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To Crazy Wisdom Community Journal’s Readers and Advertisers –
In the spirit of responding in a practical way to what is happening, we have postponed the publishing of our Spring/Summer Issue (May thru August 2020 – Issue #75) due to all the reverberations and fallout from the Covid-19 Pandemic. Our editorial content is all set to go, but so many of our advertisers are closed for business currently, and they’ve asked to postpone their advertisements. Additionally, so many of our 235 local/regional distribution spots are closed that we wouldn’t be able to distribute most of our 11,000-copy print run.

Features from our Winter 2020 Issue

Featured
Dirty Windows
Dirty Windows

The birds are exuberant this morning. By the dozens, tufted titmice, rose-breasted grosbeaks, cardinals, gold finches, black capped chickadees, blue jays, mourning doves, and an oriole sing and flit from branch to nearby branch in a riotous clamor just outside the living room windows. One of the delights of spring is the way one can luxuriate in the bookends of the day. Morning unfolds slowly as the light gathers until the sun crests the horizon, and then all at once the day bursts open like a flower. Evening lingers before the day finishes. It is at these times that I especially enjoy watching the birds come and go.

Kids in the Community—Abilities in Action: Resources and support for kids with special needs and their families
Kids in the Community—Abilities in Action: Resources and support for kids with special needs and their families

Raising a child with special needs comes with unique challenges, but it also brings moments of incredible growth, resilience, and joy. The proper support and strategies can make all the difference—whether it's navigating therapies, advocating at school, or creating a home environment where a child feels empowered. From practical tips to expert insights, community groups and carefully curated summer camps and classes, special needs children and their families will not just get by but will truly thrive. Every child deserves the chance to shine, and every family deserves the tools to help them do it.

A Melding of Psychology and Spirituality
A Melding of Psychology and Spirituality

Chelsie Skowyra is a Chelsea-based claircognizant, clairvoyant empath who finds great pleasure in helping others find peace in their true selves. Along with her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Sociology/Anthropology and a Masters of Marriage and Family Therapy, she’s blended in her own well-rounded spiritual mentoring approach.

Listening and Learning with Nature: Judy Liu Ramsey--Interspecies Counselor and Shamanic Healer
Listening and Learning with Nature: Judy Liu Ramsey--Interspecies Counselor and Shamanic Healer

Living on a farm in Chelsea, Ramsey’s journey from community developer and social worker to shamanic practitioner and animal chaplain exemplifies an authentic evolution of one’s unfolding of identity, own healing, and epiphany in recognizing one’s place within the actual world contrary to the confines and misperceptions of society.

Out of My Comfort Zone: My Cat Ate My Comfort Zone
Out of My Comfort Zone: My Cat Ate My Comfort Zone

This is the story of Margot, a recently rescued tuxedo cat, and how she curled up in my heart and broke it open.

Kindred Conversations with Hilary Nichols: Phillis Engelbert, Owner of Detroit Filling Station, North Star Lounge, and Lunch Room Bakery & Cafe
Kindred Conversations with Hilary Nichols: Phillis Engelbert, Owner of Detroit Filling Station, North Star Lounge, and Lunch Room Bakery & Cafe

“Operate from a position of generosity and humanity. Watch how it benefits your business.” This simple statement is key to the working philosophy of Phillis Engelbert, owner of the Detroit Street Filling Station, North Star Lounge, and The Lunch Room Bakery & Cafe in Ann Arbor. The concepts of generosity and humanity might not be the most common buzz words in today’s business culture, and her central tenet doesn’t come without a cost—but that is not what concerns Engelbert. She recommends it for reasons that transcend the financials.

Gardening Phenology: Planting by Nature’s Cues
Gardening Phenology: Planting by Nature’s Cues

As a gardener, and a general nature romantic, my heart begins to feel torn around mid-February. On one half, I want to honor the last of winter’s deep rest and on the other half, there is the burgeoning energy of spring’s return. One of my favorite activities at this time is to thumb through my seed stores, as well as the new year’s seed catalogs, and begin to plan my garden in earnest.

A Traditional Yoga School Hiding in Plain Sight on Main Street: An Interview with Angela Jamison
A Traditional Yoga School Hiding in Plain Sight on Main Street: An Interview with Angela Jamison

For the last 15 years, in the early morning between five and eight, the 200 block of South Main Street has filled with yoga practitioners who come and go before the town comes to life. It’s a diverse group, ranging from those in their teens to those in their 80s, across all sorts of life situations and physical capacities. The yoga they practice is tailored to the individual. Depending on the person, the practice might include various physical asanas, breathing techniques, and meditations. What they all have in common is that they’re all part of a school, and a community organization, called Ashtanga Yoga Ann Arbor.

Getting to Know A Complete Unknown
Getting to Know A Complete Unknown

I recently went twice to see A Complete Unknown, the biopic about Bob Dylan’s early rise to stardom from 1961 until 1965 with Timothee Chalamet as Dylan. Both times the audience was mostly age fifty and up. I am eighty-five—two years older than Dylan. We are members of what is called, misleadingly, “The Silent Generation.” The postwar generation are Boomers, who are associated with the upheavals of the 1960s, but as Dylan puts it in his memoir, Chronicles, One, “I had very little in common with, and knew even less about, a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of.” The well-known movers of that era—Dylan, Warhol, Ginsberg, Baez, Beatles, Rolling Stones, and many others—are prewar or war babies.

No Matter Where You Go, You Are in a Watershed!
No Matter Where You Go, You Are in a Watershed!

Our Southeast Michigan watersheds are the Huron River, Rouge River, Clinton River, River Raisin, and Ecorse Creek Watersheds. All of these nets of nomadic water empty into the Detroit River (which has its own watershed). Detroit River waters flow into Lake Erie, then travel through the Niagara River merging into Lake Ontario, narrowing again into the St. Lawrence River, and releasing finally into the Atlantic Ocean.

Posts from our Blog

Blog
An ongoing epidemic: The Death of Discussion
An ongoing epidemic: The Death of Discussion

“War is Peace” is one of the three slogans in 1984 by George Orwell. The antithetical idea has long been utilized by governments around the world. The essence: people unite against a common foreign enemy. However, what to do when no one else in the world will play war? Or if there is no perceivable direct threat to one’s country? The next step is to divide within to control the masses. How best to create division? Step 1, create a threat. Step 2, blame a group by using generalities to incite fear. Step 3, discourage rational discussion and critical thinking.

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Green Guardians: The plants of the Women’s Health Center
Green Guardians: The plants of the Women’s Health Center

Earlier this year I made my annual mammography visit to Trinity Health’s Women’s Health Center in Ypsilanti. On that particular morning, the sun beaming in the windows really lit up the healthy, beautiful plants at the entry. Inside the mammography suite, there are several beds of green Pothos plants with golden highlights, and every plant looks so vibrant and perfect that at first glance, you might think they are artificial. While I was waiting for my appointment, I realized that these lovely green beings were offering messages.

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Weaving Earth's Energies: A conversation with Madam Squirrel
Weaving Earth's Energies: A conversation with Madam Squirrel

I see (in my mind) a very large Fox Squirrel sitting on a branch of a maple tree framed by a clear blue sky, its red-gold fur glistening in the sunshine. And I feel a deep wave of love-energy move through my body.

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In These Times...
In These Times...

We practice for these times, for times like this in the world. We go to our mat, under our shawl, sit on our cushion, to find peace amid the rubble of grief, rage, and fear. We attend to our practice precisely so that when the tides of emotion are strong, so is our practice. We return again and again to our breath, to our body and mind in the moment, returning to ourselves. Our ancestors developed these practices because they knew—they knew that we could be swept off our feet by our emotions, our ability to choose wisely blinded by the redness of rage or the waters of our grief

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When Spirit Sings: A Conversation With The Cicada Queen
When Spirit Sings: A Conversation With The Cicada Queen

A few years ago, during a major cicada emergence, I was visiting a friend who lived out of town. As I said my goodbyes and walked to my car, I thought I could hear singing off in the distance. There were no buildings within a mile, no vehicles blasting music, and it wasn’t coming from my phone, so I pulled my car over to the side of the road and turned off the engine to listen.

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Patience
Patience

2020 was the year that taught me how to be patient. As part of an increasingly fast paced society, we get disappointed when our own progress/desires happen slower than the click of a button. This year, I really struggled with pushing for my own goals to manifest faster than they were, consistently seeing my efforts produce crumbs. It was like watching myself get punched in slow motion.

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Midwest
Midwest

I grew up in the Midwest. The Midwest isn’t anywhere, it’s a place people come from. If they can. Land-locked, we pretend lakes are great seas and rivers will take us somewhere if only we would go.

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Shrine Leaves His Mark on Ann Arbor
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"Precious" Lessons
"Precious" Lessons

When I split from my ex in the late 1980's, I didn't take the toaster or the television with me. Instead, I got custody of the tarantula.

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A Conversation With Uluru and Kata Tjuta
A Conversation With Uluru and Kata Tjuta

A conversation with Uluru and Kata Tjuta, two of Australia’s amazing natural sites.

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