth hurts from the joy of the season’s first salmonberries. We needed to be outside to be feel what it is to be home.
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May 23 2021 Work Party
The Blue-Green Streamby Wang Wei Translated by Florence Ayscough and Amy Lowell Every time I have started for the Yellow Flower River, I have gone down the Blue-Green Stream, Following the hills, making ten thousand turnings, We go along rapidly, but advance scarcely one hundred li. We are in the midst of a noise of water,Of the confused and mingled sounds of water broken by stones, And in the deep darkness of pine trees. Rocked, rocked, Moving on and on, We float past water-chestnutsInto a still clearness reflecting reeds and rushes. My heart is clean and white as silk; it has already achieved Peace; It is smooth as the placid river. I love to stay here, curled up on the rocks, Dropping my…
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May 8 2021 Work Party
Sometimes the digging and pulling and cuttingis not the medicinebut the space for feeling the painof living in a world barrelingtoward the brink of what could bemass extinctionor maybe something elsemaybe somethinggenerative and alivethat requires a complete surrenderto grievingin order to be born.Either waythe earth knowshow to hold our tears.
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April 24 2021 Work Party
Let Me Begin Againby Major Jackson Let me begin again as a quiet thoughtin the shape of a shell slowly examinedby a brown child on a beach at dawnstraining to see their future. Let me beginthis time knowing the drumming in my dreamsis me inheriting the earth, is morninglighting up the rivers. Let me burnmy vanities: old music in the pines, siftersof scotch, a day moon like a signatureof night. This time, let me circlethe island of my fears only once thenlive like a raging waterfall and growa magnificent mustache. Let me not ever bethe birdcage or the serrated blade orthe empty season. Dear Glacier, Dear Seaof Stars, Dear Leopards…
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April 10 2021 Work Party
Nothing Wants to Sufferby Danusha Laméris after Linda Hogan Nothing wants to suffer. Not the wind as it scrapes itself against the cliff. Not the cliff being eaten, slowly, by the sea. The earth does not wantto suffer the rough tread of those who do not notice it. The trees do not want to suffer the axe, nor see their sisters felled by root rot, mildew, rust. The coyote in its den. The puma stalking its prey. These, too, want ease and a tender animal in the mouth to take their hunger. An offering, one hopes, made quickly, and without much suffering. The chair mourns an angry sitter. The lamp, a scalded moth. A table, the…
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March 27 2021 Work Party
Little hands do important work. They find the smallest friends nestled in the soil and insist on safe haven for them. They stay present and persist and with determination dig roots longer than they are tall from dark, rich earth. They are filled with wisdom. I help, but work mostly to stay present to their journey. It’s an important one. And important for me to practice simply being alongside another–witnessing. Birds call to each other around us, clouds pass through a pale blue sky, robins engage in territorial dispute, a downy woodpecker stands sentinel. For some blissful moments that stretch to hours, it feels like we might just be all…
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March 21 2021
I intended only to move canes previously cut, but it is so hard to stop tending sometimes. I was mindful of possible bird nesting above and below. All things matter. Including you.
