A Crunchy Life - November 2023 Newsletter

Think of this as a letter from a friend with a deeper look into this month's post. I share more thoughts and resources for tapping into a simple, intentional life filled with Earth-based practices.

Nov 20, 2023

Hello friends!

The November blog post is up and it is about my connection to the Ocean. I recently returned home from Troncones, Guerrero, Mexico where I turned myself upside down. Without the activities, responsibilities, and distractions of daily life, I tapped into my own intuition and payed attention. I listened and I noticed. The Ocean reminded me that intentionally creating relationship with our natural world — the ocean, the forest, a great blue heron, a sea turtle, a polar bear — leads to compassionate action on behalf of all of us — humans, more than humans, ecosystems.

Along this journey I also discovered a group of Soul Sisters. We greeted the day together and said good night to the moon together. We weathered a hurricane, earthquake, full moon, lunar eclipse, rain storms, and beautiful weather together. We cooked, did crafts, sat up late swapping stories. Most importantly, we found each other and the different aspects of ourselves that we recognized in each other. We represent the ocean, the mystic, the great mother, the butterfly, pure fire, and heart.

During our closing ceremony, we infused messages and energy into a piece of jewelry each of us brought with us. My wave ring has now been infused with the messages and energy of each my soul sisters. I wear it every day, just as before, but now I hear Ocean and my Soul Sisters reminding me to live into my love of this amazing planet.

This blog post talks about how I am using my hand, head, and heart to do just that —to listen, build compassionate actions, and live into my love of this amazing planet.

Here is what I am exploring this month.

a group of different colored twine on a wooden table — Photo by rocknwool on Unsplash

Hand… Macrame Feathers. Symbolism surrounding feathers is plentiful. While making my macrame feather in Troncones I kept thinking about feathers as symbols of trust, honor, strength, wisdom, and spirit. It fit so well into my intention for our week.

Once home, I said a blessing/prayer to the feather, put a few drops of Myrrh essential oil on it, and hung it where I do yoga. Myrrh is warm and earthy, and supports balance, calm, inner awareness. It is said to be associated with mother energy.

The closest directions I have found to how we made our feathers are these from Willow Bloom Home Blog.

If you discover a love of macrame, here is another website with 15 macrame projects. I suspect our oldest will be making the hanging plant holder at some point. Personally, with December coming I like the idea of making the star.

book page on brown wooden table — Photo by Olena Bohovyk on Unsplash

Head…So much reading going on! As I mentioned in the post, I am diving into scientific papers, legal papers, and folklore to focus on the ocean, ecocide, the climate and ecological emergency, and posthumanism. The books I am reading right now are:

Yemaya: Orisha, Goddess, and Queen of the Sea by Raven Morgaine

Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World by Paul Hawken

The following is the list I am moving onto after I finish these books. Some have been read already (and are being revisited) and some have not. No judgment on the efficacy of each, just this is where I am starting. I find that one leads to another which leads to another and on and on. I will vet them for myself as I dive into them.

Ecocide Law

The Promise Institute Podcast

Heat and Smoke: The 2023 Canadian Wildfire Season Animated

How to Be Animal by Melanie Challenger

The Snarled Lines of Justice: Women ecowarriors map a new history of the Anthropocene

Carbon Billionaires: The investment emissions of the world’s richest people

Living Planet Report 2020

Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic

Climate change impacts on wildlife in a High Arctic archipelago – Svalbard, Norway

An Arctic predator–prey system in flux: Climate change impacts on coastal space use by polar bears and ringed seals

Recent acceleration in global ocean heat accumulation by mode and intermediate waters

Unavoidable future increase in West Antarctic ice-shelf melting over the twenty-first century

Ecologies of Repair: A Post-human Approach to Other-Than-Human Natures

What is Posthumanism? by Cary Wolfe

red and white led lighted heart decor — Photo by Izumi on Unsplash

Heart… Music and Cake. I pay attention to not get all heady when I am diving into research and books. If I go too far down that path, my ability to communicate with others diminishes as ideas swirl in my head. It’s not pretty. Nor productive.

My companion to reading is music. It opens a different space in me. I have created a playlist of every song I can find on Apple Music by Anderson Rocio. I love her biography on her website:

“Anderson Rocio is an American/Spanish Artist and Songwriter hailing from New Zealand. Blurring the lines of citizenship, she was raised both on land and sea around the world. With a Degree in Classical Piano Performance and a ten year submersion and focus as an Artist, Songwriter and A&R in the Music Industry, she is currently based in Los Angeles, California… Arenas are Anderson Rocio’s seventh heaven and her Environmental advocacy has her 2023 song Power In Us sending 100% of its streaming revenue to Ocean Conservation, crossing the worlds of conservation and pop music on an international level…This is an Artist that consistently looks to redefine the power of Art.”

Anderson’s music speaks so much to what I think and feel. My two favorites, right now, are Paradise and Power In Us. Power In Us (“Can we hear the Earth, or are we too loud” ) is simply a tribute to Earth.

Anderson is currently working with MOTHER magazine, a magazine about Mother Earth and female power. MOTHER is by women for nature. Created by wildlife photographer and storyteller Melissa Schäfer, MOTHER is “a nonprofit to inspire the world to see, capture nature in all its beauty and tell stories to make a change.”

I subscribe to MOTHER via print so that I can go back and interact with the images, over and over again, without involving technology. MOTHER has expanded how I think about nature photography and the power of a photo to provide voice.

Here’s how they describe The Power In Us Project x MOTHER Collaboration

“These two projects are coming together to harness the power of Music and Media. The Power In Us Project has teamed up with MOTHER to create a platform for Women Creatives to tell their stories of Nature through video. A hand picked collection of those videos will be chosen and curated to be released as the Official Music Video for Anderson Rocio's Power in Us.

We want viewers to feel connected to Nature so that they are inspired to make a change in their own lives to help protect it. For those of you who have worked with MOTHER Magazine before, this is a Video version. We want footage of what nature looks like to you through your lens.

We want the Truth. The Dramatic. The Cute. The Shocking .The Sad. The Ugly. The Power. The Beauty. The Overwhelming.

Your footage of the Earth, you can also send us videos of you in the field capturing it! We need clips that will challenge our viewers to think. Images that ignite the power our audience has to take action.

If it makes you feel, we want to see it.”

Follow these links for the Guidelines and Submissions . The deadline is 21 November 2023.

Martinmas Spice Cake, November 2023

I mentioned cake. During this transition to cold and dark, nothing goes together better than cake, a warm beverage, amazing music by a warm fire. Since it is Martinmas I am sharing my Martinmas Spice Cake recipe.

Martinmas Spice Cake

Dry ingredients:

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sucanat or light brown sugar
1 can (about 1.5 cups) pumpkin puree
2/3 cup canola or coconut oil
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Combine all of the wet ingredients in another bowl. Gradually add in the dry ingredients. Don't over mix.

Pour the batter into a prepared bundt pan and bake for 40 minutes. Cool in pan for five minutes and then turn out on a rack to cool completely.

Dust with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

white book on brown wood log — Photo by Nicolas Messifet on Unsplash

This month’s poem is the song we would sing on Lantern Walks at our kid’s Waldorf school. We gathered as a school community at dusk and all of the children carried the lanterns they made in school. We journeyed through the school’s woods and campus together, singing songs as we walked and gathered in circle.

Once our kids had moved on from their Waldorf school our family ritual around Martinmas took shape. We made lanterns the week leading up to Martinmas and on Martinmas had our own lantern walk through our neighborhood. Afterwards, we came home and enjoyed hot chocolate and cake. This is one of the songs we carried from our Waldorf school lantern walks to our family lantern walks.

This Little Light of Mine

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine

Oh, this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine