Sustainable St. Croix,part of a continuing seriesReaping the fruits of our choices

Yesterday we mentioned the need to practice playing well with others. Today we learned that a friend of ours recently wrote about setting an example of that for the past decade or so. Her piece can be found on streets.mn and is titled How A Cherry Tree Can Make a Better Street. If you read it carefully and think about it, you'll soon realize that following her approach could produce "How A Cherry Tree Can Make a Better Street World." Sharing nature, engaging others, especially those not exactly like you, reaching out, communicating all contribute to building community, something we need more of. In years past, we've been to one of these events and watched unruly children be diverted in productive activity pitting cherries. Hmmm, Washington, D.C. has lots of cherry trees and Congress has lots of... (unruly children?) I wonder if my friend could work her magic there. Even without such a miracle, it's all inspiring enough that we may try something similar with our pear tree or our apple trees (when the latter grow up some more) and our own neighbors.

pear tree in blossom

Photo by J. Harrington

This has turned into one of those funny weeks when certain themes keep popping up. Yesterday afternoon I was at the Wyoming, MN farmers market. This morning it was reading about urban agriculture; and, this afternoon we're participating in one of the 17 Imaginings (a vibrant, arts-infused gathering in which a community envisions its ideal future and identifies creative tactics to get there) being held across the country. This one is at the St. Croix Falls library in rural Wisconsin (follow the link above and scroll down to Shafer, MN for a link to the Facebook page). At a "news conference" that will be held as part of the gathering, I get to play a farmer, an organic farmer, at that. So we're now seeing both rural and urban agriculture make notable contributions to community building. If we get enough of this kind of effort going on, I could become less pessimistic about how we're going to deal with global warming. Global community anyone? Carl Sandburg knows what we're talking about.

St. Croix Falls

Photo by J. Harrington

Choose

By Carl Sandburg    

    THE single clenched fist lifted and ready,

Or the open asking hand held out and waiting.

                     Choose:

For we meet by one or the other. 

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Please be kind to each other while you can.