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January 17 2022 Work Party / MLK Jr Day of Service
“I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but “fear itself.” But I wouldn’t stop there. Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, “If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be happy.” Now that’s a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. That’s a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that…
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January 8 2022 Work Party
Wetlands are a necessary and precious ecosystem, and they are in our care. Thank you, friends, for showing up for one today. You are so needed, appreciated, and loved. Learn more about wetlands.
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December 11 2021 Work Party
“Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.” — Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heartfelt Advice for Difficult Times *** Something happens when we come together, something greater than the sum of us. When you…
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November 26 2021 Work Party (two years)
Swamp Creek Habitat Restoration Project turned two today. What better way to celebrate than to continue as we began? Thank you to all who came out in the drizzle and rain today. It’s magic when you are there. Happy birthday, us!
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November 14 2021 Work Party
Rain. Garter snakes. Adventure. Layers peeled. Fallen logs. Fungi. Leaves. Soil. Earth. Us.
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October 30 2021 Work Party
The ground is saturated again after a dry summer spell, strewn with fallen cottonwood branches and leaves. The Big Leaf Maples have cast down their own humongous fall foliage, sending sky messengers to ground to be devoured by yellow spotted millipedes. Sporocarps are everywhere, disguised by mulch, the bark on fallen branches, in the nooks and crannies of nurse logs and stumps. What was once alive is being returned to the earth to be born anew from rich soil co-created by death. And we are here, witness to and participant in this endless, beautiful cycle of decay and renewal, practicing being human together. With gratitude for all things, until we…
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October 16 2021 Work Party
Sometimes it is enough simply to show up. Goodness often grows from grounded presence.
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October 8 2021 Work Party
One person gave voice to a desire. Another person said YES. Several more people came along. Because of one strong, powerful, beautiful young woman, we gathered under a fall sky and found connection to the earth and to each other. It just takes one.
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September 25 2021 Work Party
Heavy That timeI thought I could notgo any closer to griefwithout dying I went closer,and I did not die.Surely Godhad his hand in this, as well as friends.Still, I was bent,and my laughter,as the poet said, was nowhere to be found.Then said my friend Daniel,(brave even among lions),“It’s not the weight you carry but how you carry it –books, bricks, grief –it’s all in the wayyou embrace it, balance it, carry it when you cannot, and would not,put it down.”So I went practicing.Have you noticed? Have you heardthe laughterthat comes, now and again,out of my startled mouth? How I lingerto admire, admire, admirethe things of this worldthat are kind, and…
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September 11 2021 Work Party
Blue Oak A meadow ends where all the perpendiculars of a leafy brown river throw themselves up towards blue. The fruits are olive and ocher. Sprays of dark leaves shiver and splash with sun. Lightning scars show where the main, once shaped by flames, was not lost but reduced to fine fists, oak tissue under sheets of earth, sleeping through the storm and teeth of quick-heat. Here it is: the world utterly lovely despite the anguish, despite endless battles. Meanwhile, you have slipped away to yours. My phone is still again. I could call back. I could babble about this testimony to resilience, bent limbs and great elbows of trunk…
