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Not Yet Dormant
“Wandering brings mind and movement into a healing congruity”. -Lyanda Lynn Haupt, from Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit. All of the photos in this post were taken in Hartford on Saturday, December 16, 2023. All is not yet drab this autumn. They say that travel...
Ceasefire
While taking a walk around Hartford, I was reminded over and over why I call this city home. When you live, work, and socialize with people from many backgrounds, it becomes a whole lot harder to dehumanize whole segments of the population. For those in more insular (segregated) communities, this...
Our Complicity
This artwork has only been up for about a week and the number is already outdated. The United States government is now complicit in close to 18,000 murders — primarily civilians. It’s estimated that more than one-third of those killed in this war have been children. Conditions for those displaced are shameful.
Lessons from Mapping Death
After ditching my car a few years ago because I live in an urban area and do not need one for my daily life, I began walking more frequently for transportation. As happens, I noticed how dangerously people were driving. That’s nothing new in itself. Every time I checked the news, it seemed another person was killed while walking or biking. I’ve had countless close calls, been buzzed, and been reversed into while using a marked crosswalk with the pedestrian light on. The way I heard reporters and the general public talk about crashes was bothersome, between calling them “accidents” or rushing to blame the pedestrian. In late 2019, I decided that in the new year I would start mapping where these deaths were occuring, and maybe this would help illustrate how much of an issue this was and that there were patterns.
Nurturing Connection
“People often ask me what one thing I would recommend to restore relationship between land and people. My answer is almost always, ‘Plant a garden.’ It’s good for the health of the earth and it’s good for the health of people. A garden is a nursery for nurturing connection, the soil for cultivation of practical reverence. And its power goes far beyond the garden gate — once you develop a relationship with a little patch of earth, it becomes a seed itself. Something essential happens in a vegetable garden. It’s a place where if you can’t say ‘I love you’ out loud, you can say it in seeds. And the land will reciprocate, in beans.” –Robin Wall Kimmerer, in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.
Safe Streets Connecticut: November 2023
After a driver struck a pedestrian on North Main Street in West Hartford on November 29, 2023, the injured pedestrian was ticketed. Officially, the infraction was for “reckless use of the highway by a pedestrian.” Police apparently plan to reveal nothing else about this matter, though eventually the details should wind up in the CT Crash Data Repository.
Play
“What if […] play were at the heart of the everyday – even for adults? What if we were to see more and more people bringing play and imagination into politics? What if our daily lives included more opportunities and spaces where play was possible? Would it decrease our anxiety? Would it build empathy? Would it establish connections? And would it help us to be more imaginative and positive about the future and its possibilities?”
More Trees
More than a dozen new trees were added to the Frog Hollow roundabout in the last week or so. If anyone is looking for a new holiday tradition, here’s an idea: anyone who takes a cut tree and brings it indoors for a few weeks to display could offset their practice by planting two new trees at the same time each year.
Plowshares
“What would it be like to be raised on gratitude, to speak to the natural world as a member of the democracy of species, to raise a pledge of interdependence? […] What happens to nationalism, to political boundaries, when allegiance lies with winds and waters that know no boundaries, that cannot be bought or sold?”
Plants
“Our lives and actions are not meaningless — in fact, the opposite is true. Our rapidly changing climate proves that we are all connected, that every action we take can alleviate suffering not only tangibly, locally and immediately but across the vast network of life and throughout all time. Our lives and actions may be temporary and imperfect, but by accepting our tiny place in the world, we unlock a deeper way of being. And we help to bring about a future that will be unimaginably better for everyone.”
Spice and Everything Nice
I have pretty much an entire friendship based on Fire-N-Spice. We text each other when we go — not as an invitation. More like to make the other jealous, or maybe it’s to share excitement over stopping there. Considering this is a no effort, five-minute walk from my house, I’m amused still at how much each visit feels like a special occasion.
They Didn’t Slam the Door in Anyone’s Face Only Because They Never Opened It
How has Sen. Chris Murphy, who has made gun control his whole personality, not demanded a ceasefire? He has spoken so clearly about how devastated he was following Sandy Hook, when 20 children were murdered in an elementary school. So far, over 4,000 children have been killed in the Israel-Hamas War, which began just over one month ago. His should have been the first voice saying no more guns or money for weapons be sent to the Middle East.
Mutual Aid
“[W]e must become the systems we need – no government, political party, or corporation is going to care for us, so we have to remember how to care for each other. And that will take time, and commitment, a willingness to step outside of the comfort of the current and lean into the unknown, together. To listen to each other across all real and perceived divides.”
Futures
“Right now the dominant narrative of our climate future focuses on the inevitability of apocalypse. Instead, we have to start talking about the inevitability of a better world. By explicitly focusing on aspirational futures, we make them more likely to actually happen.”. – Eric Holthaus in The Future Earth: A...
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Life in Hartford, Connecticut, and beyond. Exploration, wandering, transportation, transit, art, and environment.
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