The last phase of our three-year Wanakwi Project was completed with twenty-seven volunteers from the Marquette community including fifteen youth from the Juvenile Court. Summer volunteers, Heather and Mike Engberg, once again traveled from Oregon to assist us. This year’s efforts focused on removal of the toxic Knapweed plant from a designated Lake Superior shoreline six miles east of Marquette. Special thanks to our friends from Project Weave and the Central Lake Superior Watershed. Wanakwi is an Ojibwe word translated “to protect and defend.”
Mental health consultations and support services continued in 2003 for leaders with United Methodist Church, Lutheran (ELCA) clergy and families and representatives of the Presbytery of Mackinac. Special thanks to Dr. Jonathan Kniskern for his assistance in this work. The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan also made use of CTI cervices during this past year for the Emmaus Project, a training and consultation workshop in Houghton, Michigan.
The Janus Project seminar series continued in 2003 with a three-day winter continuing education event for physicians on “Self Care: Nutrition and Exercise.” This experience involved a ten-mile cross-country ski to a remote cabin. In August, the Institute facilitated our second annual summer seminar for hospice workers and medical professionals on end-of-life issues. A thirty-mile kayak trip framed that experience. Drs. Mike Grossman and Larry Skendzel continue to provide creative, supportive leadership in these ventures.
In August 2003, the seventh Spirit of Place ecumenical kayak trip took place on Lake Superior. Nine participants from six states joined Lee Goodwin, Jon Magnuson and a kayak guide, Stewart Joseph, for a five-day journey. Group discussions focused on the writings of Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk and social activist.
In September, sixteen clergy and friends, including four Dominican priests, a District Judge from Vancouver and a stockbroker from Chicago joined John Rosenberg and Jon Magnuson on Washington State’s Columbia River for a continuing education event entitled Eden’s River: Fall and Redemption on the Columbia. This experience focused on the interface of spirituality and the environment. Representatives from the Chinook Indian community were special quests. Reference: John Rosenberg’s article “Crafting an Ethic of Place.” www.elca.org/scriptlib/dcs/jle/
Special thanks to CTI friends, Carl Lindquist and Nancy Royce, for sharing their gift of music at the Institute’s Autumn Celebration Benefit Concert in October. Our appreciation to Bo and Irene Clausen who joined us from Chicago that evening. Also, our many thanks to volunteers who assisted us in the Institute’s midsummer Celebration for the Wanakwi Project and Presque Isle in July.
CTI’s Director served as instructor and facilitator for NMU’s continuing ed course The Cross and Sacred Pipe. Sessions were held at the Marquette American Indian Center and involved Native American leaders from the area. The course was sponsored by NMU’s Native American Studies Department, the first of its kind for the University.
CTI’s Tai Chi Series continues it’s fifth year with weekly classes and monthly workshops. This is an ancient form of Chinese exercise and meditation, developed by Shaolin monks, based on the images from animals and the natural world.
OUR THANKS to the folks who quietly continue to help underwrite, financially, the pro bono work of the Cedar Tree Institute in Northern Michigan.
*1/3 of our services are provided at no cost.
Thank you for reading the Winter 2005 Ecotone Newsletter, the official Newsletter of the Cedar Tree Institute.
