The Wayfarer: Compass Points Edition

By Theodore Richards and Heidi Barr

• Language: English
• Publisher: Homebound Publications LLC
• Release date: Jun 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9780997592771

Theodore Richards

Theodore Richards is a philosopher, poet and novelist. As the founder of The Chicago Wisdom Project and editor of the online magazine Reimagining: Education, Culture, World, his work is dedicated to reimagining education and creating new narratives about our place in the world. He has received degrees from various institutions, including the University of Chicago and The California Institute of Integral Studies, but has learned just as much studying the martial art of Bagua; teaching in various settings and students; and as a traveler from the Far East to the Middle East, from southern Africa to the South Pacific. His books include Handprints on the Womb, a collection of poetry; Cosmosophia: Cosmology, Mysticism, and the Birth of a New Myth, recipient of the Independent Publisher Awards Gold Medal in religion and the Nautilus Book Awards Gold Medal; the novel The Crucifixion, recipient of the Independent Publisher Awards bronze medal and the USA Book Award; Creatively Maladjusted: The Wisdom Education Movement Manifesto, finalist for the USA Book Award; his most recent novel, The Conversions; The Great Reimagining: Spirituality in an Age of Apocalypse, recipient of the Nautilus Book award; and A Letter To My Daughters: Remembering the Lost Dimension & The Texture of Life. He lives in Chicago with his wife and daughters.

Book preview

Welcome to the autumn edition of

The Wayfarer magazine.

Never doubt that a small group of inspired volunteers can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.

–MARGARET MEAD

Since 2012, The Wayfarer has been offering literature, interviews, and art with the intention to inspires our readers, enrich their lives, and highlight the power for agency and change-making that each individual holds.

By our definition, a wayfarer is one whose inner compass is ever-oriented to truth, wisdom, healing, and beauty in their own wandering. The Wayfarer’s mission as a publication is to foster a community of contemplative voices and provide readers with resources and perspectives that support them in their own journey.

As we move into our 8th year, in the face of these frightening times we must endure, we renew our commitment to our readers to be a space of solace and our pledge to advocate for marginalized communities, the arts, and environmental conservation.

WWW.THEWAYFARER.HOMEBOUNDPUBLICATIONS.COM

FOUNDER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

L.M. Browning

Theodore Richards

EDITORS

Eric D. Lehman

Gail Collins-Ranadive

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Amy Nawrocki

Jason Kirkey

THE MINDFUL KITCHEN

Heidi Barr

STAFF WRITERS

David K. Leff

Iris Graville

READERS

Marianne Browning

J. K. McDowell

CONTACT US

Postal Box 1442, Pawcatuck, CT 06379

[e-mail]

ADVERTISING

[e-mail]

SUBSCRIBE

www.thewayfarer.homeboundpublications.com

or [e-mail]

ISBN: 978-0-9975927-7-1 (e-book)

Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our sincere apologies and notify us. Thank you.

The Wayfarer™ is published biannually by Homeound Publications. No part of this publications may be used without written permission of the publisher. All rights to all original artwork, photography and written works belongs to the respective owners as stated in the attributions.

INTRODUCTION

SECTION ONE:

NEW ENGLAND

SECTION TWO

THE GREAT PLAINS

SECTION THREE:

THE GREAT LAKES

SECTION FOUR:

PACIFIC NORTHWEST

SECTION FIVE:

DESERT PEAKS

SECTION SIX:

THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS

A LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The offices of The Wayfarer Magazine and Homebound Publications—the publishing company under which it falls—are situated in the small fishing village of Stonington, Connecticut on lands once occupied by the Pequot and the Mohegan people (known in present-day as the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Mohegan Nation respectively) whose lands were taken from them by force and duplicity. We honor this history and hold it within our minds and hearts as we midwife our creative endeavors from this space on the Connecticut shoreline.

The names of the land as quoted within this essay collection have gone by many names in the languages of both the native peoples for whom they were home and eventually the European settlers. But let us also remember that the land exists as a sentient being beyond labels, borders, and quantification.

Leslie M. Browning

Founder & Editor-in-Chief of The Wayfarer Magazine

The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.–Terry Tempest Williams

INTRODUCTION: COMPASS POINTS

CELEBRATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF EARTH DAY BY GAIL COLLINS-RANADIVE

Welcome to this special edition of The Wayfarer.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, writers from six regions of our America the Beautiful reflected upon questions that included: how does land speak, what is your experience of this place and why does it matter, and how has your outlook/perception on society been impacted by this landscape?

In the process, this project became a collective exploration of what it means to listen to the spirit of the American land base, thereby fostering personal resilience and putting forth a clear call to stand up for what we believe to be imperative for the health of all living creatures, including the earth itself. Nothing could be more timely or appropriate for this Earth Day!

Fifty years ago, the first Earth Day came to pass after Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) found himself flying over the oil rig blowout that had spewed 3 million gallons of seabird-dolphin-seal-sea lion-suffocating pollution into 800 miles of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969. He was so appalled that he pushed Congress to set aside a specific day for a national environmental teach-in. It was to be predicated on a 1968 U.S. Public Health Service symposium that explored the effect of environmental degradation on human health. Through his nation-wide teach-in, Senator Nelson hoped to rally the public to demand federal policies, protections, and environmental regulations.

Back then, in 1970, we the people were primed. After all, we’d been wowed by those first pictures of our fragile planet taken from lunar orbit on Christmas Eve 1968, and had marveled when the first human set foot on the moon in the summer of 1969. In fact, at a U.N. conference in San Francisco in 1969, a peace activist proposed a day to honor the earth and the concept of peace, to be celebrated on March 21,1970, the day of the earth’s spring equipoise in the northern hemisphere. But Nelson and his organizers chose to hold the first U.S. Earth Day on April 22, because it fell between spring break and final exams on college campuses. Twenty million Americans took part.

Our demand for a healthy, sustainable environment resulted in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and passage of the Clean Air and Water Acts and the