In October Summer becomes Fall

Between the mostly wet October we have had, some days were summer-like. Leaves on our trees stayed green for most of this month. Our backyard garden looks the best it did all summer in this Oct. 13 photo.



A mid-October visit to Interstate Park, where the St. Croix River flows between Minnesota and Wisconsin was perfect for a morning hike to see the colors.

Time for Change is Now

We live in our world blind to its needs for sustainability, as though another generation or two in the future will take care or get by as we have. Perhaps that will be so, but I wonder what our world would be like for our present generation if we took more care in how we live and in the traces we leave behind.

Then I wonder will there ever be in our world a time of complete and lasting peace? Of long forgotten animosities and buried weapons? Of restored rain forests and glaciers, reforested acreage, and healthy farmlands that provide for all species?



These thoughts came to mind while reading Presence – Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, by Peter Senge, et. al. The book is about fundamental change and how to forge it, but it is also about seeing our world through a new lens. It is a book that has led me away from being satisfied with incremental change for the better and feeling reticent among prospects for change that have led nowhere. It has made me feel emboldened to confront any political position and say, if its premise does not propose fundamental change in how we grow food and choose to feed ourselves, and does not acknowledge that our health care and educational systems are completely broken and need to be rebuilt from scratch, then I am not interested in participating in these politics.

What is the switch that must be turned on to produce the groundswell for changing our hearts? If Hurricane Katrina did not convince us to respect the force of nature, and to take care first of those most in need, then what will? For how many more years must we instigate and fight wars in lands far from our borders, of losing human lives, without plans for rebuilding societies we have destroyed? What stops us from seeing the truth and realizing how unsustainable our behavior is?


There is no time better than right now to look at our world, question why, and move our hearts to another way of knowing and behaving. Put aside what you have always known to be true and see another way. We are each a tiny organism in a vast world and universe. What hurts one hurts all because we are all connected. What does it take for each of us to feel the responsibility of stewardship for our world and each other?