Sacred Skins: The Sheepskin Project comes into Manifestation

In November of 2008, this cry for help came to my attention, through a friend:

“Hi all,

“There is a state of emergency out on the reservations in South Dakota because of early blizzards. Below is a recent email from Grandmother Barbara Threecrow, one of our elders here in the Hudson Valley of New York, about the matter, and below that a link where you can find out more about the crisis and help out if you feel moved to do so. 

“Thanks, and a Happy Thanksgiving to all!

“love,

“Rob

_______________________________

Subject: The Joy of Sharing
Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2008 

“News from the Rez: Apparently the blizzards have begun in S. Dakota and as it often is our brothers and sisters are hit hard, especially when their is no FUEL for heat in their homes. If you feel called, please check the site below to donate, share your abundance so the "people" can be warm too. Every little bit helps. 

“Grandmother Threecrow”

 … … …

My heart went out to those far-away people freezing in their homes, and especially to the elders who had suffered and struggled and sacrificed so much in their lives, and whose hard-won and sorely-needed wisdom was now in fact in mortal danger due to the harshness of their living conditions.  I did want to help, but sending money to purchase fossil fuel to heat poorly insulated trailers exposed to fierce blizzard winds on the wild Great Plains didn’t feel like the answer.  

Three or four years later – maybe 2012? - my husband Craig was visiting a local farmer, looking at a carpentry job or picking up a load of manure for the garden – we’re not sure which anymore. There, in the dumpster at the farm, he spotted three small sheepskins, discarded when the sheep were butchered. The skins are not in great demand these days and so are of little economic value. Adrian, the farmer, said that he threw away the skins when he butchered his sheep each autumn -- they are considered a ‘waste product.’  Craig brought the three skins home.

We’ve kept sheep here at Mawenawasigh in the past, and have had the skins of our animals custom-tanned.  They have come back from the tannery beautifully thick and warm. I greatly enjoy using them when I sleep outdoors – one under me and one over me. I am never cold!  So we got those three discarded skins tanned as well, and they served as rugs in our home for many years.

I thought of those poor people on the Plains, subjected to the harsh winter winds every year.  I wished I could give them some sheepskins – especially the children and the elders.  But I did not know how to reach them.

More years passed.  Blizzards continued in the West, and every year I thought of those freezing people. The ‘Sheepskin Project’, as I called it in my mind, remained a dormant seed, waiting for the conditions it needed to crack open and grow – waiting for the puzzle pieces to fall into place that would get the thick warm fleeces to the shivering people.  I felt sure they would know just how best to use them, because their ancestral tradition holds those Wisdom Ways.

Finally, 2020 arrived: the Year of Clear Vision, the year of the coronavirus pandemic, the year when Earth School was born.  Our twelve short months of immersion in connection and study were filled with learning and growth in ways we never could have anticipated -- especially in light of the until-then-unimaginable world events that emerged into Being each and every day that year.  Unlike many in our communities who were taken down by the challenges of 2020, each of us in Earth School emerged happier, healthier, wiser, more grounded, more connected, and more capable of creating what we wish for in our lives than we have ever been before (see our previous blog post, here.)  It has been a joy to witness the transformation that was set in motion by the Earth School experience!

It was through Earth School student Alan Ritter’s connection with Olga Sher, of Antinanco Earth Arts, that finally a way has been found to get warm fleeces to the freezing people.  I am so glad and grateful!

As a trial, we recently procured two sheepskins from two different Hudson Valley farms, and scraped and salted them – the first steps in the tanning process.  This morning I sent them to Hopi Nation, to a native tanner in Arizona.  We are hoping that she will be able to process them using traditional methods.  If she finds them suitable she will tan them and they will be given to those in need for use as blankets, clothing, or insulating material.  If those two sheepskins are of use there will be an opportunity to offer many more.  There will be plenty of room for you and others to help as well – through financial contributions to purchase raw sheepskins and materials, pay for shipping, and support the tanning process, and through direct hands-on work in community, scraping and salting the skins to prepare them for shipping.  Together we can turn this ‘waste product’ into health and warmth and wisdom for our beleaguered relatives.

We are now eagerly awaiting feedback from the tanner – will these hides be workable with traditional methods, and will the results be of service and value?  Stay tuned – we’ll keep you posted!

What You Can Do: Add your name to our mailing list to stay connected with the Sacred Skins Sheepskin Project by sending us a message here.

I’m so grateful for this opportunity to meet and collaborate with the people at Antinanco Earth Arts, whose mission is so strongly resonant with that of Earth School.  Thank you, thank you, thank you! Our connection feels like a blessing to me.

Earth School in the Coronavirus Pandemic: Awareness, Resiliency, and Whole System Healing

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, on December 31, 2019 China reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in people associated with the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, Hubei Province. On January 7, 2020, Chinese health authorities confirmed that this cluster was associated with a novel virus, 2019-nCoV.

On January 20, 2020, four days before Earth School opened its doors for the very first time, the first confirmed 2019-nCoV infection was reported in the United States, in Snohomish County, Washington. We heard a rumor about the disease, but Washington State seemed very far away.

Ten days later, by January 30, 2020, a total of 9976 cases had been reported in at least 21 countries.

As of March 1, 2020, the Wall Street Journal announced that the virus had reached New York State, and less than two weeks later, on March 12th, the first confirmed case was reported in Dutchess County, where Earth School is located.

The day after COVID-19 was confirmed in Dutchess County, March 13, 2020, we gathered at Mawenawasigh for Earth School’s third Weekend Retreat. Together, we considered vision, boundaries, effective communication, and how to find and maintain dynamic balance -- all of which have been called for in our responses to the pandemic. After the students set out for home on Sunday, March 15, I read an article describing how exponential growth could affect our ability to respond as the then-still-novel coronavirus spread. I shared the article with Craig, and that evening the two of us took the decision to begin social distancing and shelter in place.

As I write on May 12th, 2020, it's just 61 days later. Nearly 300,000 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 in 212 countries around the world – as many as 8,000 deaths per day. The US has been hit hardest by far: 1,396,751 of the 4,318,800 cases reported worldwide so far have occurred in the United States. Nearly 83,000 Americans have died, and nearly 15% of the US population is unemployed. Patterns of extreme economic and social disparity have been undeniably exposed and deep and fundamental disagreements as to personal and national priorities become more and more sharply highlighted every day.

Here at Earth School, we’re interested in “Land-based Learning for Health and Sustainability.” The thing we’re studying, at the deepest level, is whole system healing. We’ve been given an opportunity to focus on these priorities and to put our principles into practice. And here, the results have been truly transformative!

Sheltering in place has allowed us to lift our focus from the distractions of the 21st Century – rushing here and there to buy, see, and do -- and put it back on the place where we make our home. Decades of study and practice -- about food and diet, sustainable systems for Land-tending and housekeeping, effective communication and collaboration, and general self-reliance -- have created a resilient system that is proving its ability to withstand the rapidly changing reality of the coronavirus pandemic, with its’ accompanying disruptions and anxieties. Staying at home has allowed us to go deeper in our awareness of what is here– both on the Land and in ourselves, and to fine-tune what we find into a beautiful, powerfully integrated system for living in joy and satisfaction.

Most importantly, although we’ve been socially distancing, we’ve not been socially *isolated *at all. The spaces in the day that were previously filled by driving from place to place now include time together with loved ones. We’re hard at work on the Land and in the gardens, accomplishing things we've been meaning to attend to for years. We're growing abundant food for the coming year. And we're making our way through the paperwork: bit-by-bit the piles that have been waiting for attention are dwindling. Most surprisingly and dramatically, we’ve pushed the technological envelope as well. Like schools around the nation, we moved online -- and delivered Weekend Four long distance via Zoom. We also offered three online classes at the Touch Mother Earth 50th Earth Day Festival, and we're now offering a daily online movement and meditation class called 3M, free-of-charge six mornings each week to anyone who would like to participate.

3M has been especially wonderful. It has served as a rudder, stabilizing all of our other activities. Participants report that it has helped them to remain grounded and purposeful in the face of the disruptions and upheaval brought by the pandemic. Daily, this simple movement practice and short sitting meditation have allowed participants to go inside to connect with themselves and orient to the most personally fruitful way of being in each moment, as the external situation moves in surprising ways. We continue to offer this practice free of charge at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time, Monday through Saturday – if you'd like to join, please write for the Zoom link.

As the world population approaches 8 billion, and social and environmental exploitation and consumerism degrade land, water, air and the human spirit, it's time to find new ways of living that are more in keeping with the original Divine design: beauty, cooperation, collaboration, and sensitivity to balance and harmony in the whole system of which we are each a part. This coronavirus pandemic is offering each of us an opportunity to vision, to practice, and to ask important questions: What is the World we want to create going forward? And what new understandings and skills, what awareness’s and relationships, what decisions and actions are needed from each of us now in order to move toward creation of that World?

Here at Earth School we are working in the direction of those discoveries. If these questions are of interest to you as well, we would love to have you as part of our community. Please, be in touch!!

Santha Cooke

“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out, and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.” — Cynthia Occelli”

Some Photos from Weekend 3: Water into Wood

Everything getting ready to sprout …

The Ripple Effect

When two streams collide … then merge…

At the Confluence

At the Confluence

The image I present is of the Confluence of the Wappinger and Little Wappinger Creeks in the middle of Duchess County, New York State. It is the home of Earth School.

What follows are my thoughts having just walked back from taking the image posted here.

Identity is like the direction of water.
Who we are is taken very seriously.

Water does not take identity very seriously.
It learns freely in the moment depending only on the circumstances it is in.

It accepts.
And then it lets the experience go.

It does not label itself for eternity based on a moment or a longer experience.

It is not "the water in the Wappinger Creek just before the Confluence at 5:30pm on February 15, 2020."

It has experienced being that.

And it may again.

But it is "water that holds that memory and builds with more memories."

Isn't it just water?

It is water we have to respect it for its path.

Can I ever think about the water's path?

How many places has this water been?

Is it someone to sit and talk to as it passes?

When I drink a glass of water...do I see a confluence of new water and waters already in my body?

Do I eat fruits and veggies from around the world and wonder at their waters entering my body?

This water is held inside my cells for a time.

Do I choose different foods, not due to the taste of the plants, but due to its water?

Not for its mineral content... its chemical assay...but due to its soul.

I hope to continue to contemplate on the consciousness of all life.

There are so many souls to talk to when meeting another person!

<3

Alan Ritter

Our First Earth School Weekend

Is that a Fairy? Or is it Rebecca?

Have you ever played a game or begun a new puzzle? You have all these random pieces, and you have no clue where they go, but you are 100% confident that you need all the pieces and that one day soon you’ll know how they fit into the right spot.  All those unique and different pieces will work together to create an amazing masterpiece in the end.

That was like my experience at the first Earth School weekend.  It was powerful, and even if I didn’t understand each and every lesson fully in that moment, I was sure that every single morsel of information is absolutely vital in the grand scheme of things. In the end I will put the pieces together. What I do know already is that the conversations were deep and rich. The content applied to what is happening in our nation and in our world right now. I was introduced to the Tao and the I Ching in such a soft gentle way that I am excited to learn more about these ancient studies.

 The silent walk in the secret woods was what I was looking forward to the most -- and I was not disappointed. I explored the land with new eyes. I saw the elements in new forms. Winter has never seemed so alive and warm to me.. I found secret alcoves and treasures. I made an altar in the woods to give thanks for my new sanctuary. In doing so I was given an up close and personal experience with the land. After all the deep conversations and complex topics, nature provided for me a plate full of experience. Amidst the sacred, the political, and the practical, I found places of playfulness and joyfulness.

I may not know where all the pieces go yet but the puzzle sure looks interesting. I know this will be an epic journey — one that will cultivate new experiences and open new parts of myself. Onward we go!

Melissa Coine

Our First Weekend -- at the Confluence

Please allow me to introduce myself: my name is Alan Ritter, and I’m helping with the Earth School project because I am searching for connection to the Earth.  I feel something missing in my life, and I want to find it.  My life has changed drastically since 2005, when I began my journey from being a defense contractor to selling produce. Now I want to connect more deeply. This is why I am at Earth School.

 Earth School, is being created by founder Santha Cooke, a long-time teacher, healer, and gardener. She has formal training as well as hands-on experience in agriculture, education, and the healing arts, and a lifetime of practice working with land and people in the place that she has called home for more than half-a-century. She has assembled a team and we are traveling together through the “Year of Transformation” that is the Earth School curriculum.  Throughout the coming year, we will be interacting with the seasons, the world of nature, and our own inner worlds, both indoors and outdoors, developing our ‘2020 Vision’. The curriculum includes hands in the dirt as well as eyes in books.  It covers many subjects, which you can read about here and in our posts on the Earth School Facebook page.  The school is located in Salt Point, New York. 

 Earth School opened its doors for the first time on the weekend of January 24th through 26th, 2020, after decades of Dreaming on the part of Santha. I want to tell you about an experience I had over the weekend — the first of 11 weekend retreats that are the core of the Earth School program. Santha introduced material that offered participants an opportunity to look at life through different eyes, opening the doorway for continued change throughout the year.  As humans, we can only carry so much, and we have to put something down in order to have room to pick up something new -- including a new idea or pattern of thought.

After some time in the Classroom, where some eye-opening new concepts were introduced, we walked the Land, looking for elements of the material that Santha had introduced, and searching for our special spot.  I found my spot at the confluence of the two streams.  The water rushed in from the West and the water rushed in from the East. It was polarized, just like our Country.  After a moment of violent swirling together, the water flowed calmly down the joined stream.  I was transfixed.  

The Universe was pulling my leg so hard to see. SEE!  SEE! “Yes, here we are in this time, when so many are polarized.  Some say Red! Red! Red! Others say Blue! Blue! Blue! The Banks control the flow!”

I thought: “What is my role now? Am I in the water? Am I above the water? Am I the Banks?   And -- am I satisfied with the outcome, with the flow as directed by the Banks?”  

 Then I realized:  “I’m not! In this scene I felt myself to be no more than a drop of water — one of the masses of people content to have others guide the society — content to complain but not take action.  I’ve been terrified to stand up for what I believe.  I’ve wanted to make friends and start a group and push for change, but only in my mind.  Now I see that I have shirked my responsibility to take care of my personal boundaries, for the quality of my life.  That is what I realized, in one moment at Earth School – because I opened up and was willing to see, because I took my rigidity off and asked Nature to show me the reality.

 This was just one instant -- there were many other moments of learning and discovery during the Earth School weekend, from our arrival at nearly 11:00 pm on Friday night until our departure at 5:30pm on Sunday afternoon. 

I encourage you to join the Earth School mailing list.  Earth School is just beginning -- this is the proto-year, and the School will grow in years to come.  This School is about learning, and, just as importantly, it is also about forming long-term relationships.  It is about finding out about yourself, and learning what you need to put down and what you need to pick up, to create for yourself a life of joy and satisfaction.

If this appeals to you, I encourage you to go to Earthschl.com and click through the Facebook and Instagram links to join or follow those. Then, join the mailing list. We’ll keep you posted as the Year unfolds!

Alan Ritter

Alan stacking wood.

First Class at Earth School!

It always feels good to be back on the land, and back with people that want to connect and grow.

We arrived fairly late on Friday night. We had dinner waiting for us and then went to The Overlook for the night. After putting my things inside I stepped back outside on the deck of The Overlook. The sky was beautiful. You could see so many stars shinning and lighting up the sky with the moon. It always moves me when you can see the stars so clear like that. Taking in the fresh air and looking up, I started to think of a poem. By the time I went back inside, I was writing in my journal. I came up with this:

All We Need

Stars twinkle through the branches of wise trees,
Scattered like fish shimmering in the blue sea.
Grounded in the Earth with my bare feet,
A fire burns warm with great heat.

The Earth is abundant,
She’s all we need.
We must wake and remember,
But are blinded by greed.
Change isn’t easy,
But we can plant seeds.
Harmony on Earth,
For all human beings.

The rest of the weekend had the same tone of peace and knowledge. I learned many new things that I am now adopting into my routine — especially being more aware of stretching my body and waking up my joints.

It always feels like the weekend flies by while I’m at Earth School!

I’m excited to see what the next weekend has in store for us <3

Trish Shaw

New Year, New You: Welcome Earth School in 2020!

Ever onward …

Did you know, 60% of us make New Years Resolutions but only 8% end up keeping them?

I've never been a big fan of resolution making. Instead, I prefer to reflect on the most important thing I feel I've learned over the course of the year. I love that this personal tradition allows me to celebrate my continued self-growth while avoiding any commitments I am unlikely to keep.

This year, my lesson has been a particularly difficult one. I am learning that I cannot say "YES" to absolutely everything, even when I'd ideally like to. Time is limited, and prioritizing pleasing others before tending to my own needs is not a sustainable lifestyle.

This year is different from others past, because my lesson calls for corrective action. I surprise myself by setting a serious resolution for the first time ever:

 Always make time for the things that nourish you. 

While I have already begun to make some changes, I know I need to keep up the momentum. I am confident that I will succeed in my goal because I have this small, mighty and loving group of Earthlings holding me up. We have committed to this year-long journey of learning and growth, regaining balance that has been lost in so many aspects of modern human life. Here, I can regain the support and accountability that I had been missing in my personal sphere.

Whatever your "resolution" may be, I hope you will consider Earth School as a tool to help achieve your goals and keep in touch with us through your journey

Whether your personal goals touch on eating healthier, spending more time connecting with friends and family, learning a new skill or hobby, giving back to your community, reading more, becoming more environmentally conscious, or finding more balance - this program can give you the support and resources you need to achieve them, for really real this time.

— Earth School Student

We are nourished by the Earth …

A Vehicle for Better Relationships

I've been thinking about Earth School and how it can build better relationships. 

I wish my mother and I could have taken this course together. We’re always trying to share meaningful experiences with our family and friends. Now we’re in a season where gift giving is encouraged -- but many of us would much rather spend quality time with our loved ones, instead of acquiring another physical thing to take up space in the house! 

 It hit me the other day that Earth School is an ideal place to improve and cultivate relationships -- not just with strangers but also with our kith and kin. What better place to heal tension and frustration with a parent or sibling than in a program that teaches you and grows you? We can grow together. As we learn about ourselves and our individual place on this Earth, we can also see and feel more with our loved ones – the ones who know us best, and always have so much more to learn. This program can provide so much more opportunity to get closer than a wine-tasting or pottery class. Imagine how much more loving and close we would become, having taken a journey like this together? This is the kind of activity I wish my mother and I could have shared. Perhaps it would have built a bridge of understanding and acceptance between us. Perhaps it would have helped us heal our traumas and allowed us to share more enjoyable, close experiences together. 

 Imagine -- what kind of connection would be possible if you were to take the Earth School journey together with someone you love?

Melissa Coine

Melissa and Trish in the Garden …

It's So Much More Than Gardening!

gardening and land tending, and so much more ...

For me, the name “Earth School” conjures up images of gardening and landscaping. 

 I’ve never been very talented at taking care of plants. Like so many others, I all-too-often forget about my poor flowers and herbs until they’re close to death. And then, ashamed, I drown them, both figuratively and literally, in attention and water.

So, why would someone like me – someone who is not gifted in growing things  -- be interested in a program like Earth School?

Here’s why: although the Earth School curriculum does include lessons on gardening and plant tending, it’s also so much more.

Today, everyone is thinking about sustainability.  Earth School teaches so much about sustainable living!   It can teach us how to sustain life -- in our homes, with our land, in our relationships, and in ourselves.  Earth School offers us ways to learn – not just how to use land, but how to create -- both soil and soul that are healthy and able to sustain life.

Earth School offers the opportunity to learn how to utilize foods from the garden, and wild plants from nature.  It also offers us ways to understand ourselves and each other better, to communicate better, and to have more deep and intimate connection in life. 

It can be difficult to see ourselves as part of this Earth, but once we're able to look past conditioned ideas of human superiority, we can begin to understand our place in the community of life on this planet.  When that happens, we can begin living more sustainable lives and create a better future.  Earth School can help us make that transition.

Melissa Coine

What’s Earth School?

“‘Earth School’ — what’s that?”

I’m so glad you asked!

Earth School is a year-long opportunity to learn from and about the Earth, in ways that matter, with benefits that will last a lifetime.

Earth School is a school that’s designed to put the puzzle pieces back together again.

Earth School is a chance to restore connection: to your own natural being, which can get left behind; with other people, who can get ‘put on the back burner;’ and with the natural environment, which is all-too-often overlooked completely.

Most importantly, Earth School offers practical tools and support to reconnect you to your inner guide, so you can navigate the turbulence and confusion of the 21st Century and empower your life with health, meaning and satisfaction. 

Here are just a few of the topics we will touch on:

·       Ancient Healing Traditions

·       Building Self-Confidence 

·       Care and Feeding of Healthy Soil and a Healthy Soul

·       Communicating with Nature, and with People

·       Community Building

·       Creating Ceremony and Honoring the Sacred

·       Forest Bathing

·       Global Warming

·       Healthy Vegan and Vegetarian Cooking

·       Land Tending

·       Life Skills for the 21st Century

·       Medicinal Plants

·       Meditation

·       Movement

·       Organic Gardening Methods and Materials

·       Radical Simplicity

·       Sacred Activism

·       Sound Healing

·       The Five Elements in Nature and in Human Nature

·       Whole System Healing

Earth School students will participate in eleven group gatherings over the course of a year, and will receive a yearlong individual program of coaching, mentoring, and support. They will also stay connected to the group through monthly on-line discussions, in which we will explore the cutting edge of thought about healing today. 

And, there’s an opportunity to receive mentoring and support for a project of your choice, to be implemented at home, in your household or community.

Earth School is a powerful community of learners, and a learning environment as deep and rich and nourishing as our Mother Earth herself.  It will truly be a year of learning, healing, growth, and transformation – a year to remember!

Santha Cooke

Why Go to Earth School?

It’s worth coming to Earth School for the setting alone! 

Come into connection with the World of Nature …

The Mid-Hudson Valley has so much to offer --

 with its dramatic seasons, bountiful farmland, hiking, and mountain and river views. Many small Hudson Valley towns are influenced equally strongly by artists, creatives, and spiritual seekers as they are by the beautiful surrounding landscape. There is so much abundance here to be shared!

At the very center of the Mid-Hudson Valley, at the center of Dutchess County, at the confluence of the two Wappingers Creeks, is Mawenawasigh, home of Sycamore Healing Arts, home of Earth School. A magical place, within a magical place, within a magical place. 

Earth School weaves healing practices such as meditation, yoga and communication exercises with a study of the world of nature. Just as yoga teaches strength, focus and flexibility on the mat to help us develop and use these skills in our daily lives, Earth School uses nature as a powerful lens through which we can view common threads in all the patterns and systems we participate in. As we connect together in  the garden to sow and nurture the food that will nourish our bodies, we also sow and nurture seeds of growth within ourselves. 

We all have healing to do. This curriculum puts all the pieces together and allows us to view and heal the whole system. It will benefit anyone with a desire to improve themselves, their relationships, and the larger world. 

We are nourished by the Land …

Why Go to Earth School?

Earth School is the solution to a problem that causes side effects like depression and loneliness. From planting and growing, to harvesting and eating. Learn how to manifest abundance, clear your mind with meditation, and most of all, learn to love yourself and others while building a strong community.

The wisdom of the Earth belongs to us. We have been disconnected for so long. So much dis-ease has manifested. Reconnect here with the Divine. Strengthen your connection with Spirit and with others.

There’s so much more to offer as well! Earth School can help you find your missing link ❤️

Love & Light,

-Trish Shaw

Why Earth School?

These are interesting times. Daily, the media reports new discoveries and technical marvels – and profoundly devastating changes around the world. 

We’ve moved to town, and brought town to country: these days most people live in cities and suburbs, while the rhythms and skills of life rooted in Land recede into distant memory. 

We’ve separated from the community of Nature that has supported us since time began. Nowadays, we drive where once we walked -- missing the opportunity to get to know the plants and animals that share our home. 

We’ve become isolated from one another. Cars, planes, phones, TVs and computers promised to tie the world together, and they have: millions of people enjoy undreamed-of new opportunities.

At the same time, these technologies pollute air, water, and soil, and disconnect us from loved ones, neighbors, and local landscapes, as well as from ourselves. 

And, frighteningly, as personal connection erodes, small un-noticed wrongs can grow larger: into gun violence, toxic waste dumps, child abuse.  Negligence of so many kinds results from our disconnection! 

This picture of estrangement is not true for everyone.  I’ve had a different experience as, unlike many Americans, I’ve lived rooted in place all my life. In the 1930’s my grandmother found a home in the country – and we’re still here, taking care of things.  Living here since before I was born, I know the Land and the Community deeply. They have taught me what many people have forgotten.

“Mawenawasigh” (that’s the indigenous name for the place where we live) is just an hour-and-a-half north of Manhattan, in central Dutchess County, New York. Here, like everywhere, over the past 60 years the local economy has become global, as world population has tripled to nearly 8 billion people.  I’ve watched.

Corporate shopping malls with their huge selection of imported goods replace country stores stocking the basics, with a neighbor behind the counter. 

The 350 dairy farms in Dutchess have dwindled to 35 since the 1980’s. Farm families dispersed north and south. Some prime agricultural land remains in use as specialty farms catering to elite markets; less-fertile former pastures now sprout houses and weeds.

Air and water quality rebounded following the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts in the early 1970's; people now swim in the Hudson River, but we still don’t eat the fish.

Populations have shifted.  Fewer cows – more humans.  Newcomers bring creative energy and increased load on natural systems and taxpayer dollars. Animals too: native deer, coyote, turkey, and bears have returned, joined by newly imported insect pests.  Even plant life has changed, as introduced species follow hedgerows, paths, and other disturbed sites through field and forest.  Spending most of their time in built environments, people don’t notice.

At the same time, there have been big changes in the minds and hearts of people everywhere.  Brought together by technological innovation and new information systems, there has been tremendous cross-fertilization among deeply rooted traditions. The result: a time of powerful hybrid vigor in all human activity. Rapid change is occurring everywhere – for better or for worse?  That depends on human choice.

As all of this has been happening, I've studied. I'm curious and thorough by nature, and I wanted to see deeply and understand well, because I want to take care of things, so I can have a good and Joyful life. I want to foster Beauty, because the world can be so beautiful, and why not? 

To steward and pass on the gifts we receive feels like the right work of Humans. To take on our roles as Earth-keepers, we need to understand how things work, so that we can understand how to behave, so that things can go well for the Land and People we love – for our Home.

So, over the years, I've studied the worlds of Nature and of Human Nature. Agriculture, education, healing. History, and prehistory. Language, tradition and ancient ways. Spirituality. Construction, management, money. New thought and old thought. So many things, in school, and out in life: friendship, family, relationship, marriage, parenting, teaching, home ownership, land ownership, business, pleasure. And the plants -- always the plants. So much about the plants.  The result is a whole system perspective, and a body of knowledge that supports whole system healing.

To share this, to gather strength in numbers, to go deeper and reach wider, to be sure this perspective isn't lost and to find those who will carry it -- that’s why now it’s time for Earth School to begin. I hope you will join us!

-- Santha Cooke