........      My senses were alert—smelling the rich forest, looking up and seeing the towering White Pine trees with the cedars, firs and birches growing beneath—one bare foot placed in front of another on the soft pine needle forest floor, slowly taking it all in. An unmistakable bird song with hundreds of notes—Winter Wren was welcoming me in. After a few long mindful minutes, my gaze started up the trunk of a huge white pine... and more branches reaching up, maybe a hundred feet towards the sun! 

         Years before I walked this path, I heard a story about the Tree of Peace which I was told was falling over, and it would take hundreds of children, working together to lift the Great White Pine back up again.

         I knew at that moment that Grandmother White Pine would be watching over the many circles of children who would gather at her base those first formative years of EarthWalk. The first circle began with just seven children with two mentors later that Spring. In the Fall of that year, nineteen children showed up on a Thursday morning for their first day of “school”. EarthWalk Village School was one full day a week for children ages 6-12, learning, exploring, crafting, playing in the forest, meadows and along the Winooski River, and always returning to the circle to share stories of the land and sing songs to strengthen our community.

        Our village community was growing. By 2007 the Village community of EarthWalk had annually welcomed hundreds of children, teens, mentors, elders, and parents, so we moved our gathering place to the more expansive Hawthorn Meadow. There, more White Pine Elders gracefully held and watched over our growing EarthWalk community circles.

        For more than 15 years, just up the well-worn foot path from Grandmother White Pine, EarthWalk Vermont lifted the fallen Great White Pine, rooted her back in the earth, cast out many new seeds, planted new seedlings and nurtured learning and new growth—of hundreds of children!

        All deeply connecting to White Pine Trees, Ravens, building shelters, playing Coyote Deer, weaving spruce-root baskets, making many bow-drill fires, whittling spoons, bundling up in layers, tracking gray fox, building quinzhee snow-shelters, sharing stories, tapping Maple Trees, eating fiddleheads, walking barefoot, playing in the river, catching crayfish, laughing with friends, following fisher, having a Sit Spot, making dandelion fritters, listening to songs of thrushes and singing songs of hope and healing.

        I am truly grateful for the land, the community and all the children, families, teens, mentors, and elders, who continue to —lift the Great White Pine Tree---for future generations—may there be peace on earth.