As I’ve watched the insects slowly emerge this spring and summer, I was somehow reminded of a time in my childhood when I was fascinated with bugs.  I remember examining the windshield and bumper of the car after a driving trip and being amazed by the variety of bees, butterflies and other bugs that were plastered to the car.  As morbid as it was, it gave me a chance to examine these insects close up and without fear. As I reflected on that memory, I realized that this is something that my children have probably not experienced.  I started to wonder why we see so many fewer insects these days.  I did some research and I was shocked by the results.   Within the last 20 years there has been a massive decline in insect populations world wide. Stanford University developed a global index for insect population which showed a 45% decline over the last four \ decades.  In the last 20 years, the population of monarch butterflies in the eastern U.S. has declined by ...

Recently I have been thinking about slowing down. Of course, say my friends, you have reached retirement and so that is a legitimate proposition. But then, when I connect with some of my retired friends, one of their complaints I hear most often is that they are busier than ever.  I conclude that busyness has become one of our culture’s virtues. We tend to think more highly of people whose calendars are chock-full than of those who have a few open spaces left.  A lot has been written in recent decades about margins and boundaries. How long would you stay with a book, for example, that had no margins. Most of the book would likely remain unread. Slowing down reminds us that we are most fully alive when we live within appropriate boundaries that allow some room for surprise and flexibility. A good cup of coffee is best taken slowly, as is a good quality wine! So why do we gulp down our lives so quickly? Beyond being better for you, slowing down is becoming imperative in our day ...

Altona CAN  Bye Bye Boomerang Bags Boomerang Bags Altona will be wrapping up and saying goodbye. If you had not yet heard about the Boomerang Bags program, it was a fleet of reusable cloth bags that were available in multiple retail locations to borrow and bring back when one forgot their own bags. It was a great idea, in theory.  The end of Boomerang Bags Altona is in part due to the pandemic as we don't anticipate a time in the near future where the public will be ready to use shared items. However, truth be told, the fate of Boomerang Bags was already in the works before the pandemic. The bags just simply weren't coming back at a rate that was sustainable. We couldn't in good faith keep asking volunteers to sew bags that were consistently disappearing, so COVID-19 just sped up what was inevitable. We learned a lot from this project. The countless conversations we have had in the community around plastic pollution are invaluable and ongoing. The community sewing bees allo...