Clare Consultation, LLCA Promise in Stone
In this life of no guarantees – of too much hatred and violence – of 24-hour news headlines, fear, and double-speak. In these days of winter showing up everywhere in unusual ways while night follows day follows night, and decisions have come to seem more baffling than ever. Under this one sky, sharing this water, ground and air, love is what we have for certain. This is so. But, whatever you do,… Read More
Standing in Wildfire
Yesterday, my husband Gary and I began a drive to Montana. We live there parts of the year. Just outside a really small community tucked into muscular folds of the Intermountain West. With water and trees, with big mammals like Elk, Moose and Bear – with Eagles and Hawks, and this past spring, with a mama hummingbird nested just outside our window. It was early when we left Portland – the place… Read More
A Heatwave of Independence
For three weeks plus, temperatures in Portland, Oregon have been above 90°. There has been no rain since June 1. I find myself longing for Slip&Slides, for Mr. Wiggle (video link for those who’ve forgotten – and for those who may have never known) – and resorting instead to random sidesteps into the spray of lawn sprinklers. In Portland, and all across the Pacific Northwest, June has generally been a mostly rainy month. … Read More
Fresh Water Matters
I’m sitting in a room with large windows. Outside fresh water tumbles by, higher on the banks of Rock Creek than usual for August. There’s been way more snow and rain this year than is ever expected for this arid region of Montana. Regardless of the reason and in spite of some of the local folks’ complaints, the water doesn’t miss a beat. Constancy is its nature. Today, Matt Damon did the… Read More
High Summer & Highways – Solar Power in Action
It’s hot. It’s summer. Weather in the world has been, as we all know, weird. Some people continue to spin this weirdness as normal, of no concern — circumstances that require no response on the part of the humans who live it. My friends Jon Waterhouse and Mary Marshall spend a good deal of time with indigenous people who live climactic weirdness. The Elders among them have been noting alarming changes… Read More
Wasp stings are annoying — The crashing unpredictability of severe weather is deadly
Ok — From Fracking the past two weeks to wasps. Tipping my hand here: I find myself thinking of the former at the causal edge of ongoing climate degradation while the latter live on the continuous curve of the climate’s changes. That, of course, places wasps in the company of all breathing and otherwise animate things (like people, rivers, pine cones, lentils …). In particular, wasps have been on my mind because… Read More
Notes from Mayo – “My water’s talking to your water.”
Harold Gattensby lives at the headwaters of southern lakes in Yukon Territory, Canada. He is one of the tribal leaders attending the summit here in Mayo, Yukon. The leaders are from the 72 member tribes composing an alliance that was established a few days before Christmas 1997 in Galena, Alaska — at 40 below freezing. The alliance brings into collaboration Alaska Tribes and Canada First Nations in the Yukon River Basin for… Read More
The VRA and Racism “the country’s original sin”
What a week. With a 68-32 margin, the U.S. Senate passed immigration reform – a heartening step even in the face of the subsequent response by the usual suspects in the House of Representatives rolling their eyes and offering sound bites that essentially communicate (again…), “in your dreams.” In what likely stands as a more inspiring demonstration (and interpretation) of democratic action, Texas Senator, Wendy Davis together with thousands of citizens of… Read More
Violence May Thwart Public Voice, but the Ideas Won’t Go Away
My sister in Gainesville, Florida is recently back from Turkey — Istanbul and a rural city where she and her daughter worked a while on an organic olive farm. The olive work was only perfect for getting to know the culture of rural Turkey a bit, but it was also the only way for these two women to travel together. The younger is a college student, the older (celebrating her 50th with… Read More