Good Morning, Earthlings!
I received a message from Earth yesterday when I was in the garden. It is somewhat similar to the message of the Hopi Elders that we read sometimes at the beginning our meetings. Please let me know how you feel about this message. There will be an action follow-up, to be determined. Reply to pcadair@sover.net. Here goes:
This is the Time
This is the time more than ever that we really need to know that we are all Earthlings before anything else. Our situation is heating up, literally. Unless we wish to be ‘boiled frogs’, we need to come together in a way we have never before come together, as Earthlings, to not only face Climate Change, but to heal it. Read today’s New York Times to learn about the extreme drought and heat conditions in the entire western half of the US. We are in Big Trouble.
To get out of that Big Trouble we will have to change our thinking fast so that the power that we humans have developed along with the ability to monitor and measure progress, can all be turned toward the good of all beings. Soil microbes, dairy cows, butterflies, dolphins, algae, everyone has a role. Everyone matters. We have tremendous power for good. We have ponderous antiquated systems of thinking and governing. Transformation is a concept I learned in the 1980s, referring to deep shifts in consciousness of the individual. At this point in our evolution, the transformation must be species-wide. Dolphins and hummingbirds are precious, but it is only human beings who have the capacity to make the changes needed. I hope we can do this. I hope we will do this. Stay tuned.
While you are staying tuned, spend some time pondering what are your best skills and how they might be used for the good of all. Are you a people-person? A healer? Do you love animals? Are you good at figuring things out? I am a plant person and an Earth-lover. Oh, I love humans, too, but my passion is for the good of Earth as a whole, and my knowledge base tends toward growing green things. What do YOU love? Everyone is important. We cannot ‘do this’ without everyone on board. Start thinking big. Learn to connect with a spiritual source. You’ll probably need it.
( I can’t find who the artist is of this beautiful embroidery, but I know it is a Native American technique)
In other news :
1. There will be an outdoor concert at Manitou this Sunday, June 19th at 4pm. I will surely be there! I LOVE Manitou! See below:
Join us for this annual celebration in the Manitou Pine Forest Theater with Aura Shards, Jed Blume & Anders Burrows! Sunday, June 19. from 4-5:30 PM. It's the perfect way to experience the magic of the Manitou land on a beautiful summer day. Their captivating music is uniquely suited to this incomparable woodland setting, woven from handpan, tabla, djembe and didgeridoo (with full-throated squirrel and wood thrush harmonies) drawn from world fusion and Indian raga traditions. Breezes through the tall pine, filtering rays of the midsummer sun to the West, further the mesmerizing flow of their music. By donation. Concert venue is an 8-minute gentle walk from the parking area. Directions: 300 Sunset Lake Road Williamsville, Vermont 1.4 miles up the hill from Depot Rd. in Williamsville, sign on right. Or 5.6 miles from Rt. 9. Social distancing and vaccinations suggested in the outdoor setting. Also, LEAG invites you to join us for a Healing Walk at Manitou on Friday, June 24. Directions above. One of Manitou’s very special traditions, initiated by our founder, Pam Mayer, is the Healing Walk, held on the second and fourth Friday of each month, from 4-6 PM, from May to October. This is a reflective walk around Manitou’s Sanctuary Trail, lightly facilitated by a Manitou member. The walks include the opportunity for both contemplative time and voluntary sharing. A guiding premise of Manitou is that it’s essential to true healing to be still, to quiet the everyday mind, interrupt our daily routines, in order to open to experience of other dimensions. Pam once said, “we offer an awakened land, so everything is possible.” Manitou, through its sacred places, and the energy that has been given to tending the land, offers this healing sanctuary that enables us to more readily
2. I just sent for this book.
New Release! Mini-Forest Revolution Using the Miyawaki Method to Rapidly Rewild the World“Hannah Lewis describes a gift to a despairing world. . . . There may be no single climate solution that has a greater breadth of benefits than mini-forests. . . [and] can be done by everyone everywhere.”—Paul Hawken, from the foreword This inspiring book offers a revolutionary approach to planting trees and a truly accessible solution to the climate crisis that can be implemented by communities, classrooms, cities, clubs, and families everywhere.PAPERBACK • 224 PAGES • AVAILABLE NOW!Save 35% with Discount Code SEM20 Featured Excerpts Imagining a Mini-Forest’s Potential: The Miyawaki MethodA Forest in the DesertThe first-ever book about a movement to restore biodiversity in our cities and towns by transforming empty lots, backyards, and degraded land into mini-forests.Author Hannah Lewis is the forest maker turning asphalt into ecosystems to save the planet and she wants everyone to know they can do it too. 3. “How to be Kind to the Earth in Your Backyard” - a reprint from 2019 newsletter, I think... At Living Earth Action Group we have been learning so much about the capacity of healthy soil to reduce flooding, sequester carbon, protect watersheds, as well as grow healthy food for humans and animals. Just think, it was only about discovered in the mid-1990s that a community of mycelial fungi, plant roots, bacteria and microorganisms in living soil act in concert to create health on Earth! Nature knows how to do it. How can we mere humans support the 'soil-carbon sponge’ and the web of life on our properties, here in Westminster? Here are a few suggestions from what we have gleaned over the two years of our studies: 1. If there are leaves on your lawn in spring, instead of carting them away, rake them right into the flowerbeds and veggie garden. They will cover the soil (that’s GOOD) and provide mulch and eventually turn to humus. If you have a LOT of leaves, you may have to move them to under shrubs or trees, because you don’t want to smother your perennials. Everything in moderation! Exception is oak leaves. If you have a lot of oak leaves, put them in the woods or in their own pile, as they take too long to break down, and tend to mat. 2. While we’re on the subject of lawn, think about how to REDUCE THE SIZE OF YOUR LAWN. Why? Because short grass has short roots, and short roots do not sequester much carbon in soil. Why not call a large section of lawn “wildflower meadow”, which you will mow maybe twice a season. Our normal weeds around here are all wildflowers, actually, and if you let them bloom, pollinators will love you and roots will go down deeper and sequester more carbon and you will be appreciating the natural beauty of wild things, right where you live. You could also create more or larger garden beds, or dig up the lawn and plant ground covers, maybe with shrubs and trees growing in them. Also about lawn, cut it to 3 or 4 inches high. The taller the grass, the deeper the roots, the more rainwater is conserved, the more carbon sequestered. If you have a lawn service it is very important to bring these facts home to them, as most of them tend to cut grass way too short, causing it to brown out or even die. Totally unnecessary. Cut it to 3-4”. Send them this information. 3. Planting more shrubs and trees MAXIMIZES PHOTOSYNTHESIS in your garden. We want to do that absolutely everywhere, to rebalance the carbon and water vapor imbalance in the atmosphere. Photosynthesizing plants pull carbon out of the air, make sugar out of it and store it in the roots and soil, where it belongs. Also, protect the trees you have on your property. Trees keep the water cycle moving, purify the air, create beauty and shade, and are the home for insects and birds. They communicate through their roots and the mycorrhizal network in the soil. It’s a community down there! Underplant trees with shrubs, flowers and ground covers rather than grass, or at least mulch at the base with those leaves that fall down everywhere… 4. GROW FOOD. Author Michael Pollan says growing food is a radical act, because it connects you with your Mother, where all of our food comes from. It will be free of toxins and full of your love and care. And there will be no transportation costs, no plastic packaging. Try fruit trees and bushes as well as a tomato plant or two. If growing food is new for you, start small. Find a neighbor who has a great organic garden and ask them to teach you how to do it! 5. Make a compost pile. This can be just a pile of leaves and plant trimmings off in the corner, or more. There are many ways to compost. Here is an article by Cat Buxton: "Building a Healthy and Active Backyard Compost Heap" https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AL2Q6cSOWLLbPN5I8QV-Fm-Tcbl0aB0K/view at her website www.GrowMoreWasteLess.com. 6. Keep the rainwater that falls on your property. Don’t allow it to run off into the street or the sewer or a drainage ditch, making its way to the sea! NO! Keep it where it falls so it can soak in, hydrate the home landscape and replenish our aquifers. As your soil gets healthier and spongier, it will absorb more of that rain, saving it for later use by your plants. You can create swales, collect water from the roof in rain barrels, redirect the flow onto the land instead of the rivers.This one is more important now than ever. 7. Of course, use no chemicals or other toxins on your land. We do not need to kill to grow. Change that mindset. 4. From LEAG Core Group member Guy Payne: A presentation on June 24 at 7:00 at Brattleboro Museum and Art Center. It is a presentation on Abenaki relationship with water. https://www.brattleboromuseum.org/2022/05/31/nebizun-celebration-curator-talk/ Guy 5. One more from Guy Payne:"We had our monthly meeting of the "Honoring Indigenous Coalition" on Monday and was reminded of this presentation then." Kchi Mskodak - At the Great Meadows with Rich Holschuh Wednesday, June 29th at 7pm at Putney Public Library Masks required for this in-person program. A discussion about lasting Indigenous presence in the Putney area from deep time through today and into the future, in answer to questions about relationship to this place: "What stories are present here but not heard, and what can be done about it?" Rich is a resident of Wantastegok (Brattleboro, VT) and an independent historic and cultural researcher. He has served on the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs and is a public liaison and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Elnu Abenaki , members of the contemporary Indigenous community. Rich is founder of the Atowi Project. His work draws upon indigenous history, linguistics, geography, and culture to share beneficial ways of seeing and being in relationship with place. That’s all for now, Earthlings! I hope you can join us at Manitou for two the Healing Walk on June 24. with love and hope for our planet and our people and our plants and our water and our animals, Caitlin Adair
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