Gifts of Fall

The Woolly Bear caterpillar in the first image below becomes an Isabella tiger moth in spring. But first it can freeze solid up to -90 degrees Fahrenheit if need be. Now that's resilience! (And metabolic anti-freeze). 

Today, a wonderful article on calm from knitting. Once we can sit side by side without restrictions, this article is inspiration to resume my intention to teach beginning knitters offline. 

October was full, albeit without a blog post. I threw myself into several volunteer endeavors that led to heart-opening connections with people from around the globe, like Conservation Conversations at my alma mater and Narrative 4 facilitator training. Story exchanges were such a powerful experience both as participant and facilitator, I found myself regretting not finishing my teaching degree way back when so that I could have a pool of folks to work with for future exchanges. I continued meeting with a small group in support of REDES and will soon have "The Land" (Te Whēnua) shawl ready to auction on their behalf. I ended the week of Halloween or Samhain in a small group discussion about Spirit with the author of Sand Talk, my favorite book still in process. (I have partially finished reading quite a few books since my English major days - something about great intentions and speed reading?). 

It dawns on me, along with distance walking and knitting, connecting with folks across cultural boundaries is what really makes my heart hum, especially when people discover in one another's stories some common feeling more than thinking, some common aspiration for what life on planet Earth can be. It's as if a part of me has always resisted the powerful cultural indoctrination of my culture as viewing oneself as primarily a consumer inside status stratification or money, and a compassionate human being connected to the whole web of life secondarily or as afterthought. 

I also finished up 6 months volunteering with Organic Farm School, to which I am endlessly grateful for feeding me luscious produce through most of the pandemic thus far and allowed me to connect with my community off screen. ​ Consider contacting them if you wish to be trained in small-scale sustainable practice farming for a first or second career.