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Snow Moon Islands of Coherence in and around Great Lake Michigan

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 Hello friends of bioregioning in the Lake Michigan and Upper Mississippi River Drainages! Downstream flow path for a drop of water traveling from Oconomowoc River, through Rock River, to the Mississippi River This Snow Moon has me dreaming up stories of coherence . One story is of the coherence of the river systems of my personal life story.  I was born in and spent my first seventeen years in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, a small town between Madison and Milwaukee on the Oconomowoc River, which meets the Rock River near Watertown and continues southwest to meet the Mississippi in the Quad Cities, on the Iowa/Illinois border, where it will continue to New Orleans and eventually the Gulf of Mexico.  I now live in Milwaukee, just on the other side of a subcontinental divide, meaning the water in Oconomowoc and most of Waukesha county drain west to the Mississippi while water in Milwaukee drains to Lake Michigan. This drainage separation happens to reflect racialized cultural sepa...
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Lake Michigan Islands of Coherence Wolf Moon Jan 3

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 " When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order."- Ilya Prigogine Hello Lake Michigan area friends!  This month we begin the new year, clearing away the old to make way for what is emerging.  Some of the bioregional organizing things I look forward to in 2026 include performing and listening to live music, collecting local stories of regenerative healing on behalf of my friend/muse the Bog Witch, hosting events like walks and Metachrysalis gaming sessions, giving presentations on degrowth, bioregionalism, biodiversity corridors and permaculture, and traveling to visit other bioregionally organizing friends around the Great Lakes, at the Turtle Island Bioregional Congress , and possibly design immersions through the Design School for Regenerating Earth's 2026 learning journey . Regarding Music:  in December I was gifted a flute, a Native flute, from a member o...
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Great Lake Michigan & Friends Islands of Coherence Dec 4th

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Thank you for reading this last post of 2025 as I joyfully harvest stories of coherence, bioregionalism, permaculture, and degrowth in and around Milwaukee and the Lake Michigan/western Great Lakes context.   I live in Milwaukee, which is in the Great Lakes Basin, on Lake Michigan. The Great Lakes hold 21 percent of the world's fresh water.   In March of this year the Design School for Regenerating Earth  hosted a learning journey of six months titled "How to Organize your Bioregion" which connected me to people all over the world who recognize that our watersheds organize us as our "life places"--the places which create the conditions for life of humans and the more-than-human world.  Several of us are committing to not only ecosystem restoration of our watersheds but healing the social ruptures within our communities as well.  Below is an image of a map of the western Great Lakes with blue dots representing design school members throughout Wisconsin, Illinois,...
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Freezing/Hunter Moon aka Karen's birthday Moon Nov 5th

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 I start a new revolution around the sun this full moon, so yay me.  I'm grateful to be acquainted with you and hope we can celebrate the Hunter Moon together next year as well.  I post this blog and email this content to people who request to get it by emailing me at regenerateMKE  @ gmail.com  = If you're interested in joining the Mighty Networks Lake Michigan and friends hub in the Design School for Regenerating Earth, click here:  https://design-school- for-regenerating-earth.mn.co/ share/PAcQhyVrWuo__2wn?utm_ source=manual October 17 Milwaukee Immersion: DeGrowth, Tricklebee Café lunch, and Walk and Talks Recording of Oct 17th DeGrowth 101 presentation by Dylan Carson and Karen Lemke:  https://youtu.be/-0nP_hM_emI Lunch break at Tricklebee Café during October 17th Immersion Yuchen Zhao (center in black) shows Dylan Carson, Bridgid Normand and Lynne Oglesby the Cherry Street Community Garden during Immersion Walk and Talk We had a blast talking abo...
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Falling Leaves Moon October 6

 Hello Bioregional friends, Thank you for your interest in regenerative storytelling, permaculture, degrowth, bioregionalism, or all of the above.  As a sharer of stories, I send you a monthly email of events and links which are hosted locally in Milwaukee, regionally, or on-line. If at some time you don't want these emails, let me know and I'll update my mailing list. Two October event details: Online Permaculture Design Class starts  Wednesday 10/8 : https://design-school-for- regenerating-earth.mn.co/ landing/plans/1539158 $400 tuition for once/week class through February, with recordings if you miss. Scholarships available. It would be delightful if several of us from the Milwaukee area take this course and support each other's projects, co-mentor each other and build a "guild" much like plants support each other, flowing nutrients and resources.  I am "retaking" the class, so you will have a friendly local face each week as you connect with people a...
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Corn Moon or Sturgeon Moon of September 6, Regenerative Goings-on in Milwaukee and nearby

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Baby sturgeon do-do-di-do-di-do Hello regenerative-minded friends, I hope September brings harvests and yields to you memories in your favorite summer places, if your summer is now coming to a close as it is here in Milwaukee.  I'm glad I got on the water a few times, and I have at least one more kayak opportunity planned for this month.  Plus free boat rides at Sturgeonfest! Some people in the Great Lakes refer to this moon as the Corn Moon, and others refer to it as the Sturgeon Moon, and others west of here call it the Changing Colors Moon.  However the moon is revealing herself to you, the changing seasons are upon us.   Arrivals September 28th is SturgeonFest/HarborFest at Harbor Plaza in Milwaukee.  I will have a booth at this event where I'll be promoting Regenerate MKE, permaculture storytelling and the upcoming Milwaukee Immersion activities (see below).  I sponsored a baby sturgeon, and I get to release it after the blessing ceremony that day. ...
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Blackberry Moon (August) RegenMidwest, Milwaukee and Friends, Lake Michigan

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July and August yielded to me some vacation time in and near Lake Michigan, including tubing on the Muskegon River and biking around Mackinaw Island.   I was able to meet with students in the UW-Milwaukee Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures field school to talk about permaculture principles for storytelling and ethnography as they began their projects of interviewing stewards of community gardens throughout Milwaukee.  It was a delight to learn with them and to see how they synthesized (composted? alchemized?) the stories into useful resources the garden stewards can now use to encourage neighbors to use the green spaces for gardening, rest, celebration and more.  Here is part of their final project:  bit.ly/45mgx8l I attended the DeGrowth Institute's DeSchool and am still digesting idea nutrients from that meet-up.  Some yielded ideas included reframing permaculture as engineering in right relationship, designing spaces with local materials harvested regeneratively. ...
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