It's Earth Day - Go Hug a Tree!

Good day to drop in on our friend Greg over at Harman on Earth and see what he's up to. Huzzah, Greg!

It's also the 20th birthday of Boerne's very own Cibolo Nature Center and Wilderness Trail, a shining jewel in the crown of Texas that is the hill country. I have several personal connections to the story of the CNC, as do many residents of Boerne: I went to undergraduate school with its founder, Carolyn Chipman Evans. We were both art students though we knew each other only peripherally, with Boerne our shared interest - she lived here and I was dating my eventual husband who lived here. Later, when I was married and living in Boerne, her husband became an important mentor and close professional colleague for many years. My older son, James, attended several sessions of summer camp at the CNC, was eventually a counselor there, and is pictured in Brent and Carolyn's book about their project, The Nature Center Book: How to Create and Nurture a Nature Center. These days Brent and Carolyn and I only see each other occasionally at parties or (more frequently these days) at political gatherings, such as the recent speaking engagement of Seymour Hersh at Carolyn's and my alma mater, Trinity University. I'm proud to count them as friends and extremely grateful for the monumental contribution they have made to the community in which I live.

UPDATE: And here's another Earth Day story about my hometown!