Tag: resilience

Never Ever, Ever Give Up

This week has been a roller coaster with extreme temps and choking smoke dulling the senses and dimming the mind. But even in these wicked days every moment counts. Every drop of Good matters. Every step toward Clarity brings us closer to our home and to ourselves. 

This photo is from a post by Gregory LaForme on the fires in Canada. Read his post below.

The week began with an interview with Francesca Hong for my podcast Changing the Narrative. I was and remain in respect of the humanity she brings to her campaign for Governor of Wisconsin. She has risen against tremendous odds to bring a sense of hope and dignity to our state. I welcome you to listen to our conversation.

If you have been reading my work over the years you probably know I have little faith in systems, and even less in politics. But my faith in the human spirit never waivers. Not in our ignorance, but in the wisdom that shines through when we take time to cultivate it.

The powers that be are throwing curve balls into this election. Both parties are sure they can sway the outcome, and perhaps they will. But that is still up to us. And the question will remain: Who do we want to be? Team Hong’s slogan, “We Make Better Possible” is not empty rhetoric. It engages and empowers We the People. And rise we must, while we still have choice.

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I also invite you to check out our nonprofit Echo Valley Hope e-news Revolution of Understanding. It is full of hope and actions of wonderful people striving to make a difference.

As Indigenous people endure the fires, with lives and communities upended and little help extended to them, let us remember: What happens to one, happens to all. Let us continue to find ways to lessen the suffering of all people and the earth. We can. These are matters of priority and choice.

This is the post of Gregory LaForme on the Canadian fires:

CORPORATE PROFIT, GOVERNMENT NEGLECT: HOW FIRST NATIONS ARE BEING LEFT TO BURN IN ONTARIO

While northern Ontario communities breathe toxic smoke and face emergency evacuations, we need to talk about the man-made choices driving this crisis. This isn’t just a natural disaster. It is the direct result of corporate greed and severe government negligence.

Look at Namaygoosisagagun First Nation, also known as Collins First Nation, located northwest of Thunder Bay. Earlier this week, a fast-moving, massive wildfire completely consumed and destroyed the entire community in less than an hour. 

Because it is a remote, fly-in community with no road access, residents were left with zero emergency government help as the flames advanced. Families, children, and elders had to drop everything, run to the beach, and pile into a handful of boats to watch their entire community burn to the ground from across the water. 

Chief Helen Paavola stated that they survived it, but now they have absolutely nothing.

This tragedy was entirely preventable. The truth behind what led to this begins with spraying for profit, which creates the ultimate tinderbox. For decades, the province has permitted big forestry companies to aerially spray chemical herbicides, like glyphosate, over public Crown lands. They do this to kill off deciduous trees like trembling aspen, birch, and maple. They want to eliminate competition so profitable cash-crop conifers, like pine and spruce, grow faster for timber harvest.

But nature designed deciduous trees to act as natural firebreaks because they do not burn easily. By wiping them out to build single-species plantations, the government has created high-risk monoculture forests that burn far faster, leaving dead, chemically withered wood to serve as kindling.

While our forests became tinderboxes, the Ford government systematically stripped away the resources needed to fight the flames. Premier Doug Ford gutted the emergency forest firefighting budget, introducing deep permanent cuts. Years later, despite worsening climate risks, his administration quietly slashed tens of millions more from wildland firefighting and emergency preparedness. Because of these choices, Ontario’s frontline wildland firefighting force has shrunk year after year, leaving remote northern communities chronically short on emergency crews, pilots, and critical response capacity.

First Nations bear the brunt of these political and corporate calculations. Indigenous people make up only a small fraction of the population, but they account for the vast majority of all wildfire evacuations. Because many reserves are located in these targeted, fire-prone regions, these communities are on the front lines. Not only are they facing terrifying, long-term displacements from their homes, but the aerial spraying itself poisons their traditional territories. It obliterates native berry patches, destroys sacred medicinal plants, drives away moose populations, and risks local water contamination.

The bottom line is clear. We are sacrificing ecosystems, human health, and Indigenous treaty rights to protect corporate timber bottom lines and balance reckless provincial budgets. We cannot allow the government to underfund emergency services while actively making the landscape more dangerous.

Wake up and share this message. Talk to your local representatives and demand accountability for northern communities. Support the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Elders and organizations like Stop the Spray Canada who are actively fighting to end chemical forestry management.

#StopTheSpray #Namaygoosisagagun #OnPoli #DougFord#FirstNations #WildfireCrisis #EnvironmentalJustice #IndigenousRights#OntarioWildfires #ClimateNegligence

Be Like Water; Be Persistent

Echo Valley Farm is in its twenty-fifth year. Years ago, I met an old man in our little town who asked where I lived. When I told him, he boasted that in one day they had taken down more trees on that property than anywhere he could remember. It’s funny how we learn unexpected truths. I saw his pride and recognized that talking about clearcutting was not a battle I could win – not this way. But since then, every year we purchase 75 to 100 saplings from our county conservation department. Now many red oaks, maples, apples, elderberry, burr oaks, white pines and spruce have found a home here. 

This year we chose trees that have life spans of 200 to 300 years, hickory and chestnuts. Their nuts may begin producing in five to ten years. The healing of the land continues. Over time I’ve learned that the deer will mow down every unprotected sapling. Wire fences work great, until the rabbits teach you how much they love to girdle the young fruit trees. So now another layer of protection is required to ward them off until each marvelous breathing tree is capable of withstanding the onslaught.

And this is the resilience and the persistence we need. We live in a time of reckoning. From the moment colonizers landed on Turtle Island, as Indigenous People recognized North America as Turtle Island, there has been a rush of exploitation of land, water, and people. This finite approach toward living is reaching its zenith and a swift fall will follow. Those in control who are willingly ready to destroy the earth and have no compassion for any being living here are outnumbered and soon will be outflanked.

Let us be like water; find a way around the obstacles. Healing is not only possible; it’s joyful.

With each passing year, I fall deeper in love with the forest that will one day be.

above photo: 25 year old spruce; 15 year old oak

below photo: 3 yer old red maple living in what will become a sugar bush

Recognize One Another and Carry On

In case you are living in a bubble or deliberately choosing to avoid all of the indications of societal decay, please let me remind you, no one is an island. What happens to one, happens to all.

There is no talking our way out. There is no hero coming to save the day. This, what remains of “us”, is begging for accountability. We have used up all of the false hopes allotted. And we are bankrupt when it comes to saviors. 

That’s not to say hope does not exist, but it is to ask, where are we placing that precious gift called hope? Hope without accountable action is a false narrative, the lullaby of fools.

Safety nets are being ripped away with far too many of us falling. We are soon to be left with the only choice that has never left us: to help one another. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of mutual aid, it’s as old as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

Restoring human dignity is our most urgent need. Why is this most urgent? If we do not know our worth as human beings, if we do not see the value of each individual life, including our own, we will have forsaken the most significant weapon in our arsenal.

And in this battle over ignorance, restoring human dignity and seeking the company of those willing to do the same is imperative. There is power in this. There is unity regardless of differences. Where ever you are called to help: in stopping the inhumanity of ICE, in proclaiming Palestinian, Ukrainian and Others their freedom, in ensuring your neighbors have food and shelter – your courage and compassion are needed now. Recognize one another and carry on.

And in the meantime as the historic East Wing of the White House is destroyed making way for a ballroom, the military has conducted what appears to be illegal assassinations of sailors on the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean with no proven evidence of drug smuggling…and as the US military escalates its might over Venezuela.

The Promise of Spring

It’s a magnificent spring. Just enough rain and warmth to make the apple blossoms pop and the hum of happy bees fills the air. The lilacs seem to be more fragrant and the flowers are jubilantly beginning their display. I saw my first fawn this year chasing their mama and mushrooms are emerging from their slumber. Nature has a way of reminding us what is important when we pay attention.

It’s easy these days to be sidetracked by the endless attacks on goodwill, but I don’t think it’s wise to forget the renewal of spring as discontent continues to spread. It’s the resilience spring teaches that is needed now. It’s the wonder of life and of the seasons, which we know will come and go and come again. Yes, the deer may visit the garden and if not the deer, the rabbits or groundhogs will feast on everything we plant. Well thankfully not everything! But it does seem no matter how high the fence, someone gets in. Gardening is not for the weak of heart. There is no certainty. Learning to live in uncertainty is an art and a practice. Last year’s June frost took out the tomatoes we planted, but friends shared their extra plants with us and all went well.

Now, regardless of what comes, this is our moment to drink in the promise that is spring.

There is a healthy fear that gives warning and there is a paralyzing fear that weaken us. We are not meant for paralyzing fear. We are meant to be emergent. We are meant to be creative. We must be undaunted by forces that would rock our gardens and our lives. 

I will always believe there are more people wanting peace than the alternative. I have been witness to it. Let us find one another. Let us help one another. Let us model the best of what humanity can be. 

It is still ours to create this beautiful garden.