An Earth Day Message 🌍

Finding hope and inspiration in nature

Happy Earth Day! I hope that you can find some time outdoors, in nature, or perhaps even in communion with your nearest houseplant. Or fungi.

I woke up this morning thinking about the future. It strikes me that now, perhaps more than ever, we need a different vision. I think the most radical thing we can do, in the midst of overwhelm and chaos, is to cultivate a powerful alternative to believe in and orient towards. Don’t get me wrong, I like to keep my eyes wide open. I read the news. I do lots of reading. I go to marches. I sign petitions and donate money to climate action.

But I’ve also been thinking about what a non-reactionary, non-combative approach would look like. Feel like. And how I can let Mother Nature lead that vision.

So this morning I started thinking of words I associate with nature. Creative. Resilient. Powerful. Inventive. Extravagant. Curious. Connected. Sometimes terrifying! Abundant. Intelligent.

My question to myself, and all of us, is how can we hold on to a future, believe in a future, be fearlessly inspired by a future that has those qualities. That holds life, and Mother Nature, at the center. What does that look like? Like actually, what does that look like?

How can we self implement rules and rituals into our everyday lives that train us to reach out to a friend rather than reaching out to our phones? That lead us to genuine connection when we feel lonely and isolated rather than even more disconnection. How can we build up the moral and spiritual strength to resist the algorithms built by the smartest minds (and now the best AIs).

How can we choose life?

We’re in a fight for our planet. A fight for Mother Nature. For the trees. For the coral reefs. For the soil. And thus in a fight for ourselves, our children and our loved ones. Thich Nhat Hahn said “The earth is not only the environment. The earth is us.”

Let this be a fight FOR and not a fight AGAINST. Let’s dream with life as our north star, and let’s dream together 🙏🏽

Mushroom Church Vol 01 is out for Earth Day!

It’s out. And streamable everywhere. My favorite moments from hosting these wonderful evenings of fungal appreciation around the world for the last year. You’ll find performances and poems by Giuliana Furci of the Fungi Foundation, Mendel Skulski of the Future Ecologies podcast, poets Erin Robinsong and Fiona Glen, synth maestro Chris Gestrin, and musicians Robin Layne, Noah the Naturalist, James Keay, Rachel Kitchlew and more.

Bandcamp is the preffered platform - it’s the only one that actually pays artists (one purchase on bandcamp is worth about 30,000 streams on Spotify!), but it’s everywhere for your convenience.

Earth Day chat with Jesse Paris Smith

I’ll be joining Jesse Paris Smith tomorrow, April 23rd, on Substack to appreciate the earth, share poetry and talk about a radically different and life-oriented vision for the future. Just open up the app and navigate to my profile (or Jesse’s!) to join

And finally, for the paid subscribers

A special invitation for you… read on for more