Today, crawling through the gargantuan asparagus fronds, trying to weed the tangles of bindweed and pigweed, I was careful not to knock seedheads into the ground and instead escort them from the garden, I realized how beautiful the soil is under the overstory of noxious, colonizing ‘mean weeds’, as I refer to them. I realized … Read more

My daughter doesn’t read these newsletters. But every time I write for Motherline, I write with her in mind. It’s impossible not to, because the work of the line is about remembering our kids in every choice we make, every action we take, down to the mundane moment of deciding whether the four pieces of … Read more

Introducing my favorite new word! Yesterday I was washing dishes at my kitchen sink, which happens to be outdoors, and which doesn’t happen to have running water, and I was thinking of how grateful I was to be out in nature under the birds and the rustling leaves, even while getting a mundane chore done.  … Read more

After the Clean Sweep kickoff last weekend, I was reflecting on how much trash was out in those woods, and how little of a dent we made on the overall amount.  Even though we worked so hard for so many hours, with so many people!  But I also realized that this didn’t remotely worry me!. … Read more

Your need for rest is independent of those who need you.  Their needing doesn’t mean you will magically have more to give, or cancel out your tiredness, though so often women act like it does.  We bulldoze over our own self awareness around our energy levels because we are trying to make impossibly dysfunctional systems … Read more

Earth has a favorite emotion, and that’s generosity. No- I don’t mean to say value, I mean emotion – Gaia is constantly wanting to give.  As someone who spends a majority of her time outdoors, I know this as sure as I know my own soul. That’s why big bursts of green reach out to … Read more

What does it mean to have a moral core?  It means that even in the face of unprecedented challenges we keep going, with as much dignity as we can muster, brought to us by the strength of our values.  Motherliners insist on hope over despair, because despair is best friends with injustice.  That’s why we … Read more

Mothers.  You are enough.  I know this about you.  I just don’t know it about myself. What is enough? When it comes to being good, when is it enough?  When we pour water in a glass, we know when it is full.  Why is it when we pour our hearts into our own and others’ … Read more

Where can I go?  Where will my family be safe? I think a lot about “home” as a homesteader living in climate precarity.  I constantly wonder where safer is.  As a small farmer in rural Southern Oregon my lungs have seen a significant amount of wildfire smoke.  Nothing says “move on” like farming in August … Read more

“Rural people are irrelevant,” he quipped.  A good friend was explaining to me how inconsequential he viewed rural America to be with regard to the greater world order and the impending wars festering in so many regions.  I took a long deep internal breath contemplating the most impactful way to respond, and have been thinking … Read more