Listening for the Life Force We live in a time of undeniable peril. Every day the news brings fresh evidence of overshoot: aquifers running dry, forests burning, species vanishing. We know, if we are honest, that humanity is consuming and destroying far more than Earth can replenish. We are eating into the seed corn of the future. And yet, within… Read more →
Category: Life
Living into Balance
We live in a time of undeniable peril. Every day the news brings fresh evidence of overshoot: aquifers running dry, forests burning, species vanishing. We know, if we are honest, that humanity is consuming and destroying far more than Earth can replenish. We are eating into the seed corn of the future. And yet, within this bleak reality, another truth… Read more →
We Can Create an Earthly Paradise if We Choose
We live in a time when the prospect of collapse is all too real—fires, floods, deserts spreading, oceans acidifying, and species vanishing at a rate we once thought unimaginable. And yet, at this very moment, we also hold in our hands the knowledge, the tools, and the collective genius to heal the Earth and create something approaching paradise. It is… Read more →
Epilogue: A Universal Appeal (Enhanced Version)
Can We Speak to Everyone? Humanity stands, once again, at a crossroads. This is not a metaphor. It is the reality of our time. We can continue to deny the scale of the planetary crisis, as some governments and institutions still do—insisting that things are fine, that growth will continue, that nature will adapt to our needs. But pretending has… Read more →
The Ultimate Mystery
Of course, none of this addresses the ultimate mystery of Existence. Why are things the way they are? It’s of no help to say that God made them that way. Why did He (or She) make them that way? (Incidentally, isn’t it blasphemous to claim we know what God was thinking?) We need to keep asking this question, not only… Read more →
Chapter 13: The New Transcendentalism
“There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated spaces.” —Wendell Berry It seems almost too obvious to need stating: humans are Earthlings. We are not aliens to this planet, nor visitors to it—we are born of its dust, shaped by its waters, and nourished by its air. We belong to the ancient and ongoing colony of… Read more →
Conclusions: Our Letter to the Future
A recent headline in the Washington Post stated, Writing to the future is one of the most powerful climate actions you can take Social scientists say writing a letter to loved ones in the future can overcome a critical climate problem: inaction. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/04/29/climate-action-letter-to-the-future/ Apparently, having people write letters to their future children is one of the best ways to motivate… Read more →
Chapter 6: Rethinking the Economy: From Extraction to Regeneration
The economy as we know it is not a law of nature. It is a human construct, based on a set of assumptions, incentives, and institutions that have evolved over time. Yet today, these assumptions no longer serve the wellbeing of humanity or the living systems on which all life depends. As climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequality converge… Read more →