Category: General

Mother’s Day Memories: Sweet, Bittersweet Every year Mother’s Day brings two big memories, both when I was a preteen, one sweet, one bittersweet. Both were formative in becoming a mom myself. The “sweet” one first: My younger sister Judy and I decided to bake our mother a cake to celebrate Mother’s Day. Although not experienced in baking… Read more »

Eulogy for Bethel: Light That Endures Two weeks ago I received a letter from the district superintendent of Bethel United Methodist Church, in whose congregation I grew up. The country church is being closed January 1, 2017, and I was asked where I would move my membership. I was given a few choices.  My Irish great grandfather Richard Damery was… Read more »

Path of Man and Path of Salmon Fern Creek rose in the night with the punishing rain. The log jams are now dams pouring water, bruising, but still navigable— for a coho salmon. Walking along the trail that traces Fern Creek, I watch for the iron fish, each with a number. I have seen as… Read more »

Deforestation Storm in Napa County: Denied Appeal of Walt Ranch. We are in a deforestation storm in Napa County, and it has only begun. And yet, the sun rose at 7:15 this morning, the trees in the west glowing orange against the storm clouds moving in. It was one of those moments of grace when… Read more »

The Sacred and Land Use Issues:Remembering The Whole When we exited the Napa County Administration Building for the noon break of the Walt Ranch appeal hearings, I was surprised. Upwards of a hundred people rallied on the lawns holding signs of protest. Walt Ranch is an ambitious project seeking to cut almost 15,000 mature trees for 35 lifestyle… Read more »

Water, Trees, Mistakes: Watershed Health Napping was not only from exhaustion; it was also defense to the weight of what I was reading, Alice Outwater’s Water: A Natural History, not nap time reading! I knew discrete facts of the history. How early 18th century explorers skilled off many fur-bearing animals, especially the beaver, important to watershed health throughout our country…. Read more »

How an Oak Helped Me into the World When I was six, I met my first oak. I was a shy child, having grown up on a small farm in central Illinois. When I entered first grade, I had little experience being away from my mother, grandmothers, and little sister Judy. I was not used to the… Read more »

Lessons from Serpents and Goats Life’s stories, heeded, have their lessons. Writing this next manuscript educates me about my own stories, yet another zen whack!  Most accounts of the Garden of Eden creation story leave out the details of the Serpent. The Old Testament tells how the Serpent tempted Eve to eat the fruit from the one… Read more »