I've been ill for a month, getting over pneumonia, and have not been able to walk down into the woods.  I miss the feel of the land, even the wounded land, especially the wounded land.  It is essential to pray and continue loving the place where so much has happened, like loving the wounded after a war.  I am re-discovering again that what we love and who we love does not change over distance and time if we stay connected at heart.  I will always be connected here, long after my ashes are scattered among the trees I have loved for 22 years, as well as while I sit up here at home, reading books, waiting for tired lungs to mend and recover.

We will be doing ceremony here soon, a gathering of the people involved in "Radical Joy for Hard Times."  Twenty to thirty people will come onto the land with prayer flags, drums, shovels and songs.  My dear sister-friend, Judy Todd, is a member of this group and is organizing the day, and I am grateful.  It has been hard to be alone sometimes in this vigil for the trees - alone as they fell, alone in the devastation of landscape and habitat, the aftermath.  Then I remember that I have never been truly alone, that Spirit has witnessed every falling fir, the crash of every maple in the valley coming down to earth.  I have prayed my heart out, and I know those prayers have been heard, by the Spirits of the ones who are gone now, animal and plant, and by the ancestors and guardians of this land.  It will be good to have human companions here as we drum and pray, as we plant some of the pine trees I was given on my 60th birthday, as we share a love of the land and all its inhabitants.

Judy came out one day with me this winter after the logging was over.  She has been a true "woods witness" for decades, loving the land in many places, in many countries.  I feel honored to bring more people here who share this love and commitment to ending clear cuts, to restoring forests and wildlife sanctuaries.  I know each person coming keenly feels the losses any time a forest is leveled.  Their willingness to come here, to help heal this land, my homeland, is deeply touching.  Aho my friends.