Reader - It’s been another long week. It was a long hard Spring, and it's already been a long year... or five, hah. There's smoke from wildfires (due to long term mismanagement of land) making outdoor work a little more challenging than it already is in 90 degree humid weather... and there are creeks trickling with fresh cool water, bird songs in the morning, and bright beautiful flowers in our gardens. eye spy the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on the Echinacea! This is an extremely honest email...
12 days ago • 4 min read
Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here. Sitting on a raft, with a few family members, in the middle of the massive pacific ocean, I looked into the night sky to find the southern cross on the horizon… ...there it was… bright and beautiful… the beacon we desperately needed, to find our way home… Thankfully, this was just a simulation I attended a few summers ago… not a real life survival scenario!! The primary planetarium presentation and exhibit at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu,...
20 days ago • 7 min read
I was born on the banks of the Susquehanna River... well, in Harrisburg Hospital (Pennsylvania), to be precise, but close enough! I love that river like a birthplace. I still gasp every time I see her. In my early childhood we lived in the “creekhouse” along Conodoguinet Creek - the first Place I really remember. In that Place there was a gorgeous Weeping Willow with roots that dipped into the creek which gave me safe passage to climb over the edge and dip my toes into the gentle waters, or...
28 days ago • 5 min read
Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here. The area where I live is older than bones, and still relatively intact from when the continents were a unified landmass called Pangea. And I bet where you live has a wild history too, Reader. Last Monday, I hiked the White Rocks Trail with an incredible group of curious humans to step back, breathe, and invite the wisdom of the natural world. The land really held us and all our fears, questions and desires, in a way that nothing else can....
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
When you join a zoom call, what’s the most common thing they ask you to do first? “Tell us in the chat where you’re joining from..” right? And we all type in 2-3 little words like Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, US. But in the land-based circles, we do it a little differently. We actively desire to ground into the Place we are in, through our bodies and a visceral awareness of the land we’re depending on to be here. It’s part nervous system regulation (much needed on a long zoom call) and part of...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here. “Look, Aunty, loooook!! It’s a TORTOLE!!” My 5 yr old nephew Augustine was over-the-moon with his discovery of a real, living reptile crawling through the forest edge on our nature walk that first morning of camp. The other kids rushed to the scene immediately and the box turtle froze. We hushed the crowd just in time, and the turtle perked back up, blinked a few times, and slowly started moving again. The delight was palpable. My niblings...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here. As we enter the second half of the year, I’m curious, Reader, how are your EarthCare goals coming along? Many of us commit to something for the year. But we might also find ourselves halfway through it wondering where the time went or further behind than we had hoped. Sometimes, in that push to reach our goals, life has a way of forcing us to slow down. In early 2024, I was on my knees, apologizing to my brain and body for how I had treated...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
The notes floated in so clearly, as I sat on a rock ledge, listening to the wind. Are ya listenin? Are ya watchin? Are ya waiting? For direction? It was an experience so ethereal, I still struggle to put it into words, but effectively, I was in a song circle with the wind and trees atop that mountain as a winter storm was brewing. And I caught the sweetest song. view from the top of my favorite local trail This spot, among the white rocks of South Mountain’s ridge near the midpoint of the...
2 months ago • 5 min read
Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here. Sunday afternoon I found myself on a chicken rescue mission with some local friends. They’d gotten too hot in the sudden spike of weather this weekend, and needed to be relocated to a cooler area… without shocking them into heart-attacks. One by one, we gently carried these 40+ panting birds into deeper shade, cupping handfuls of water at their beaks, to offer them a drink (which was relieving to watch being slurped up). Most of them made...
2 months ago • 5 min read