Stewardship Over Our Environment Every once in a while we read about a community that is taking an active stance on the stewardship of their environment. This past weekend (7/21/02) the Seattle Times ran a heartwarming story on one such community - the collective community of Bainbridge Island, Washington. For me this was an especially interesting story for the simple reason that as an island community - we are looking at a relatively isolated environment, an environment where where the decisions and actions of one individual in the community clearly affect the lives of other community members, and an environment that has not been excessively built up or commercialized. To quote from the article: "Upon our land, our island, we are caretakers and stewards between a thousand generations. Our footprints are slow to disappear. The view of our wake, the vision back down the trail of our history, gives us a sense of where we have been and are going. Changing conditions demand our attention or teach us hard lessons. We respond individually or as teams, all on this life raft we call Earth, our Mother. A ferry captain steers a half-mile off course so as not to frighten a flock of seabirds. A gardner takes better care of her compost pile than her jewlery. A commuter rides a bicycle, rather than foul forest-filtered breezes. We adopt streams, roads, animal, children, the less fortunate, a new attitude." by Gerald Elfendahl What is stewardship? It is that compassionate part of ourselves that recognizes we are All Relations - we are connected to everything on Earth, and everything on Earth is connected to us. Our decisions must go seven generations back and seven generations forward, with the highest good of all our constant concern. We listen and connect to not only other people, but to the animal world, and to all of the world of nature surrounding us, to all of Mother Earth. The article that I read was based on a book written by photographer Joel Sackett. A member of the Bainbridge Island community, he wanted to express through photographs the "action" of stewardship. His photographs took me back to my midwestern childhood - a time that seemed to me to exist only in the memories of my childhood, but that is indeed alive and well on Bainbridge Island. We are gifted with a glimpse of neighbors gathering for a maypole celebration on a local farm, and a picture of Islanders joining in a garlic cleaning party at the same farm - Suyematsu Farm. The wonder of this farm is that it was preserved for open space formally in 2001 - it will remain as the resource that is now is for many years to come. An action of necessity has become an act of ritual importance on this small island. Every winter two tons of grapevine prunings must be gathered and burned, to prevent the spread of mildew spores that live in the bark. Actions like this go back thousands of years in farming communities, as fire are lit on the evening of a solstice or equinox, to give thanks and to ask for blessings. What can each of us do to make our personal environments more sustainable? We can walk through our yards and through our lands. We can see them with new eyes. We can touch the trees, run barefoot through the grass, listen to the call of the birds and the voices of other wild animals and give thanks. We can look at how we can better serve our community, and at howour community can better serve us. We can clean up nearby rivers and streams. We can police our streets and roadsides for litter ... and for general care and upkeep. We can compost our yard trimmings and household waste, we can recycle - we can act as if we are part of our environment, instead of viewing our environment as being there for us. We can place bird feeders and bird baths in our yards. We can pay attention to the stray animal problem - support spay and neuter activities, act responsibily towards our pet population. We can give a helping hand where needed. We are a reflection of our environment - and it is a reflection of us. Thank you for visiting my pages. May your day be Blessed. (c) July 2002 Bonnie Cehovet Personal Lifestyle Reading - I offer a Personal Lifestyle Reading using Tarot that looks at past, present and future influences in your life, at the energies that are currently available to help you along your path, and at those energies that are appearing as challanges. My goal is to offer you insight into your decision making process, as well as tools that you can use to both better understand your path and make conscious, choice centered decisions. Home Personal Empowerment Personal Empowerment links Personal Empowerment articles View My Guestbook Sign My Guestbook Graphics by Art for the web