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Celebrating Herbs & Botanicals: HerbDay 2012

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Herbs are essential components of everything, from dietary supplements to incredible cuisine, beautiful gardens, effective personal care and vital nutrients. To honor the myriad ways herbs enhance the lives of people everywhere, the 7th annual international HerbDay will take place Saturday, May 5. HerbDay is a coordinated series of independently produced, public, educational events that celebrate the importance of herbs and herbalism. HerbDay activities are held at retail stores, schools, … [Read more...]

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Bring gentleness and gratitude to your harvesting

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Hall

An excerpt from the book, Plant Whatever Brings You Joy It happened that during a time my daughter and I were living in Amsterdam, the small community at Findhorn was garnering headlines in Scotland. Many readers might well be familiar with Peter and Eileen Caddy's story. Peter, a Scottish businessman, and his wife, Eileen, found themselves making an unlikely move to Findhorn, north of Edinburgh, on the Moray Firth, where their inner guidance directed them to begin a garden. The locals … [Read more...]

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How good is change…really?

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bloom_apple

Every time I hear someone blatantly espousing the catch phrase "change is good," I want to scream out, "It depends on what's being changed, and then you have to consider all the ramifications!" When spring finally arrives, we feel a surge of personal renewal from the rebirthing of our long-yearned-for plant life. During the summer we're glorified by the hues and scents of our blooming flowers; the birds, bees, butterflies and other insects they attract; and our lush trees. For many of us, … [Read more...]

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The crow that cheered my spirit

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Carl Jung encouraged us to look on trivial events as metaphors, small dramas giving us advice, confirming our decisions or supporting us in some way. Given that metaphors are figures of speech that appear in high school English classes and usually are left far behind at graduation, Jung's insightful tip appears now to be blowing in the wind. Not always. Although it was a windy day, his words were not blowing my way as I paced the sidewalks in my neighborhood park, rehearsing the presentation … [Read more...]

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A Walk in the Woods with John Haines

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Ricci2

"We speak of nature, of the natural world, as if that were something distinct from ourselves and the social world we appear to have made, seldom noticing that we are in NATURE and never out of it..." - John Haines, "Fables and Distances" (1) - Introduction It is early October with the sun just above the eastern hills. Shadows from tall aspen, elm and oak lie diagonally across the trail (cut years ago by workers building a mill near the river). I walk alone. A carved oak branch provides … [Read more...]

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The Light Beyond the Leaves

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Humanitrees

Stripped of pretense and camouflage, trees, like human beings, are bare bones and spirit. They grow, stretch, ache, bend and break; they provide protection and comfort. Throughout our lives we remain fascinated by the aesthetic beauty of these dynamic sculptures of nature. We feel their spiritual energy. We sense their wisdom. Trees seem to make their strongest appeals to the human spirit when the leaves have fallen away from their bones. Faces of bark and fiber that have been hidden all … [Read more...]

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Crazy Bones and Lazy Bones

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Gabby

As a kid, I found myself surrounded by horses, cows, chickens, cats, rabbits and dogs. Animals have the amazing gift of sharing their wisdom, and if we pay close attention, they can be our greatest teachers. Although their bodies have long been let go of, their spirits remain. Their nicknames engraved on the stepping stones that grace my garden is a reminder of the connection we still have, and the sweet memory of spreading their ashes while their doggie playmates ran through their dust … [Read more...]

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Gratitude in a Broken Heart

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The only reoccurring childhood nightmare I ever had was about cats taking over the world. I would wake up, get out of bed and act out a new ending where I befriended the enemy cats by feeding them milk and saved the day. For most of my life, being around cats caused me to sneeze, itch and made my eyes water. I really liked Dale. He had two cats, so I decided it was time to make my peace with them. Binx was easy. He was shy and hid whenever I arrived at Dale's house. Buzz was another entity … [Read more...]

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Growing a community garden in partnership with Nature

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The Partnership Garden is a new community garden at the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley, MN. This garden and its parent organization, Growing Community, are the dreams of Apple Valley resident Pat Schoenecker, who longed to bring together two of her lifelong passions. "Our garden is as much about growing community as it is about growing food," says Pat, who loved her big backyard garden and orchard that nourished her childhood family of 12. Admiring community gardens all her … [Read more...]

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The Accidental Herb Garden

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dandelion

No time to garden? You might try what I did. Years ago, we had just purchased our first home, I was pregnant, mothering a 2 year old, and working. There was simply no way that I could start my dream herb garden. So...I decided to let Nature design my herb garden. By happy accident, I discovered that our property had a nice selection of wild herbs growing quite contentedly on their own. First, we had four old crabapple trees that stood on a carpet of violets. Violets are so wonderful. The … [Read more...]

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Garden for Your Life

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Five Exciting Reasons--and One Downright Scary One--You Should Learn to Grow Food This Year Spring has sprung, and another Earth Day has just been celebrated. If you're looking for a good way to "go green" this year, don't stop at planting a tree, attending a rally, or giving to your favorite conservation fund. Instead, make 2011 the year you move beyond symbolic gestures and engage with the Earth in the most primal, profound and productive way possible: by learning to grow your own … [Read more...]

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Go Mother Yourself!

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earth_star

In the month of May, we traditionally honor the woman who gave us birth and/or the woman who nurtured and cared for us -- our Mother. The second Sunday brings us crowded restaurants, over-worked florists and candy manufacturers working on overtime. It also allows us a day to reflect, with gratitude, on our Mother's love. In acknowledging the love showered upon us by Mother, our spiritual path calls us to take loving care of ourselves in ways that allow us to blossom and grow and bring us to a … [Read more...]

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Fields of Opportunity

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farmer

The steady growth of organic farming in Minnesota and the economic impacts of organics on rural communities cannot and should not be ignored. The USDA recently reiterated their commitment to organic production by announcing another $50 million in funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) Organic Initiative, which provides a 75 percent share of the cost of implementing organic conservation measures to those who qualify -- 90 percent for beginning, limited-resource and … [Read more...]

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New film finds solutions to global problems

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Economics of Happiness: Going local can help solve our global crises The launch of The Economics of Happiness, a one-hour documentary about the worldwide movement for economic localization, recently debuted in America and Europe. Festival screenings and television broadcast are planned soon. Going beyond merely identifying the myriad problems of corporate globalization, The Economics of Happiness explores the rapidly growing localization movement, which offers a strategic solution to our … [Read more...]

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Avatar’s Cameron documents efforts to protect sacred river

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Highly acclaimed director James Cameron (Avatar) teamed up with Amazon Watch to produce a short feature "A Message from Pandora" to spotlight the battle to stop construction of the massive Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon, which thousands of local Indigenous people have vowed to resist, citing its potential devastating impact on their communities and the rainforest environment. The indigenous tribes who inhabit the region say the Xingu River is sacred and that the … [Read more...]

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