Living my Animism - Home making and Spiritual Practice

Transcript

Introduction/Opening

Bernardette 0:01

I am here sitting on this earth with my feet on the ground. Feeling the pulse of life all around me. And the air against my face. And the freshness of the moisture and the growth of the season welling up inside me. Like Greenlight and spilling out my eyes and my hands and my mouth. May I take in this growth? May I use it like the butterflies to become something new? May I use it like the trees to stretch up and out. May I reach trembling toward the fingers of other beings. And embrace the world and embrace the light. May we all find comfort together. In understanding that this world is a part of us and we are part of it. Inextricably bound in a beautiful. Dance. Step in to the rainbow house and welcome. In the last episode, I talked a bit about the underlying philosophy of animism and a bit about how I've come to the ideas. About the world and other living beings that I have. In this episode, I'm going to expand a bit on how I move from the abstract concept of honoring the personhood of other living animal plant and fungi beings. To the concrete lived reality of being a person alive in the 21st century. And I almost said the 20th century. So. I am old. I want to caveat this episode with my standard line, that I live in a large city, and I also happen to be financially privileged. So I have the ability to make certain lifestyle choices. That others might not have. I was originally going to put all of the areas of my life. in an organized format and try and link through the podcast to them. But then when I, when I recorded everything, I realized that it was running into the 45 minute mark. And that's much longer than I want to hear myself talk and probably much longer than you want to hear me talk. So. So I. I have broken it up. And so in this episode, I'm going to address home care and also spiritual practice and land honoring. And then in future episodes, I will talk about. Diet and food and parenting and family life. And they all sort of bleed into each other. So there might be some crossover. But i just wanted to make sure that these podcasts were a reasonable length so in some ways my animism looks like trying to be a good environmentalist. And one thread tying. Most of the categories together is an effort to minimize our exposure to plastics. It's impossible to completely eliminate exposure to plastic. But I do think that the planet in our fellow living beings. Would be significantly better off if we tried collectively to eliminate plastic from our lives. I think that it benefits us as consumers to focus our efforts on a couple of personal priorities. And for me, that's trying to consume more locally produced goods. Reducing plastic use generally. And biking whenever possible. I think a lot of people will say, oh, well, one person's actions don't really matter. And I really take issue with that statement because I think that sure. One person's actions don't matter. But when it's 200 million people's actions. That they're taking individually. If those all come together, then it makes a huge difference. So I say, yes. Vote and hold companies and corporations and the government accountable. And look for ways to. Transform our large systems, but I think that the personal is important and I think it does make a difference. And I think if a lot of us came together and changed how we lived. in ways that we could, I think that that incremental change would have a big difference. I think when you tell people, and when I hear, oh, the personal doesn't matter, then I think people just stop trying. And I think that that indifference extends also to their political activity around this kind of thing. Starting with clothing and home care when purchasing clothing and home care. Things like cleaners and soaps. I try and avoid plastic because. obviously because of the reasons stated earlier, and then I also try and shop secondhand for largely natural fiber clothing. So that's both to reduce my consumption and to avoid microplastics. And honestly, because you can get a really good deal. At the, discount stores here in Chicago, I've gotten a lot of great stuff still new with tags on it for my kids. For a dollar, a dollar 50. And everything else is in really good shape. So. This is really difficult because the. The habit, the mental habit is to just hop online and to order new clothes. And I was struggling with this a couple of months ago because the kids needed brand new pajamas. And my first instinct was to just go and order a couple pairs from primary or from the internet from Amazon. I had to stop and remind myself that I didn't have to do that. I could just go to a local thrift store or I could use my Poshmark or thread up app and get my kids clothes from there. The challenge to ordering anything online, even if it's from a Poshmark or a thread up, is that, that also tends to accumulate plastic waste. But I, feel like purchasing new would result both in plastic waste and an unnecessary use of new resources. So in my view, I'm picking the lesser evil. And I know it sounds like a lot of mental gymnastics to go through when purchasing something. But I think it's important to put this much thought into what we're consuming. There are so many of us. in the world, there's, you know, 8 billion people. And if we're all trying to purchase new things, we're constantly using up new resources that we don't have to use up. I think it might be funny to some people to talk about purchasing second hint clothing as an animist practice or as a spiritual practice. But it goes hand in hand with honoring the earth by trying to use things up. And use things that can break down. Rather than just discarding things because they are slightly torn or a little broken. or because we're using things that can't break down. And are going to choke our rivers and our oceans. in our beaches for years to come. And there are some areas where purchasing secondhand isn't really feasible and is a little harder. Like higher quality inclement weather, clothing. And in that instance, I do try and find brands that are sustainable and high quality. And then make sure that I pass them down between my children. And that then I pass them down to kids that can use them after my kids. And if you're wondering why I care about this particular issue. I really strongly urge you to look up videos of the mountains of used and brand new clothing. They're choking the rivers and beaches in Ghana and other west African countries and probably Southeast Asian countries, wherever our donated clothing ends up. Because it either ends up largely in the garbage here, or it gets shipped to places that don't want it and can't use it and they just toss it. And that ends up. Mounting up. And when you're talking about stuff that's made out of rayon or stuff that's made out of plastic fibers, like so much of our synthetic clothing that doesn't break down.

8:09

I try and be equally aware and cognizant of what I'm purchasing for cleaning my home and taking care of my home. So I clean and reuse all the glass bottles that we get for jars of pickles and jelly. We go to Costco a lot for bulk purchasing. And so I use those large jars for fermenting food, for food storage, for. In place of, in place of Tupperware. So you have those Pinterest boards of people's really attractive glass jar and Mason jar collections. And, you too can have that. If you clean and reuse your glass jars from Costco. And they work really well for leftovers, for freezing large quantities of food. When you make too much super something. I think it's practical. And also it's in line with my personal ethos of trying to respect the earth and use. Reusable things that are sustainable. I also purchase ecologically sensitive cleaners. Plastic neutral cleaners. Glass spray bottles. And I also use loofahs instead of sponges, because a loofa in case you don't know, this loofa is actually a fruit and it's scrubby and they are, compostable. So in my view, they're a lot better than a plastic sponge. I use them for body care. And they use them for washing and cleaning. And then I also compost and I have a little, a little personal joke. It's not really that funny, but I like to say that I compost religiously. Because I do. I think it's a spiritual obligation for me to compost and use the bodies of the plant and animal people that nourish us. To give back those nutrients in that carbon, back to the earth. And I'll talk a little bit more about that and my view on food and my view on diet in the next episode.

Bernardette 10:10

I try and talk with my ancestors and ask them for their guidance and insight and blessings. And I think them for their sacrifices and their hard work. That enabled me to be born in the place that I am in the condition that I'm in. It's really difficult to do this because I've never created the habit of praying. I never really believed in the Christian God when I was younger. And although I have occasionally dipped into DD worship as a pagan, honestly, in both instances, it really feels like play acting. Or talking to an empty room. So even as an adult, I struggled with the idea of directly asking for. Or talking to spirits or deities now. I'll just say for those of you out there who believe in them. Or work with them. I'm not saying that they don't exist. I'm just saying that I haven't had. I haven't had. Interactions with them that have been regular or, Or leave me to want to worship deities or lead me to believe that they answer. My prayers. So. I, I just haven't really engaged that much on the deistic side of things. This was one of the things that I really like about animism is that I don't have to worship something. I don't have to give my attention to my devotion to a God. The world is just there. And the personhood of other beings is. As a part of that. And as long as I remember that I have duties and obligations to those others. And that those others and their people in their ways are older than mine. And that I need to look to them for guidance. And I need to respect their place in the world. Then I think it feels less transactional to me than to then deistic worship. And also, I mean, the trees are there. The butterflies are there. The plants and the animals and the rivers and the oceans they're there. I can dip my feet in them and they're around me. And so it's less abstract for me than a deity. I don't need that abstraction right now. And so I, you know, it's possible than in the future. I mean, I, I I'm like everyone else when I get a little bit, anxious or nervous or something. I do. Tend to fall back on old habits of, praying. in the moment. But I don't really, I don't really believe that there is a God that is listening to me. I am pretty sure that the Christian God requires that I believe certain things in order to be a worshiper of his, and I haven't really had a direct experience with other gods. Although I think that they probably exist also. So I do have a tendency to sort of reach outside myself to seek that reassurance, that things are going to be okay but I very much do think for the most part that. I think the Buddha has the best approach to this, which is to remember that nothing is permanent. No state of being is permanent. And. That we can try and hold on and make things permanent, good things and bad things. But that, that's the way that suffering, that increases suffering in our lives. And so, I very much do think that it's helpful to remind myself, to try and enjoy the good moments because I have a lot of them. To enjoy them, but not try and hold on to them because they're just as transient as the bad parts and the challenges in. Our lives And to try and remember that when I go through bad patches or bad things happen, That that's not the permanent state of being either. And so. So that's, I think that's helpful. I mean, we'll see how that we'll see how that stands up in the future, because I haven't really had a lot of terrible things happen in my life. My parents are both still alive and healthy. And my children and my husband and I are all healthy. And we have, you know, we. We don't struggle for food. Or anything like that. And so. It'll be interesting to see how my, how my spiritual approach. On this will work in the future. And. So right now, I do eventually want to start incorporating prayer as something I want to work on more in my spiritual journey. But I think it's different than just meditation and it, I think it requires a little bit more. Purpose behind it and intent behind it. And so right now, I don't have a really. I don't have a lot of bandwidth. I'm also more mindful of my person and myself as a person within a web of other persons. Uh, circle within other circles. And it hasn't fixed my anxiety, but I think that it gives me a stronger sense of belonging to help me bolster against despair and depression and meaninglessness. And one of the interesting things and braiding Sweetgrass is when Dr. Kimmer muses about what it will mean. For immigrant people to become native to a place without appropriating indigenous culture and spiritual practices. And as she says, we can't go back in time and we can't stop people from arriving from Europe. The genocide happened, people are here. And so what do we do now and what are our obligations as the children of those people who immigrated to this place? Because. Even my indigenous ancestors are not from Chicago, so I am a person from a different place in the Americas. Who's been brought here by the forces of history and personal decision. And as I thought about her book and I re-read it because I think it's inspirational and beautiful. It caused me to think about what it means to be strongly rooted in place. What it would mean for me to feel native to a place. And I thought, you know, most hunter gatherers move on a daily or seasonal rhythm. So I don't think that moving from place to place is necessarily inimical. At this, I think that's how you see that word. Inimical. To our human sense of connection to place and the building of the feeling of being native to a place in relationship to that place and the plant people and animal people that live there. But I do think that most groups, historically, as human beings have tended to move within a broad territory, unless they're forced out of that territory by other groups or environmental calamities. And so, um, so they did actually get to know a broad territory really well and have a relationship with that area. And I realized when I thought about this, that all of my human relatives for several generations have wandered. Some willingly most not across and around the world without developing a strong sense of attachment to, and getting to know a place. And I think the sense of dislocation. Of spiritual disconnect from the land. Got passed along culturally with my family and has seeped into me. And I spent a lot of my life. Feeling transient and alienated and not really a part of a place, not really ever feeling at home in a place. I moved four times before the age of 11, I moved from city to city. Uh, in my adult life and across the country, twice as an adult, I've moved within cities. And I always felt like I was never really going to be in a place forever. And so I never really felt like I was of a place. When we moved to Chicago. Knowing this about myself, about people and feeling like there is, and should be a connection to land and place as a human being, a spiritual connection. I made a conscious decision to dig into our move to Chicago in a spiritual and physical way. And I decided I would treat this move as a rooting in rather than just kind of a, a visit to a place for a period of time in my life. And some animists believe in the spirit of homes. And while I don't think my animism extends to the personhood of human made things, except in very rare circumstances. I have tried to talk to my new house to sense what it. What. What makes what, what will make it a place of beauty, comfort and flourishing. For me and my family. And I think it for its protection. And at the heart of this is really an ongoing effort to cultivate gratitude to my environment and a sense of attention to the present moment. And also, An intent to take care of and care for my environment, my home. The land, it sits on. Rather than taking it for granted or thinking ahead to another theoretical future home future place, which I think ends up resulting in, a lack of care and attention to my environment. So I'm going to beautify the new yard with native flowers and plants. And I'm starting my garden. I've covered over a plot in the front. And I probably took on too much, too fast. But, I'm trying to be careful and be intentional and be patient, even though I'm a very impatient person. Because flourishing takes time. The rhythms are a lot longer than we typically think about. Especially now when our attention is so fragmented and we feel so pressured. About the, the limits of our mortality. So I have a vision of beautifying the land around my house, partly as an apology for the destruction of the land and the desecration of the land. That led to the creation of our home a hundred years ago. At, but also out of my sense that it's part of my reciprocal relationship with pollinator people around my home with the non-human people who live around me, the squirrels and the rabbits and the raccoons and all of those other people who should be able to find shelter and food here. But can't because we've paved over everything. So the change in mindset has led to this realization that I carried home inside of me the whole time that I felt lonely and alienated. And that the earth and its other people were waiting for me to remember that I'm not separate. And even when I buy myself, the trees breathe with me. And the soil holds me up. And nourishes me and the planet caresses me with its breath in the form of wind and sheds tears for me in the form of water. The birds sing the songs of their day. when they, when the sunrises. They greet me, they greet the sun and they still do the opening and the closing of the day. And the web of reciprocity and belonging that surrounds me and surrounds you. It's our obligation to protect and restore what has made our planet rich and beautiful. And it is our responsibility. As a species and as individuals of that species to relearn our connections and our obligations before it's too late. Blessings on your journey and look around and celebrate all the non-human people who walk with you. Maybe even those who bite you or are annoying and other ways Steller's Jays, I'm looking at you. Or squirrels who eat my strawberries. Celebrate your connection to them and may find joy in your day. Thank you