I had this thought this morning, that worship is the key to life. Now, I know when I think about worship, and maybe others join me in this, I think of churches, I think of sitting in pews. It's sort of a ritualistic thing that I’ve done, and that's one approach to worship, I think. The other that comes to mind is supplication, where we're bowing down, we're becoming less than the object of our devotion, minimizing our importance, and making the object of our devotion more important. And that's an approach I’ve done, as well.
 
But there's a third, which sort of gets intermingled with the others, but I don't think it's really thought of in the right way, or it's not understood completely, is maybe a better way of saying this. But the other part of worship is praise. And praise, in my opinion, is really the heart of worship. Really appreciating deeply, with great gratitude, the other.
 
I think that's really important because everything is other. When we think of worship, we tend to exclude everything else except one, especially in the Western world where we have a single deity.
 
I believe that the living world worships constantly. It functions in a state of great appreciation for the other, with immense gratitude, and curiosity, and awe at what the other can manage that it itself cannot. And that is true for every single living thing on the planet. We all, every living thing on the planet, has this superpower, something only it can do. And so worship is the process of noticing that in the other and being deeply, euphorically, joyously happy that that exists, and then expressing that feeling. That's what praise is about. It's not hollow. It's not sanctimonious. It's the actual recognition of the gift the other offers and being aware of how astounding that is and how precious.
 
So think a moment about how that would change your life. If you notice the water coming out of your tap and how amazing it is. Water is just astonishingly awesome. Or you notice the cricket on the front step and begin to really appreciate how amazing a creature it is. How perfectly oriented to its place on the planet it is. How much it contributes to life on the planet. And if you don't understand that, then maybe a little research is in order. Every living critter contributes to life on the planet. That in itself is awesome and worthy of a song of praise.
 
To begin to live our days with a deep appreciation of the tree in front, of the rose bush at the side of the house, of the way we're able to communicate using technology. Ah, yes. I could say more about technology, but I still appreciate it when it truly serves, and I would be very sad to lose the internet. We are gifted all the time with amazing things. When we take the life in our world for granted or dismiss them as unimportant or beneath us in some way, we not only diminish our relationships with them, we diminish ourselves. We only become part of the cycle of life when we're in gratitude, when we appreciate the other, when we're open and responsive to the needs of the other, which only comes through gratitude and appreciation.
 
By being blind to the magnificence of life, we create our own sense of ennui, our own sense of loss, and being more or less a boat adrift in the sea because we're not connected. Connection only comes through appreciation, through gratitude, through wonder.
 
Those avenues of expression allow for reciprocity. We are not, as a species, very involved in reciprocity amongst ourselves, let alone the rest of the planet. I do find that other cultures other than the Western culture, however, tend to be more in tune with reciprocity, at least in terms of their own family or their tribal or community situation. But it sort of gets tattered at the edges when it expands beyond immediate experience. Not always. We're very generous to other people and cultures under strife and stress. That opens up a little piece of reciprocity. But that pore opens and closes. It's not a constant stream.
 
I think we feel that a constant stream of giving would be depleting in some way. And I think that's true if we think of it as a constant stream of giving. But reciprocity is a circle. It's a cycle. It's a give and a take. It is NOT a give and take, it’s a give and receive – receiving is very different from taking. We tend to think of it in a linear process. I give, you receive, but it's a nonlinear process. You give and I give to somebody else and receive from a third party.
 
It's that open exchange, open responsiveness that keeps those juices going. And that, for me, is an act of worship. Reciprocity is definitely an act of worship. It is really recognizing both the gift and the need in the other and stepping in to fill that gap, however that looks.
 
I do believe that being in a space of worship is a key to life. It is what stimulates our sense of meaningfulness, of purpose. We begin to feel a part of the whole, so our sense of belonging is stimulated. We feel so empty, us in the Western world, especially the white us in the Western world. So much at sea, so much at a loss for knowing why we're here. And that's only because we don't understand our place, our ability to be in relationship, to be singing the praises of the rest of the world around us.
 
If we all sung each others praises, then I believe the song of the planet that C.S. Lewis once called the song of the spheres would be something that our planet would resonate with, and we would become a voice in the universe that truly champions life and resonates the glory that life offers us in terms of our own experience.
 
To think about it, how would being in a state of worship change your life?

In this liminal time, what do we let go and what do we keep?
 
What needs to go?
Where does this grief come from?
Should I let grief go?
No
Grief is a measure of how much you care.
Carry grief, not to wallow in
But for memory.
 
Should I let my dreams go?
Ah, letting go of dreams and expectations is a wise path.
Keep your vision.
Keep your ear to the ground and your eyes on nature.
Follow her lead.
Notice what she is doing.
We are followers in this time.
Trust nature – she is only interested in expanding life.
She has 65 million years (or more) in making life happen.
She knows.
 
Should I let my fear go? How?
Yes, oh yes, there is no room for fear.
Fear prevents new options.
Fear makes us small.
Fear closes us down into tiny visions of the past.
The means a mix of claiming our agency in service to life.
We are learning the strength of service.
Service means to listen, to explore, to inquire into how LIFE happens.
Notice when your actions create the conditions that support life.
This is deep work.
Requiring authenticity and therefore courage.
Curiosity is the path forward.
Be so curious that there is no room for any other emotion except AWE.
 
Anger, should I let my anger go?
Anger, why are you angry?
Anger is a defense, a pretended strength against change.
Resistance is futile and even self-destructive.
Anger makes enemies, when we need to make friends.
So, letting go of resistance to these many shifts and changes, losses, will release the anger.
Loss is huge, and very difficult.
Treasuring memories, savoring the love the gifts you recognize as precious have stirred in you.
Every loss opens a space for something new.
Be curious to see what is also appearing in the new space that is available.
Be in gratitude for the experience that is bringing you such pain.
Appreciate your ability to recognize the beauty that serves life.
Trust LIFE to reemerge.
Have patience.
 
Love, I want to let go of love. It is SO painful!
Ah, yes, and no.
It is attachment that is painful.
Attachment carries expectations.
Expectations are painful and they make us believe in betrayal.
So let go of attached love, that comes with expectations about how it ‘should’ be, about how it ‘ought’ to be.
Keep that love that is full of gratitude and appreciation.
Keep the love that recognizes the divinity in the other.
Keep the love that opens you up to the delicious expression of LIFE
In all the magnificent forms it chooses to take.
Stay curious to discover the new forms that love will take.
Love is life in motion – enjoy.

Design is a very human thing to do. It's one-way we humans express ourselves and make our mark in the world. Because of this, design is often not only human centric, it’s egocentric. The hubris and ego that is often involved in design of any kind, particularly architecture, makes it very hard to even understand what it means to design with nature.
 
Biomimicry has been a fabulous invention. The very act of getting businesses to think about nature as a resource has moved our relationship with nature light years into the future. We have become very clever now by watching and seeing what nature does we then try to do it in our own way, bending nature's wisdom to our needs and desires. One of the real benefits of this approach has been the ability to at least think about minimizing our resource use, nature is very thrifty. However, designing with nature is a whole different approach.
 
In designing with nature, it becomes apparent that nature needs space, so we need to allow nature to exist, to coexist, to be in proximity, to interpenetrate the spaces we use. In actual practice, this means making sure the green expands instead of our habit of reducing or controlling anything green. We must begin paying attention to nature's health, as well as our own health.
 
Nature needs time, it's not rushed. It's sometimes slow, it may even meander. It needs to be supported in this by having the space, the opportunity, to take the time that it needs to flower, to come into fruition, to blossom. We need to be conscious of the cycles it needs to function in and allow for the changes, over time, that nature brings forth. Our addiction to standards, stagnant appearances, simplified expressions, and easily repeated designs don't fit in with natures exuberance.
 
There's an exuberance about nature, a joyous expression of creativity that doesn't tolerate standards or constraints or stability or repetition. The recognition, expectation, openness to spontaneity, to emergence requires trusting the process, and loosening our attachment to outcomes. We need to design with emergence in mind and allow for the evolution of the design as real life contributes.
 
Working with nature is not an event, it's a journey. It's an exploration. It's a collaboration. It may be a cycle, but it's rarely an event. We get caught in events, but with nature, it's always part of a process.
 
Understanding the processes and patterns of nature and recognizing the need for that kind of expression is a way of being in tune and creating harmony with what's existing and with what wants to appear. In any dance, there's a leader and a follower. Allowing nature to lead can give us the confidence, the trust, and the feeling of safety that we crave, if we understand nature and how she works. Trust is not about blind faith, but in being confident enough to ask questions, and seek examples to put our concerns to rest. It’s about learning to see situations through Earth’s eyes.
 
Listening to nature requires the patience and depth to be in silence, enough grounding in science to understand the processes and cycles, and a depth in working with systems to see the patterns nature enjoys. The biggest shift, however, is putting nature first. By keeping the serpentine bend in rivers, water can serve the entire ecosystem. By allowing for flood plains, water can nurture vast areas on a continual basis. Our ability to ‘straighten’ rivers, put them in concrete beds, bury them underground and divert them hundreds of miles, subverts their nature and purpose. When we claim land to serve our own desires, we put ourselves in a situation of continually fighting with nature, which becomes costly, both financially and emotionally.
 
Nature LOVES life! By trusting that we can develop a harmony with nature, one that is especially needed as the Earth rebalances to adjust to the changes we have mindlessly made, we create resilience and robust health. Working together, we can co-create a new normal, one that serves us both.
 

The song of bacteria.
So just imagine,
The very first life on the planet, a very tiny, a single cell of bacteria.
And over time those bacteria begin to dance with each other.
And so, as I'm thinking, not only did they dance with each other,
They changed.
They shifted.
They weren't all the same.
Even a single-celled critters.
There were many different kinds of single-celled critters.
And it was that difference that really allowed them to dance with each other
Because they each brought a benefit that the other didn't have.
So in that dancing, they combined.
They became two-celled organisms.
And three-celled and multi-celled.
And then they became us.


We are… 30,000 different kinds of bacteria,
Bacteria,
And viruses.
With billions and trillions of each one,
Billions of different kinds.
And it's those critters that make it possible for us as an entity,
As a being to live.
The mitochondria in our cells that give us energy have no DNA relationship with us at all. They are totally separate critters.
Doing their own thing.
And by doing their own thing, they bring us to life.
That's awesome.


So, the song of the bacteria.
The oldest living things on the planet.
The living things with the most experience at life.
The living things who have experienced the most on this planet.
The most life.


What would they have to tell us?
One of the things we know about bacteria is that they are constantly exchanging DNA with each other.
You get any two together and they go swap.
Let's shift.
Let's change.
Let's see what happens.
That's where their resilience comes from.
Because they're so open to new,
So open to experimenting,
So open to sharing and exchanging what they know with each other,
In embracing that newness, they are able to adjust and adapt
Instantly, almost.
To any change that comes their way.
And that has become one of their secrets for longevity.


I am wondering, as a human being,
If our very sense of identity gets in the way of our evolution.
Certainly,
Bacteria are free to evolve and have been free to evolve and have become amazing things. They've become mastodons.
And Tyrannosaurus Rex.
And skinks and ants.
And all sorts of creatures.
Even plants.
So, they are garnering an incredible array of understanding of life.
And against that, I wonder if our understanding pales.


When we think of ourselves.
Consciousness is one of our defining traits.
And consciousness is what we think about in terms of God and deities.
And consciousness is what we think about as the foundation
Of the universe.
We are learning that everything is conscious.
To some extent.
Everything has the ability to make choices.
And is constantly choosing,
in fact.
Everything is sentient.


Water on this planet is a magical substance.
That many equate with consciousness.
For water is truly what makes life possible.
Even for bacteria.
And water is everywhere.
We find it everywhere in the universe.
So, could water be one of the carriers of consciousness
Or the carrier of consciousness?


And how does the consciousness of this thing we call bacteria that
Has such a variety,
Is so voracious in its love for life,
Is so exquisite in its ability to mutate and change,
And adapt and adapt and adapt due to difference.
How is that consciousness different
From our consciousness?
From our consciousness which struggles to understand our role in our planet,
Let alone our universe?
Our consciousness, which fears beings from outer space
Which fears others who know more than we do, and certainly
I would think bacteria know more than we do.


What an interesting thing to think about!
The song of the bacteria,
And how that song sweeps through our world.
Is it on other worlds?
We have no way of knowing.
Are bacteria unique to our world, or are they everywhere?
If they're everywhere, how do they go from place to place?
How does that happen?
Is the memory of that carried in water?
Is it water that makes that happen?
Because the water knows.
That is a song for another time.




~ Kathryn Alexander MA – April 2025

According to Webster’s dictionary, abundance means – ample, plentifulness, profusion, wealth. I’ve put these words in a sequence that seems to go from sufficient to more than enough. But I suspect that the expansion we attribute to these words is a fantasy, and I will  explore that notion with you for the next several posts.
 
I want to go back to an old story, one told for centuries ad so deeply imbedded into our western culture that we believe it, even though we don’t talk about it, and maybe even haven’t heard the story directly. It’s a story told in Genesis of the Christian bible[i]. It’s about the Garden of Eden. The Garden is seen a perfect place, where everything available and there is only happiness. It is often characterized and being in harmony with God. When we look back into history and learn about the kinds of animals that roamed the Earth, we see periods where the animals were both huge and plentiful. In order for that to occur, there has to be lots of available food, and comfortable temperatures. How does that happen? Where is God? I think it is important that we understand this because that idea of plenty is not a myth, it is a part of the truth in that story, one that gives it the substance and credibility to last thousands of years.

Titanosaur sauropod during the Jurassic period. (Credit: Catmando/Shutterstock)

I’m going to focus on the age of the dinosaurs, the Mesozoic period, which covered millions of years. What science proves, is that there were a huge number of VERY large animals that all lived at the same time, and for a very LONG time. That means that there was abundant food for abundant animals and for a long time – millions of years, when no one was in charge.[i]
 
How was the world so abundant? To better understand how this happened we need new science. We need to see how a world composed of millions of life forms, a world that had evolved from single celled life forms to multicelled life forms – all by itself, could be so abundant. The Gaia hypothesis, posited by James E. Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in their 1974 paper[ii] suggests that “… Earth and its biological systems function as a single entity with self-regulatory feedback loops to maintain conditions favorable for life.”[iii] Who is in control? There is no one else, so the idea that all the life forms that exist on Gaia, must interact in a way that provides benefit for all may not be so farfetched. In fact, Robin Wall Kimmerer, in her book, The Serviceberry: An Economy of Gifts and Abundance, suggests that abundance is a result of reciprocity, one of Earth’s Values, that I talk about in my values work. Here we have three very different people, two scientists (in very different areas, Lovelock in chemistry and medicine, and Margulies in evolutionary biology), and Kimmerer an indigenous biologist, all saying the same thing, in their own way. The Earth exists in her richness because all the members of the community, all the parts of the whole, contribute in service to the whole, to use systems language.
 
This understanding is being borne out by current science in many, many ways. Let me share just a few examples. Soil. Soil is a living thing composted of billions of live entities that fall into four general categories: protozoa, bacteria, nematodes and fungi.[iv] Some decompose, some share nutrients, some create a mucus like substance that allows for aggregation in a way that leaves air holes for both oxygen and water, and others move the soil, keeping it open and spongy. Each form of life contributes. Each is needed. It is the togetherness that creates abundance. It is the harmony that is achieved though interdependence that makes soil healthy. Too much of any one life form (bacteria?) create dissonance, something we often call dis-ease. It is the harmonic balance that characterizes a healthy ecosystem.
 
So, abundance is an emerging property (systems speak) that happens when all parts of the system contribute through reciprocity, thus strengthening interdependence. Now, I want you to check your life. How interdependent are you? Where and how do you experience reciprocity? Is your life abundant? You don’t have to share these answers, but as we progress, I want you to keep coming back to them. According to the story, we were kicked out of the garden, but is that true, I wonder? More on that later.
 
[i] The King James Bible, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version

 
[i] The Discovery Magazine, A Complete Dinosaur Timeline to Extinction: How Long Did They Roam Earth?, Sean Mowbray, Jun 21, 2023

[ii] Atmospheric homeostasis by and for the biosphere: the Gaia hypothesis, James E. Lovelock, Lynn Margulis, 1974, https://www.jameslovelock.org/atmospheric-homeostasis-by-and-for-the-biosphere-the-gaia-hypothesis/

 
[iii] The Gaia Hypothesis, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/gaia-hypothesis
 

[iv] Understanding Soil Health and Biota for Farms and Gardens, Shikha Singh, Linda Brewer and Scott Lukas, 2023, https://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pub/em-9409-understanding-soil-health-biota-farms-gardens

 We all love trees. Forests are wonderful in the abstract, but messy and difficult to engage with or walk in. What, you say, that’s not true, I enjoy walking in the forests around me. I’ll bet you do, but here’s the kicker, those are not forests. What most of us know as forests are really mono cropped tree farms. They were planted to replace the real forest that was there and cut down to build the house you live in. Most of us have never seen an old growth forest. That said some of those semi-forests have been around for 50-100 years. They are not something we really want to lose. No, they don’t make porous soil as well as old growth, and no they don’t make rain as well as old growth, but still they do something and that something is needed. They just need to be managed into diversity.
 
In the paper today was a long article about the devastating cuts to the Forest Service. Any fool can cut, but few can prune for growth. It’s the same with budget cuts. Easy to eliminate, but to eliminate for growth take time and deep knowledge of what’s needed and what’s currently present. The skill and decades of learned information are going out the window, and these will take decades to bring back. The article even mentioned pack animals that need years of training to be really skillful in bearing heavy packs over rough and unknown territory. Helpers who removed 850 trees last year worked with rangers who knew the forest and who could tell them what to do and which trees to take out. All that is gone.
 
The Forest Service does yeoman’s work. But there are few who would not say it could be improved. For decades the Forest Service has been underfunded. In our Western world work happens if you pay for it. As more and more of us are born and live in cities, the hard work of forest management is not understood or attractive, so people can be hard to find. That and relatively poor pay make the job unattractive to many.
 
There’s been a resurgence, lately, of interest in indigenous ways of living and being on the land. Indigenous people are raised to know they are part of the whole system of life and to recognize the reverence and gratitude that comes with that understanding. They are taught to live their lives in ways that are interconnected and interdependent with the rest of the life around them. They understand to leave things and not take it all. They understand how to take in such a way that nature is stronger for the loss. How can you pay to make this happen?
 
Since it takes money to manage the forests, even with the imperfect knowledge we have, we aren’t willing to do even that. “Since 1854, Menominee Tribal Enterprises has harvested more than 2.5 billion board feet of lumber from our sacred land. We have completely cut standing timber over the entire reservation twice. Yet, today we have more than a half billion board feet additional standing timber than when we started. A drive through or fly over our forest would show the results of a forest that looked like it had never been cut.” Adrian Miller, Menominee Tribal member.
 
The truth is that people learn and work harder for love than they do for money. We all know this from our own life experience, yet we designed our society around money and not around love. Love makes the world go round, yet we go around being alive every chance we get. The Earth is calling us, she wants us here, but if we are not doing what brings life and increases love, maybe not.

Please share your thoughts about a forest near you.
 

I’m holding Los Angeles in my heart. May people hold the terror of their experience in the context of change. This destruction offers up opportunities to rebuild anew. To rebuild in harmony with the nature of the place, with the LIFE that wants to live there. May the people’s curiosity and their commitment to LIFE enable them to detect the quiet joy in their heart to finally make it right!
 
May the pain not blind them to the glory of restitution, to the opportunity to bring back the LIFE that is lurking just under the burnt soil. The echoes of the past are calling out in their desire for new life, for new expression, for new validation of their value and a recognition of their gifts. May the people who have lost everything find themselves in the rebuilding of a new world.
 
The Earth is calling, the Earth wants to see her people happy and in harmony with all of her other children. The Earth can no longer bear the heavy burden of disrespect and distain, she needs love, as all of us do. These fires, as terrible as they were, are an opening into a new relationship with the life that loves us, with the life that cares for us, with the life that must be respected, valued, praised, and revered.
 
May a new Los Angeles be born of love and gratitude, not anger and resistance, not will and determination. May the green be reborn through a new appreciation of water.  May patience be reignited from the curiosity and reverence that springs from the new shoots of life that surface when the conditions hold the love that LIFE needs.
 
When things are a mess, then clearing and cleaning are in order. When each space works to hold water Mother Earth will bow her head in gratitude and replenish the abundance that is Los Angeles’ birthright. There was a time when water was abundant, it shall be so again, if the people, now so in hurt, can come to recognize, with gratitude, the opening of a new space, a new world, a new chance to reestablish the relationship with LIFE and joy that was instrumental in the birth of Los Angeles, at the beginning.
 
Life loves LIFE! Be alive, be loved, share love, bring love, be love. Water is the staff of life, so create living soil to hold the water that IS life. Recreate the love, and love will love you back. How would a new Los Angeles look if each home was green with the water it held? How this resurrected city look if LIFE was the measure of success and the abundance of water was the proof that love existed?

The vast majority of us are worried. The country we are moving into in 2025 is not, will not be the same country we have lived in for decades. Jeremy Lent, in his article, The Political Cataclysm: Causes, Implications, and a Way Forward, has real insight into the why’s of our political predicament, and his exhortations to be kind and love our fellow human beings, of all stripes, is wise and correct, but the flaw that has gotten us into this mess is still being perpetuated. In this time of stress, we are focusing on ourselves. Understandable, we have to take care of ourselves first before we take care of others. That is true for us and our relation to other humans, but in this case, it will be a disaster and only more of the same old, same old.
 
We have been taken care of for millions and millions of years. The planet is designed to take care of the life that it is composed of, and that includes us. If the planet hadn’t been so successful in doing this, in taking care of us – we would not be here – period. As Robin Wall Kimnerer said, “Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy…” WE have made it difficult for her to do feed, not only us, but the more than human life as well. Our path forward, if we choose to take it is to finally express our appreciation and gratitude by taking care of her!
 
We have only just begun to understand how she has created a world of just the right temperature, a world so full of life, so abundant, that birds filled the sky, and the wind sounded with the rustling of their wings. WE removed that abundance, systematically and relentlessly. We removed that abundance, not so that we could eat, but so others could not, for ‘sport,’ for our ‘convenience.’ Now is the time to work to bring that abundance back.
 
Water is life. While that’s true, it is water in the dirt, in the soil, that is life. Water in the air does us not good, and if it stays up there too long, when it comes down, it comes down in such intense torrents that it does more damage than it brings benefit. Our first act, if we wish to replenish the Earth, is to help water stay in the earth as much as possible. Without water in the soil, we will not have rivers and lakes, but only living soil holds water. Soil will not hold water if it is not full of life already. Science is now saying that two thirds of all life on the planet is in the soil. This would suggest that revitalizing our soils, not only saves life, but helps address the shocking loss of biodiversity we keep ignoring. Water and healthy soil are intertwined, they are interdependent, we can’t have one with the other.

The need for food and a cool enough climate to make food possible is a bipartisan issue. It will take all of us to do the work needed to cool the climate by strengthening the natural systems that produce rain, and forests are key to this rain-making process. Because rain needs to stay on the land long enough to sink in, plants are integral to making sure that the soil is porous enough through their root action, to hold water, but the process of photosynthesis creates carbon, and the transevaporation not only moves water back into the air, thus cooling the earth, but they also send up bacteria, Pseudomonas syringae, which allows water molecules to form rain at lower temperatures, and thus rain in more frequent and small amounts. Eurof Uppington, CEO and founder of Amfora, a Switzerland-based importer of virgin olive oils said in a recent article, “No plants, no rain. Water begets water, say hydrologists; soil is the womb, vegetation is the midwife.” This is the point of the “Water for Climate Healing: A New Water Paradigm” paper written for the UN 2023 Water Conference. “Plants are vital in regulating small water cycles and stabilizing local, regional, and global climates.” They recommend two steps; actions we can take to help the planet:

1. As a first step, it is necessary to slow down to stop the decrease in water retention capacity due to changes in its use. New public policies for urban development and agriculture will help.
2. By preparation and implementation of the adaptation (nature-based solutions, new landscape features, new water retention measures, new water holdings, blue and green infrastructure) and management measures (regenerative agriculture, rainwater harvesting in cities, communities, in forest, and agricultural land) we will increase significantly lost water retention capacity.

What is true is that nature heals. When we put our hands in the dirt, our whole mood changes. We find peace and hope in the soil. That suggests, to me, that when we turn to the planet and work to restore the natural ability of the earth to cool itself, then we will also heal ourselves. Working with the Earth will make it easier for us to be kind and caring to one another as we make amends for the damage we’ve done. This is a win, win, win solution, and one we can do, no matter what else is happening around us. We need to use our energy to heal and support life, not to defend and fight.
 
Working with the land to slow and sink water, refreshing the soil with compost, biochar, and biologics, planting forests using the Miyawaki method are all actions that are within the reach of each of us. Not only that, but we will see the results in three short years. Re-greening our planet brings joy to our hearts and water to our rivers. This is doable, but the longer we wait, the more difficult it will be to counteract the warming that is taking place right now. I urge you; I urge everyone to turn to the planet and take action to heal and rebalance it. Fill your mind with thoughts of regenerating life and watch your heartbeat with joy. Knowing that you are working to bring back LIFE, in all its glory, is the very best antidote to despair and anxiety. Watching life come back is real and the perfect antidote to disinformation. Seeing and experiencing the vitality of nature makes the feeling of hope tangible and concrete.
 
Life loves life! YOU are life and you are loved. Nature loves, not in a romantic, tit-for-tat way, but in a way that recognizes the value and importance of every living thing as each entity on the planet contributes to the health and continued success of life on the planet. When we rejoin that merry band, then we will be able to allow ourselves to feel the love that is all around us, we will be worthy.

Leadership – I’m finding that I don’t like that word. It seems to suggest, or the baggage it carries, is that this is someone’s job – to lead. Actually, it is everyone’s one job, to step up and offer their wisdom, in the moment it is needed. The thought that it is someone else’s job, is part of the problem, IMO. What I love about Brian Stout’s article is the range and complexity he is trying to encompass. He calls the visionary leader is one who: instills belonging and connection, someone who uses influence as a motivating force for co-creation, someone who understands that true power is relational, He sees it as “an individual capacity enacted in a collective context,” as a form of relational interdependence. That interdependence means that ‘unlocking gifts’ is a core aspect of this form of leadership, but doing it “in service to the whole.” Brian would say that leaders define the why and then everyone co-creates the path. I was excited when he said, “This is what I think Miki Kashtan was getting at when she observed: The deepest form of human wisdom is mutual influencing.” And influencing, in his view, is about story telling that shapes the problem and suggests an imaginative solution that others can co-create. Then he ties it altogether with accountability, accountability to the whole.
 
I find this exploration refreshing. After 35 years of thinking about leadership, I stopped looking at people, and instead looked at nature. Gaia is amazing. This about it, nature WORKS, and it is getting better and better at creating life. Life – living things, are becoming more complex, new forms are being created (faster?) as we discover bacteria that eat plastic, oil, nuclear waste, and more. How does this happen? Who’s in charge? Where’s the “leadership?”
 
I’ve come to understand that world-making comes from self-making, there are no ‘leaders’ as we are used to using that term. Let me explain how I see the world, and then I’ll touch on why our current civilization doesn’t seem to work that way, and what we might do about it.
 
What struck me most about Brian’s article is the close relationship between his expression of relational interdependence and autopoiesis, self-making, as described in systems thinking by Fritjof Capra and Maturana and Varela. The wonder, for me, is that the whole world is composed of living things, there is nothing without sentience. By composed, I mean that there is nothing else, nothing, else! Each living thing is responding to the experience of the other living things it encounters. That encounter requires a decision – good for me or bad for me? That choice shapes the response from the others, which informs.. and so it goes. This is exactly what happens in leadership, but often the leaders are unaware, and that unawareness means that there is often a mismatch between with is said and what is done. This is a fatal flaw in leaders.
 
If the mutual influencing is the core of what happens in the world, (and it is), then clearly everything in interdependent. Leaders often fail to truly understand this. Nothing stands on its own, everything responds and is responded to by everything else, and this is one huge stimulation for innovation, AND for the lack of innovation. Context is everything. All actions create the conditions that life responds to, either deciding it is good for me, or it is not good for me, and acting on that decision. A fundamental question for leaders is, are your actions good for your employees? If no, how can you expect your employee’s actions to be good for the company?
 
Of the 16 ‘values’ I’ve identified by talking to scientists, poets, indigenous folks and systems thinkers, at least 10 have to do with the relationship between life forms. LIFE is relational! Humans seem to keep trying to make it transactional, but doing so misses the point that LIFE loves life! It misses the point that LIFE wants to keep life going, to make It better, more creative, more complex, to keep it thriving. Humans seem to be hell bent on making it simpler, more stable, more repetitive, less surprising, less dynamic, and more controlled. Leadership styles follow suit. Traditional leadership, called Command and Control, is certainly in the latter mode. What I hear Brian calling for is leadership that falls in the former, LIFE enhancing mode.
 
For leaders to make this shift, the measure of success that utilizes money will need to shift to a form of evaluation that sees thriving as a measure of success. That means that we will have to open up to the truth held in subjective, even personal evaluation, instead of clinging to the ‘objective’ measure of money that is external to lived experience. This is not a small ask, as leaders will need to trust themselves as well as others. Trust has been rather elusive in the leadership game for decades, as explored by Stephen M.R. Covey in The Speed of Trust.
 
Brian’s focus on relational, interdependence, on influence and unlocking gifts, seems to fit right in with how the rest of the world works. Isn’t it magical to think about all the other life forms in and around us influencing each other and in doing so unlocking the latent gifts each holds that lead to evolution? I get chills just thinking about it. Do the leaders you know get excited about the new and unusual actions employees might be taking as they interact with each other and customers? Or, does that new and unusual behavior make them crazy? How flexible are our organizations? How willing to change and learn? What ever happened to the ‘learning organization?’ We seemed to have slipped back into control in a search for certainty, instead of leaning into the change that true diversity brings.
 
Decades ago, we realized that control and standardization work well in an unchanging world. What we didn’t realize then was how changing the world really is. Given the collapse of so many of our systems given our unwillingness to change, and the pressure that a now very rapidly changing environment is placing on our current business and leadership models, perhaps now is the time to face these changes with open arms and a curious leadership style that will allow for an interdependent approach to be devised between business and the rest of life. We have been seeking to have life conform to business, but shifting that, to have business conform to the needs of LIFE, might just make the sift not only more interesting, but even possible.
 
Trust in such a changing environment requires experience, lots of experience, and deep trust in both oneself, and in LIFE as well. Experience comes with age, but that only happens with self-reflection and an openness to learn, not every older person has these characteristics. Because people learn at different rates and pay attention to different things, only some people will have the discernment to see a path forward in turbulent times. Perhaps if we could see leadership as a job, instead of a character trait, that might lighten the load for those who take it on? This dilemma is not going away, Brian, keep it up!

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