Blog: Musings on the Earth, Mindful Living, and our Connections
Off the Beaten Path
My work for In the Gardens reaches out to many communities – schools, townships, businesses, nonprofits, and also to congregations, straddling needs in both the secular and spiritual community. As such, I was invited to join Kenissa, an organization that celebrates and creates connections for Jewish innovators. This past March I participated in...
Mindfulness in the Garden
This weekend I had the opportunity to lead a session at the 2018 Good Food EXPO, a conference for all things garden, farming and fresh food related. It was my fourth year at the conference. The first year I attended, I met a young man – a high school student – named Lucas Zeidner. We...
Bringing Forth Kindness: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
I returned from a 10-day seminar in the wee hours of Monday morning. When I woke later that morning to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I saw volunteer opportunities listed on my phone – how to put King’s vision to work and make this world a place of greater love and kindness. Then on Tuesday morning, I was inspired...
#HoustonStrong
I am honored to have participated in a trip to Houston last week for disaster relief after Hurricane Harvey. It was coordinated by an organization called Nechama, and promoted in Chicago through the Jewish United Fund. When I saw the email invitation, I quickly checked my calendar and...
Road Trip!
What a remarkable and extraordinary country we live in. I just came back from a six-day road trip, something I don’t do often. I went to see my daughter at her new home in North Carolina, and decided to stop at my alma mater in Athens, Ohio. I graduated from Ohio University’s dance...
A Special Volunteer!
Last Saturday I had the honor of seeing one of my former students become a bar mitzvah. It was especially meaningful because of the close relationships I have with so many members of his family, particularly with his grandmother Judy (Gunga, as she is known), who is one of In the Gardens’ main volunteers. And yet...
Spring Fundraiser – Join our monthly giving program!
Spring has come much too early this year. From those 70-degree days in February, plants took off early out of the starting block. Even though we’ve had a snowfall since then and some additional cold days, the warm weather is here, and it’s time to get all the goods into the ground. There are times during the season that we need to work overtime, and this is one of them. Our water system is in, but needs some fine-tuning. Some of our seeds are in, but lots more of our beds need to be prepped and planted. Trees and plants around the…
Winter Sprouts
This past Sunday, as with many Sundays, my volunteer, Abe, came to help me with winter gardening detail: removing dried mint and dill from the stems to jar for tea and spice, respectively. We removed and bagged seeds from collards and arugula, and separated beans and peas from their shells, some for cooking and some for planting next season. But this Sunday was different. The sun was shining and it was 65 degrees—time to work outside.
I love…
Partnering For Good: Huddle
Since the Women’s March, I have felt compelled to continue to act for the betterment of our society and country. I am particularly concerned about inclusivity as it refers to issues of economics, race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. I am concerned about climate change and the world that our children inherit. And of course, I am concerned about hunger and need. So I decided to participate in…
Bringing out the Light
This weekend two world religions will celebrate their holidays at exactly the same time. While Hanukkah is considered a minor festival in the Jewish calendar, and the confluence of its first night with Christmas Eve is unusual at best, the convergence of these two celebrations provides an opportunity included in the mission of both faiths that might be overlooked.
Each of these…