Welcome To the Cedar Grove

May you grow straight as a tree.
May you dance in the spring air.
May you be washed by the rain
and combed by the sweet wind.

Dear chidlren, stand straight
as the trees of the greatest forest.
And I, your goddess mother,
will always watch over you.

--Song of Egle, Lithuanian forest mother.

Today many of our relations are in danger from the hands of humankind. As we reclaim our real place in the universe as children of the goddess, we must also redeem those other children who suffer and are lost because of us.

I was thinking today about matters environmental. One of the 'stupid questions' I asked some short time after starting at the school was: 'Do we recycle?' only to be told that no, we don't, though it wasn't put quite like that. I was looked at as if I had just grown an extra nose on my face or something. Seems like that's something that Egypt doesn't know about - certainly doesn't do... The best I can manage to do is to recycle all the sheets of paper that would otherwise be left in the trash by using them for scrap paper, making notes on, etc... and of course reducing the number of things that I print to those that I really have to in an unavoidable way. This would be where text books would come in really handy in other ways that just telling me what I have to teach and when.

So I've started Emailing notes when I can, keeping a box for all the paper that's only been used on one side, and using the whiteboard for other things that all the children have to do rather than printing out worksheets. That of course is another issue in and of itself, because doing that I'm using more electricity while trying to save the trees. At this point that feels like the lesser of the two evils. I am, of course, always looking for more options that can help to conserve energy, paper and other natural resources.

It's the right thing to do on so many levels, to try and make sure that I 'tread gently' on the Earth; to show care and concern for my brothers and sisters in nature; to be more in tune with the needs of the environment - and not just here, but everywhere. One of the things Mir has talked about on many occasions is getting a compost bin, and lately that's been on my mind as well. Perhaps soon I might be able to help with that, perhaps as soon as Easter - which doesn't sound so soon, but if I can do that as a gift for us when I next go home - I think that will be a good thing. With the gardens we want to put in as well, that will help with the soil, once the compost has composted properly... giving back to the Earth what she has given to us. We already recycle there, (in fact just about everywhere but here in Egypt seems to). I just want to do, and continue to do what's right. Maybe there's more that we can do with trash than we think.