A holiday celebration – Christmas, or almost any other, really – is a natural time for assembling with family and friends, sharing the company of the people who are most important to us in the world. And good company calls for good food, which leads quite inevitably to one of the most important existential questions … Continue reading Christmas Eve “Just Desserts”

The town of Fudai sits on the north western coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu. Its economy is largely based on fishing – it depends, very thoroughly, on the sea. Fudai has less than 3,000 people in it, making it small enough that half a century ago the regional government tried to convince … Continue reading “Listening to the Experts”

Join us to celebrate the cycle of the natural world and the transition from gathering darkness to growing light. A brief, family-friendly service will be held at 4pm at Lynch Park at 55 Ober St. in Beverly (on the shoreline, near the volley-ball courts).  

A child spends a sunny, summer day in the park. She runs and jumps, climbs trees, makes up games, forgets them, and makes new ones. She pokes and prods in the dirt, exploring, finding ants amidst the grass. And she spins, and spins, and spins, whirling and laughing, her face brighter even than the mid-day … Continue reading “The Miracle of Darkness”

The giant neotropical toad or cane toad is a decently large type of toad about five or so inches around. It’s poisonous, but not in any of the most worrisome sorts of ways. You’re fine as long as you don’t eat or lick one. Like pretty much all toads and frogs it eats insects, and … Continue reading “By Their Fruits Shall Ye Know Them”

In the tradition of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy – more commonly known among white people as the Iroquois – there is a practice sometimes called the Thanksgiving Address, or the Greetings and Thanks to the Natural World, but it is most literally and accurately called, “The Words That Come Before All Else.” It is a litany … Continue reading We Send Our Greetings and Our Thanks

On the 28th of June, 1914, the city of Sarajevo in Eastern Europe, which is today the capital of the nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was, at the time, the capital of a province of the same name within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In late June of that year it was the site of a royal … Continue reading The War to End All Wars