I had to think about this a bit. So many book discussions tend to focus on nonfiction, but I think we can learn and explore ideas with fiction as well. Here are a couple of fiction ideas that have spirituality and nature that might be of interest.
One is The Wood Wife by Terri Windling. As a desert dweller, artist, and a currently non-practicing poet, I loved this book.
Katherine Genet has a wonderful mythic series that features modern-day Druids. It is called the Wilde Grove series.
Thank you for thinking about it! I admit that I had nonfiction books in mind, because of course that's what I write. But it's true that fiction has at least as much to teach us, and sometimes it's easier to stretch our minds with a story that comes from myth or imagination. I looked up both of your suggestions, and I am going to add The Wood Wife to my list. One of the considerations is the books have to be widely available, particularly through libraries, and it looks like The Wood Wife fits that.
Intentional is a great word, Amy! And I know you will be rigorous about it, except in those moments when instinct takes over for intent, and that's okay. Because there are times when instinct trumps intent to get us to the point where we can be intentional.
And you're welcome. Always happy to give a nudge to your work. :)
I cannot think of a better word than "cherish." It can be small things that we take for granted: cherishing the water that runs freely for us to wash and brush our teeth, to shower. How many folks around the world today do not have this? Our loved humans, our loved animals, and our plants can be cherished every day. And yes, breath, always to be cherished.
Thank you for expanding on cherish, Phyllis. It's true: we have so much to cherish, and much of it we take for granted. It'll be interesting to see what insights come out of that word. Blessings to you!
Resilience was my word for last year, Christina. It's definitely a good one for these times. May it bring you what you need!
As for the book discussion, I'm debating about whether it would be possible to use the comments here or whether it would need to be a Zoom thing. Any thoughts you have are welcome.
Ann, Have you read Rebecca Solnit's book, Hope in the Dark? I found it useful and empowering. Here's a short quote from the intro: “Hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away. And though hope can be an action of defiance, defiance isn’t enough reason to hope. But there are good reasons.” May your year of possibility be all you imagine and more!
I haven’t read her book but it sounds like one right up my alley for this year. Thank you for sharing that — I’ll look it up. Love the quote you shared with it. Thank you.
Love this piece. The instructions for living a life. Walking without earpods to hear astonishing sounds like the sandhill cranes. Paying attention. Being Astonished. Telling about it. I strive to do this too. My words for this year for me are calm, clarity, creativity, communication, caring and compassion.
Julia, Thank you! Your words for the year have a rhythm of their own, and are very much instructions for living a life in themselves. May they bless your year with all you need.
My word this year is courage. I will summon the courage to meet whatever this year brings...sometimes I need courage to do even the most wonderful of things.
My husband chose two words which have left us in stitches: Dexterity and Cunning. LOL. Not sure how that will play out but will be interesting to see.
I am encouraged by the gifts of love and caring we received this year. And always so grateful to be given this space and time to dwell in.
Happy New Year to you, Kathleen! Courage is a wonderful word, and one I've thought a lot about. I'm sure you've looked up the etymology of the word. What I love is the root in the French for "heart." I don't usually quote myself--it seems so arrogant!--but I'm going to do it here because I think this bit from Bless the Birds is so appropriate to your word and this time in our lives: "True courage is strength that comes from the heart—courage that carries the power of love. It takes courage to be honest, to meet with an open heart whatever comes. To practice kindness in a time of hatefulness, to speak truth to power. To live with love in a world awash in fear and grief." Those words seem so you.
"Dexterity and Cunning"--Oh, my! What interesting words to pick, and I'm laughing with you and your husband. You are right: It will be interesting to see how they play out!
Many blessings to you in this interesting time, and a warm hug.
Melinda, thank you. And your phrase is beautifully poetic, even onomatopoetic. May your year give you softness, slowing down and the grace of simplicity!
Wonderful post , Susan. I have resonated with and appreciated your entire year of spiritual living. Thank you. My word is loving awareness ( ok, that's two). I would be interested in the book discussion. I am reading the Grace in Aging, by Kathleen Dowling Singh. Not so much about nature, but wonderful nonetheless.
Thank you for coming along on this exploration, Irene, and I'm glad it has been useful. "Loving awareness" is a wonderful way to approach life and our own selves, and I wish you a year of many blessings from that phrase.
The Grace in Aging sounds interesting, and human nature is part of nature the way I see it. I will add it to the list of possible books, and thanks for that. Hugs from the other side of the Continental Divide!
Thank you, Linda! "Steps" is an interesting word, and a good one for mindfulness. If it would be useful, you might want to create a word cloud related to steps and see what comes out. One way to create a word cloud is to take a large sheet of paper and write "steps" in the middle and then simply jot down words and phrases that come to mind related to steps, grouping them around the original word, drawing a circle around each and then drawing lines between them to show relationships. I always learn about my relationship to a word when I create a cloud for it. Blessings!
Susan, you speak a soul language for which so many of us hunger. Thank you for putting onto the page what is often in my heart, but has yet to form into words. I appreciate you and am grateful for your posts -- each time you put up something new, I find myself rushing toward it -- oh, what's she going to say now?! Happy New Year. Happy New Beginnings. Everything changes and ends . . . and God/Goddess/ All that is, IS in the land.
Stephanie, Thank you for "soul language." That phrase speaks to me deeply and I am honored you would apply it to my work. The deeper I get into this work of practicing terraphilia in my everyday life, and honoring the sacred in all of life, I realize how closeted we (as in Western culture, especially women in Western culture) are about our own spirituality. We don't talk about our personal practices unless pressed, we defer to "experts" and we are so careful to not offend anyone. It's as if we are still worried about being burned at the stake or drowned as witches. Maybe we are, if only subconsciously, and maybe that's a real fear. (Hence the popularity of WICKED, as a novel, a play, and now as a movie. It's a way to at least read about women's subversive spiritual power.) I think for me at least, it's time to step out in the open and say, I claim my spiritual power and I am determined to use it in my every days to shed some light on this world. And this is clearly something to write about in my next post! Okay, stepping carefully off my soap box now.... Happy New Year to you, and good writing!
So much of our lives, and I include mine, are caught up in our petty issues and I realize that I have only found peace in wild areas and countryside. Years ago when I was going through an especially difficult period in my life I would occasionally walk into the forest near Lake Kanapaha in Florida, and climb up an a sturdy limb of a live oak hung with Spanish moss and just do nothing. Sometimes with rain pouring down through the branches. Somehow that improved things.
That's a very vivid example of why our inborn terraphilia matters, David. Getting outside into the larger world of intertwined and interrelated lives so different than our own pulls us outside our skin boundary, outside our monkey minds, and shrinks us and our issues to a more manageable size. Also, the "peace of the wild," even if it is not really peaceful, can bring us peace, or at least comfort and ease.
In some ways I found the very wild places most peaceful, despite the dangers. For one thing I had a perhaps primal feeling that nothing mattered except for my concentration on the task (or lack of one) at hand. All outside problems vanished before the need to stay focused on the immediate. Somehow that was liberating, if that makes sense. This was especially true in the Big Scrub of Florida, the Camino del Diablo along the Mexican border, the desolation of the Jornada del Muerto, the forests along Mt. Taylor in New Mexico, the rainforest of Puerto Rico and Trinidad, the headwaters of the Suwannee River in Georgia, and in the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona. I never felt more alive than when I was in such areas.
I think that you are right about how being focused changes our relationship to self and the world, liberating us from our baggage as it were, and allows us to just be. I am glad that you found that in the wild, and I think it’s possible to carry some semblance of the experience back into our daily lives so that we are better prepared to thrive in a world that is full of distraction and not full of rewards to living alive and aware and without ego.
Thanks for the book recommendation. I think it would be fun to discuss Gathering Moss, Robin's first book, because so few people know it, and it presages the next two.
I loved Gathering Moss! And I love moss :-) Reading Serviceberry now. Zoom might be a fun format for the book group, although the chat probably would accommodate different time zones and individual availability better. I hope it comes about!
Another lovely post, Susan! I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing your year of spiritual exploration. It's given me much to ponder on.
I would be interested in the quarterly book discussion.
Thank you, Morgan! As for the book discussion, do you have thoughts on any books you'd like to have an excuse to read and ponder?
I had to think about this a bit. So many book discussions tend to focus on nonfiction, but I think we can learn and explore ideas with fiction as well. Here are a couple of fiction ideas that have spirituality and nature that might be of interest.
One is The Wood Wife by Terri Windling. As a desert dweller, artist, and a currently non-practicing poet, I loved this book.
Katherine Genet has a wonderful mythic series that features modern-day Druids. It is called the Wilde Grove series.
Thank you for thinking about it! I admit that I had nonfiction books in mind, because of course that's what I write. But it's true that fiction has at least as much to teach us, and sometimes it's easier to stretch our minds with a story that comes from myth or imagination. I looked up both of your suggestions, and I am going to add The Wood Wife to my list. One of the considerations is the books have to be widely available, particularly through libraries, and it looks like The Wood Wife fits that.
I’m glad The Wood Wife looks like a possibility and made the list!
My word for the year is Intentional. Every word. Every bite. Every decision. With intent.
(Oh, and I am not supposed to say thank you yet, but thank you. You know what I mean.)
Intentional is a great word, Amy! And I know you will be rigorous about it, except in those moments when instinct takes over for intent, and that's okay. Because there are times when instinct trumps intent to get us to the point where we can be intentional.
And you're welcome. Always happy to give a nudge to your work. :)
Oh, I love that take! I live so connected to the land that I take instinct for granted, almost like another sense. Much to ponder.
I cannot think of a better word than "cherish." It can be small things that we take for granted: cherishing the water that runs freely for us to wash and brush our teeth, to shower. How many folks around the world today do not have this? Our loved humans, our loved animals, and our plants can be cherished every day. And yes, breath, always to be cherished.
Thank you for expanding on cherish, Phyllis. It's true: we have so much to cherish, and much of it we take for granted. It'll be interesting to see what insights come out of that word. Blessings to you!
This is a beautiful post. I may have more than one word for the year, but what popped up when you raised the question is resilience.
I also like the idea of a book discussion.
Resilience was my word for last year, Christina. It's definitely a good one for these times. May it bring you what you need!
As for the book discussion, I'm debating about whether it would be possible to use the comments here or whether it would need to be a Zoom thing. Any thoughts you have are welcome.
My word for 2025 is Hope. Because as Christopher Reeves said, “once you choose hope, anything becomes possible.” This is a year of possibility for me.
Ann, Have you read Rebecca Solnit's book, Hope in the Dark? I found it useful and empowering. Here's a short quote from the intro: “Hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away. And though hope can be an action of defiance, defiance isn’t enough reason to hope. But there are good reasons.” May your year of possibility be all you imagine and more!
I haven’t read her book but it sounds like one right up my alley for this year. Thank you for sharing that — I’ll look it up. Love the quote you shared with it. Thank you.
Love this piece. The instructions for living a life. Walking without earpods to hear astonishing sounds like the sandhill cranes. Paying attention. Being Astonished. Telling about it. I strive to do this too. My words for this year for me are calm, clarity, creativity, communication, caring and compassion.
Julia, Thank you! Your words for the year have a rhythm of their own, and are very much instructions for living a life in themselves. May they bless your year with all you need.
Happy new year, Susan!
My word this year is courage. I will summon the courage to meet whatever this year brings...sometimes I need courage to do even the most wonderful of things.
My husband chose two words which have left us in stitches: Dexterity and Cunning. LOL. Not sure how that will play out but will be interesting to see.
I am encouraged by the gifts of love and caring we received this year. And always so grateful to be given this space and time to dwell in.
Blessings for the new year, my friend.
Kathleen
Happy New Year to you, Kathleen! Courage is a wonderful word, and one I've thought a lot about. I'm sure you've looked up the etymology of the word. What I love is the root in the French for "heart." I don't usually quote myself--it seems so arrogant!--but I'm going to do it here because I think this bit from Bless the Birds is so appropriate to your word and this time in our lives: "True courage is strength that comes from the heart—courage that carries the power of love. It takes courage to be honest, to meet with an open heart whatever comes. To practice kindness in a time of hatefulness, to speak truth to power. To live with love in a world awash in fear and grief." Those words seem so you.
"Dexterity and Cunning"--Oh, my! What interesting words to pick, and I'm laughing with you and your husband. You are right: It will be interesting to see how they play out!
Many blessings to you in this interesting time, and a warm hug.
Your response brought tears to my eyes, Susan Thank you for these kind words.
Sending warm hugs in return. K
Yes, and "encourage" means to give heart (hearten).
Love this post and your daily wisdom. My word is a short phrase- soft, slow, and simple
Melinda, thank you. And your phrase is beautifully poetic, even onomatopoetic. May your year give you softness, slowing down and the grace of simplicity!
Wonderful post , Susan. I have resonated with and appreciated your entire year of spiritual living. Thank you. My word is loving awareness ( ok, that's two). I would be interested in the book discussion. I am reading the Grace in Aging, by Kathleen Dowling Singh. Not so much about nature, but wonderful nonetheless.
Thank you for coming along on this exploration, Irene, and I'm glad it has been useful. "Loving awareness" is a wonderful way to approach life and our own selves, and I wish you a year of many blessings from that phrase.
The Grace in Aging sounds interesting, and human nature is part of nature the way I see it. I will add it to the list of possible books, and thanks for that. Hugs from the other side of the Continental Divide!
Hugs to you as well! I was just pondering that cherishing and loving awareness are kissing cousins
True that! Although I'm not sure about the kissing part for those of us with sensitive immune systems. (Hah!)
Wonderful post. My word for the year is "Steps" and it is to help me be more mindful of my daily living.
Thank you, Linda! "Steps" is an interesting word, and a good one for mindfulness. If it would be useful, you might want to create a word cloud related to steps and see what comes out. One way to create a word cloud is to take a large sheet of paper and write "steps" in the middle and then simply jot down words and phrases that come to mind related to steps, grouping them around the original word, drawing a circle around each and then drawing lines between them to show relationships. I always learn about my relationship to a word when I create a cloud for it. Blessings!
Thank you. Will do!
Susan, you speak a soul language for which so many of us hunger. Thank you for putting onto the page what is often in my heart, but has yet to form into words. I appreciate you and am grateful for your posts -- each time you put up something new, I find myself rushing toward it -- oh, what's she going to say now?! Happy New Year. Happy New Beginnings. Everything changes and ends . . . and God/Goddess/ All that is, IS in the land.
Stephanie, Thank you for "soul language." That phrase speaks to me deeply and I am honored you would apply it to my work. The deeper I get into this work of practicing terraphilia in my everyday life, and honoring the sacred in all of life, I realize how closeted we (as in Western culture, especially women in Western culture) are about our own spirituality. We don't talk about our personal practices unless pressed, we defer to "experts" and we are so careful to not offend anyone. It's as if we are still worried about being burned at the stake or drowned as witches. Maybe we are, if only subconsciously, and maybe that's a real fear. (Hence the popularity of WICKED, as a novel, a play, and now as a movie. It's a way to at least read about women's subversive spiritual power.) I think for me at least, it's time to step out in the open and say, I claim my spiritual power and I am determined to use it in my every days to shed some light on this world. And this is clearly something to write about in my next post! Okay, stepping carefully off my soap box now.... Happy New Year to you, and good writing!
Great soapbox to stand on. And I stand with you — Green spirituality is what speaks to and informs my heart! Write on, sister. . .
Thank you, Stephanie! :)
So much of our lives, and I include mine, are caught up in our petty issues and I realize that I have only found peace in wild areas and countryside. Years ago when I was going through an especially difficult period in my life I would occasionally walk into the forest near Lake Kanapaha in Florida, and climb up an a sturdy limb of a live oak hung with Spanish moss and just do nothing. Sometimes with rain pouring down through the branches. Somehow that improved things.
That's a very vivid example of why our inborn terraphilia matters, David. Getting outside into the larger world of intertwined and interrelated lives so different than our own pulls us outside our skin boundary, outside our monkey minds, and shrinks us and our issues to a more manageable size. Also, the "peace of the wild," even if it is not really peaceful, can bring us peace, or at least comfort and ease.
In some ways I found the very wild places most peaceful, despite the dangers. For one thing I had a perhaps primal feeling that nothing mattered except for my concentration on the task (or lack of one) at hand. All outside problems vanished before the need to stay focused on the immediate. Somehow that was liberating, if that makes sense. This was especially true in the Big Scrub of Florida, the Camino del Diablo along the Mexican border, the desolation of the Jornada del Muerto, the forests along Mt. Taylor in New Mexico, the rainforest of Puerto Rico and Trinidad, the headwaters of the Suwannee River in Georgia, and in the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona. I never felt more alive than when I was in such areas.
I think that you are right about how being focused changes our relationship to self and the world, liberating us from our baggage as it were, and allows us to just be. I am glad that you found that in the wild, and I think it’s possible to carry some semblance of the experience back into our daily lives so that we are better prepared to thrive in a world that is full of distraction and not full of rewards to living alive and aware and without ego.
Thank you. Lovely post
Thank you, Nanlini!
I am thinking and thinking: What is my word? For now I'm going with breathing. Thank you, Susan! And happy new year to you —
Happy New Year to you, Beth! "Breathing" can be as deep as you want it to be. And as calming. Blessings to you in this time.
My word for this year is Attitude. It is important for me to try to maintain and preserve a positive attitude no matter what is coming.
I love the book idea. Right now I’m reading “Serviceberry” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Any book by RWK would be my recommendation.
Attitude is so right for you, Lindy! Good choice.
Thanks for the book recommendation. I think it would be fun to discuss Gathering Moss, Robin's first book, because so few people know it, and it presages the next two.
I loved Gathering Moss! And I love moss :-) Reading Serviceberry now. Zoom might be a fun format for the book group, although the chat probably would accommodate different time zones and individual availability better. I hope it comes about!
Happy New Year.
Thank you, Ray! Happy New Year to you and yours too.