At the White House climate demonstration organized by GreenFaith on October 12, my 88^th birthday, Raymond Kingfisher of the Cheyenne Nation and a leader of the Indigenous resistance to the pipelines that are ruining Indigenous water and land and worsening the climate crisis that wounds us all, came to thank me for my decades of work to heal Mother Earth. I thanked him for the brave leadership that he and hundreds of the Indigenous communities have brought to reawaken other Americans, and I kissed his hand to express my love and admiration.

 Then  Rabbi Phyllis Ocean Berman, my life-partner who was helping me move through Washington via wheel-chair, and I were among the first arrests in the protest. The protest crowd sang me “Happy Birthday” as the police led us off. 

She’hekhianu! – Blessed be the Breath of Life, the Wind of  Change, Who has filled us with life, lifted us up, and carried us to this moment.  ---  Rabbi Arthur Ocean Waskow of The Shalom Center.