Does this make me a tree hugger?

A practice that I have been engaging in of late is what can only be described as talking or preaching to the trees. I have this spot out behind our apartment in the woodlands where I try and get to about every other day to sit in silence and observe nature. After a period of time I move out of the silence and begin to speak to the various species of oak, ash and maple trees. We were taught during a retreat to see the connectedness to creation as something to participate in, not run from. So here I am, out in the woods having conversations with trees and even find myself preaching to them on occasion. I have found that the trees are very responsive, not in a critical manner (or even fall asleep like some folks in my congregation are known to do) but there is a way of them speaking to me that encourages my soul and they have taught me much. To any other person walking through the woods and would happen to come upon a man talking to nobody (as it seems) would deem them as insane. I assure you that I am far from it.

I cite Jesus cursing the fig tree as an example not of his authority, rather his ability to speak to creation in a way that confused even his disciples. And the fig tree listened! Take the story of Jesus calming the stormy sea as another example of his inherent connectedness to creation. I believe that Jesus was trying to show us something in those two stories.

I am becoming a believer in the reality of interspecies and nonhuman communication. Listen to how the Psalmist put it:

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world (19:1-4a).

Every one of us has the capacity to hear these immortal preachers in our own tongue. Sadly, I believe in our modern world we have refused to hear the voices of creation making it all the easier to exploit them for our own gains. We live our lives as Derrick Jensen puts it in his book A Language Older than Words: that our entire culture is based on the belief that the earth is inanimate.

Creation is speaking to us. Even more today in the language of stronger hurricanes and tornadoes. In the way the earth is getting hotter. In the way our weather patterns are rapidly changing. In the way animals no longer coincide with us but attack us. Maybe we can learn something from the trees and creation. Only if we are ready to cast aside our fears of what others will think (and they will think it) then maybe we can become connected to the creation we are apart of and then want to stand up for that creation and protect it for our children and our childrens children.

Ezekiel! New motivation to ride your bike.

Floyd Landis, who grew up in a conservative Mennonite family in Dutch Country Pennsylvania, won the Tour De France in an incredible come-from-behind win to continue America's dominance in the past decade. Check out his background here.

Name Etymology

Randall - Medieval form of Randolf: From the Germanic elements rand meaning "rim (of a shield)" and wulf meaning "wolf".

Lee - From a surname derived from Old English leah "meadow".

Westfall - The name Westfall is associated with the region in the Northern Rhineland in western Germany known since medieval times as Westphalia (pronounced vest fall eeya). Westphalia is translated as western plain. Thus, anyone with its various spellings was literally people (tribe) of the western plains.

Native American medicine wheel: West aspects

Quality spiritual
Element fire
Season autumn
Sun sunset
Moon waning moon
Color red
Human young adult
Creativity experimentation
Key Word transformation
Animal phoenix (thunderbird)

Qualities linked to a wolf in Native American understanding:
Family, loyalty, strength

There you have it. This is uncanny because so much of the contents posted really do describe me. For example: My favorite animal has always been a wolf (werewolves in horror movies) and the wolf's qualities are family, loyalty and strength, all of which are very important to me. And if you look at the medicine wheel aspects for the direction west (derivative of my last name) virtually all of those qualities describe me in some way. The only differences are that I consider my element to be water, my color to be green and my animal to be a wolf. The other seven are right on. I am spiritual, autumn is my favorite season, I prefer sunsets and waning moons, I like to experiment and my life emphasis (keyword) has been transformation for some time. Like I said before, wow! Maybe we really do live up to our names.

Isolation breeds fear

An excerpt from Derrick Jensen's book A Language Older Than Words:

Isolation does strange things to a person's mind. This is true for any social
creature, human or otherwise. Monkeys taken from their mothers at birth,
placed alone in stainless-steel chambers, and deprived of contact with other
animals (human and subhuman alike, according to the researchers), develop
irreversible mental illnesses. As one of the experts in this field, Harry
Harlow, put it: "sufficiently severe and enduring social isolation reduces these
animals to a social-emotional level in which the primary social responsiveness is
fear."

If we really aren't that different from the rest of creation then I believe one of the main reasons we as a society and individuals are so afraid is that we have become more isolated than ever before. We have high-tech security systems to keep people out. We have locks on our doors to protect our stuff. We prefer to e-mail or chat with someone online rather than to be face to face. We have terror alerts to keep us on alert. We are afraid of rural settings especially the forest because of the impending danger or chance we may get lost.

I can not imagine the people who lived on this land 500 years ago ever being a culture of fear. There was too much interconnectedness with each other and with creation to live in fear. We have much to learn and much to unlearn. Our society depends on it.

Cultural myths

There is really nothing I can do, is there? Maybe we are a culture of make believe.

+ A fourth of all animals slated for extinction - 1000 times the natural rate of extinction. ("The government will do something. Anyway, extinction is part of life.")
+ A quarter of all American women are raped, and another 19 percent are sexually abused. ("They should take self-defense courses and stop wearing such sluttish clothes.")
+ Skin, prostate, colon and breast cancers are on the rise from industrial pollution, UV radiation exposure, and poor food quality. ("Our scientists will fix it. They'll invent something new and make it all better.")
+ 150,000,000 children are enslaved, carrying bricks, chained to looms, or otherwise filling the Wal-Mart's of the Western world. ("Work builds character.")
+ 32,000 people die of hunger everyday, in a world where one billion are too busy stuffing their faces with steak and marshmallows to care. ("I can hardly pay my own bills.")

What will you do to make the world a better place?

"Acts of God" have become "Acts of Humankind"

An article written in the Christian Century by renowned environmentalist Bill McKibben exploring what the Christian role should be in response to the Global Warming epidemic. Here is a summary of the article but I strongly encourage you to read it in its entirety:

To break that spell, (of inaction regarding environmental concerns) to
wake us up to the love of neighbor demanded both by Jesus and by the physics and
chemistry of our predicament, will take something shocking. The evangelicals
delivered with their statement, and there are signs that they're prepared to go
farther. I'm not sure what a comparable gesture from the mainline would look
like, but I have a hunch that it would resemble the civil rights movement. That
is, churchpeople in jail, arrested for protesting outside Environmental
Protection Agency offices and coal-fired power plants. That is, churches
demanding deep and dramatic changes from parishioners: walk to church or come on a bus, or in a carpool at the very least. Most of all, since this is a mass
problem that will be helped only by mass action, we need to make it clear that
any politician whose plan doesn't call for cutting carbon by half or more simply
hasn't understood the situation, or has understood it and sold out.

Sharing our lives

One of my close friends and I spent some time together the other day catching up on life and our longings in life. And he said something that I believe has immense value to it. He was talking about his time this summer working with junior high youth and how they have been empahsizing the aspect of community. More so in the frame of close friendships. He told me that they have been telling the youth that it is important and vital to your life that you have at least 4 close friends that you share your life with. One of those should be your spouse/significant other but to have a strong bond with three other people that you not only have fun with but have a sense of accountability to and share your life with.

The principle is just as important today for adults as we live in a culture where we are becoming more and more isolated from one another. So the challenge is to look at your life and name 4 people that you consider to be close with. (By close, I mean see frequently and share your lives with each other). I also realize that those close friends change from time to time but it is important to have those connections. My wife is my best friend and supporter and without her I would not be where I am today. And I also have 3 other close friends who I share my life with and that is part of the reason I have not gone crazy yet.

Raul Midon

You don't have to be a guitarist to appreciate his Slap Attack technique. Amazing!

Who are we?

Adamuh, the first human name, means "of the earth."

For all the sons of Adam:

For those who are ashamed of being earth,

For those who love being earth too much,

For those who possess none of the earth,

For those who possess too much of it,

For those who need to know they are earth,

And try to flee heaven out of shame,

Doubting the garden they already have,

Abandoning the garden they already are.

I dedicate this map of return.

- From the dedication page of the book Adam's Return by Richard Rohr

Going Dutch

Fun article for anyone seriously entertaining joining the Amish. So I'm not the only one with visions grandeur of the simple life!

You owe it to yourself... and all who come after you

Brenda and I just got back from seeing An Inconvenient Truth. It was playing in only one theater in Fort Wayne and does not look to be there very long. We do not usually go to the movie theater unless it is the dollar movies and we certainly will not spend the $15 it costs for us both to see a movie. We usually wait until it comes out on DVD and then get them at the library where they are free. Anyhow, this was the one movie that I convinced Brenda that we had to see.

My attempt to put into words what this movie did for me will be severely understated, so I will use a quote from Roger Ebert and his review of the film:

In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.

All that I can do is get the word out! You can visit the website and see more for yourself. I strongly urge you to check out when the movie is playing near you since it is only in limited release. You may want to check online or call the theater that is showing the film to ask how long it will be there. In general I think most theaters are showing it 2-3 weeks at a time so be sure to check.

In the meantime here are 30 ways that we can reduce and even stop global warming. Be concerned this is a moral, ethical and spiritual issue. I'll post more reflections later as I sift through the vast amounts of data presented in the film.