Katrina Martich

My first of the month blog posts are dedicated to the practice of Living Connected. Soil is the focus of our practice for June 2021. Notice Take a hand trowel or sturdy spoon outside and find some bare ground. Put your hands on the ground. Feel the firmness of the soil surface, bearing the load of all we place on it. Dig a few inches into the ground and use your hands to play with the soil. Notice its colors, textures, moistness, and maybe even scent! Celebrate the nourishmen

My spouse brews the coffee in our house as an act of self-defense. The first thing I do every morning is grab a cup of coffee. My brain isn’t fully engaged until after that first cup. Only then is it safe to talk with me. In my house, we jokingly call coffee “the nectar of life.” I recently was reminded of the extent to which ecological injustices are interwoven with my life when I read an article about the impacts of climate change on coffee. Both the availability and qualit

A study by the Pew Research Center indicates about three-quarters of adults in the U.S. are concerned about protecting the environment; however, only one-in-five act on this concern in their daily lives. These results are consistent with my observations working as an environmental engineer and in eco-justice ministry. As a people, we care about the environment in a general sense. At the same time, environmental crises don’t seem as urgent as the other daily issues we face. I’

I recently started hanging laundry outside to dry. My intent was to reduce my home’s energy use and carbon footprint. It’s too soon to know if I’ve done so; however, its already affected my life. I now must adjust my activities to do laundry early on days with good weather. I also must take the clothes down and fold them in a timely manner. There’s no more leaving them in the dryer until I feel like folding them and running the dryer (again!) to fluff out the wrinkles. I’m em

At the most basic level, we eat for the same reasons we breathe and drink – to survive. But eating is so much more than mere survival. We use food to celebrate and to console. We share meals to share time and stories with friends and family. At its best, food is an essential part of creating community. It’s why eating alone can be uncomfortable. At some level, it feels like something is missing. Eating is so much a part of being human, in being a creature of this world, that

Tyson Foods recently warned, “the food supply chain is breaking.” I agree, but probably not for the same reasons. Anyone who has read Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, knows the meat packing industry has a problematic history in the US. The book played a role in passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Food safety was not Sinclair’s goal. In an interview for Cosmopolitan Magazine, published under the title What Life Means to Me, Sinclair states that he failed in his g

As I celebrated the arrival of the new year on December 31st, five men went from sleeping, to swimming, to dying in the Gulf of Alaska. The crab boat Scandies Rose sank that night. They were on the water to bring Alaskan king crab, queen crab, and snow crab to diners across the U.S. It’s a famously dangerous profession, as portrayed in the show Deadliest Catch. I haven’t been able to get this event out of my mind. On the surface, it’s a tragedy, but I’m wondering if it says s

I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. One reason is their all or nothing nature. They seem to be a set-up for failure. Being human, it’s inevitable that I’ll break my resolution at some point. New Year’s resolutions also seem to discount the new start I get each and every day of my life. A bad day doesn’t mean a failed resolution for the year; rather, it’s the opportunity to repent and start over with the grace of a new day. This perspective is rooted in my Lutheran th

It’s summer as I write this post, which means I’m in the middle of lawn-mowing season. I remember begging my dad to let me mow the lawn when I was about 8 years of age. We had an old, heavy, gas-powered mower that was not self-propelled. Dad wisely said no for a year or two, until I was older and strong enough to safely handle it. I was so excited when he finally said yes. I look back on that time in my life and wonder, “what was I thinking?!?!?!” Of course, that was in Wisco