I’ve been reading essays on pro-environmental behaviors and interrelationship between personal and social identities. Fascinating stuff that sent me chasing definitions and ideas about vocation, social constructs, education, consumerism, caste, gender… ack! It was a tangle of tunnels and warrens that made my head and belly ache. 

As we are bombarded with news everyday about the people being placed in positions of power and the anger, fear and anxiety levels rise, this is how I cope. I try to understand who we are and how we got here. It’s a lot so instead of diving into the raging river that is our national news feed or even this wild flume ride that is social media, I study microcosmically so I don’t get washed away in the flood. 

This approach to learning and managing anxiety is not unlike the way I’m dealing with land management here in my Thicket. I own several acres and most of them grow wild — partly because I’ve chosen to worry less and let the woods take care of themselves but mostly because I am only one not as young as I used to be woman trying to get by. I do what I can and clear one patch at a time. The trees that fall in my path get my immediate attention as they are obstacles to movement and sometimes power. If we stick with this metaphor in relation to national and global politics, it feels like there are several trees on the path these days. There is a pick up sticks tangle of mammoth trees forcing me to find new paths. I have to fight through tangles of briers and vines to reach my destination. Sometimes I forget where I was headed and sometimes I am forced to rethink my plans and form new strategies for movement — and survival. This is why I call my home place the Brambly Thicket. It’s a literal description of this piece of land I call home but it is also a metaphor for what it’s like to be alive on this planet right now. It can be overwhelming and dangerous— so I move slowly clearing one broken bough at a time. If I focus on what is possible in the moment I feel less anxious and am able to inch forward. Wondering today if we still have time to approach societal and environmental concerns this way…