I grew up in the rich farm land of Sacramento, California — the traditional lands of the Maidu, Miwok, Me-wuk and Nisenan peoples. My son and I moved to Moh’kinstsis/Calgary 10 years ago and now make our home on the border of farmland and foothills. We are inhabitants of the beautiful Treaty 7 lands, the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, and the Métis Nation (Region 3).
Raised a Quaker and later becoming ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church, my spirituality has always been grounded in creation. Nature is not “other” — all is interwoven and interdependent. The trees gave me this teaching. Three glorious silver maple trees grew around our house. Most evenings I would climb up one to my special branch and simply sit and listen. The trees shared their life with me and rooted me; I loved them.
This I grasped: the holy presence infuses every part of the world — every leaf whispering in the wind, every rock, every drop of water, every animal, every human, every star blanketing the night sky with its brilliant splendour. For me, this is the ultimate expression of communion and Christ-consciousness/the Living Christ. Yes, I am a heretic! But Christianity has long had heretics expressing this same understanding. The core meaning of the word heresy is “choosing” — what we choose to see, understand, value and become.
Today, I continue to raise my beautiful child, work, tend my garden, try to live simply, walk by the singing waters of the Makhabn/Bow River and among the grasses and the forests…and bring my energy to the holy work before us: to walk in a renewed way on this sacred earth, sensing our deep belonging to it and to each other.
I am deeply grateful to be a part of Green Exodus and what is germinating within us and among us.