Eiren Caffall: Frog Spring
It is a cold spring here in Chicago, all rain and anticipation, and, like everyone in the city, I am still pretending that eventually things will change, that if we hope hard enough, and have enough...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: And Then the Twister Came
This weekend I ate lunch with a woman who grew up in Joplin, Missouri. It was not yet a week since the tornadoes, which we had not met to discuss. We wanted to talk about other things, and we spoke for...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: A Visible Island in the Invisible Sea
I have just come home from an island. It is small and magical, and set 12 nautical miles out into the Atlantic, and I have been returning there in the summers since I was a teenager. I have been drunk...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: From Above, You Can See That it is Broken
When it is winter in Chicago – as it will be again after the long and perfect fall is finally over and gone – I know that I will crave that best of all Chicago winter moments: when I pull back the...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: Wangari Maathai, Hummingbird, Dead at 71
Yesterday the planet lost a great champion: Wangari Maathai, hummingbird and planter of trees. The video clip below is what I think of when I hear her name. I love the way she tells the story there, of...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: Battle for the Bats
The trip to see the bats didn’t go exactly as I’d planned it. To start, there was a bee sting at the first cave we went to, and my son and I sat in the parking lot with an ice pack on his arm until he...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: Soup & Bread: The Church of The Hideout Cookbook
Sometimes even an atheist needs a community soup kitchen. This winter, I will probably need one, and so will many many of my fellow Americans. This winter, when the thin veil of November leaves has...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: I Would Plant My Apple Tree
A few days ago the image of a green ribbon came across my facebook news feed. The text went like this: The pink ribbons have always bugged me…the idea of putting the energy and effort of well-meaning...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: Lilacs That in the Dooryard Bloom Early
There were lilacs blooming in my dooryard. But they are browning now, and they are almost gone; they were very early lilacs. It is strange to see them at the end of their lives now, since, usually,...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: Sea Change: The Paper Boats of the People’s Climate March and...
So how do you turn people's love towards a way forward that really works in creating solutions and not simply rebuilding? How do you turn people's love of their families and homes towards the biosphere...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: Frog Spring
It is a cold spring here in Chicago, all rain and anticipation, and, like everyone in the city, I am still pretending that eventually things will change, that if we hope hard enough, and have enough...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: And Then the Twister Came
This weekend I ate lunch with a woman who grew up in Joplin, Missouri. It was not yet a week since the tornadoes, which we had not met to discuss. We wanted to talk about other things, and we spoke for...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: A Visible Island in the Invisible Sea
I have just come home from an island. It is small and magical, and set 12 nautical miles out into the Atlantic, and I have been returning there in the summers since I was a teenager. I have been drunk...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: From Above, You Can See That it is Broken
When it is winter in Chicago – as it will be again after the long and perfect fall is finally over and gone – I know that I will crave that best of all Chicago winter moments: when I pull back the...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: Wangari Maathai, Hummingbird, Dead at 71
Yesterday the planet lost a great champion: Wangari Maathai, hummingbird and planter of trees. The video clip below is what I think of when I hear her name. I love the way she tells the story there, of...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: Battle for the Bats
The trip to see the bats didn’t go exactly as I’d planned it. To start, there was a bee sting at the first cave we went to, and my son and I sat in the parking lot with an ice pack on his arm until he...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: Soup & Bread: The Church of The Hideout Cookbook
Sometimes even an atheist needs a community soup kitchen. This winter, I will probably need one, and so will many many of my fellow Americans. This winter, when the thin veil of November leaves has...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: I Would Plant My Apple Tree
A few days ago the image of a green ribbon came across my facebook news feed. The text went like this: The pink ribbons have always bugged me…the idea of putting the energy and effort of well-meaning...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: Lilacs That in the Dooryard Bloom Early
There were lilacs blooming in my dooryard. But they are browning now, and they are almost gone; they were very early lilacs. It is strange to see them at the end of their lives now, since, usually,...
View ArticleEiren Caffall: Sea Change: The Paper Boats of the People’s Climate March and...
So how do you turn people's love towards a way forward that really works in creating solutions and not simply rebuilding? How do you turn people's love of their families and homes towards the biosphere...
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