DirtyButts Dies

Our genetically modified hen, died a tragically when she tried to get out of her nesting box. As I mentioned before, she was a large hen designed for roasting and eating so she had a very large carriage making it difficult to walk and almost impossible to get into the nesting boxes. We had placed a nesting box low for her convenience but of late she had wanted to get into one of the high ones. Unfortunately, she missed the mark, fell and broke her neck. I wonder how often we are designing our environment so we miss the mark and may be about to break our necks.

The "Greening' of Our Parish Picnic

Why don't we have a "no trash" picnic? That didn't fly! It was the planning meeting for the annual parish picnic and about 24 people had gathered in the parish hall eager to plan what they would cook and who would volunteer for which committee. No one volunteered for the Green Committee. It wasn't what had been done before.

So we decided to do a demo. We would set up a trash recycling center and have all trash sorted. It worked! We actually sorted more than was needed but we wanted to measure all the different types of trash that was made at the event. You can see the different types in the video.

The week before a news clip was aired on the local TV.....Fort Myers Recycling to be Burned! Great, we were trying to make a point about recycling, about reducing the trash. As it turned out, the County takes all the trash collected by all the cities. It is building a new single stream recycling center to open in October where all recyclables will be sorted. Sorting won't be necessary. Meanwhile, our city of Fort Myers needed to buy it's new trucks and chose to purchase the single stream trucks, trucks that would pick up all recyclables without sorting them. It was a wise move since the other trucks would be out of date when the new recycling center opened. So between now and Oct. 1, the recyclables that have not been sorted will go to the waste to energy incinerator to be burned. At least it will make energy. We chose to haul our recyclables out to the center so they could be used again.

Here's the trash that was created by the picnic with 200 people attending:

50 Gallons of plastic bottles (recyclable)

6 glass bottles (recyclable)

12 aluminum drink cans (recyclable)

10 gallons of food scraps (we are attempting to compost)

20 gallons of paper plates (not recyclable because they were contaminated with food)

2 gallons of plastic ware (advertised as recyclable but our local system cannot recycle it)

31 drink pouches (recyclable)

1 gallon of styrofoam (not recyclable)

30 gallons of soiled paper napkins (we will try to compost with the food scraps)

1 gallon of paper and cardboard (recyclable)

25 gallons of aluminum (recyclable)

30 gallons of plastic wrap (not recyclable)

We did pretty well. Many folks brought their own reusable cups. When everything was sorted out it didn't look like we had very much.

Next year we may have a "no trash" picnic.

Thanks to everyone who worked to make our picnic "green". It was a fun time!

My "girls" and "Interiority"

These are my "girls", four laying hens and one genetically selected meat chicken. We actually got her, Dirty Butts, by mistake. We aren't about to start slaughtering chickens; we just wanted some eggs. Dirty Butts is so chestie now that she can't get up into the nest boxes to lay her egg. We put one down low just for her. Her comb flops as she waddles about the farm. She's a loner and when we aren't watching the others pick on her.

Her kind was breed by selecting the largest chested hens over a period of time so that we could have lots of white meat when we purchased a package of chicken. I don't think you can call it genetic engineering but rather genetic selection. But every time I look at her I again realize what we are doing to our food supply and the damage it is doing to animals and ultimately to ourselves. Every part of creation has an innate sense of what it is about, how it is to grow, where to get nourishment etc. When we mess with it we take away that innate sense and we are left with creatures unable to function and who struggle even harder to survive.

Benedict Speaks Out on Protecting Creation

Pope Benedict XVI had issued a powerful environmental message in his annual World Day of Peace message. "If you want to cultivate peace," he said, "Protect Creation." www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/worlddayofpeacewebsite

Winter Solstice, Abingdon, Virginia 2009

With the release of two Pastorals written by the Catholic Bishops of Appalachia, This Land is Home to Me 1975 and At Home in the Web of Life 1995, ecology became a major focus of the Catholic outreach in Appalachia. Celebrating the Winter Solstice was begun so that we might slow down and reflect on our connection with all creation. The Diocese of Richmond closed it's Appalachian Office of Justice and Peace this past July. To continue the church's mission in Appalachia a new non-profit is under development. This year's Solstice is the first event sponsored by this new ministry, The Appalachian Faith and Ecology Center. Enjoy the movie.

Does Disney Reflect the Habits of Creation?

We went to Disney World to celebrate my granddaughter's 5 th birthday. I was having difficulty answering the question, where do I see one of the four "habits" being lived out in this fantasy world of make believe. Was it even worth trying? It was great fun amid the man made adventures and thrills; like living in a made up world that delights and tantalizes the senses with every turn.

It wasn't until the parade that any connection became apparent. This year's theme at Disney is "celebration". Come and celebrate with us! If it is your birthday you get free admission to the park and allowed to get on the rides first. Everyone, seeing the Happy Birthday button, announces "Happy Birthday" as you pass by! The parade was large floats of animals and colors and lots of dancing characters. Parade goers were encouraged to join in dancing right on the street.

Next we attended the Lion King production in Animal Kingdom. Again, large floats with animated creatures of the jungle were propelled onto the stadium floor as dancers and acrobats careened from overhead onto the stage. The lights dimmed and the evil spirits of the dark world were avenged by good animal characters once again bringing light to the world and joy to the heart.

Life is a celebration. Nature celebrates with every season and every blooming. Humankind has always copied nature arranging it's festivals around the changing seasons. And when creation shows its dark side; when we couldn't explain the catastrophe we acted them out in dance and rituals. This is how we have always coped. We have celebrated.

Celebrating Community with ElderSpirit

It has been a delight to share life with the folks at ElderSpirit for the last several months. ElderSpirit at Abingdon, Virginia is an intentional community of elders who are living together and supporting one another as they age.  They contacted me for assistance creating a series of rituals centered in the natural world.  The rituals were to be interfaith and have a spiritual focus.  The Harvest Festival was the second event and celebrated not only the harvest but the local farmers.  I didn't count but there must have been at least 50 people who attended with half coming from ElderSpirit and the rest from the local community.  We gathered in the Spirit House for singing, readings, and sharing of harvest experiences.  (I shared about my butternut squash which you read about in an earlier posting.)  Then we blessed the gardens and gathered outside to paint pumpkins, faces, make corn husk dolls, and gourd birdhouses.  A light supper was served with most offerings made of either corn or pumpkin.  You can experience some of the fun in the video posted above.  To learn more about ElderSpirit go to www.elderspirit.net.

Thanks to all the folks at ElderSpirit who made this year's Harvest Festival a day which I will never forget.  It was simply FUN!