Tamara Dean is an award-winning essayist whose work explores the intersection of nature, community, and resilience. In Shelter and Storm: At Home in the Driftless (University of Minnesota Press, April 22, 2025), she reflects on her move to a Wisconsin farm and the lessons learned through living close to the land. Through twelve vivid essays, Dean blends science, history, and […]
This week, while mommy had a hair appointment, I spent a couple hours with our son at the nearby shopping mall. We had 2 hours to burn, with nothing in particular to do. And me not being particularly interested in shopping, I decided to just let my 2-year-old explore and wander the mall. One of the first things he discovered […]
Today I filled out an online pledge to “use things until I can’t” for one year. It was a super easy pledge for me to make, because that’s pretty much what I do already. The implication was that you should use things for as long as you can before buying a new one, because you maximize the use out of […]
Just a heads up – This week I was feeling both thoughtful and a little bleak and gloomy, so I wanted to take all of those thoughts out of my head and put them somewhere. So they ended up here. My apologies if it’s a little dark, but I think as someone who is generally optimistic about the future, sometimes […]
Leah Rampy is a teacher, leadership consultant, and author of Earth & Soul: Reconnecting Amid Climate Chaos, who combines spirituality, ecology, and storytelling to guide individuals toward a deeper connection with the natural world and a sustainable way of living. Find Leah Rampy and Earth & Soul online: Find me online:
It’s 6:13am. I’m in my living room laying flat on the floor on my stomach. Chest heaving up and down as I take quick, gasping breaths. My legs and arms feel like they’re burning. My forehead is slightly damp with sweat. I just finished my second set of burpees for the day, and as usual, they kick my butt. Like […]
We covered my three pillars of sustainability, went into detail on how I use the lens of health and the lens of happiness to shape my behavior, and now it’s time for the final pillar and lens: connection. In a way, I feel like connection is the pillar that really ties everything together – I can be at the top […]
Barrett Klein investigates mysteries of sleep in societies of insects, creates entomo-art, and is ever on the search for curious connections that bind our lives with our six-legged allies. Barrett studied entomology at Cornell University and the University of Arizona, fabricated natural history exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History, worked with honeybees for his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin, […]
In my previous two posts, I described my three pillars to a meaningful life: health, happiness, and connection. They are 3 lenses that I use to evaluate everything I do in life and see whether it’s contributing positively to my life or not. Then I went into a bit more detail about how I use the lens of health. Now […]
In my previous post, I described my three pillars to a meaningful life: health, happiness, and connection. They are 3 lenses that I use to evaluate everything I do in life and see whether it’s contributing positively to my life or not. Health is the first and most obvious one to understand why I include it. Why health is foundational […]