How To Build an Ecological Culture

By Members of the Bioregional Congress of the Americas, Inspired by the Syracuse Cultural Workers

Befriend a wren

Imagine how a river thinks

Listen to the music of the spheres

Dance in the muddy rain

Watch a tree drop its leaves,

and then bud out again

Ask at whose expense your comfort comes

Build soil

Grow turnips

Meet your neighbors

Teach a child how to hold a frog, or raise a butterfly, or make compost

Learn the boundary of your Bioregion

and then let it dissolve

Write a love poem to a mountain

or a pond

or a mushroom

Envision an economy that gives more than it takes

Cut your energy use in half

Then do it again

Plant a forest

Preserve a marsh

Know where your water comes from,

and how it goes

Strive to leave no waste

Thank someone who is standing up to the powerful

Look to your possessions for the seeds of destruction

Leave a piece of this world better than you found it

and envision the whole thing renewed.