In 2021, the Legacy Land Conservancy will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. The Conservancy is a nonprofit, the first certified land trust in Michigan and one of the first in the nation, was originally named the Washtenaw Land Trust (WLT) and was founded in 1971 by a number of people in Ann Arbor to protect the Bird Hills Nature Area and other land along the Huron River. Legacy has grown from that modest beginning to holding 82 conservation easements and seven nature preserves, protecting over 9,200 acres of land in Washtenaw and Jackson Counties.
The Crazy Wisdom Community Journal A 25 Year Journey
2020 marks 25 years that The Crazy Wisdom Community Journal has been in print. What an exciting and celebratory journey! What started out as a thin black-and-white publication focusing on holistically-oriented events in the area has grown into a 120+ page full-color regional magazine with glossy covers, and a vibrant freelance staff of writers, photographers, editors, illustrators, page designers, distribution helpers, calendar proofers, and ad salespeople.
Random Acts of Kindness-- Saved By the Squirrels
From the moment I woke up, I knew it was going to be a bad day. Not because it was a Monday, though that didn’t help. And the cold rain pelting against my windows didn’t help, either. No, I knew that it was guaranteed to be a Very Bad Day because I had slept through my alarm clock and woke up two hours late. I’m in business for myself so normally my boss would have cut me some slack, but on this particular Monday, I was on deadline to write an article and hand it in by 5 p.m.—just seven hours away. I didn’t have a first draft and hadn’t even decided on a topic yet. Sometimes, with the help of adrenaline, I can wing it, but I was sure that I wouldn’t be able to this time.
Kintsugi and the Art of Mending the Broken Heart
Try to remember a time you held something fragile in your hands. You were so careful not to damage it by holding too tightly, but your grip had to be firm enough to keep it secure. Now, imagine that in the next moment it slips from your fingertips and falls to the ground in slow motion. You know that whether you swipe at it or stand in frozen disbelief, the end result is the same. You are left gaping at the broken pieces and wishing you could take back the last three seconds.
Plant Medicine and Magic
When people ask what drew me to herbalism, there are two stories that I tell. One is of my time working in the Mojave desert, where my boss—a botanist by training—would point out various native plants and tell me snippets of how the indigenous people of the area used them for food or medicine (he always spoke of this in the past tense). For him, it was an interesting tidbit of information, but I thought, “couldn’t we still?” This story is true, but the deeper truth goes back many years, to my childhood.
Psychic Shields - Protecting Yourself from Negative Energies
The moon hid behind clouds in the night sky, as I stumbled my way through fresh snow headed for the barn. Even using my cell phone as a flashlight, I was barely able to see two steps in front of me. Crossing the threshold in the dark, I could sense the mold and mustiness that clung to the wooden structure, which appeared quite new. I reminded myself to even my breathing, while searching for a light switch, which I finally found behind the door.
Pandemic Q+A’s for the Community Leaders on our Anniversary Cover
For our 25th Anniversary Issue, we invited eight well-respected leaders in the regional conscious living community, all of whom have been on our cover before, to gather together for a cover photo shoot to help us celebrate. (Plus, since it was our anniversary issue, we asked our founder/publisher, too.)
It turned out to be on Thursday, March 12th, the eve of the national pandemic lockdown.
Thankfully, they are all well, and so we asked them to tell us what they have been up to since that fateful evening, and what they have been thinking about during these months of sheltering in place. Here are their answers…
Healers of Ann Arbor
You can try a new type of massage or read a chiropractor’s online reviews, but how do you really know when a healing modality is right for you? This new column, from tech and wellness journalist and meditation coach Laura K. Cowan goes in depth with local healers to give you a behind the scenes look at what they really do to help people relax and heal.
Green Living: More Than the Three R’s: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle… Rot
When thinking about ways to be more sustainable, recycling is often the first option that comes to mind. Sustainability is often presented to us in the neat and tidy rule of three: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. However, recycling should actually be viewed more as a last-ditch effort since most materials can only be recycled a few times before hitting the landfill. Instead, the focus needs to be centered around the Five R’s: Refuse unsustainable products, Reduce the amount of resources you consume, Reuse or repurpose what you can, and Recycle anything possible before jumping directly to your trash can as the easiest method of disposal.
Stepping Into The Current of Wisdom
I recently came across a photo of an autumn leaf inside a hand. The veins of the leaf lined up with the lifelines of the palm, blending into one another. A beautiful image of our interconnectedness. I think of the psyche similarly, as an extension of nature, an invisible landscape with its various terrains, different weather patterns, and inhabitants.
Tea Time With Peggy-- Tea for Energy
To say that it is an interesting year would be an understatement. At best it feels like a surreal dream has covered the landscape of Michigan. Never in my life did I think that toilet paper would be worth more than gold, that I would long for more than just an intimate gathering of a few family members, that I would be sharing internet time with children going to school—let alone have the energy to keep up with them! Some days my brain is so foggy that I would need a better jump start than what a good strong cup of black or Oolong tea could offer. So, as an alternative to true tea, I have turned to tea combined with yerba mate.
A Conversation with Erin Stohl and Dan DeSena about Somatic-Oriented Psychotherapies
An Ann Arbor couple, Erin Stohl and Dan DeSena, has found a place within the local somatic psychotherapy community. I sat down with Stohl and DeSena, pre-pandemic, to learn about how they came to somatic psychotherapy, and how their experiences as somatic psychotherapists have impacted their relationship. Stohl and DeSena are both seeing patients via video chat and doing appointments by phone.
Leaps of Faith : Tales of Local Businesses, Fall 2020
This column is a look at a brave soul who took a leap of faith to open her own business . What follows is a personal profile of a business owner following her dreams and thriving despite the odds—and Covid.
Covid, Death, and Living in Flow
I just got off the phone with my mom and sisters discussing funeral arrangements for my father. He has COVID and he is dying. For the last days, we have been having zoom calls for several hours with him by the grace and compassion of the Canadian field hospital staff who make an iPad available for us each day. We sing, we read poems, meditations, and prayers, and share everything from our heart that we want him to hear. He is not responding and he is breathing the way dying people do: with big gaps of not breathing followed by a few shallow breaths in a row. We know however, that dying people hear everything being said to them so we don’t shy away from giving him our song and deep communication.
CW Kids in the Community: Love You From My Head To-ma-toes: Ann Arbor’s Immersive Farming Programs For Kids
In a busy age, and now in a time that encourages outdoor activities and social distancing, how do parents help their kids get the most out of outside play time? I recently looked into starting a small cut flower farm on land next to our home. It’s an amazing opportunity to expand my daughter’s knowledge—from watering plants around the house to a full-scale growing operation. This plan may take a few years, if we ever get through the experimental stage, but it got me thinking about how modern parents can get their kids involved in gardening if they don’t have a lot of space in their yard or schedule. Now that Covid is in the picture, we also wanted to check in with local educational and farming programs to find out what is still scheduled for kids.
Vestergaard Farms: Pasture-Raised Local Meats and Local Foods
This past winter I was eager to visit the newly built storefront of Vestergaard Farm, attractively situated on the farm property. Along with their farm raised meat, the store offers other goods from Matty’s Bakery in Saline, Zingerman’s coffee and treats, Calder Dairy products, The Brinery products, Aldente Pasta, Amaizin Pop Popcorn, honey, bath products, maple syrup, eggs, and many other locally sourced items.
Great Tastes in Local Food, Fall 2020
These locally-owned businesses are doing their best to accomodate pandemic restrictions and keep both customers and employees safe. While these reviews were written pre-pandemic, we’ve provided updated hours and services, but due to frequent restriction changes, please give them a call before visiting.
Book Reviews, Fall 2020
Whether you are new to Pema Chodron’s work, or you are already a fan, Welcoming The Unwelcome: Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World, her first work in over seven years, is incredibly timely and sounds like a kind of mantra for 2020, or perhaps the entire decade. It seems either on a global scale, or a smaller more personal one, each and every one of us has something on our doorstep we would rather not let inside. Yet, allowing what we don’t desire to enter is precisely what we must do. As Chodron points out, it isn’t going anywhere.
Kathy Braun and the Role of Hypnotherapy in Healing
Kathy Braun, the Clinical Hypnotherapist of Ann Arbor Hypnotherapy, is my cousin. When she relocated to Ann Arbor about fifteen years ago we all wanted to hear about her hypnosis practice. I was interested, but skeptical. I thought the “hypnotic state” was fiction. Kathy wouldn’t talk about her practice—explaining that the sessions she has with her clients are strictly confidential. She preferred to talk about what she calls her “bragging rights” back in the day when she was in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Measure for Measure starring Meryl Streep.
Namaste, Katie...Fall 2020
Whether you're a seasoned yogi or getting ready to roll out your mat for the first time,
here you'll find a variety of useful tips from local yoga instructor, Katie Hoener.
