Earthfire Institute » Deep Ecology, Ethics & Whole Community

Hay House Radio Interview

Earthfire — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:21:26 +0000

Susan, Executive Director of Earthfire Institute, was interviewed by mystic scholar Andrew Harvey on Hay House Radio. Please enjoy this interview and slide show talking about the mission, vision and animals of Earthfire Institute.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Earthfire Institute Mission

Earthfire — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:22:43 +0000

A video short capturing the mission of Earthfire Institute.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mr. President: The Gulf Tragedy Bigger Picture

Earthfire — Fri, 28 May 2010 22:13:27 +0000

The gulf disaster is tragic. It is hard to grasp all the individual tragedies that go into such a large one…of course the people – our sympathy goes there naturally and easily. But each oil smothered or poisoned or starving bird, dolphin, tortoise is another suffering individual. As we focus on the stress on humans who are losing their livelihood, we should also focus on animals losing their lives, their mates, their babies. We just don’t see as much of that, as the cameras go where the people are. But out of sight, out of mind doesn’t erase the suffering.

I hear the President has asked for a “Listening Tour” of environmental organizations where higher-ups will travel around the country to hear environmentalists talk about how to connect children to nature. Part of that is helping them understand that we need to see, and value, each animal as an individual being with its own passion to live, its own griefs and tragedies that are vividly felt and also count. They are not just a “representative” of a species that we have to save - they are individuals in their own right.

If we truly enlarge our sense of community to include all living beings, and then treat them as members, that single shift in perspective would change many things, solve many “problems” that are a result of seeing only humans as individual beings. I would give a lot to be able to get that perspective across to the President in some emotionally impactful way. It is so easy to get lost in human politics and the need to save humans – but that will not do it. We need to understand that it is not just clean water and clean air…if we don’t learn to come from a place that values all life, we will not thrive in the end anyway because we won’t be attending respectfully to our place in the web of life and that respect is what will save us.

A Wildlife Communities Tree

Earthfire — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:00:09 +0000

I look out at the tall pine tree we planted at the corner of the office cabin, struck by all the movement around it. It stands by itself but is rarely alone, being visited constantly by birds. This time of year in particular it is like a way station, filled with comings and goings; with excited twitterings and meetings and courtings and arguments.

It wasn’t going to live. The tap root had been broken. That’s what two tree specialists told us when we asked why it had been cast aside. But seeing it lying there still alive was hard to bear. We got a truck and people to help load it; took it home; dug a hole; tucked it in firmly and cozily; watered it well. Then we braced it against the winter winds until it could stand on its own. It is now a handsome 20 foot tree. Warmed and nourished by the morning suns it is tipped with inches of soft green growth each spring.

I wonder why it is so extraordinarily full of birds. There are practical explanations of course, all probably true. But maybe there’s more. Does it call the birds…”Come visit?” Or do the birds decide to visit it, in a neighborly fashion?

Perhaps there is more poetry in nature and life than the sometimes dreary pragmatic biological explanations. There must be magic because the fact of life itself is magic. Maybe trees enjoy having life come and visit them, they who cannot move. We enjoy the companionship of other life forms – pets, houseplants. Why shouldn’t we accord that possibility to trees? Who says the birds aren’t coming to visits, bringing vitality and friendliness and news? Especially to one that stands alone, without a forest of companions around it.

Wildlife as a Whole

Earthfire — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:17:28 +0000

Tashi Wangchuck and David Shlim talk about the “Earthfire Experience”, where one sees wildlife as whole beings rather than just fearful or aggressive creatures.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gaia, Dreaming the Earth

Earthfire — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:47:34 +0000

The first step to changing things is to have a dream.

Every Sunday afternoon a group of us meditate at the yurt to do that – dream about how we can bring

the animals’ voices to humans and find a better way for all of us to live together. We usually have Bluebell the buffalo, at the foot of the stairs,

MacDougal the clydesdale and Foffy the mustang running past the window, and Windsong the Elder Wolf inside with us.

Kris spoke into the silence, of a reverie she sometimes has. What would things be like if we lived on another planet where all life was respected;

where animals were treated well; trees revered, and people were kind to each other. How would that play out in day-to-day life? How would

things work; be different? We began imagining then what it might it be like on earth.

Would you join us with your ideas, dreams, pieces of dreams, writings you like? Would you join our meditation circle from afar.

The first step to changing things is to have a dream.

Muskwa-Ketchika wilderness by Wayne Sawchuck

Every Sunday afternoon a group of us meditate at the yurt to do just that — dream about how we can bring the animals’ voices to humans and find a better way for all of us to live together. We usually have Bluebell the buffalo at the foot of the stairs, MacDougal the Clydesdale and Foffy the mustang running past the window, and Windsong the Elder Wolf inside with us.

Kris spoke into the silence, of a reverie she sometimes has. What would things be like if we lived on another planet where all life was respected; where animals were treated well; trees revered, and people were kind to each other? How would that play out in daily life? We began imagining then what it might it be like on our planet if we built in harmony with the land; if subdivisions were almost invisible. If there was a different way of looking at things. If all life was celebrated and people would WANT to protect all living things instead of having to be convinced to. We would like to develop a full Dream of the Earth.

Would you join us with your ideas, dreams, pieces of dreams, writings you like?

Would you join our meditation circle from afar?

A Red Fox’s Karma

Earthfire — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 00:22:31 +0000

We visited Feather the red fox today after the deep snow of the night. She was her usual lovely sweet mischievous self, fur full and glossy. We brought her some guests, as she always likes to greet everybody, her little inquisitive black nose sniffing, examining, assessing. They were enchanted by her sweetness, agility, curiosity; by her eagerness to meet them and visit with them.

She is an elderly fox now, with the feel of wisdom that many living creatures seem to gain with age. Jean went to a fur farm some 11 years ago and bought her as a little kit. (It always astounds me that you can go “buy” a wild animal.) That is eleven years of life given to her; eleven years of life for that dancing diminutive piece of vitality. One out of 800 foxes!

So many questions: a Buddhist who visited her wondered aloud – what was her karma that she was picked out of 800 foxes, to come here and have a life? I don’t know, but I do know that she has done a splendid job helping people see the magic of foxes; of balancing the fact that yes they sometimes do eat chickens and cats. That difficult balance we have to find between loving a predator that is part of our family, say a cat, and also loving a predator that is not so close to us emotionally, yet acknowledging their right to live too.

So it comes down to family and tribal loyalty versus the recognition that we are all part of something larger.

Two Wild Geese

Earthfire — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:17:38 +0000

The delicate long-legged killdeer are back, flitting through the air with their haunting cries. The ground is still frozen under two feet of snow, but life, sensing the change in light, Life, is stirring. Excited. Getting ready for its ecstatic push for spring. I look up to the skies, my eyes caught by movement. In the whole huge empty western sky there are two geese flying close together in perfect unison, one unit. Two small life forms in exquisite harmony. It is music and dance and poetry. Why are they so close together? How do they stay in such perfect unison? What are they feeling? Perhaps the joy of being in such harmony with another of your kind; a completion that comes with a mate, with male and female energy combined? They emanate such joy; bursting with the anticipation of making new life. There is nothing more deeply exciting.
There is fascination and beauty in anything suffused with the life force, all of it leading in to the mystery of life. From an ant finding its way back to it’s colony, to two geese in the sky, to a grizzly bear standing on a hilltop surveying its domain, to the passion of a wolf pack adoring its pups, what joy, wonder, richness we are bathed in!!!

Our Beloved Predators

Earthfire — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:01:57 +0000

Talkeetna, my malamute, was walking me on leash the other day when she suddenly made a leap into the deep snow on the side of the track and dug furiously. She has pounced and dug before, never to meet with any success, but she loved the effort so I indulged her and watched. However this time was different. A tiny vole, feeling safe under the snow, was caught unaware and after a few crunches went down the gullet of a well-fed dog who did not need it. I felt really bad. A life ended so suddenly for no real necessity; perhaps a mother of several little babies, or a mate. A hungry owl or hawk or fox – that would have been an understandable use of its life. But just to give a well-taken care of dog some pleasure? The wild animals are under enough pressure here from humans, who act as predators by taking over the land and water and food sources and homes. I as much as anyone love seeing my dogs run and play and follow their natural instincts, but it is not fair to the wild ones to let loose upon them other predators as well – our beloved dogs and cats. It is interesting how we make dividing lines in our mind. “Us” and “other.” The dogs and cats have become “us”, family members; and the wildlife for many is still the “other.” Thus we feel justified in letting our dogs run and chase wildlife and our cats hunt the birds and mice that are vital for wild animals, who have to fight for their food and their survival every day. It would be good if we could expand the boundaries of “us” to include the lives of the wild ones. Then we would be moved to find a way to live together that takes all lives into consideration.

A Birds Eye View

Earthfire — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:00:56 +0000

The corner of my eye caught motion. I looked up and saw a dark bird flying acrosss the gray morning sky clearly heading somewhere with intent. Perhaps she had a memory of where she last found food. She didn’t have access to a grocery store, or anyone other than herself to depend on for survival. Maybe she remembered where she found food yesterday, or last week. I wondered what she was experiencing – the cold winter sky; breathing in fresh moist air as she flew, the wind across her wings, an urgent hunger in her belly critical to fill before she got too weak to search. What was it like for her to look down on the trees and sagebrush below, the mountains ahead; to fly between mist and sun? So many points of experience happening all the time, the world interconnected in a web of personal experience. Our own is one of them, enriched by glimpses into others.