The Four Elements

Since my mentor Joanna Macy’s passing, I’ve been gathering small groups to listen to our We Are The Great Turning podcast series together — we’re calling it the We Are The Great Turning Podcast Club . Each week we listen to an episode, talk about what it stirs up, and do practices together to deepen our collective learning.

Award-winning author and practicing Buddhist Leah Stokes will join us to share insights from her new book, The Carbon Wave: A Story of Democracy, Parenthood, and the Race to Protect Our Planet. The heart of the book lies in the deeply personal stories, interwoven throughout, of the author’s high-risk pregnancy, the premature births of her twin daughters, and her friends on frontlines, new parents themselves, trying to pass the largest climate law in American history.

What does it mean to treat the forest itself as sacred? In Shinto, a traditional Japanese religion, the natural world is alive with kami (the spiritual beings of the universe), nature is scripture, and shrines can be found in sacred groves of trees. Join this conversation with Rev. Ann Evans, Guji (High Priest) of the Shin Mei Spiritual Centre and a certified ANFT Forest Therapy Guide, as she explores the contemplative heart of Shinto: its acknowledgement of the sacredness of all creation.