Once upon our time–and yours as well–there was a tree. The tree looked older than old; ancient and wizened. Its bark was the velvety brown-black of rich compost. The tree was so large around that it would take you eight-and-a-half minutes to walk around its girth. Can you imagine that?

Deep furrows ran from way up the tree to way down and were so deeply grooved that they seemed to hold the secrets of the ages. In fact, they did. You could put your whole hand into most of the furrows in the tree’s bark. In some your whole arm would disappear. And in some, your whole person would disappear . . . and reappear in our world. That is what happened to Melissae. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been inspired to work on the Resources page of this website and have a whole list of goodies to add. Please stay tuned. I was nudged to get going with this after co-facilitating a water ecology workshop this weekend. We shared information about local action and resources and there is so much more to add. Read the rest of this entry »

“The Yangtze River dolphin, one of the world’s rarest mammals, is no more,” begins a Time article from 2007. I had the honor of attending ritual theatre this weekend honoring and mourning for the extinction of this species in China. Now victims of overfishing (leaving the dolphins no food), pollution and boat propellers, these rare fresh water dolphins once c0-existed with humans and were honored as the goddesses of the Yangtze. We were asked to bring the story of the dolphins to the world so that they are remembered.

How many more species will live only as human stories? Read the rest of this entry »

“Think green.” “What will you do to counter climate change?” “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” “Read the groundbreaking work Plan B 3.0 by Lester Brown.” “The average American uses 580 lbs. of paper each year–that’s over 1 1/2 lbs per day!”

These and similar signature tags are appearing more and more in business emails that cross my desk. While heartening, I hope people don’t stop there. Slogans can get you thinking–though they are most valuable when they inspire to action. What words would inspire you to action?

My favorite that I have copied to my signature footer is:
“Please consider the environment before printing this email!”

When I first saw this tag line used I thought, duh! What a wonderful and simple statement that could really save paper and trees. Read the rest of this entry »