Many folks, particularly soil scientists, have understood the big mistake we made decades ago in understanding the meta crisis we face. Society got focused on greenhouse gases – an effect of the changes, and completely overlooked the source. This whole situation is a bit like fanning a burning house to reduce the heat, but ignoring putting out the fire.
Walter Jehne's paper, "Regenerate Earth", written in 2019, argues that restoring the planet's natural hydrological processes is crucial for mitigating climate change. Jehne emphasizes the role of water in regulating Earth's temperature for billions of years, particularly through latent heat fluxes, cloud formation, and rainfall. He argues that human activities, especially land degradation, have disrupted these processes, leading to a rise in warming humid hazes and a decrease in cooling rainfall. Jehne proposes that by regenerating the Earth’s soil carbon sponge, which enhances water retention and plant transpiration, we can restore these hydrological cycles. This, he argues, is more effective than focusing solely on CO2 emissions reduction, and is essential for cooling the planet and securing a livable future.
Nature has been cooling the planet for millions of years. With the loss of Arctic ice, we are now quite reliant on the biotic pump Jehne describes above. The IPPC WGI Fifth Assessment Report, published in 2013 states very clearly, “It is certain that Global Mean Surface Temperature (GMST) has increased since the late 19th century … Each of the past three decades has been warmer than all the previous decades in the instrumental record, and the decade of the 2000’s has been the warmest. The global combined land and ocean temperature data show an increase of about 0.89°C [0.69–1.08]5 over the period 1901–2012 and about 0.72°C [0.49- 0.89] over the period 1951–2012 when described by a linear trend6. “ which suggests that nature's ability to cool has decreased.
Peter Paul Bunyard and Rob deLeat, in their book, Cooling Climate Chaos, “offer effective climate solutions. We have seen climate restoration in smaller areas. If implemented wholesale by people everywhere based on local context, it will resolve most of the climate crises worst effects within decades, while benefitting society in many ways, including the protection of biodiversity, and correcting the gross inequity of our times. It may even open the possibility of slowing down partly inevitable sea-level rise.”
In so many places the realization has begun to dawn, we CAN do this, but we need to work with the planet. Climate change is not beyond our reach, we simply have to understand climate and then apply that understanding to everything we do. Here at Soil Smart – Soil Wise, we use the wonderful model of the biotic pump to clarify a whole system that creates climate, and to showcase simple acts that strengthen it. When we work with the biotic pump, then we are beginning to control our own climate, locally, in ways that enhance our own location, cool our local climate, and bring back the biodiversity that helps to maintain a resilient climate, in the long-term.
We have been focused on removing the carbon that holds in the heat. We have been focused on the results of the heating and not on the cause. We have focused on carbon and not on water. It is water that creates climate as it changes shape and either requires energy or gives it off – as heat. Water’s ability to shape-shift, is the miracle that manages temperature. Plants are the partners that make this shift possible, and even ordinary plants contribute as greening the planet, is cooling the planet. As they say in Cooling Climate Chaos, “Our focus is entirely on nurturing the living planet back to health and saving our societies in the process.” THAT is the key! We need to focus on planet cooling and planet health, and THEN we will find our pathway thought all the myriad changes we are so befuddled with now.
Yes, we need fresh water, but the soil will cleanse our water if we keep the water we get by stopping, slowing and sinking it where it falls. Removing and storing carbon dioxide is one of nature’s basic skills. Plants and soil are wonderful carbon sinks, they have been effective for millions of years. They may not act as fast in removing carbon as we are at adding it, but that’s our worry, so yes, the biotic pump removes and stores carbon. Air pollution is addressed subtly, as plants create oxygen and utilize CO2. Yes the air is improved, however, biodiversity loss IS a strength of the bionic pump and there are few other options. As mini-forests are planted, they, ‘create the conditions that support life’ and we see and can measure the return of animals and insects that have disappeared for years, as they return.
Effective strengthening of the bionic pump means that less fertilizer will be used, and land is designed to hold the water it gets. These changes will impact land use positively as healthy soil hold water so groundwater, creeks, rivers and springs are brought back to healthy states. There is nothing else, that I know of, that will impact all of these areas of overshoot as effectively as strengthening the biotic pump.
Land design is a hidden and neglected part of the equation. Beavers are the consummate land designers.  Erica Gies, in her book Water Always Wins, has a whole chapter on Beavers. There are several other books that she mentions as beavers gain in importance: Once They Were Hats: In Search of the mighty beaver by Frances Backhouse, and Eager: The surprising secret life of the Beaver by Ben Goldfarb, are two. Erica states, “Their ponds covered more than three hundred thousand square miles, turning one-tenth of the continent into rich ecologically diverse wetlands…” For me, this implies just how much land nature dedicated to holding water. It  also implies just how much land needs to be dedicated to holding water, if we want to refill the aquifers’ and underground streams that are necessary for a healthy ecosystem.
Given the current state, one thing we can do is to ensure that all new development is designed to hold water, first, before building. What we know from examples like Village Homes in Davis California, is that not only does such design prevent flooding, it is also cheaper to build and cheaper to maintain. Homes built to take advantage of nature can save up to 50% on their energy use, From an affordable housing perspective, these are very good numbers!
Addressing climate change is not a one-off, one time thing, but a shift in how we are living on the planet, so that everyday decisions are aligned with what nature and all the other living things need. Because the planet is alive, things change, and we, like beavers, need to circle back and readjust to take into account the decisions of myriad of other livings beings who share the planet with us. We have become accustomed to one and done, moving on to other things. We see our engagement with the planet as sporadic and as the background for the ‘real’ stuff. Our engagement with the planet has to become the REAL stuff, something that becomes central to all of our actions, not a backdrop. Our thirsty, burning planet needs water, and WE need to help her keep the water she gets!
Cities are in a good position to make this happen. We do not have rain if there is no water in the soil. Erica Gies makes this point over, and over. The soil must hold water and the soil must be green with plants, and designed to slow and sink water, for forests and plants to pump it up into the air to fall again. By becoming a sponge city, by ensuring that all land is planted correctly, and designed well, cities can ensure they become sources of cooling, rather than heating. Right now, most cities are heat islands, may degrees warmer than the countryside. This needs to change as cities recognize the various ways they can become cooler. By paying attention to keeping the water they get, they can actively utilize public parks, and golf courses as water sinks. As they make healthy soil a prerogative, composting and biochar become normal ways of doing business, reducing chemical use and water use, as healthy wet, soil doesn’t need watering, so plants and trees can put their roots down far enough that the water table rises, so that additional water is rarely needed.
I can’t put Greta’s words out of my head – “our house is on fire!” We need to be putting that fire out. We do not need to rearrange our furniture, or sort through our belongings, we need to put the fire OUT! The problem is that there is a disconnect between what we do and the experience of success. That problem is called non-linear cause and effect. I believe that having our hands in the dirt, working with the biotic pump, seeing the resilience we can create with our ore own hands, watching life return as the forest grows brings a kind of satisfaction and feeling of relevance that few things can match. That is my hope and my prayer – join us in making YOUR city resilient, green and cool.

Check out our 4-week course on Rethinking Climate Change to understand this more deeply: https://soilsmart-soilwise.org/events

Water, that most magical of substances! It has no shape of its own, yet it is instantly identifiable. It is everywhere life is. We know of no life without water; it is necessary for life to exist and for it to continue to exist. It was a major step in evolution when life discovered how to take water with it, so it could move onto land.

Water has memory. The wonderful work of Masaru Emoto (Messages from Water) showing how water changes when infused with spoken words, and the idea of Homeopathy that water can hold the memory of various pathogens are other ways that we recognize that water has memory.

Water has three, maybe four forms; liquid, solid, vapor, and the ‘fourth phase,’ sometimes called ‘structured/ describes water's ability to form a layer along water loving (hydrophilic) surface. No other substance has this variety of properties. What IS water?

In the work I’ve done on Earth’s Values, and the Global ethic that LIFE uses, I was encouraged by a friend, Ani Ahavah, to look at water through the lens of values. What can water teach us about living the values of nature?

Of the sixteen values I distilled from my research the first, and most important is the one first articulated by Jannie Benyus, All actions create the conditions that support life. Now think about water for a moment. Isn’t that all it does? That seems to be what water just does. When water is polluted – it didn’t do that, it is carrying the toxins to remove them, as best it can. When it’s raging, it is often because of our disruption of the balances the rest of life has created for it. Water holds memories of our pain and ugliness to each other, but cheerfully releases them when we re-infuse it with love.

I’m feeling a resistance to saying ‘it.’ Water is kin, water is more than kin, water is us. Our language makes it hard to speak of this closeness without generating the distance of separation. Water always has the greater good in mind, so water always manages the health and integrity of the whole, the second principle or value of Earth. Permaculture speaks best to this aspect of water, slow, spread, sink. From a leadership perspective this changes the act of leadership from one of aggressively forcing action to the Confucius approach best capitalized in the paraphrasing of the  saying “Effective leadership is achieved when participants say, we did it ourselves.” The slow spreading of understanding seeps into consciousness and becomes, simply, the way we do things.

Basic to the understanding of authentic effectiveness is the undercurrent of right-relationship, a third value of nature. Win, win, win is the metric of right-relationship, where all parties are benefited versus the old concept of compromise which suggests shared loss. Where life is concerned, all parties need to be better off for being in relationship, and that sometimes takes patience. There is no contest, but a desire to ensure the long-term benefits which may take time to see, understand and integrate. Patience is a virtue.

This also speaks t0 reciprocity and interdependence, two other Earth values as aspects inherent in right-relationship. For me, reciprocity speaks to the heart urge that forms naturally when a benefit is received, as the natural response to balance that gift arises for expression. Water certainly models these as well. An open reception to water is responded to by the gift of life and the giving of that gift requires the reception of that gift as an integral part. I think the welcoming reception is often overlooked and is corrupted by the shift in consciousness of taking. The humbleness of receiving is very different from taking, and that difference is the difference between being in relationship and being interdependent and a top-down control context. It is all in the attitude. That is why reverence is a key aspect of right-relationship. Water is incredibly generous, but at the same time, can be ferocious when denied.

The many forms of water speak to water's ability to manage energy economically, without waste. The generation of heat or the removal of heat are all done in ways that balance the climate atmosphere. There is zero waste. The structural changes are done to ensure balance, and disruption through storms and disasters come when that balance has been tampered with. Water's right-relationship with plants and soil ensure the balanced shift in structure, but when soil is killed to become dirt and plant life is replaced with asphalt and concrete and that balance is removed, then the excess energy must be expressed in ways that are often detrimental. This is at the heart of the bionic pump. The bionic pump is a description of the ways in which water finds balance and in which the natural cooling of the Earth takes place. Life needs water, and life – as we know it – needs a certain temperature range, as well. The bionic pump is the way nature and water created to maintain that special temperature range. We humans have tampered with that, and now we are seeing the results.

Dynamic stability, another value, is one that water does best. Waters need to shift from fast to slow, from narrow to wide, and from surface to underground all speak to the need for temporary changes without actually changing anything. The expansion of the riverbed prevents flooding. That temporary change must be included in an understanding of ‘normal’ to allow for the needed flexibility. Another way of saying this is that boundaries are not walls or fences, but ranges of acceptance. Working with that range save time, money and aggravation. The range is dictated by the entity needing the expansion, not by some outside entity. This is where respect and trust come in, from a leadership perspective. Listening to what’s needed and not second guessing or overriding are key.

Optimization, co-creation and agency are other Earth values that Water can be a model for leadership. Agency has two aspects, directive and responsive. When water takes its own agency, it is such a friend and supporter. It is the life giving support that is at the heart of water’s purpose. When water is being reactive in response to actions by others that are out of water’s control, then we shudder at the power and force of those responses. How often is this true of leadership? When the leader's hand is soft and gentle, then the receptivity of the followers is often spontaneous and seemingly invisible, but when the leader's had is harsh the reactions are often equally dramatic, even when hidden and behind closed doors. The dynamic, interdependent dance between leadership and the rank and file is very often overlooked. Leaderships agency is tightly coupled with the agency of the followers. It is the regenerative leader's job to release the follower's agency by making them leaders in their own right. It is by making everyone a leader that the organization is optimized. Optimization speaks to the health of the whole, and we are back to where we started.

Life is not about parts and pieces. Life is about ensuring that the life, through the love of life, continues. Life is about loving life, so keeping, engendering that joy is a key leadership role, one that few understand or accept. Leaders so often get caught up in the achievement thing that they forget about the journey to get there. Life is about the journey, not the result. This is another lesson from water. Waters ‘achievement’ is not getting to the ocean, because that is only one stop on its journey. Water’s achievement is the LIFE it brings forth on its journey from one form to another. This is a regenerative leader's achievement, as well.

 

I’ve been ruminating on this question for 40 years, waiting to see the path forward. My lifelong question has been about ethics and what is the right way to live. Dissatisfied with what humans (mostly men) have had to say about ethics, I decided to look to the expert – nature. Jane Jacobs taught me that values come in systems. Her research posited two systems, one for safety and the other for expression. I knew there was another, waiting to be born, so I spent the next 20 years researching. I explored science, systems thinking, indigenous ways of seeing and understanding the world, poets and artists, anyone who spent time seeing and thinking about the natural world. Nature has spent over 65 million years experimenting with life, so I am sure SHE knows how to make it work.

What I learned has been distilled into what I call the Resilient Values set.™ These are four intents and sixteen values /principles/patterns that all life uses to live ethically, on this planet. I have worked with these values for years now, and the spiritual understanding they have brought me has only deepened by understanding and appreciation for nature, humans, and all other living beings. That said, this time, this time when the Earth herself, is working so hard to heal, seems to require new actions, and new ways of being.

The excuse we use to not get involved, the Earth will outlast us, the Earth will continue on after we are gone, is true, but it allows us to abdicate our responsibility and withhold our gifts. SHE will abide, but the real question, is will we? If we want to be here, then we much change, we must do things differently (the values), and we must do different things.

The only place to act is locally, and the only time is now. I live in Spokane, Washington, and I’m working to work with the City of Spokane to become resilient. We are in a purple city surrounded by a sea of red. Therefore, I have chosen to work on soil! We live over one of the largest aquifers in North America. We use more water than most other cities of our size. Like most cities world-wide, we are designed to get rid of excess water. We use about 53 million gallons a year. We are gifted with about 17 billion gallons a year of rainfall. What’s wrong with this picture?

Keeping the water we get, is a rational approach, given the changes in the weather and the real possibility that our normal rainfall may change. What IS changing is snowfall, and much of our water in our rivers comes from that. That, we know, is changing so, our summer water will not be coming from melted snowpack. We need to manage our water from rain very seriously, because of that.

While the aquifer is very important, the biggest storage for rainfall is soil. Living soil (scientists now think that 2/3 of all life on the planet is in the soil) holds water, and releases it, slowly, over time. This allows rivers and creeks to run, even in drought. So, the first order of business is soil and compost is the first, easy step in making dirt come alive. If you wish to speed up the process, or just get better at it, then you can amend the soil by adding specific bacteria and biochar.

Biochar is charcoal created by burning organic waste in a specific way so that it doesn’t burn up, but chars. That char is an incredible carbon sink, and it is porous, so it holds both water and nutrients. This ancient technique actually grows soil and helps soil increase by feet a year. It is possible for individuals to make biochar and biochar can also be made commercially. There is a wonderful company in Oregon already doing this. Going beyond soil remediation, the next step is holding water long enough so that it sinks into the ground.

Landscape design mimics nature. She has already contoured the land to channel and hold water, we make it flat.  We can follow what nature did, or if we have already removed that memory we can redesign, in alignment with the natural slope, the land in such a way that water has a place to be. I water sits long enough, it goes down, into the soil and into underground streams and aquifers. This allows streams to run, even in drought.

Did you know that trees make rain? Actually, forests make rain. The transevaporation that trees do by bringing water up and letting it go through their leaves creates that wonderful, atmospheric fog we treasure, and that fog becomes clouds in the sky holding water, which then moves inland and rains. The atmospheric rivers they talk about on the evening news are created this way. That means that deforestation becomes desertification, and that is well documented. The really good news is that, using the Miyawaki Method, it is possible to plant a forest in a day, tend it for three years and then in 25 you have an ‘old growth’ forest. Bang!

These mini forests can be planted in places as small as 6 parking places, so you can put one in your backyard. This is a place where indigenous people can lead, as they have the knowledge of the original plants that make this work. They grow much faster than normally planted trees and by using biochar treated compost, you can speed it up even faster. As we replant forest, we bring back native species of animals and insects that have long disappeared (how do they know to come back?) and revitalize everything around them, while helping to bring back rain. A real win, win, won!

Can I save the world? I can save my part and if enough of us did the same thing…

Tis the Holi-day season. The solstice is here, the turning into the light, once again. May I substitute the word LIFE for LIGHT for a moment. How does that sit with you? Turning into LIFE? That’s what we are all about, in The Coming Home Project, coming back to LIFE, learning to play the LIFE game, and learning to play it in a new way – as partnership. I believe that is what the Earth has been waiting for – a partner. There are things we can do together that we can’t do alone, that neither of us can do alone. The kicker is that to partner, we have to both be on the same page – we BOTH have to be committed to LIFE over everything else! Nature is, she does nothing that is not furthering LIFE. When will we be able to say the same?

I know that life is frustrating, confusing, and even scary. I also know that as a person of good will, you want to DO something. We think that something has to be grand or big or notable in some way, but it doesn’t. What it DOES have to be is enlivening. It HAS to be something that furthers life on this planet. Life is not just existence, but it is joie de ve, the joy of life. Whatever we do has to further joie de ve!!! For ourselves and for others. I even question if we can find and experience joie de ve by ourselves. Often, when I have that experience I have it in nature with everyone else, all of the other living things that are experiencing that too. That is why we love nature so, their joy reminds us, and refreshes us to that experience, something we forget in the ‘rat race’ we have come to call life – but which isn’t.

In this time, we are called, IMHO (in my humble opinion), to hold the pain AND the joy together. I believe that the joy will only be a large as the pain is. Our capacity is stretched by our experiencing both, by our willingness to hold both, to feel both. As I say this, I am also cognitive of the fact that none of us can live so intense a life to experience either of these emotions all the time. So, yes, there are times for difference and even for peace and harmony, but that is not the same as blocking them out.

We need to shift all our being and all our actions to only those that are meaningful, in this way. So that our life, our whole life is dedicated to bringing forth joie de ve in every way that we can. There is not enough time to wait until …. This is NOT the time to put things off. WE are needed and We are needed NOW.

We can’t do this alone, in fact, the whole purpose of doing this, of finding and expressing joy, is to learn that we can only have that experience in community, with others. That means that we must find others who understand the urgency and problem (separation from life) in the same way we do and together figure out how, together, all of us can live our life in ways that bring life - joie de ve, to all the other living things around us.

Join us in The Coming Home Project, listen to our podcast, Awakening to Gaia’s Voice, catch our weekly videos on Facebook – you are NOT alone!

I have been trying to tell the Earth's story in a way that blends science, systems thinking, and indigenous wisdom, as I share the patterns and systems life uses to create and sustain life. The Earth, as life, has values that are reflected in the patterns of behavior we see all around us, and that we call nature. We are seeking direction, but it is already here! Her four intents and sixteen values form a framework that channels life's energy in constructive and interdependent ways. Coming out of our dream of separation, into the light of connection, of interbeing, we need frameworks that remind us how to play well together. By together, I mean interbeing with all other life on the planet. How do we treat other life as kin? How do we hear their voice, before we are able to actually listen? I believe the Resilient Values Framework provides one answer.
 
That said, nature needs us! We are a keystone species, at the moment, and what we have done, needs to be repaired! I believe it is time to stop fighting those who will not change their mind and start supporting planetary life in every way we can. For me, this means turning to the nature around me and seeing how I can help. Our life depends upon soil. Soil is one of the main ingredients in rain. Without soil, we will not have rain, and without rain, the planet will continue to parch, until life discovers how to eliminate and balance the stress we caused, by denying life so eloquently. I think this is what you sensed, in your statements about my chart (even though it was not 'correct' at the time) when you said I would bring something that would help us all.
 
We need to be active in providing a counterbalance to those life defying behaviors that currently characterize what Western humans think of a 'normal.' This doesn't look heroic, in the moment, but it will be foundational in the stories we tell each other later. We are only just understanding how the Earth really works. Everyone, every other entity alive, has been charged with ensuring life continues to thrive, only we have resisted and even despised that call. In our hubris, we have only been concerned with our own survival, and in so doing we have been convinced that others living limits our chances of survival instead of understanding we depend upon them for survival. Now we need to use our great powers to ensure, just that, the survival of others. In doing so, we will survive. If we do not then, instead of being a help, we become a hindrance, and that will not be tolerated, it can't be!
 
I am embarking on a project with my city, Spokane, Washington, to enliven the soil. If we can get the residents to understand their own self-interest can best be served by enlivening the soil they have responsibility for, then our city will become much more resilient to both floods and fires, and the vibrant green we will be surrounded with will also increase our chances for rain while, at the same time, facilitating the refreshment of the aquifer we depend upon for drinking water. This may sound a bit prosaic, and even only bleakly connected to the imperative we do something to fight climate chaos, but it is what is needed now. If we don't address the heat, we will be cooked. Stopping doing the things that are making things warmer, which is our current strategy, is only a part of the picture. Facilitating and supporting the current methods of cooling that nature has already designed is another.
 
It is my belief that as we put our hands in the dirt and discover how to make living soil, we will also regain that connection and appreciation for all the rest of life, that we have lost. There is nothing more magical than compost. Seeing with our own eyes the transformation of garbage to rich, dark soil, is SO empowering! The magic that other living things create in simply doing what they do best - live - eat, and yes, poop, is so astonishing hopeful. Witnessing that transformation provides testimony to the ability inherent in life, as we know it, to recover fully, if supported by us. We will need this faith to support us as we learn to deal, and help the rest of life deal, with the coming heat.

Science is telling us that each single cell is a ‘self.’ An entity, sentient enough to make the decisions it needs to make to keep living and even to reproduce. In the real world, these are not simple or easy choices to make. Each choice involves, at the most basic level, answers to the question, is this good for me, does it serve me to maintain an interaction, or can this harm me? If it is harmful, do you move away or protect yourself, and if protection is desired, then how. That’s a lot of fancy thinking for a single cell, yet the realization that there is something that is not self, and the information gathered to answer the simple yet complex questions above, is the start of the autopoietic process of self-making – for BOTH parties. That interdependent self-making is how Interbeing happens. Together, the choices both parties make from the information gathered, determines the kind and extent of the relationship they form. Enough of these experiences with the same or similar selfs, creates a pattern of behavior, over time. These patterns, over time, become automatic processes that become enacted when that same kind of ‘other’ is encountered. If the experience is continuous enough and often enough, then structures may be created that ensure the process will happen with less energy and attention. Structures can also be created when enough of similar selfs have made the same decision about similar ‘other selfs’ and they decide to stay together to deal with the situation. If enough connections are made, then networks can be formed to better facilitate the desired interaction. Over time, the new information gathered by all of these still independent selfs, may generate enough information to inspire a new set of choices that will generate an innovation – perhaps surrounding another desired self, who also recognizes the benefits of the relationship.
This process occurs with simple organisms as well as with larger organisms, like humans. For humans, the recognition of another person inspires an openness to information from and about the other that also answers the very same questions, but perhaps at different levels. The answers to those questions will determine the willingness to engage further, as well as the shape and kind of relationship that will be developed. If developing the relationship further, is chosen, then, over time, there will be developed a pattern to that relationship. If the relationship continues, then processes might be developed to make the relationship easier – say texting every morning.  As the relationship continues, it may be that structures start to appear, such as expectations about response time, for instance. It can be that, over time, there arises a desire to bring in others and a network is formed. The addition of others with similar and compatible interests increases the flow of information, and this can inspire a shift that will create a novel and new expression of the group.
This process can be expressed as: Identity, Relationship, Information, Pattern, Process, Structure, Network, Emergence. In this model, no other can be recognized until a sense of self is clear. The acknowledgement of a ‘not self’ is a relationship that is codified by additional information and additional choices to respond to the experience of that interchange and the choice to deal with that experience. We speak of it from only one viewpoint, but there are always at least two parties, each doing the exact same thing. Each is making choices that the other will have to respond to and in so doing, each is making both their own world and the contributing to the making of the other's world at the same time. This is interbeing as an autopoietic expression of life. This is what Ubuntu means – I am because you are.
As we move into a new world where each of us is consciously contributing to the richness of life and is consciously working to ensure that all life is vibrant and vital, this recognition of our ability, responsibility and gift that is given and received in every interaction can become a deep experience of appreciation, gratitude and even reverence for the interdependence and reciprocity that envelops us every day, in so many different ways. As we learn to cherish the results of other’s choices, we also become much more cognizant of our own responsibility and power in making the world for others. To be engaged in world-making in ways that bring life to oneself and others, is to engage in co-creating a vibrant, robust, and thriving world, one we all want to live in.
Humans, in particular, world create on a daily basis through language. The words we use and the stories we tell are constant world-making tools we use without thinking. The words we hear and the understanding we make are yet another example of how our interbeing creates through our autopoietic actions. In English, in particular, our focus on nouns creates a separation that we don’t even see. The constant recreation of separation dismisses, makes invisible the connection that interbeing points us to.
We are doing this now, but with no consciousness or attention. We make choices without any recognition of the response of the other and how that will impact our own life. We assume that each action is independent and stands on its own. By recognizing this interdependent self-making, we gain more control and agency over the kind of world we are making, together. The autopoietic choices I make and in how I respond to your choices is the interbeing aspect of the world we are creating together. Together we create stories that explain and justify our actions, but without recognizing the world that is the result of these decisions. By paying attention to the effects of interbeing and the results of each of our own autopoietic choices, we can begin to artfully impact and design the world we want to live in.


You can find T-Shirts and other objects with this graphic for sale by going to Gaia's Shoppe of Knowledge at this link: https://community.living-regeneratively.world.

 
I’ve put that documentary up here so you, too, can experience Michael’s life. Given our situation, it is time to think about what would, could, should human life look like as we work to weather (ha) the changes now upon us. The separateness stance would have us striving to protect our selves from the changing climate, and from each other as things get challenging. There are many among us who will do that.
 
Michael chose to move away from others to be free to interact with his environment in his own way. Being authentic with your environment is a slow process. It takes time to get to know it, to understand how it lives, and then to bend your needs around what needs to happen, in the place where you are. It is a slow, respectful, process.
 
His place was beautiful. It did not speak of difficulty or hardship, yet, he was not connected to the traditional electricity, water, sewer system so these taken for granted comforts were managed in an unusual way, a way that did not pollute his environment, or disturb it in a way that would impact its health and vitality.
 
There was no talk of food, but we know he managed. He had a garden and the ocean. His environment allowed him to be able to gather all year around, so I suspect that storage was not an issue. As we move into warmer times, how will we address that? Food will become a more consistent area of attention. Will we have the bandwidth to keep animals? Will we be able to provide for them as well as us? Will the need for food require us to live in community?
 
One of the stories that so sticks in the mind, is his five years playing with a pod of dolphins. His comment that their culture was about being polite, is worthy of some reflection. How will we learn to be together in a way that supports OUR survival? Will we splinter in protective groups, groups intent upon robbing from others what we can’t do for ourselves, or will we discover the joys of sharing and working together? I suspect there will be both groups, at least for a time. Robbing of others is a luxury, one that presupposes that someone else is able to survive well enough that they can ‘afford’ that kind of parasitic behavior. How long will that be tolerated?
 
The story also speaks to the role of play in our lives. That is a big part of the life of a dolphin, and Michael seemed to have enough time, free from life needs (shelter and food) to be able to join them, for at least a good part of the time. That too, is a luxury, on that all successful peoples have found ways of incorporating, play and art are fundamental ways of spending time. Maybe that is even part of the definition of success, having time for play and art. How have we been doing in that department?
 
He has a strong spiritual practice. His mind has a natural turn to both the abstract and the beautiful. Both are conducive to the spiritual. Still, he found that guidance from another person, and from an established tradition, provided strength and support. Will we, in this new challenging situation, be able to bring forward those traditions that have supported us for thousands of years? Will we lose all of that? Will we develop new ways of understanding the deeper meaning of life instead? There is a lot of conversation, now, about how to rethink a global ethic, and certainly I’m a part of that conversation. Will we look to nature, or remain stuck in trying to figure out how and why we are different from nature? Will we keep that illusion or seek another way of being?
 
Another point of rumination, for me, is gender. We have few, if any, stories about women who have gone off into the wilderness to live. In thinking about Michael’s story, I’m not sure if I could have done what he did, even in my youth. The simple physical needs of such a life feel overwhelming, to me. Separation comes naturally to men, (this is another whole essay) and it is a path to connection, as Michael so clearly shows. In my experience, women find a joy in connection, that is natural to us. We do not need separation in the same way. This brings to mind several thoughts. In nature there are certain animals who live solitary lives, not many, most living things live in groups. I wonder if that is an expression of how food is obtained. For the human species, I have heard of an experiment by a tribe in Africa, where children were left on their own at five. That tribe was not successful. The ability to feed children, is a mark of success for any species, and that often requires, for humans, community, of some kind.
 
So, this film, and our situation, makes me wonder what lessons will we bring forward that will help us, not only survive, but replenish? What understanding  do we need to carry forward, so we will not repeat this? Will we know enough to manage our numbers? They say that the story of Atlantis was the story of power run a muck. What will they say about this time?

I’d like you suspend belief for a few minutes and go with here. I want to offer a thought experiment and get your response. Most people in this country, and everyone with a Christian background of any sort, knows the story about the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve and the apple. This story has been told and retold for centuries. For me that suggests that it is important, it carries a message that has had meaning and relevance for hundreds of thousands of people. That said, there have been hundreds of books written about what it means.  I would dare to say that our Western culture has been created in response to how some people understand this story.
 
Most of the time this is seen as a gender story, the innocent Adam seduced by his tempted ‘wife’ Eve. Much has been made about the ‘fate’ of humanity, based on the actions of one woman. I’ve been more concerned about the ‘tree.’ The tree of knowledge? The tree of????? The apple is said to have given the knowledge of good and evil, hummmm. I’ve pondered that for years. Good and evil have been philosophical hot beds of controversy for centuries. What is good and what is bad? I get the jist, but the words were far from clear, and that ambiguity gives folks lots of room for propaganda.
 
There’s another story that comes from this one, the gift of ‘free will.’ Humans, they say, have the ability to ‘freely’ decide what they do. We have choice. We call this free will. Some brain science suggests otherwise, but most people feel that they are free to decide. So, what did ‘Adam’ decide? What was the choice made by these ‘first people’ that has had such a devastating effect on our world, ever since? Remember, this story was written thousands of years ago.
 
So, imagine with me for a moment that the choice was to ‘just take care of ourselves’ that we are separate and independent, so we can look after ourselves and we don’t need to think about others, or other living things, we have the ‘right?” the ability, to handle it ourselves. When I look at the root cause of all our troubles, they seem to stem from our illusion that we are separate, and therefore condemned to care for ourselves AND not obligated to care for others AND others are not obligated to for us. The ‘apple’ Adam ate was the apple of separation. Perhaps it was under the frame of ‘freedom’ or ‘independence,’ but no matter the rationalization, the effect was the same. We shifted our focus from LIFE to HUMANS, and we have sacrificed other living being to our needs and desires ever since. Taking care of ourselves is a scary proposition, and fear seems to be almost foundational. Separation runs deep!
 
Part of this thinking comes from my understanding of how our planet has been for thousands and thousands of years. Indigenous folks have always tended the plant life around them and worked with nature, and in so doing created a garden that flourished and thrived. I do not believe that much of our planet has been untended. Just because WE don’t tend it, doesn’t mean it has always been that way. Take our continent, the USA. When Columbus came, what did they see? Huge trees, rich soil, incredible natural riches, riches that had been stewarded by the indigenous folks who lived here that we called Indians. He was so blind that he could not imagine these ‘savages’ had the knowledge and skills to create such wealth, but they did.
 
Now science is telling us just how connected we are. Dr. Zack Morton Bush, an endocrinologist focusing on the microbiome, says that we have over 30,000 individual species living in us, doing their own thing, but in doing so they give us life. We cannot live without them. The mitochondria, which we once thought were a part of our cells, we now know are separate entities. They have the gift of being able to convert sunlight into energy. That is where our energy comes from. They are in every living cell in our bodies. They came from the soil, and they need the soil to thrive.
 
Putting your hands in the soil is a great mood enhancer, this is even backed by science. The Earth needs us, and we need it! There is no such thing as separation, that is an illusion! That need is what is called reciprocity. Back to the garden again. What would your life look like if you lived in reciprocity with your family? How about with your neighbors? Then, think a bit more deeply and think about being in reciprocity with the non-humans in your environment. Noticing the gifts, you are being given, and giving back in appreciation…what a wonderful way to live. How rich those relationships become, and how wonderful to know you are never alone. Welcome back to the garden.

Our transcendence is in our biology. The glory of our being is that we are connected and part of the great body of Earth. Our radical transformation comes in accepting our place within the body of Life as expressed on this planet Earth. WE can only know our own magnificence when we claim our rightful place within the biological expression of LIFE on this planet. We are one!
 
At its heart, morality is about integrity, but our understanding has been too small. We marvel at the beauty of nature – there is no place where nature has been allowed to do her thing that is not beautiful. That beauty speak of the integrity of the place, of the life that lives there, of the joy in living, being expressed there. That beauty is a big YES, as expressed in the exuberance of life.
 
Our transcendence comes when we, too, are connected to our being within the vast expression of LIFE. We have been told this for eons, in so many ways, but we had the belief that transcendence could happen when we pulled away from life, sitting on a mountain top or gazing at our navels. These techniques are paths to coming back into relationship with all of life. One chops wood and carries water with a new and very joyous perception and gratitude for the LIFE that permeates everything. Then every action takes on new significance, new importance, new meaning, as every action becomes filled with love, both given and received.
 
We are transcending our separation and finally coming home. We need not flee our humanity, our bodies, we need to embrace them, and in embracing we will transcend the smallness we fear and expand into the expansion that is LIFE itself. Greatness comes in understanding the boundaries that make LIFE possible, not in breaking them, and thus eliminating life’s possibilities, as we have been doing for the last few millennia. Our blindness to the wholeness of the planet, has led us to disrespect and dismiss the parts that constitute that wholeness – of which WE are one.
 
In accepting our wholeness, we can begin to luxuriate in the richness of LIFE’s expression. We are already touched and awed by LIFE's expression, but now we can know that we, too, are a part of that expression and just as miraculous! To know that, in our own experience, opens such gratitude and reverence, that the only correct expression of those feelings is to live the Prime Directive – ensuring that ALL our actions create the conditions that support LIFE! Our attention is pulled, and our emotions are enticed by the joy that comes from seeing LIFE thrive. We will find our purpose in our joy.
 
We have so come to identify ourselves with the pain and sadness that comes from denying who we are, that it has become painful to reconnect with ourselves. It hurts to open up to love. We have put SO MUCH of ourselves into that separation, into denying our connection, that opening to connection is both scary, AND bitter. Re-embracing our fullness takes real courage. Our mystery and magnificence is not that we are outside or at top of all other life, but that we are special and different within all other life. WE are special and different, just as every other living being is special and different, we have just never seen ourselves, or our place, within the chorus of life. Our notes are needed within the song of life, but to add them we need to be listening to the melody sung by others. We will only know our gifts when we join the song.
 
A choir does not sound good unless everyone is listening to everyone else. It is the blending that creates joy. There are times when that expression requires a solo, and that, too, is an expression of the whole. The joy in coming home comes from the experience of connection, of finding one’s place in the scheme of things, in knowing that the notes through which we express ourselves are a correct part of the song being sung. Pythagoras spoke of the music of the spheres, and it was this he was speaking of. Our planet cannot sing until all our voices are joined in the music of life.
 
Listening is key. To listen means to slow down, and meditation is certainly a good way to this. There are others. Gandhi used his spinning wheel to slow down, I clean. The simple things of every day, ordinary life are places to listen. If there were messages from plants, trees, animals, life, how would you get them? Would God send a text? It is our consciousness that connects and that happens in two places, our mind, and our bodies. The skill is in using your body in a way that allows your mind to be free and receptive. The stillness and discipline of meditation is how we train our minds to be receptive. Listening to your own chatter, is not really listening.
 
Your essence, your true self is pure. It remains unsullied, no matter what you do or think. However, your identification with your actions and thoughts keeps you from experiencing your true nature, so you think you are unworthy, not capable, etc. Plants and animals don’t play that game, so they seem ‘closer’ to nature than we are, but that is not the truth. WE are just as close, but we must listen as the song is being sung just by humans, as part of the choirs, we only add our specific notes.
 
 

Please join me in a thought experiment. Kindness and consideration seem to go hand-in-hand. We wring our hands and bemoan the current conditions of our culture, the hatred and animosity that seems so prevalent. The coarseness and vindictiveness that seem to be everywhere as people express their angst and frustration. Yet, even in that atmosphere, it is possible to experience acts of kindness. The smile, a hand outstretched, time taken out of a busy schedule to chat, all these exist within the cacophony of frustration and anger.
 
Kindness is experienced when someone takes the time to notice the need for connection and support in another human being. Kindness comes when one human shares the space of being human with another. The quiet communion of souls, as one human touches another, can make all the difference. Extending kindness tells the receiver that they are valued and important. The recognition of humanity in another is one of the deepest forms of recognition.
 
Consideration is expressed in manners, the simple act of holding a door open. The recognition of a need in the other and then acting on that perception and sharing the mutual joy in that situation, makes the world brighter. Consideration is a wonderful equalizer, eliminating a situational difference in status with the assurance that our humanity trumps any such illusion.
 
Kindness is often seen as a spontaneous act between individual people, but what would a kind family look like? What would the daily habits and experience look like? We might expect to see examples of consideration, a sensitivity to one another’s feelings and moods coupled with a caring concern. We would anticipate a skill in gentle inquiry and spontaneous offers of support. We might expect discussions filled with deep listening so everyone’s experience is understood.
 
Consideration suggests not only the ability to see a need, but to be able to project into the future a bit and act to forestall a situation that might be unpleasant. It provides a bit of ease in trying and difficult situations. Choosing not to do something that might create discomfort in another, or taking an action that might prevent discomfort or pain to another, are both examples of consideration in family situations.
 
What might a kind organization look like? How would a company provide the experience of being valued to its employees? How might an organization be considerate? Perhaps having a focus on the experience of employees as they interact with the company by creating processes that are client and employee focused, instead of internally focused, might be a good start. Employers could help by trusting employees to take care of their own business AND the company's business at the same time, with a focus on accomplishments instead of time. Consideration runs both ways as employees strive to meet the employer's needs, discovered through discussion and mutual planning. Perhaps a shift from competition to service might help? Perhaps a move from efficiency to effectiveness would provide the context for kindness and consideration to flourish?
 
Kindness and consideration both speak of a form of reciprocity that is actually found in nature, as each life form seeks to create the conditions in which it can thrive. The inherent interdependence requires a certain consideration of the other. The high energy cost of competition is saved for occasional and extraordinary circumstances. Adaptability and even tolerance are much more economical energetically, and both foster innovation. By minimizing resistance and recognizing value in the other, new opportunities arise that would be missed in the passion of competition.
 
In a way, both kindness and consideration recognize and facilitate change. By embracing flexibility and acknowledging the distress change causes, consideration and kindness create an experience of grace for the difficult parts of life. Can organizations embrace flexibility? Can organizations wean themselves off the irrational drive for stability and sameness that is a path to death? In nature, stability and lack of change only happen in death. All life change and in fact life might even be defined by its inherent cap, for change. How could it be otherwise? Each life form has a say and as each one adjusts and responds to all the others change in foundational to that engagement with self-expression. Learning to hold reality lightly and with curiosity provides the space for kindness and consideration to happen.
 
Organizations focus on the process, in the mistake belief that process generates the result, when, in fact, the desired impact should inform the process. Living systems are metabolizing systems, and one of the things they digest is information. Many of our systems are suffering indigestion as the information stored in homelessness, in mental illness, and crime is not being digested. Kindness and consideration offer paths through these mazes of confusion and pain if we allow ourselves to feel our way through.
 
Kindness and consideration speak of connection, of the ability to feel and share the experience of the other. In that connection the right action arises, without that connection confusion and irritation block that knowing. When we experience kindness and consideration, we are so grateful, and we desire to share that experience with another. When we experience disdain and disregard, then we, in anger, wish to share that too.  We create the world we live in, one decision at a time. Those decisions start with our own selves as we internalize our external experience. Kindness and self-care are not “nice to haves,” they are necessary to a thriving life.