Category: Racism

It’s spring in the Pacific Northwest, a time when plants that pushed leaves through near-frozen winter ground begin their promiscuous blooming. Next to the hardy hellebores, narcissus and daffodils show off their yellow bonnets. Slender willow branches, brown in winter, turn spring-green as their leaves sprout. At Lake Quinault, where we spent a few days …

Image by Jens Rasch from Pixabay Brigid, or Brid in modern Irish, is the triple goddess of healing, poetry, and alchemy. As the goddess of fire, she rules the forge and is the patron of blacksmiths, who through their art transform molten metal into useful, beautiful, and even magical objects. I am the great-granddaughter of …

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Within the next six months, we will determine the fate of democracy in the United States. This is not hyperbole. If our democracy dies, many people will die too – even more than COVID-19 has already killed. Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color (BIPOC) are particularly at …

When I imagine the kind of human community I want to live in, I go to the forest in my mind. In the forest, there is no analogue for racism. No exclusion of certain plants from the web of connection, nurture, and support because of their physical characteristics. That would be counter to the natural …

This week I had a stunning dream: I am in a canoe in a stormy sea. The sky and water are the same color, dark gray. The canoe is crafted from two deer hides sewn together. The canoe is our response to the pandemic. I am being asked to allow my heart to be as …

My grandparents Florence and John Taylor. Florence died in the flu pandemic of 1918-1919. What is the coronavirus epidemic calling us to? Ironically, this disease that separates and isolates us from each other as we try to prevent its spread also calls us into deeper levels of connection. Connection with community, with ancestors, and with …

In fall we put most of the garden to bed. After months of reaping the harvest from long, sunny, warm days, we pull up tomato and zucchini plants, spread leaf mulch to keep the weeds down. Overwintering vegetables – arugula, lettuce, turnips, chard, kale – stay green. The rest of the garden turns brown, lies …

Yesterday, on the eve of Samhain (Halloween), I prepared an altar in our living room to honor our beloved dead. On the cedar chest built by my wife Martha’s grandfather, I placed cedar boughs blessed in sacred circles held over the past two months. On top of the cedar, Martha and I arranged photos of …

It has been a terrible couple of weeks in national news – a terrible couple of years, actually. When I feel despair, I restore a sense of balance and hope by taking effective action where I can. And I work in my garden. A few weeks ago, after days of rain, the rich soil in our parking strip was …

In America we are now experiencing a historically unprecedented assault on our Constitutional form of government and democratic institutions – led by the man who swore an oath to “preserve, protect and defend” that Constitution. Retiring Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) said on CNN last week, “I’ve never heard of an administration, a president attacking his …