Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News is the newsletter of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund, published five times per year. The News is intended to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas among citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
Volume 15, Number 4 • Winter 2007
Director’s Notes: Time to Clear Our Inner Pollution
By Jill Ryan
Our recent
G r a s s r o o t s
Symposium was a
wonderful gathering
of people
working to protect
and restore our
lakes, rivers and
wetlands. While
most of us attended the event with the
goal of increasing our skills and tomeet
new people and find new resources,
which I believe we did, one of the most
important aspects of the event for me
was the time to look inside.
Although I was kept busy much of the
time with logistics and discussions
about projects and strategies, I also
found a fewmoments towander on the
beach and contemplate the vastness of
the lakes. This opportunity, even if
momentary, provides us with the
perspective to continue our work and
find the creativity and inspiration we
hold inside.
Sometimes due to the nature of our
work, which often entails stopping
something such as pollution,
destructive development or harmful
resource extraction, I think we can hold
in a great deal of internal “pollution” in
the form of concern, fear and anger.
When we are able to stop and reflect
we clean out that internal discord
and replace it with the positive energy
of the wonderful communities and
resources we are working to protect. It
is difficult to create a healthy external
environment without creating the
same internally.
So during this beautiful change of
seasons I hope you will make the time
to get out and do some personal
introspection and cleaning.
If humans clear inner pollution,
then they will also cease to create
outer pollution
– Eckhart Tolle
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