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Earth & Us:
a free email newsletter
Previous issues of Earth & Us
by Cathy Holt
Earth and Us, Issue #53
WORLD OUT OF BALANCE; SPRING EQUINOX
On this Spring Equinox, a day of balanced darkness and light, yin and yang, the human world seems out of balance. Although daffodils and forsythia and cherry trees are in bloom and the vibrant forces of new life are budding everywhere, we humans continue on our insane course of fossil-fuel powered environmental devastation, in alienation from our Mother Earth...
Earth and Us, Issue #52
WINTER SOLSTICE 2006
The Brother from Another Planet
(a haiku in four parts)
Water communion:
May you always drink deeply...
Earth and Us, Issue #51
VISIONING A GREEN ASHEVILLE Imagine an Asheville a few years from now, filled with community and school gardens overflowing with abundant vegetables, trees in neighborhoods and parks heavy with fruit...
Earth and Us, Issue #50
ENERGY INDEPENDENCE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT What are local governments doing to stop global warming and address the looming need to lower our fossil fuel consumption? At a well-attended conference on "Energy Independence and Economic Development" at Western Carolina University this month, speakers suggested multiple strategies...
Earth and Us, Issue #49
HONORING THE SUN AS OUR ENERGY SOURCE
Summer’s long days are here. Blueberries, service berries, huckleberries, black raspberries abound in sweet juiciness, even on trails through the woods. Everything is growing with amazing rapidity (especially the weeds in my garden!) taking advantage of the strong energy from the sun...
Earth and Us, Issue #48
TRANSPORTATION As gas prices continue to rise and awareness of “Peak Oil” spreads, and the grim effects of global warming become ever more apparent, more scrutiny must be given to the replacement of private automobiles with public transportation...
Earth and Us, Issue #47
EARTH DAY, 2006
Did you know?
- that the Southeast US puts out more polluting emissions than all of Canada? A typical home in the Southeast uses electricity requiring 6 tons of coal to produce, each year. 33 million people in the Southeast live in bad air areas...
Earth and Us, Issue #46
GLOBAL WATER RIGHTS
While the World Bank, governments, and big corporations (20,000 attendees) at the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico City discussed plans for privatizing water, an Alternative International Forum in Defense of Water was taking place...
Earth and Us, Issue #45
SOLSTICE SOUL STIRRING It is the great yearning of humankind for light which led the ancients to celebrate, all over the world, the shortest day of the year, with gratitude for the promise of the sun’s light returning...
Earth and Us, Issue #44
WATER AND GRATITUDE Dr. Masaru Emoto, whose work with photographing frozen water crystals became famous due to the movie “What the Bleep Do We Know?” spoke recently at the University of North Carolina. Emoto emphasized the messages water offers, one of which is the power of gratitude...
Earth and Us, Issue #43
LISTENING TO THE ELDERS Here we are in the season of red and yellow falling leaves, cool nights, and preparing for winter. Autumn is the season of Bear, a time for reflection and introspection; a time for letting go of what no longer serves us...
Earth and Us, Issue #42
SEEing THE FUTURE September 22 marks the Fall Equinox: a time of coming into balance between light and darkness on our planet, as the day and night are—for a fleeting time--of equal length...
Earth and Us, Issue #41
9th CONTINENTAL BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS (PART 2) In the early 1980’s, a small group in Los Angeles wanted to found an ecologically co-operative neighborhood with urban fruit trees, co-housing, local currency, solar energy, living machines, composting, etc. to demonstrate lower impact living patterns...
Earth and Us, Issue #40
9th CONTINENTAL BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS (PART 1) The ninth Continental Bioregional Congress took place at Earthaven Ecovillage this July 9-17.
Earth and Us, Issue #39
SUMMER SOLSTICE. Summer in the Appalachians… pink Catawba rhododendrons, paler pink mountain laurel, and tiny blue stars bloom interspersed with buttercups and lush green mosses. Seams of white quartz crystal emerge through the forest floor...
Earth and Us, Issue #38
LIVING WITHIN OUR MEANS. Thomas Berry once said, “We are in between stories.” We need a new story of our human relationship with the Earth...
Earth and Us, Issue #37
EARTH DAY 2005. "God put the mountains and the trees here, to protect these valleys and the people who live in these valleys. Now, they’ve taken the tops off the mountains. They’ve taken the trees away. They’ve taken from God’s creation. There’s nothing to protect us anymore.” – Pauline Canterbury, Sylvester, West Virginia....
Earth and Us, Issue #36
UNIVERSE POWERS (part 2). This is a summary of the last six parts of Brian Swimme’s DVD series, “Powers of the Universe”: Cataclysm, Synergy, Transmutation, Transformation, Inter-relatedness, and Radiance...
Earth and Us, Issue #35
UNIVERSE POWERS, OUR POWERS. If you have the opportunity, please see cosmologist Brian Swimme’s latest DVD series, “Powers of the Universe.” With no audiovisual aids and only occasional glances at his notes, Swimme gives the most eloquent and compelling view of humans’ role on the planet that I have ever heard...
Earth and Us, Issue #34
APPROACHING THE ICEBERG. As the obscenely lavish inauguration parties progress, I'm thinking about some other realities...
Earth and Us, Issue #33
WINTER SOLSTICE. Solstice Greetings! It is a fitting time to be writing this, with snow falling in soft white lacy crystals, and an icy wind blowing outside. Snowflakes are such a magical form of water...
Earth and Us, Issue #32
CALLING ON THE SPIRIT WORLD. Halloween (All Hallows Eve) is the cross-quarter holiday celebrated by our Celtic and Wiccan ancestors as “Samhain,” or “Summer’s End.” It is the time of harvest in the fields, and also a time of harvest for the soul...
Earth and Us, Issue #31
FALL EQUINOX '04. Happy Autumnal Equinox! Traditionally a time of balance and of letting go, this season has been an intense one, with more letting go than most of us wanted...
Earth and Us, Issue #30
NOTES FROM THE BOSTON SOCIAL FORUM. The Boston Social Forum, held at the University of Massachusetts July 23-25, was a huge offering of speakers and panels with activists from all over the world—usually with 30 or more concurrent choices. There were several “tracks” or themes...
Earth and Us, Issue #29
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION - NOTES FROM THE STREET. I'm not a delegate, but there is a lot going on outside. Sunday night, there was a march through the Jamaica Plain neighborhood calling for the Democrats to have more "backbone..."
Earth and Us, Issue #28
TAKING BACK ECONOMIC POWER. The subject of this newsletter is a conference called "Reclaiming Economics" held at Earthaven this past weekend.
Earth and Us, Issue #27
ENERGY. I'm departing from my usual format and instead giving you some quotes that are meaningful to me on the subject of our society's fossil fuel addiction (and what to do about it)...
Earth and Us, Issue #26
BELTANE, AND BEYOND EARTH DAY. Greetings of the spring from Southern Appalachia! Fuzzy ducklings dart their beaks into the shallow water near the edge of Beaver Dam Lake, while their parents swim a short distance away...
Earth and Us, Issue #25
TRANSITION TO THE NEW STORY. Before I left Earthaven, I put on a little 1-woman performance, on the Equinox, which went something like this:..
Earth and Us, Issue #24
EARTH FIRST! and BEING IN THE FIRE. In mid-February, Earthaven was honored to host a national meeting of Earth First! I’ll share with you some highlights from the public forum they held...
also, I am feeling vulnerable in several areas...
Earth and Us, Issue #23
COMMUNITY CURRENCY AND BARTER. Leaps, skips, and hops are the “Current-see” of Earthaven Ecovillage. It isn’t “legal tender,” but it is “tender and kind visionary economics,” as each piece of our brightly colored paper currency proclaims...
Earth and Us, Issue #22
WINTER SOLSTICE. The Winter Solstice was celebrated very widely in ancient times. Imagine our ancestors (in Northern climates) huddled around fires trying to stay warm, fearing that the days would simply get shorter and shorter and that there would be no food; when the turning point came and the days began lengthening, there was great joy!...
Earth and Us, Issue #21
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Happy Thanksgiving! This issue of Earth & Us has two themes, which to me symbolize the new culture rising out of the crumbling of the old: Portland City Repair, and the FTAA protest in Miami...
Earth and Us, Issue #20
SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BIOREGION:This issue of "Earth & Us" is a bit like a patchwork quilt of my recent experiences, all of which add up to a sense of place: being part of a community within the larger bioregional community, within the global family...
Earth and Us, Issue #19
AUTUMNAL EQUINOX:The autumnal Equinox is here: the time when day and night are equal in length, thus a time of balance. We pause to observe the turning of the season, and ask ourselves what is in need of greater balance in our lives...
Earth and Us, Issue #18
PERMACULTURE SUMMER GATHERING: This summer, like last summer, Earthaven was host to the annual Permaculture Summer Gathering. It’s a weekend that brings together over 200 permaculturists, organic farmers, seed savers, herbalists, natural builders, alternative energy folks, and others in an “open space” format...
Earth and Us, Issue #17
A LOOK AT THE BIOREGIONAL MOVEMENT:
What is bioregionalism?
It means looking at a natural/cultural area from the viewpoint of ecosystems and natural systems, rather than political boundaries. For example, an area can be defined by the type of forest, such as the oak-poplar forest found in this area. The Southern Appalachians are a great place for a bioregional movement, since the region is more clearly defined here than elsewhere...
Earth and Us, Issue #16
WORK, PLAY, AND COMMUNITY: Having recently attended “Rolling Thunder: Reclaiming Democracy,” I’d love to share some highlights with you. The two most outrageous and exciting speakers there were Patch Adams, the “funny doctor,” and the sprightly Granny D. (Doris Haddock), who at age 90 walked across the country with her message about campaign finance reform, and now at 93 is still out there exhorting people to get involved in grassroots democracy and make a difference...
Earth and Us, Issue #15
SPRING IN THE APPALACHIANS: The earth exhales after a long rain: mist hangs heavy in the air in the April morning. There is a quietness and beauty this mist brings to my mind, slowing my activity. I’m still learning to have gratitude for all aspects of the hydrological cycle...
Earth and Us, Issue #14
MARCH ON WASHINGTON: NO BLOOD FOR OIL. Like hundreds of thousands of others, I traveled to Washington, D.C. to protest the war on Iraq. Let’s face it, we are already at war: 500,000 Iraqi children have died, due to 12 years of bombing and “sanctions.” In this newsletter, I’d like to share with you a few impressions...
Earth and Us, Issue #13
WINTER SOLSTICE: These days are the shortest and darkest right now. Indeed the world seems dark: war looms with Iraq, and Arabs and Iraqis in this country are being placed in jail, bringing to mind the internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II. And the “weapons” of Iraq seem to be a mere pretext for going to war to have access to Iraqi oil...
Earth and Us, Issue #12
THANKSGIVING, 2002: On Thanksgiving, I'd like to express my gratitude to all of you for your support; and for Earthaven, which is becoming my new home, my community. Living here is like attending a "community college" where there is so much to learn, not only in the Permaculture courses I've taken, but also in daily life. How do we co-create a new culture while still struggling with all the wounds from the old one, build homes and grow food and make a living in a sustainable way that is friendly to the earth?...
Earth and Us, Issue #11
WATER, LOCAL AND GLOBAL: As my passion for clean water grows, I have been learning about water in all its forms. In late August’s drought, I sought out the waterfalls that are one of the great attractions of this part of the country. One of the waterfalls listed in a guide book was a mere sprinkle of cool water over a rock—sadly diminished from its former glory. It was reassuring to visit Looking Glass Falls with its postcard-perfect, thundering curtain of white water....
Earth and Us, Issue #10
INTERVIEW ON RECREATING HUMAN CULTURE: During the Permaculture course I took, I had the opportunity to meet and interview an extraordinary 16-year-old fellow student, Brian Love, who has already been elected as a delegate to the Green Party of Connecticut. He is writing a book on the collapse of civilization. Here is an excerpt of the interview:
Earth and Us, Issue #9
A SLIGHTLY MORE INSIDE VIEW OF EARTHAVEN: Earthaven is an off-the-grid, developing Eco-Village in Black Mountain, North Carolina (about an hour's drive from Asheville). It's a very hard-working community. Folks in their fifties and sixties toil in the hot sun at home-building, with the help of twenty- and thirty-year-old apprentices...
Earth and Us, Issue #8
SUMMER SOLSTICE: The theme for me this Summer Solstice is following my heart, trusting, embracing a new intentional community and a very different, earth-centered way of life...
Earth and Us, Issue #7
VISIT TO EARTHAVEN: In mid-May, I visited Earthaven, an Eco-village community near Asheville, North Carolina. Based on Permaculture principles, residential neighborhoods, orchard areas, market gardens, and wetlands have been laid out. Some fifty people are members, including four children, and they wish to grow to at least 120 members...
Earth and Us, Issue #6
FOSSIL FUEL ADDICTION: Yes, I'm starting a Recovery from Fossil Fuel Addiction group! I guess you could say I've "hit bottom." Just knowing that wars are being fought and people are dying in order for me to put gas into the tank was too much for me...
Earth and Us, Issue #5
VERNAL EQUINOX: The first day of spring: day and night are equal, on the Equinox. How might we align ourselves with this simple, yet profound planetary change?...
Earth and Us, Issue #4
ECUADOR: A Tour with the Pachamama Alliance. In January, I took a 10-day tour with the Pachamama Alliance to visit Ecuador. I was intrigued by the chance to visit the rainforest and the Andes, meet the Achuar people, and take part in ceremonies and healings with indigenous shamans...
Earth and Us, Issue #3
THE SACREDNESS OF WATER. Our bodies are over 70% water, and pure water is our first great need for survival. 1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water, and some 50,000 people per year die of water-borne disease. The waters of this planet have been gravely polluted by human activity, and water scarcity is becoming a crisis worldwide...
Earth and Us, Issue #2
WINTER SOLSTICE. In many indigenous traditions, the solstices and equinoxes were (and are) celebrated as times of spiritual opening--when the "veil between the worlds is thinner." They are times of transition and change, with the potential to enlist the help of Spirit to let go of old ways of being and create the new...
Earth and Us, Issue #1
The richest people in the world are pausing from consuming the most lavish banquet in all history. It's been a feast in reckless disregard for the well-being of even our own children and grandchildren, certainly in direct violation of the health and safety of countless non-Americans...
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