The 8 Instructions

INSTRUCTION NO. 1

CONNECTION

No lifeform can exist by itself. The natural world is a finely tuned, dynamic and interdependent community.

INSTRUCTION NO. 2

VARIETY

Diversity in nature is the number one predictor of a system’s health and resilience.

INSTRUCTION NO. 3

BALANCE

In a time when technology has outpaced relational skill, nature shows us how balancing agency (masculine) and care (feminine) is key to human procession.

INSTRUCTION NO. 4

RELATIVES

Over millions of years, many animals and humans have employed similar strategies for being healthy and content.

INSTRUCTION NO. 5

EFFICIENCY

Efficiency is the evidence of natural expression. Unfussed, unscripted. As usual and uncanny as breathing in and out.

INSTRUCTION NO. 6

RESILIENCE

All of nature is inclined toward recovery. Not just to survive, but to thrive

INSTRUCTION NO. 7

ELDERHOOD

In nature, healing from trauma creates genetic benefits that can be passed on to future generations.

INSTRUCTION NO. 8

UNCERTAINTY

To the extent we are able to embrace mystery, humans are able to live creatively and well with each other.

Biological Curiosity

Biological Curiosity

Co-authored with Gary Ferguson Meaning resides in the long rehabilitation.Richard PowersApril 14, 2022Livingston, MT Last winter, we ventured out to a reading by Richard Powers, the author of Overstory, and of a newer novel titled, Bewildered. By then, we all were –...

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Overlapping Circles

Overlapping Circles

Floodwaters barreled through the creeks and rivers the Yellowstone River Basin last month, slamming into whole communities, many of them gateways to Yellowstone National Park. Like an otherworldly steam roller, water took out friends’ homes. What’s more, the aftermath...

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How We Live with Uncertainty

How We Live with Uncertainty

For a few weeks prior to February 24, I listened to reports out of Ukraine. Voices of everyday people going about their lives. In Kyiv, in Lviv, in the countryside. In the cities, street cafes brimmed over, markets were lively tangles of vendors and shoppers. One...

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Guest Blog: Paula MacKay on Full Ecology

Guest Blog: Paula MacKay on Full Ecology

Paula MacKay is a terrestrial carnivore biologist, a conservation scientist and a wilderness writer.  She and Gary met when Paula was a student in the Ranier Writing Institute, completing her MFA and among Gary's advisees. Paula has read the Full Ecology book and...

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Restoring Land and Soul

Restoring Land and Soul

There’s a place in the southwestern corner of Montana where the river weaves a fine Spiga chain through the wetland and willowed prairies at the ankles of a soaring stretch of Rocky Mountains. The mountains run east to west – an orientation adopted by precious few...

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Wolf Stories

Wolf Stories

Yesterday, we went to a place in Yellowstone National Park where wolves live. We weren’t right there with them, but close enough to stand with other people with high powered spotting scopes to watch from afar. The Junction Butte pack has a good batch of new pups....

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Earth Day on the Cusp of COVID

Earth Day on the Cusp of COVID

Thinking on it, I find it hard to see how one can love the earth but not fellow human beings. And also, it seems incongruous that one could love humanity and exact sins of degradation against nature. Whether wings and feathers or hands and fingers, we share the same...

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Equinox – The Balance Point

Equinox – The Balance Point

In the Reiki tradition, there’s a graphic symbol for harmony – for balance. Sei hei ki. To me, it looks like a dancer, or maybe something winged, and I’ve heard that to draw it well requires open, relaxed and sweeping gestures. People who know and practice Reiki use...

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Weariness & Renewal

Weariness & Renewal

Today the temperature around our home hovers near 0°. "Can super cold weather make me tired?" I ask. We talk about it. It can. Sometimes. That's why it's good to sleep in a cool room. It’s also why trees and fields and waterways need winter. To rest well. Whatever the...

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