Shows
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world57. Holding Firm to an Open HeartThird in a series on living in authoritarian times. Today: staying seated in the firmness of our own knowing, our own heart. We look at three daily practices for support: Touching silence, touching joy, and touching Earth. Each of them helps us declare daily independence from those who would try to control us, building a foundation of resistance from the inside out. And a close look at my own daily practice combining all three: waking up with the birds and enjoying the dawn chorus. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at pr...2025-07-0723 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world56. Thirsty for the Waters of LifeTara Westover’s memoir, Educated, grabs me hard because her story resonates so deeply with mine. So today I use both of our stories to explore mental abuse or epistemic abuse—attacking the mind of another, trying to control how and what they think. It’s key to authoritarianism. And we explore the 2000-year-old form of authoritarianism in Western history and how it rests on a religious idea that took hold as Rome was crumbling. The fixes we need today run even deeper than education because the academy too is rooted in authoritarian patterns, as Indigenous thinkers such as Daniel...2025-05-1029 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world55. Orbs of Buttery GoodnessWhen the failing avocado tree in our yard suddenly puts out perfect creamy fruit, and I find out it was because the compost I made healed the tree, I feel a kind of joy that has something a lot bigger to say about thriving. What the avocado tree teaches about right relations—between people or between countries—and how to build the kind of world where everybody can flourish. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at priscillastuckey.substack.com/subscribe2025-03-2222 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world39. The Knowing InsideDo we have everything within us to make good decisions? When Abraham Maslow lived among the Blackfoot people, he learned their answer was yes. Today we hear from Indigenous voices on knowing from within, or “sovereignty of mind.” And we look at the long habit in Western history of defining knowledge instead as the ideas handed down from outside authorities—a habit feeding the rise of authoritarianism and fascism today. Plus a moment from my own life when I took a step toward reuniting with my own heart. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living...2025-02-1224 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world54. Seeing Each Leaf as a Separate ThingThat time a tree came to talk with me and I started to really learn. How spirits are different from ghosts. And how a Yurok man’s thoughts about talking with the spirits of trees provides the foundation for living in balance with our more-than-human kin. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at priscillastuckey.substack.com/subscribe2025-01-1723 min
The Burnout Rebellion PodcastWhat is the cost of hiding who we really are? Talking identity, universal connection and healing with Amanda Hinton.TW: Pregnancy loss.Sometimes there are conversations that you walk away from and you are changed forever. This is a conversation both Amanda B. Hinton and I will be unpacking for a while. It was so beautiful to connect on such a deep level.In this conversation we talk about Amanda’s own experience of burnout. Here we discuss pregnancy loss, neurodivergence and what it means to grapple with our identity. Are we at war with ourselves? This conversation goes deep very quickly, and we also touch upon the healing nature of writing, nature and co...2025-01-091h 06
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world53. A Song of PeaceAs a child I recited the Christmas story of the baby born in a manger, but the story comes to life in deeper ways when you read it in light of Mary's Song, a freedom song that she sang while pregnant with her son. She celebrated the upending of the social order, when the hungry are filled and the rich sent away empty. In her birth story, poor people get the positions of honor: the poor young single mother, the lowly animals, the rough shepherds. Together, they show that this birth is about divine justice, where human inequalities are...2024-12-2422 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world52. What the Honeybees KnowA lesson from fifth grade lasts a lifetime—and makes me wish I'd learned about honeybees instead! What honeybees know about fair and democratic decision making. And how the story of human origins held in this society—that we are selfish and violent by nature—keeps us from imagining better ways of relating with nature and each other. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at priscillastuckey.substack.com/subscribe2024-10-2025 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world51. Like the Ocean, It Won’t Let Me GoHave you ever been grabbed by a poem so hard it wouldn’t let go? I recently found “Closing Time; Iskandariya,” by Brigit Pegeen Kelly and couldn’t put it down. Living with it over days revealed layer after layer of wonder and meaning—a thrill for someone trained in close reading of texts. At least one of those layers outlines a pathway for making peace with Earth. Cello music with the poem today is by The Wong Janice. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at priscillastuckey.substack.com/subscribe2024-07-2428 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world50. A Huge Climate Win in HawaiʻiYoung people in Hawaiʻi just won a huge victory in a climate lawsuit that will end carbon emissions in the state’s transportation. But why are the children doing this work? Today we listen to Indigenous voices from communities around the world that are losing their homelands because of climate change, and we reflect on land and kinship and identity. We ask, Am I doing everything I can to work for the climate? With suggestions for resources to help in lowering our own carbon footprint and finding heart-based pathways toward change. Get full access to Nat...2024-07-0324 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world49. Just ListeningA path of listening, learned first in the yoga class of a beloved teacher in Boulder. For five years I attended her class, five years of book writing and coming to terms with my older brother's death. Wendy taught us how to move by listening—listening first to the body and breath, which is listening to the Earth. Here is a story of listening in Wendy's class. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at priscillastuckey.substack.com/subscribe2024-04-1327 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world48. What If Land Were Not Property?Why is there a price on land? When land is the living source of all our food—and of us—why do we think we can own it? We take a look at how private landownership got put into law in England in the 1600s to justify the landlords’ seizing of common lands. And how we might imagine our way to a different system. With inspiration for our imaginations from Dr. Lyla June Johnston (Diné) and Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis. And a first imaginary glimpse into an economy where land is free. Get full access to Nature...2024-03-1624 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world47. Trusting the Waters of LifeOn rivers, the secret river, and what one very early project from 1400 BCE to drain a lake can tell us about both. Plus, what losing spiritual connection to the irrepressible flow of life looks like: reaching for power and control over ourselves and others. How can we stay open to the life-giving currents, even those we don't understand? Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at priscillastuckey.substack.com/subscribe2024-02-0422 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world46. Star Light, Star BrightLooking up and opening the heart at the Solstice. We delve into the stories told by people through the ages about Venus and Orion and share some cool facts about red giants and blue giants. In a season for cultivating peace and goodwill, we turn to the stars to evoke wonder and awe and to cleanse the heart for a new year. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at priscillastuckey.substack.com/subscribe2023-12-2221 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world45. What Does the Earth Ask of Us?In a recent university talk Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, reflected on how Indigenous understandings of what she called our “shared responsibility for Mother Earth” can help us heal our relationship with the land. “What does the Earth ask of us?” she asked. She suggested that Indigenous principles for relating with land might help guide Western science so that all can thrive. We reflect on three of these principles—responsibility, respect, and reciprocity—and we ask what might be possible if they informed Western knowing. And we end with Robin’s ideas about how to give back to the Earth.2023-11-1823 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world44. You're the FishAfter my first book came out I hit a wall, feeling churned up inside. What was going on? I turned inward to find out, crossing right over the sharp line that the Western world draws between matter and spirit. I began to talk in spirit with an animal helper: a bear. Some thoughts on the limits that the matter-spirit split imposes on Western thinking, and how most Indigenous traditions regard reality as one unified whole, matter and spirit flowing together through every being and part of Earth. How talking with a bear in spirit nudged me toward larger definitions...2023-10-0423 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world43. Where Water Wants to GoHere on Maui we’re in crisis since the fire that destroyed Lahaina two weeks ago. But some of the same patterns of using and abusing water that contributed to this crisis are all too familiar from a history of colonizing people and land—including the land where I grew up in Ohio—that extends all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia. Today we look at a few of those historical connections and ask: When is diverting water harmful? What does it look like to care for land, or as we say here, mālama ʻāina? Get full...2023-08-2323 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world42. A Path of ListeningGetting tripped up in the early stages of writing my next book leads to some reflections on the process of writing the first two. More about how life led me to listening from the heart instead of following thoughtful plans and chapter outlines. On being open to the moment—in writing and life. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at priscillastuckey.substack.com/subscribe2023-07-2320 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world41. Why Is the World So Beautiful?Opening the gift of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s question: Why is the world so beautiful? How awe and wonder make us better people, as shown by the findings of psychology researchers into the science of happiness. But how can we feel awe at a time like this, when the Earth is wounded and so much life is endangered? An example from Maui’s degraded dryland forests, and how people are coming together to help the forests flourish again. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at priscillastuckey.substack.com/subscribe2023-06-2423 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world40. Trusting Inner KnowingHow do we learn to trust the knowing that arises without words? Some thoughts on growing more sensitive to the messages we pick up through our many human senses. How to pay attention to our inner knowing, with ideas for simple ten-minute quiet times we can set aside each day to listen to the subtle whispers of the heart. But following the heart can be risky, so is it really worth it? Exploring the connection between how we treat the nature inside us—the heart-pulls—and how we treat the natural world. How respecting our inner knowing leads to cult...2023-05-2122 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world39. The Knowing InsideWe have everything within us to make good decisions and follow a good path, and we can do this even when we’re young. It’s not what I learned among my own people, but it’s what Abraham Maslow learned among the Blackfoot early in his career. Today we listen to Indigenous voices, who talk about knowing from within, or “sovereignty of mind.” And we look at the long habit in Western history of defining knowledge instead as what is handed down from external authorities—an age-old habit that feeds the rise of authoritarianism today. What does it take to cult...2023-04-1524 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world38. With Autism It All Made SensePutting the pieces together with a very late in life diagnosis, including growing out of self-doubt; masking reframed as empathy; living with the challenges and gifts of an autistic mind; and how being autistic can enhance a person’s life. All this and more from an interview that autistic art therapist Jackie Schuld did with me for her series on late-identified autistic people. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at priscillastuckey.substack.com/subscribe2023-03-1831 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world37. The Logic of SamenessFlorida’s authoritarian laws are leading schools to empty their library shelves of possibly offending books. We dip into Karen Stenner’s definition of authoritarianism—being uncomfortable with differences—and find a tendency toward it stretching all the way back, in Western history, to the Roman Empire. But authoritarianism is fundamentally at odds with democracy, and with nature. For, as Darwin said, evolution brings forth “endless forms most beautiful.” Just as in the rest of nature, human societies thrive not by suppressing differences but by welcoming them. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world a...2023-02-1824 min
The Entrepreneur’s KitchenBusiness Exit Planning For Small Business Owners with Darryl Bates-BrownswordSend us a textThinking about exiting your business? Or planning for a future exit? Darryl Bates-Brownsword shares essential strategies for entrepreneurs to plan a smooth and successful exit that maximizes value and protects your legacy.What’s covered in this episode:The key steps in developing a solid business exit planHow to prepare your business for sale or transitionCommon pitfalls to avoid when planning your exitDarryl Bates-Brownsword’s expert tips for ensuring a profitable and seamless exitDarryl is a dynamic, driven Business Consultant and Coach with over 20 years...2022-11-1227 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world36. Living Your AnimalA mother doe once tried to attack my dog to save her fawns. She was single-minded about protecting her young. Not a hair of separation between mind and body. Are human beings this committed? Today we look at our response to COVID, and how kids are getting so sick right now. We’ve left the children unprotected, and we've done it through minimizing and denying some of the serious risks of the virus. What is denial? It’s a gap between mind and body—believing reality is different than it is. And we may be the only animals capable of it...2022-11-0720 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world35. What We Truly Burn ForWith climate change scientist Kimberly Nicholas, and her book, Under the Sky We Make, as our guide, we talk today about how to cut carbon emissions at home. Ordinary Americans have more power than we think! Most Americans belong to the top 10 percent of income earners in the world—the ones burning most of the carbon so the ones who can stop most of it too. How do we stop burning fossil fuels? By, as Kim suggests, living close to “what we truly burn for.” Can we learn to say yes to our genuine needs and our most deeply held v...2022-09-1921 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world34. Facing the PastWe take a cue from the Aymara people of the Andes, who experience the past as in front of us, not behind us.So today we face the past: first the recent past, in June, of devastating Supreme Court decisions and horrifying Congressional testimonies about the former president’s attempted coup.The events are related, and we dip into the deep past to understand their connections. We explore the first law code written down that survives today, the Code of Ur-Nammu in 2100 BCE, and how it protected status, wealth, and the power of men over wo...2022-07-0924 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world33. Being AutisticSo last year, in my mid-sixties, I discovered that I’m autistic. But what took me by surprise wasn’t the diagnosis, it was the overwhelming feeling of relief. Why so much relief? We talk about that today—how I, like many people, held an extremely narrow view of autism; how autism consists not of one spectrum but of eight or ten different ones; and how each autistic person is their own colorful configuration of things in life that may be harder for them and things that may be easier. I muse on how being autistic (without knowing it) led me...2022-05-1623 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world32. Kissed by a Fox: From the Audiobook Coming Soon!Did I really get kissed by a fox? Yes, I really did—many times!—by Rudy the red fox, who lived at the wildlife rehab center where I was volunteering. Rudy's story opens chapter 4 of my first book, Kissed by a Fox: And Other Stories of Friendship in Nature, and this recording is taken from the audiobook version now in production. I can't wait to make the audiobook available to listeners everywhere! Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at priscillastuckey.substack.com/subscribe2022-04-1712 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world31. Looking Toward the DawnThe everyday miracle of the sun rising into our sky and powering our Earth can become energy for our hearts and minds too, in the meditative practice of looking toward the dawn. What does it mean to look toward the dawn? It means lifting our eyes, metaphorically, from what’s right at our feet and looking toward new developments coming on the horizon, then aligning our efforts with their life-giving power. How do we tell which developments are truly life-giving? We use some examples cited in the recent IPCC 2022 report on climate change to discern things that are truly ne...2022-03-0720 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world30. Cultivating Nature SpiritualityHow does a person start practicing nature spirituality? Today we look at what nature spirituality is and how to begin on this path—with two simple (but maybe not easy!) practices: opening the heart and widening the perception. We outline differences between the mind and the heart and talk about why opening the heart may feel vulnerable or strange at first—because modern Western public life places the mind first. We show how serving the mind leads to personal and cultural imbalance because the mind allows only a narrow view, while the heart sees a more spacious and compassionate pict...2022-01-2925 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world29. Where Did We Go Wrong?How did Western culture get so disconnected from nature? Some people point to the scientific revolution of early modern Europe, with its quest to control nature. But where did those early scientists get the idea to conquer nature? Today we look at the famous theory of historian Lynn White in 1967—that the creation stories of Genesis taught medieval Christianity to “subdue nature.” It’s a theory that people still repeat today, even though most of White’s evidence has been refuted. We look especially at how centuries of Jewish teachers interpreted Genesis—as a cautionary tale about what happens when humans...2021-12-0522 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world28. Seeing Each LeafInsights from a Yurok man, shared with an anthropologist, guide us in learning from the spirit of a tree. The Yurok man’s three-sentence teaching leads us through some wide-ranging reflections: on how spirits are different from ghosts; on how Yurok ways of knowing are similar to and different from Western ways of knowing; and what it takes to live responsibly in loving relations with our more-than-human kin. The Yurok man said it all starts with “seeing each leaf as a separate thing.” So how do we do that? Let's find out! Get full access to Nature...2021-10-3019 min
Night-Light RadioKissed by a Fox: Friendship in Nature-Priscilla Stuckey–Dr. Zohara Hieronimus"Dissatisfaction with nature flows throughout Western civilization, as deep as its blood, as abiding as its bones. Convinced to the marrow that something is deeply wrong with nature, . . . the Western world tries to remake it into something better." For Priscilla Stuckey, this is a fundamental and heartbreaking misconception: that nature can be fixed, exploited, or simply ignored. Modern societies try to bend nature to human will instead of engaging in give–and–take with a living, breathing land community. Using her personal experiences as the cornerstone, Stuckey explores the depth of relationship possible with the birch tree in our back...2021-10-1645 minKissed by a Fox: Friendship in Nature-Priscilla Stuckey–Dr. Zohara Hieronimus"Dissatisfaction with nature flows throughout Western civilization, as deep as its blood, as abiding as its bones. Convinced to the marrow that something is deeply wrong with nature, . . . the Western world tries to remake it into something better." For Priscilla Stuckey, this is a fundamental and heartbreaking misconception: that nature can be fixed, exploited, or simply ignored. Modern societies try to bend nature to human will instead of engaging in give–and–take with a living, breathing land community. Using her personal experiences as the cornerstone, Stuckey explores the depth of relationship possible with the birch tree in our back...2021-10-1645 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world27. An Entwined Place“The world is an entwined place.” Dr. Teresa Ryan, of the Gitlan tribe of the Tsimshian Nation of the Pacific Northwest coast, offers a sentence both evocative and profound. It is the worldview of her people, and it also describes the fungal web of mycelium hidden under the forest floor. Dr. Ryan studies this mycorrhizal network alongside forest ecologist Dr. Suzanne Simard, who showed that the fungal threads link the trees and plants of a forest so they can communicate and share nutrients. Today we explore the worldview of reality as a connected place—how metaphorical threads of connection link a...2021-09-1816 min
New DimensionsBeyond Humans, Widening Our Circle Of Friends - Priscilla Stuckey, Ph.D - ND3463Stuckey begins this conversation by telling three stories — how an eagle, a bougainvillea bush, and the birch tree of her childhood all communicated with her in some way. We think we are alone, but Stuckey points out “we are deeply connected with all others with whom we share our lives.” Priscilla Stuckey is a writer, book editor, scholar, and Earth-advocate. She teaches humanities at Prescott College and holds a Ph.D. in religious studies and feminist theory from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She is the author of Kissed by a Fox: And Other Stories of Friendship in Natu...2021-08-0457 min
The New Dimensions CaféGiving Back to the Earth That Supports Us - Priscilla Stuckey - C0260Priscilla Stuckey is a writer, book editor, scholar, and Earth-advocate. She teaches humanities at Prescott College and holds a Ph.D. in religious studies and feminist theory from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She is the author of Kissed by a Fox: And Other Stories of Friendship in Nature (Counterpoint 2012) Interview Date: 1/21/2013 Tags: Priscilla Stuckey, Ph.D., Fox, wild animals, reading trees, natural world, biodegradable, plastic, trash, techno-nutrients, eating close to home, zero waste, Peralta Creek, gratitude, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Community2021-08-0412 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world26. What's Good for CreeksWhen a reporter shows up to interview me about the small land trust I just founded to preserve an urban creek, and he asks the tough “why” question, I hear myself say something I’ve never even thought of before: “Because what’s good for creeks is good for people too!” Twenty years later, the truth of it only grows more clear, with climate change causing mega-storms, and rivers and creeks around the world in distress with both flooding and drought. We revisit the words of legal scholar Kelsey Leonard of the Shinnecock Nation: We need to protect water “in the way you...2021-08-0118 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world25. Why Doesn't Everyone Love Diversity?Bright fish and corals dazzle the eye at our local reef—gifts of millions of years of diversity. Ecologists tell us that the most resilient ecocommunities are the most diverse, and diversity offers the same benefits to human society. Then why are so many white people afraid of diversity? Political psychologist Karen Stenner shows how this fear is central to authoritarianism. Today we look at a pattern of authoritarianism going back in Western history to the Roman Empire. Rome's intolerance for religious differences led to the Christian doctrine of original sin, which taught people they needed help to be goo...2021-06-2721 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world24. A Duty of CareDiana Beresford-Kroeger learned “a duty of care” for the natural world from her Celtic aunties and uncles, as she writes in To Speak for the Trees. Today we listen to three more Indigenous voices on how their communities build care for land and people into the fabric of life. These three are Dr. Mary Graham on how Aboriginal relationships begin in the land; Claire Hiwahiwa Steele on caring for land and people in traditional Hawaiian society; and Oren Lyons on the Great Law of Peace of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, of North America. Among each people, caring for land and...2021-05-2922 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world23. Going on a Spirit Journey Going on a spirit journey is a spiritual practice, like prayer or meditation, that can help a person navigate the challenges of life and find their place in the family of Earth. Today we ask, How is a spirit journey like other kinds of meditation? Or like other kinds of prayer? We give special attention to the process of preparing the mind and heart for a spirit journey by committing oneself to serve love, not serve the ego. We talk about the kinds of impressions that can arise during a journey—images, sounds, feelings, hunches—and how to learn from...2021-04-1016 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world22. An Inheritance ProblemAn ancient story from the Roman Empire about inheritance sheds light on a problem we have inherited today—a system of law that protects property and shores up severe inequality. In the ancient story, a teacher sharply criticizes property and its role in maintaining inequality. Years ago, when I first read Vine Deloria Jr. (Standing Rock Sioux), I found a parallel critique of Western inequity and social hierarchy, and I glimpsed a world where “normal” looks more like equality. What can an ancient story tell us about choosing equality? About writing laws to promote life on Earth more than to pro...2021-03-0616 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world21. Committing to Your HungerHow does an animal find food? By committing to their hunger—unlike humans, who often second-guess ourselves about our hungers. There’s an old idea in Western culture that animals are innately violent and possessed by their appetites while humans operate by rationality instead. We look at the ancient source of this idea: a poem by Greek poet-farmer Hesiod around 700 BCE. But oops—Hesiod was confused! He mashed up “how animals eat” with “how humans settle disputes,” setting up a mistaken idea of the predator-prey relationship that carries down to our day—we still talk of dogs and cats as “enemies.” In...2021-02-0317 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world20. Finding Sweetness in BitternessA Sufi teacher long ago told me, “In life, there is always sweetness and bitterness. Every sweetness holds a bitterness, and every bitterness holds a sweetness. Find the sweetness in the bitterness.” Amid bitter events of the past year—and the current week—we dig for pockets of sweetness. We find sweetness in people’s determination to keep working for equality and justice, even when they feel ground down and weary. And we find sweetness in the natural world, where Life keeps regenerating and experimenting and oozing more life. Especially during environmental crisis, it is crucial not to give in to desp...2021-01-0915 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world19. Filling the Hungry with Good Things: A Christmas MeditationThe Christmas story of the baby born in a manger follows, in Luke, the revolutionary song composed by his young mother, Mary, while she was pregnant. She sang about God upending the social order by filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty—a vision of social justice that modern people have all but forgotten. We delve into her song, “The Magnificat,” showing how relevant it was to her time, when a few wealthy families controlled most of the riches of the Roman Empire—and how relevant it is today in similar times. The story of the b...2020-12-2513 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world18. A Crocodile, a Virus, and the False Promise of SupremacyAs the pandemic rages through the country, we ask: How can so many people be so convinced that the coronavirus is not real, even when they are dying of it? We challenge Western culture’s idea of survival—that it belongs to the strong. What if humanity's best survival skill is humility? When a crocodile attacked philosopher Val Plumwood, it shattered her “desperate delusion” that human beings are supreme. The truth is shocking and much more humble—that human beings participate in the universal feast, and we too can be prey. The “desperate delusion” of dying COVID patients includes yet another ki...2020-11-2114 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world17. The Law Is in the Ground“The law is in the ground,” said Doug Campbell, an Aboriginal elder. What did he mean? Western law, by contrast, starts with the idea of protecting property, which means that owning things becomes central to Western values and status. To imagine what a law of the ground looks like, I talk about what it took to recover from a postviral syndrome many years ago—a complete reordering of priorities to place my health absolutely first. At this moment we need to reorganize our cultural priorities to place the health of the Earth absolutely first. It will mean transforming the law—an...2020-10-3113 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world16. Loving the Earth: A New Traditional ValueThree Indigenous voices remind listeners that cultural values are a choice. Xiye Bastida, of the Otomi-Toltec nation of Mexico, a leader in the youth climate movement, talks about being invited to love the Earth from the moment she was born. Nemonte Nenquimo, of the Waorani people of the Amazon rainforest, in her letter in the Guardian this week addresses the respect for the Earth that every child in her culture learns but that is absent in Western cultures. Finally, Simon Pokagon of the Potawatomi, in an 1893 birch-bark booklet, wrote of the “love of power to kill alone” that led whit...2020-10-1713 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world15. Reimagining CommunitySo I keep coming back to the anti-maskers, how their refusal to do this one easy thing sounds so angry, so rebellious. But might they have something to rebel against after all? Today we look at the concept of community that dominant American society inherited from Europe, in which community exists to mold people into similarity, making individual freedom a prize to be won through struggle. The dichotomy is visible in conservative communities, like the one I grew up in, but it runs throughout American society as well—for instance, in education (turning students out in identical batches) and ma...2020-10-0313 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world14. Everything Is Alive and We Are All Relatives“Everything is alive, and we are all relatives.” Native Hawaiian philosopher Manulani Aluli Meyer says this is what Indigenous peoples around the world all know, though each understands it in their own way. In today’s episode we explore “aloha ‘āina,” the Native Hawaiian tradition of “loving land”—where we both love and care for the land and the land loves us back. When everything is alive and we’re all relatives, it’s not about what belongs to us but rather about where we belong. When we know we’re related to all who live nearby, the heart opens. We feel moved to c...2020-09-1913 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world13. Finding Beauty in Tough TimesWhen people are suffering and the world is burning, can we still enjoy nature? Are we allowed to appreciate beauty? A few lines from Rita Dove’s poem “Transit” send us into exploring the life and music of Alice Herz-Sommer, who played piano concerts in the concentration camp where she was imprisoned and who credited music with saving her life. Tough times are exactly when we need nature, and beauty in general, the most. Beauty, wherever you find it, is your lifeline—nourishment for the soul to strengthen you for the part that is yours to play in helping to creat...2020-09-0512 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world12. Love in a Time of CatastropheA challenging time can wear on the soul, so now is a good time to slow down and seek out sources of inspiration. This week we dip into an essay by Barry Lopez that centers on the theme of loving more, and we explore how connecting with nature opens the flow of love in the heart. A few suggestions for connecting with nature even from home: meditating on the life force in a tree; making showertime a ritual of appreciation for water; seeking out the billion-year-old company of rocks. Two-minute vacations of connecting with the more-than-human world throughout the...2020-08-2210 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world11. Turning Our Faces into the WaterJoin me for a trip across our favorite reef, connecting with bright corals and colorful fish. That so much dazzling life—invisible from shore—becomes visible as soon as we wade in and turn our faces into the water provides a helpful way of thinking about the world of spirit, or the parts of reality that we can’t measure with our senses. How slicing reality into visible and invisible parts, as the Western world does, is a choice not shared by some other cultures, especially Indigenous ones. How Indigenous ways of knowing, or traditional ecological knowledges, involve not just l...2020-08-1514 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world10. Just like a TreeWatch how a seed pops into life—always a miracle! If we want to grow a healthy tree, we try to remove all obstacles to the life force. But if human beings lack resources for growing, people often take a different view—that people are to blame for their own poverty. It’s a jaundiced view of human nature that sees us as different from all other beings. Where did this negative view arise? We make a brief sweep through the history of two ideas—original sin and the need for hard work—to show how they underlie current Republican...2020-08-0814 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world9. A Graceful Heart: John Lewis and the Power of Soul-ForceIn a time of cruelty and lies, when the heart can so easily turn toward outrage or despair, what can we learn from John Lewis and what he called “the graceful heart”? How did he and the other civil rights workers find the strength to “hold no malice” toward those who inflicted harm? This week we dig deeper into nonviolence, beyond its connotations of absence of violence. We follow the civil rights pioneers as they practiced cultivating compassionate hearts, inspired by Gandhi and his idea of satyagraha, or “truth-force.” And we explore the power behind what John Lewis called “soul-force,” t...2020-08-0112 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world8. Meeting a Spirit HelperOn a path of nature spirituality, one practice—one way of opening the heart—is to connect with a Spirit Helper through shamanic-style journeys. How I met my Helper in the predawn darkness of a winter morning and what the process of going on a journey is like for someone who is unfamiliar with it. Also some words about how walking with a Spirit Helper can change a person’s life, and what effects this practice has had in my own life. This episode could also be called "When Your Still Small Voice Has a Name." One of the few un...2020-07-2516 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world7. The Freedom of the WindWhy is opening the heart so important? Because a heart that can flow freely is better aligned with reality—more in harmony with the unpredictability found in nature itself. In the poetry of an ancient text, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.” If the flows of life are inherently unpredictable, then living in harmony with life means practicing humility and love. It means moving with the freedom of the wind and working to align self and society with that freedom. Ge...2020-07-1810 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world6. Finding the Way of the HeartA long-ago hike in Pinnacles National Park and arriving at its panoramic view at the top offers clues about what it's like to open the heart. But in a society that teaches us to follow the mind—thinking and planning and goal setting—what does it look like to follow the heart? Unangan teacher Ilarion Merculieff's experience of discovering and practicing "awareness without thinking" offers one example. How opening the heart is not about opening to feelings per se but rather about navigating in life by following a larger wisdom that arises when we listen from the heart. ...2020-07-1111 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world5. On Masks and Fear and a Truer Story of NatureWhy are so many white people refusing to wear masks? It’s a kind of denial rooted in terror—of vulnerability and illness and all of nature’s uncertainties. How white people use race to insulate ourselves from the great democracy of dying—the bedrock equality of the natural world. How a pandemic is offering people many opportunities for reconciling with reality, beginning with telling a better, truer story of nature—one that opens to illness and vulnerability and that helps us support and comfort one another through this time. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a...2020-07-0312 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world4. Listening to NatureA birch tree from my childhood visits me in spirit many years later and reveals something so profound about the world that it changes my life forever. How nature speaks in the stillness of the heart, and how we can learn to be quiet enough to hear. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at priscillastuckey.substack.com/subscribe2020-06-2714 min
Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world3. Becoming FamilyA simple question from Chickasaw writer and poet Linda Hogan stays with me for years: Why do I talk about Earth beings as friends rather than family members? And what difference would it make to claim the others of the world as kin? Her question inspires reflections on the story of hierarchy and control inherited from my European ancestors, and what it might take for Western society to move toward kinship with the rest of Earth instead. Get full access to Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world at priscillastuckey.substack.com/subscribe2020-06-1910 min