Living Earth

Explore our archive of articles on Living Earth.

Should I have Children? | Lessons from Brown Bears

Journal Article

While female Bears may parent on their own, they are partnered at every step with Mother Nature. Every aspect of a Bear is shaped in relationship with Nature’s grain. This refined union of self with surroundings has been passed through innumerable generations over millions of years. To optimize their children’s security and wellness, mothers-to-be must be aware of external states as well as their own internal states.

Thomas Berry on Intuition

Journal Article

“You can’t understand the universe simply through science—it is one way of knowing directed toward analysis and use. The intuition is another way of knowing through the heart—the song of the birds, the sky at night, the magnificence of mountains and seas.' - Thomas Berry

Ocean of Wisdom

Journal Article

I call the Ocean ‘grandmother’ because life was created in her waters some 3.5 billion years ago, and a little bit later the continents also emerged. These are the beginnings of the Biosphere as we know it today, whose secrets lie deep within her. Slowly but surely, the first photosynthetic organisms started releasing tiny bubbles of oxygen from her depths into the atmosphere. The ocean’s oxygen production continues to this day and according to NOAA, phytoplankton produces up to 50% of the oxygen on Earth.

To Lament | Dawn Songs and the Human-Bird Bond

Journal Article

"The term ‘lament’ is typically associated with grief, with sorrow, with loss. Maybe the loss is physical – a beloved passes. Maybe the loss is etheric – a longed for dream of what could be is dissolved by circumstance. Those who have awakened to the nature of dawn songs lament the loss of birds… Perhaps lamentation is a song that enables the necessary mystery to find us in ways that we long to be found.”

A Walk Along the River | Metaphysical Concepts of Thought and Time

Journal Article

"At both scales of reality—the cosmic metaphysical and the human psychological—the untamed, chaotic unconscious is the mother of the conscious. The latter “eternally struggles to extricate itself from the primal warmth and primal darkness of the maternal womb,” that it may express the potential from which it arises as localized form or explicit thought. The roots of matter and thought thus share the same profoundly wild, oceanic origins as does time."

Reemergence of Animate World Experiences

Journal Article

"If we intend to participate in the world as if every presence is alive and intelligent and aware, perhaps we catch ourselves a thousand times forgetting. Yet when we remember long enough, or often enough, we might crack the doors of perception – doors that may be shut by customary psychic habits – and enter that breathing world, where everything speaks, where every presence longs to be seen and known."  

Origin | from “The Story of Gaia”

Journal Article

"Instead of our Universe beginning in the implicit chaos of a “bang,” it was born in a minuscule and incredibly simple and ordered state...Our Universe continues to sound the ongoing harmony in the Big Breath of its emergent potential."

Searching for a more beautiful world, with Charles Eisenstein

Journal Article

A conversation with my favorite contemporary social philosopher, Charles Eisenstein, about his life, his work, and the major opportunities and obstacles we’re facing today.

Spotlight on Hanne Strong

Journal Article

Mrs. Strong, has been an advocate for environmental conservation and restoration for many decades. Her Baca/Crestone Community currently houses many of the world’s wisdom traditions and is referred to as the “Refuge for World Truths”. It is the largest intentional, interreligious and sustainable living community in North America.

Mugwort | Plants Rule the World

Journal Article

I had embarked on a journey to talk with Mugwort because I wanted to understand plants and nature in a new way. To listen rather than destroy. To ask rather than demand. To learn to respect rather than disregard. And also, to find out why it annoyed me so much.