Hey Adam, I’m so happy to read this post this morning, as what you describe has been my life for the last nearly 7 years, in various stages of awareness, of course. I’ve been a student (thwasa) in the South African healing tradition of ubungoma, a very painful and oftentimes slow process, but the heart of becoming a traditional healer is becoming a facilitator of repairing and strengthening relationships, definitely not just among people, or the living. And among those lessons is learning what makes a healthy relationship, what is required to tend to those relationships? For most modern people, at least Americans, this is a deep unlearning, as many of us don’t have experience with truly healthy relationships.
In my growing awareness that traditional healers are “ecologists” or “systems thinkers” there is also the awareness that for people to adjust or even transform their inner worlds to be truly aligned with life and healthy relationships with all of life, the motivation just doesn’t stick around. The burn out and distraction/addictions are real, and another to-do list, even one built on doing the right thing, especially when it’s such a challenge to identity/ego and hopes and desires, like simplifying and living earth-aligned, yikes. There’s no sticking power there. Even my spiritual friends won’t talk with me about plants and animals beyond IG clips. Never mind any openness to the reality of faster and harder ecological collapse. What works is love. We take care of what and who we love, and it’s less of a chore, a to-do list. But even though there’s a deep longing for this in the collective, ideas like this are rarely touched. At least when I’ve lamely attempted to convey them. People desire, always. They desire love relationships and abundance. That’s easily fulfilled in an earth-aligned life, especially one guided by those wiser than us, human, other than, and the guiding Ancestors, from my own experience.
In Vedanta and yogic traditions, teachers say that in this Kali yuga, the path that makes the most sense is the Bhakti path, passionate love, devotion and surrender. Being a bhakta of nature in these times 👍
Thank you for sussing this out publicly. I don’t feel as awkward, weird, and uncool 🤣 the socials are just 8th grade all over again, ya know? Ps- I love Stephen Jenkinson. Cultural orphans need guidance to find their way back to family of life, and being people of place.
Hey Adam! Thank you for this, I’m so glad that you and others like what I wrote, I feel very passionately about these things! Hi to the sheep up there from the Finger Lakes! ❤️
Hi Adam, I work at a small natural food store in suburbia and this article is so refreshing and spot on.
This quote in particular resonated with me: ‘The farmer I began to imagine as I listened isn’t a Green Peace activist. She isn’t chained to a tree before a line of approaching dozers. She isn’t here to protect the Earth from humans, but rather to protect her human neighbors from the danger of isolation—the danger of ‘becoming like an island.’ This farmer is madly in love with an Earth that is still madly in love with humans, and so her love affair is not species-specific. Humans must eat in order to sing, dance and pray, and the Earth this farmer loves still longs to hear the sound of human conviviality. Humans must receive the gift of food in order to become deep practitioners of gratitude.
The farmer I imagined labors on behalf of humans and the Earth simultaneously by sensing how much the landscape can sustain, by learning how to identify ‘too much,’ and then translating those limits into human language and lifeways. This farmer is a healer of relationships.’
My conservative elders think of all activists and people who are for sound environmental practices as the one chained to the tree and I’ve been working to educate otherwise.
The man highlighted in the film, Stephen Jenkinson, got me oriented toward misanthropy early on as one of the root cultural disorders. Thank you for this reflection. Adam
Brother, your words are *alive*, man: "This farmer is madly in love with an Earth that is still madly in love with humans, and so her love affair is not species-specific. Humans must eat in order to sing, dance and pray, and the Earth this farmer loves still longs to hear the sound of human conviviality. Humans must receive the gift of food in order to become deep practitioners of gratitude..." -- that's It, the real deal.
As a gardener, tree-lover, and earth enthusiast I absolutely resonate with these words. What a fascinating connection between two seemingly far apart vocations—cheers for your poetic sight.
Gardening, birdwatching, or any other slow and laborious interaction with the Earth is undeniably spiritual for me. I’m surely healthier for it. I try always to encourage others to do the same.
Hey Adam, I’m so happy to read this post this morning, as what you describe has been my life for the last nearly 7 years, in various stages of awareness, of course. I’ve been a student (thwasa) in the South African healing tradition of ubungoma, a very painful and oftentimes slow process, but the heart of becoming a traditional healer is becoming a facilitator of repairing and strengthening relationships, definitely not just among people, or the living. And among those lessons is learning what makes a healthy relationship, what is required to tend to those relationships? For most modern people, at least Americans, this is a deep unlearning, as many of us don’t have experience with truly healthy relationships.
In my growing awareness that traditional healers are “ecologists” or “systems thinkers” there is also the awareness that for people to adjust or even transform their inner worlds to be truly aligned with life and healthy relationships with all of life, the motivation just doesn’t stick around. The burn out and distraction/addictions are real, and another to-do list, even one built on doing the right thing, especially when it’s such a challenge to identity/ego and hopes and desires, like simplifying and living earth-aligned, yikes. There’s no sticking power there. Even my spiritual friends won’t talk with me about plants and animals beyond IG clips. Never mind any openness to the reality of faster and harder ecological collapse. What works is love. We take care of what and who we love, and it’s less of a chore, a to-do list. But even though there’s a deep longing for this in the collective, ideas like this are rarely touched. At least when I’ve lamely attempted to convey them. People desire, always. They desire love relationships and abundance. That’s easily fulfilled in an earth-aligned life, especially one guided by those wiser than us, human, other than, and the guiding Ancestors, from my own experience.
In Vedanta and yogic traditions, teachers say that in this Kali yuga, the path that makes the most sense is the Bhakti path, passionate love, devotion and surrender. Being a bhakta of nature in these times 👍
Thank you for sussing this out publicly. I don’t feel as awkward, weird, and uncool 🤣 the socials are just 8th grade all over again, ya know? Ps- I love Stephen Jenkinson. Cultural orphans need guidance to find their way back to family of life, and being people of place.
Corrie, This is chock full of astute cultural observation. Keep writing, learning, sharing, teaching. Blessings, Adam
Hey Adam! Thank you for this, I’m so glad that you and others like what I wrote, I feel very passionately about these things! Hi to the sheep up there from the Finger Lakes! ❤️
Hi Adam, I work at a small natural food store in suburbia and this article is so refreshing and spot on.
This quote in particular resonated with me: ‘The farmer I began to imagine as I listened isn’t a Green Peace activist. She isn’t chained to a tree before a line of approaching dozers. She isn’t here to protect the Earth from humans, but rather to protect her human neighbors from the danger of isolation—the danger of ‘becoming like an island.’ This farmer is madly in love with an Earth that is still madly in love with humans, and so her love affair is not species-specific. Humans must eat in order to sing, dance and pray, and the Earth this farmer loves still longs to hear the sound of human conviviality. Humans must receive the gift of food in order to become deep practitioners of gratitude.
The farmer I imagined labors on behalf of humans and the Earth simultaneously by sensing how much the landscape can sustain, by learning how to identify ‘too much,’ and then translating those limits into human language and lifeways. This farmer is a healer of relationships.’
My conservative elders think of all activists and people who are for sound environmental practices as the one chained to the tree and I’ve been working to educate otherwise.
Thank you.
The man highlighted in the film, Stephen Jenkinson, got me oriented toward misanthropy early on as one of the root cultural disorders. Thank you for this reflection. Adam
This is stunning Adam. Thank you.
Bless you, Vanessa.
Brother, your words are *alive*, man: "This farmer is madly in love with an Earth that is still madly in love with humans, and so her love affair is not species-specific. Humans must eat in order to sing, dance and pray, and the Earth this farmer loves still longs to hear the sound of human conviviality. Humans must receive the gift of food in order to become deep practitioners of gratitude..." -- that's It, the real deal.
Thank you Graham. I'm honored by your words.
From a farmer in New Zealand, I really appreciate your beautiful words. Thank you
A dispatch from the opposite corner of the empire. Thank you for writing. Adam
Yes, yes, YES!!! ❤️
As a gardener, tree-lover, and earth enthusiast I absolutely resonate with these words. What a fascinating connection between two seemingly far apart vocations—cheers for your poetic sight.
Gardening, birdwatching, or any other slow and laborious interaction with the Earth is undeniably spiritual for me. I’m surely healthier for it. I try always to encourage others to do the same.
Thanks for your words Adam!