Gently turning over the chimney glass of an oil lamp in my hands, I use a soft cloth to remove streaks of soot from the lamp’s recent use in our cabin’s sauna. It’s a task I regularly attend to. For a couple of special reasons.
First, it connects me to my grandmother Ada, who grew up in a sod-framed Kansas farmhouse in the 1880’s. She lef home at sixteen, headed alone to Denver on a coal-burning steam train. Purchased a guitar there, found work cleaning houses and providing child care for the wealthy.
From family’s archives, we’ve learned she had a stint with a handsome, well-to-do businessman in California. He had an alcohol problem. A subsequent journey led her to Michigan. Employed by the family of a well-known business tycoon, she traveled, on occasion, to Mackinac Island. As part of the house help, her responsibilities, most certainly, included cleaning oil lamps. In her later years, my grandmother visited our family in North Minneapolis on special occasions. She was the one who frst taught me, as a young boy, how to pray.
Another connection. In the mountains of Nepal where I served as a Peace Corps volunteer, there was no electricity. For two years, on a weekly basis, I cleaned the glass of a similar oil lamp. Evenings, it was the only light available.
A hundred years ago, lamps and lanterns marked train crossings, illuminated underground mines. In my grandmother’s days on the Kansas prairie, oil lamps allowed food preparation, provided light to repair farm equipment, write hand-written letters delivered by horseback, clean rifes, read Psalms from leather-bound Bibles during storms and in times of illness. In remote villages of Nepal, even tonight, they are still being used to bring light.
Henri Nouwen, a Dutch-born Roman Catholic priest, was devoted to integrating psychology and theology. His journey was an interesting one, leading him to serve as chaplain at Yale, then traveling summers with circuses as a priest and laborer. Nouwen spent his last years living in a community of marginalized adults who were physically and developmentally challenged. He followed his own light. In one of his writings, he suggests how to follow our own.
Initially, he cautions us: Watch out for idolatries, traps that popular culture seductively dangles in front of us. Discernment, skepticism, is essential. Ask questions: “What’s real? What’s not?”
Second, build in rituals of gratitude each day. Search out, connect with the Good in life. Learn to fnd it in darkness. Seek out a community to help you do this.
Tird, hold a circle of close friends with whom you can be honest, who will call your bluf when you fall out of balance, hold you up when you stumble.
Darkness haunts us: Politically. Spiritually. Emotionally. Cleaning this fragile, worn lamp reminds me the kind of light Nouwen refers to shines like no other. We need to follow some light. But wisely, courageously choose ones that will lead us home to our deeper selves. And the best of our world’s future.
Winter 2025 Ecotone Newsletter
CONTENTS
JOURNAL NOTES
Long-time friends of the Cedar Tree Institute living in the Pacific Northwest —Kathleen and George Petrich, Vivian Vorhes, and John King, stopped by for delightful visits this fall. Heather and Mike Engberg traveled from Oregon and graciously assisted in hosting our Water Stewards Community Gathering in October. They also helped the CTI Director plant a single cedar tree along the banks of the Yellow Dog River in honor of a guest musician from Texas.
Greg Fricchione and Zina El-Chemali, physicians from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Research Institute, have initiated conversations with CTI about a possible pilot project enhancing medical care for the elderly in rural areas of the Upper Peninsula and with our region’s American Indian Reservations. With our remote landscape, severe weather, and struggling economy, many seniors have limited access to medical care. Mike Grossman, Doug Russell, and CTI are moving forward. Step by step.
Welcome to Danny Stone, former beloved “pied piper” of teens in Marquette County. He’s traveling north from Iowa in February with his wife Kristin to cheer on this year’s dog sled races (The UP 200). In his capacity as a public-school teacher and faith community youth director, Danny worked for years with groups of marginalized, at-risk youth in Marquette. In recent years, Danny coordinated work-trips with Iowa’s Faith Lutheran Church volunteers to plant over 400 trees with CTI in the Lake Superior Watershed.
In October, “Remembrance: A Gathering of Grief and Hope” took place a few hundred yards from the entrance to Eagle Mine in Powell Township. Local community members whose families were directly impacted by the establishment of this sulfide (nickel) mine met to share memories, prayers, and reflections. Thanks to Kathleen Heideman and Rochelle Dale for coordinating this event. It echoed a similar event, 10 years earlier, when Rio Tinto, first began rock blasting and timber clearing to open their mining project, the first of its kind.
** One important, positive outcome resulting from public protests and legal challenges ten years ago by local citizens, faith leaders, and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, is that Eagle Mine’s operations currently have regulations to protect land and water higher than any similar mine operation in North America.
Special gratitude to Negaunee’s Strega Nonna, a one-of-a-kind restaurant that hosted a beneft concert and Italian dinner to support the 2024-25 Interfaith Water Stewards Initiative. Mark Hallman and Lise Liddell provided a foot-tapping evening of acoustic guitar and creative compositions. A shout of thanks to Rachael Grossman, Strega Nonna’s magical proprietor and head chef!
“The Gift of Water: Reflections on Ecology, Art, and the Spiritual Life” remains available at Snowbound Books and the Regional History Museum. It can also be ordered online via our CTI website. A collection of 45 essays by 45 local writers edited by Paul Lehmberg. Now in its second printing, soon available as an audio book.
Following up on a Mystery of Healing retreat for area hospice workers and volunteers held in June, CTI is launching a ten week support and training program for palliative care medical providers in January of 2025. Our thanks to Blue Cross/Blue Shield’s Michigan Foundation for their support.
Here are links to ongoing grass-roots efforts that play significant roles in encouraging informed care for our natural environment and its complex relationship to human health. They deserve special attention.
Wild Church
upwild.org (Lanni Lantto)
Citizens for a Safe and Clean Lake Superior
citizensforsuperior.org – (Dennis Ferraro)
Protect the Porcupine Mountains
protecttheporkies.org (Tom Grotewohl)
Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition
upec.org (Kathleen Heideman)
INTERFAITH EFFORTS: EARTH, WATER, SPIRIT
WATER STEWARDS II
A Drinking Water Initiative
2024-2025
In October, Chuck Tomas served as presenter for our 2nd public community-wide gathering at Messiah Lutheran Church in Marquette. As former supervisor for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula’s Drinking Water Management programs, he addressed challenges facing water quality for municipalities and for those with private wells.
That night, Jeff Noble, a retired wildland firefighter, lifted up our goal to plant 1,000 cedar trees that, upon maturity, will release thousands of gallons of pure water daily into the biosphere through the transpiration process.
The evening program included a message of encouragement from Lanni Lantto on behalf of Marty Reinhardt and Tina Moses, members of two Native American tribal communities.
In an action of global solidarity, this Interfaith initiative is supporting two drinking water projects in under-resourced countries: A community drinking water well in Tanzania and a village pump well in Cambodia. Steve Mattson is coordinating these efforts with the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan and the Northern Great Lakes Synod of the ELCA.
Appreciation to Brad Pickens who serves as editor for a collection of 12 writings about our work in current and forthcoming issues of the Marquette Monthly. Essays can are found on the Institute website: Water Stewards II
Our ongoing gratitude to Sarah Gimpl who serves as coordinator for this Interfaith effort.
THE MYSTERY OF WATER
SPIRIT OF PLACE
In early September, 12 individuals from Illinois, Texas, Washington State, Michigan, and Wisconsin spent three days with CTI’s Spirit of Place event at Big Bay’s Thunder Bay Inn. We explored the critical role that water plays in keeping the earth balanced and healthy. Serving as presenters were Katie Rosenberg from Wisconsin’s Department of Environmental Justice, Chuck Tomas, Jeff Noble, Kathleen Heideman, and Scott Emerson. Local musician Michael Waite joined us Friday evening. An experience of creative dialogue and refection. We were delighted to have Elizabeth Palmer, editor with the Christian Century Magazine, join us from Chicago. A time blessed by fine weather, laughter, music, insights, and good food. Thank you chef Melanie, and hospitality coordinator Ken Kelley. And to CTI Resource Associates Kent, Ruth, John, and Joe —you made it happen!
BUILDING A NEW PARTNERSHIP
“A Spiritual journey Trough the Great Lakes” is a project being developed by Dan Robinson and David Dempsey. It identifies specific sites in the Great Lakes Basin that provide opportunities for refection and inspiration, connecting people to the land and waters of the Basin. It will offer online materials – like art, photos, articles, and interviews- from a variety of spiritual perspectives. For use at home or onsite with a mobile device, the project invites individuals to address challenges that threaten these sites in the Great Lakes Basin. Launch date is scheduled for summer, 2025. Thanks Dan and David! Ref: glspirit.com
MIND/BODY CONNECTIONS
Those of you who are familiar with Cedar Tree Institute projects and programs, know the Mind/Body disciplines of Tai Chi and Qi Gong appear in the design and as a part of most Institute’s efforts. We’ve offered classes and workshops in a wide variety of settings: Monasteries in New Mexico, jails in Michigan, atop rock cliffs with kayakers along Lake Superior shores, in a church fellowship hall in Alaska, on American Indian Reservations, in conferences for post-polio survivors, and at a Franciscan Retreat Center on the Mexican border.
Mind/body practices like Tai Chi or Yoga, or fly-fishing, swimming, cooking, tennis, golf, and gardening, invite us to integrate the fragmented parts needed for a full human experience. There’s the challenge. Most of us live “in our heads” with little contact with our whole physical selves.
Popular expressions of religion and spiritual life, like much of conventional medicine, tend to be specialized, intellectualized, and compartmentalized. In medicine, we are in danger of reducing physical health to lab reports (numbers). In religious life, we too often reduce spiritual practices to comprehension of doctrines and beliefs. This is problematic. And dangerous. For ourselves and for others. Traditionally, there are three principles in Tai Chi practice. No matter the activity, take a moment, from time to time, to incorporate these practices, if possible, every day:
- Keep moving physically.
- Take regular breaks. Breathe deep and slow.
- Approach each day with balanced intention.
Good news is that all of us will benefit from slowing down, watching more carefully what and how we eat and drink, taking a more prayerful, intentional approach to how we live our lives. That’s not the whole equation for living a full, abundant life. But an important part of it.
ON THE HORIZON 2025
INVITATIONS
The Evergreen Project
A Support and Training series for
Hospice Staff and Volunteers
December 2024 -March 2025
Mind/Body Seminars, Workshops, Classes
Tai Chi and Qi Gong, The Iron Butterfly
The Yang Sword Form
January -May
The Way of the Dream (Zoom Series)
Depth psychology, spiritual traditions, and practical implications for contemporary life
February -March
Healing the Earth
Tree Planting Project – 1000 trees
April -July
Spirit of Place 2025
TBC
Bones of the Earth
A Retreat on Economics, Rock, Stone, Minerals, and Sustainability
Big Bay, MI
September
Project Eagle Wing
TBC
A Pilot Project in Rural Northern Michigan
Wellness and Brain Health for Seniors
A Partnership with Harvard Medical School
January – April
Interfaith Water Stewards Initiative
Protecting our drinking water
2024-25
IN APPRECIATION
Political leadership shifted dramatically with our nation’s recent Presidential election. With expected downsizing of state and federal oversight over food sources, banking systems, air and water quality, nonprofit organizations will be called to become sharper in focus, taking more active roles as advocates for a compassionate, just society.
With partners, we’ll be here with our projects modeling, as Joe Piccione likes to say, “An integrated spirituality.” Mindfulness and gratitude are our long-standing principles. We own no property, have no full-time employees. Eighty percent of the Institute’s core budget comes from individual donations. Thanks to you, from all walks of life, who continue to support us.
CTI BOARD
- Jon Magnuson, CTI Executive Director
- Steve Mattson, Financial Consultant
- Jim Elder, Attorney
ADVISORY COUNCIL
- Larry Skendzel, Physician, Hospice Care
- Gareth Zellmer, Consultant, Trainer
- Ken Kelley, Professor Emeritus, NMU
- Rick Pietila, U.S. State Department
- Jan Schultz, Botanist, USFS, Retired
- Michael Grossman, Family Physician
RESEARCH ASSOCIATES
- John Rosenberg
- Ruth Almén
- Joseph Piccione
- Kent Fish
IN APPRECIATION
Political leadership shifted dramatically with our nation’s recent Presidential election. With expected downsizing of state and federal oversight over food sources, banking systems, air and water quality, nonprofit organizations will be called to become sharper in focus, taking more active roles as advocates for a compassionate, just society.
With partners, we’ll be here with our projects modeling, as Joe Piccione likes to say, “An integrated spirituality.” Mindfulness and gratitude are our long-standing principles. We own no property, have no full-time employees. Eighty percent of the Institute’s core budget comes from individual donations. Thanks to you, from all walks of life, who continue to support us.
SACRED TEXTS
He or she that whispers the right word, at the right time, to the right person, in the right place, that whisper will be heard a thousand miles away.
I-Ching Book of Changes – Taoism
Do the right thing. Do not depend on being thanked. Do right things for their own sake.
Buddhist
What does Yahweh require of us? To show compassion, do justice, and walk humbly in this world.
Micah 4, Old Testament – Jewish
The Divine Plan, to be revealed in the fullness of time, is that all things shall come together, everything in Heaven and everything on Earth.
Ephesians 1:10, New Testament – Christian
Thank you for reading the Winter 2025 Ecotone Newsletter, the official Newsletter of the Cedar Tree Institute.
