Another guest post from Donn Ring.  Who knew water drops had so much to teach us?  [previous post by Donn is here.] Click on the pictures to see them full-size.

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I have often attended 2 martini or chardonnay social hours where mature folk chat about their recent global treks to visit the wonders of civilization — pyramids, temples, castles, palaces, fortresses, cathedrals, chateaus, museums, mausoleums, formal gardens. Monuments of Man. All very impressive and fascinating.

“Oh — Donn, have you seen the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London? Ahh — but then there is the Antwerp World Diamond Centre in Belgium. Have you been there? Stunning! And how about Paris’ Les Arts Decoratif with it’s fascinating display of fashion jewelry?”

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Today, a guest post from “The Youngest” (my children began a number of years ago identifying themselves by their birth-order… no, I don’t know why!) who is a senior Environmental Ed major at University of Minnesota.  Who knew how amazing the life of an inch long caterpillar could be?  We’re about to find out…

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It is my pleasure to announce the newest addition to my household: Habakkuk, the caterpillar. Yes, indeed I did just say that a caterpillar has taken up residence in my house.
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Regular readers are aware of my habit of collecting interesting conversations – usually on airplanes – and using these to draw out observations and occasionally conclusions about the state of the creation care effort as it relates to ordinary people.

Keeping in mind that we’re dealing with anecdotes, not data, there are still useful things that can be learned from talking with ordinary people. This month’s candidates are a business college Dean and an automotive company executive, and I want to say at the start that I plunged in hoping to learn from them. As far as I was concerned, they were experts. Read more »

The Philippines recently experienced a major typhoon and massive flooding of the capital city, Manila.  Here’s a first hand report from Melba Padilla Maggay, who is the Director of the Institute for the Study of Asian and Church Culture (ISACC) the organization that will be hosting my visit to Manila at the beginning of November.  I’m posting this with her permission, and asking that you please both read it prayerfully and, particularly if you have connections to Filipinos, that you distribute it so others will understand what has happened.  The recovery will take a long time – keep these sisters and brothers in your prayers.

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Maybe not the best way to start off a conversation with your seat partner on a plane.  But I could hardly help myself.  (If you have been following my musings for a while you will know that I tend to get into some interesting conversational situations on planes!)

I was on my way back from a week of meetings in Plainview, Texas.  Now, I realize that bringing an environmental seminar to the high plains of east Texas is not the normal thing to do.  People there are warm, friendly – but pretty convinced that “environment” means “liberal” and “government” and that sort of thing, and they’re not interested.  But things are changing.  For one thing, these folks are running out of water, and they know it.  Read more »