Like most butterflies, monarchs specialize in one host plant: in their case, it’s milkweed. That’s their nursery. Accept no substitutes.
Debra RienstraJune 19, 2021
People were doing this. Churches were organizing community gardens and small farms, trying to combine faith practice, community, discipleship, health, justice. Healing land and community at once, reconnecting faith to place.
Debra RienstraSeptember 19, 2020
At one point, Trevor was down below looking for his GPS, foolishly leaving Ron and me in charge. Well, here comes a gust of wind. We immediately started rounding up and almost burying the rail.
Debra RienstraJune 13, 2020
Meanwhile, healing takes a long time, and the first stages look like a mess. The grasses are scruffy, the trees old and some dying. Windthrow and snags are a key part of a habitat in equilibrium anyway, but seeing them on a golf course makes…
Debra RienstraMay 16, 2020
Maybe this is why my favorite songs on the album are the most melancholy.
Debra RienstraNovember 9, 2019
In honor of the official beginning of summer, I shall relate some maritime history of the Great Lakes. I knew almost nothing about maritime history until last summer, when my husband and I visited the Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station Maritime Museum near Glen…
Debra RienstraJune 22, 2019
Morning, west window The sky feels oddly bright, considering the snow thickly falling in clustered flakes. The wind gusts, whirling flakes into powder, snowglobing my backyard vista. For a moment, a cloud of white obscures the trees, the neighbors’ backyards, the whole world. I exist…
Debra RienstraFebruary 2, 2019
What is the value of a thistle? We don’t entirely know. I suppose God does. I suppose the little prickler gives praise to God in its own thistly way, just by being itself in cooperation with other nearby creatures being themselves. Is that enough for…
Debra RienstraAugust 18, 2018
