THE 4 BEHAVIORS
INTENTIONALLY LIVE YOUR HUMAN NATURE
Stop
The 8 INSTRUCTIONS arise directly from matter-of-fact expressions of life in the natural world. The first step to reclaiming yourself as one of these expressions is – to STOP.
Just Stop.
Right now.
~~
Stop everything
even if just for a fraction of a second.
Stop.
INSTRUCTION NO. 1
CONNECTION
Stop.
From here you know most directly your connection with all else.
The trees of the forest are connected to each other by means of vast underground fungal networks. They talk.
INSTRUCTION NO. 2
VARIETY
Stop.
With stopping, life’s variety is no problem. In ecologies of wilderness and in human community, variety sustains health.
Every day, evidence comes forward showing how ecosystem diversity is vital to health – health of the environment and health of human bodies. Here’s evidence related to Lyme disease.
INSTRUCTION NO. 4
RELATIVES
Stop.
You are always in relationship.
We’ve known primates recognize themselves. We know dolphins have names for each other. Recently, scientists have found self-recognition in manta rays.
INSTRUCTION NO. 5
EFFICIENCY
Stop.
Efficiency arises from stillness, from presence.
One of our favorite words is murmuration – most associated with starlings that fly by the hundreds – even thousands – in swooping intricate coordination with never a wing clip.
INSTRUCTION NO. 6
RESILIENCE
Stop.
Recovery and renewal find solid ground.
Salmon swim home against the current, overcoming obstacles like human-made dams – against all odds. We’re learning that, for humans, too, living through stress builds biological courage.
INSTRUCTION NO. 7
ELDERHOOD
Stop.
Now you can hear your wisdom.
An orangutan mother may spend five years teaching her offspring how to build perfect thatched sleeping nests in the branches of trees.
INSTRUCTION NO. 8
UNCERTAINTY
Stop.
Admit uncertainty.
Biological science has determined mystery to be a fact of life. Searching for the missing link to finally explain life on earth, scientists come ever closer, even as they become more certain there will always be things we can’t ever know.
Look to the Tops of Trees – a Solstice Offering
These are not easy days. Here in the northern hemisphere, nearing winter solstice, we’re deep in the cold and dark. Add to that the count – ten months of COVID-19. Like the dark, the pandemic is here with us. So are other circumstances – embers of rumination and...
COVID in the House
Well. We’ve got it. We who, since mid-March, have essentially cloistered – masked, sanitized, distanced. We even disinfect our keys and doorknobs. How in the world did this virus find us? It did. Our symptoms are quite light. We’ll make it fine. But, like you, we have...
Call & Response
In a functioning ecology, the dialogue between wound and medicine is ongoing; there is a call and response always happening. Francis Weller Do chickens or the eggs come first? They do. Am I living or dying? You are. So, it goes and goes. Call and response. The...
Wildfire – What Leadership’s True Nature Looks Like
This is our friend Jon Trapp. He has spent a career moving through military service and then into work with wolves through the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Today, much of his life work is focused on wildland firefighting. Jon’s been all over the...
BLM/PDX – Both/And
Keep your eyes on the prize. Alice Wine, 1956 Human Social Ecology – The ways we’re in relation with each other. The ecologies of intimacy – of family, friendship, neighborhood, community. Both/And – Holding as worthy, two or more perspectives that appear to be at...
What Would Nature Do? Our guest blog with Children & Nature Network
Fifteen years ago, Richard Louv, a lifelong educator, introduced the term “Nature-Deficit Disorder” with the publication of his best-selling book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Soon after, Louv and his...
Whiteness in Nature
We’re in baffling times. Most of us care deeply – really deeply – about justice for all. We’re profoundly compelled by the urgency to stop the systematic oppression of Black lives. Plenty of information floods social and public media advising white people how to be...
Tools for Climate Justice are Tools for Social Justice
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. -Dr. Maya Angelou Here is what I know: hatred is heavier than love. -Sarah Bellamy Yesterday evening, we met with a group of people in a webinar about what the natural world has to show...
You’re in Information Burn-Out – Read this, Then Go Outside.
Culture is not what your hands touch, it’s what moves your hands. Tyson Yunkaporta We’re in a time of radical uncertainty. Probably, you don’t like it much. And, by now, you may be sick & tired of how reflexively you turn to your screens and click. For...
If you can only do one thing – the Full Ecology of this day.
An Atlantic Monthly article published this week bears the title: Quarantine Fatigue is Real. Got that right. Here in the middle of this enormous pivot known as COVID-19 we may be a bit less exhausted than we were in our hyper-busy lives before lockdown. On the other...
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