Spiritual Ecology

I was invited to do a question-and-answer session with the Compassion Consortium’s Animal Chaplaincy students on wildlife rehabilitation from a spiritual perspective. I shared that, honestly, I don’t know any wildlife rehabilitators, or at least any who stick with it, who aren’t spiritual about it in some way. There are some who start for their own egos, but they tend…

As Imbolc season approaches, I have been thinking about hope, my theme for the ceremony and the days that follow. I will be honest, hope, as I usually engage with it, is difficult to find and, when I do, seems lacking in any meaning. That kind of hope feels like nothing more than wishful thinking. The news is full of…

It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m done being outraged. 2024 has been hard on my physical, mental, and emotional health, and the U.S. election was a contributing factor, but not the only one. There were a whole lot of other humans doing things I wish they wouldn’t, or not doing things I wish they would, and, frankly, I’m tired. I…

How do you review a year? If I was going to review 2024 as if it was a book, I think I would write “thumbs down,” “this plot is ridiculous,” “author jammed so much into this story that it doesn’t make sense,” or something like that. Yet, here I am, leafing through the pages of my planner and thinking, “How…

Today is World Habitat Day which I admit I thought was about wild habitats until I looked it up. The United Nations actually intended World Habitat Day to bring attention to the inequality and challenges faced by humans in cities and other settlements. I was going to write something about squirrels instead but especially considering discussions around the rebuilding of…

When I began my research into St. Francis for an interfaith seminary essay, I knew little of him beyond his designation as patron saint of ecology and the animals. I was curious how he became associated with animals and found a story about a wolf that intrigued me, especially in the context of wolf conservation challenges in the United States.…

A recent study conducted in my state found that turtles in wetlands surrounded by busy roads were more likely to be males. This finding only confirmed what I and other turtle rehabilitators already knew – during the late spring, many female turtles are hit by cars during their annual pilgrimage to lay their eggs. A pilgrimage is a journey, usually…

The red eft appeared from under some leaves and walked slowly down the hill towards the woods, seemingly oblivious to my presence. I shifted my gaze from the sapling that had been my meditation focal point to watch the eft. The bright red salamander stood out against the leaf litter, but the squirrels and chipmunks paid him no mind. By…

If your idea of meditation is sitting comfortably on a cushion in a softly lit, quiet room, with an hour-long recording of Tibetan singing bowls streaming on your tablet while incense smoke curls around you, sitting with squirrels is not the practice for you. If you are ready to be fully present to what is true now, even if what…