I’ve been reading more and more of my writer friends and colleagues’ work via substack, one of the many newsletter services out there these days. It seems easy to use and allows me to promote the work of other writers, so I took the plunge a few weeks ago. I’ll probably be writing there more than here, so I’d love to have you follow me over there if you’ve enjoyed my posts here. (Not that I’ll never again post a blog here…but they’ll likely be fewer and further between..)
So, I invite you to head on over to Ordinary Collisions, where I’ll be digging into the intersection of nature, culture, and how we humans fit into the story of the world.
The forces in our lives are constantly colliding—sometimes in ways that work out well and sometimes in ways that don’t. I want to explore what it means to work with the collisions, rather than against them. This means digging into how humans and nature interact, from our relationships with other humans, non-humans, and ourselves to our relationship with the landbase to our role in the story of the world.
Though the process is often messy and full of mistakes, I’m committed to making my life and work a daily practice centered around working toward a decolonized world, where all humans, creatures, and the land are treated with respect. Writing and offering it to others is a big part of how I do that. Hiking through forests, wading in rivers, digging in the soil, surrounding myself with natural wonder, and giving voice to what I notice, helps me stay grounded in reality. I want to encourage you to do the things that help you tap into your own creaturliness, and ask the questions that open up new possiblities, so we can all continue working toward a more beautiful world.
There will be an interview series, excerpts from my forthcoming book (due out in January, 2023), and my usual musings about what I’m observing by paying attention. I’d love to have you in the community.
Here’s a sample from one of the first emails that went out:
What helps you shift from frustrated to curious? Or from irritated to thankful? From dispairing to holding a willingness to leave at least a little room for hope? So often it’s the seemingly insignificant, usually small, things that go unnoticed when I let technology or the dire state of the world dictate how I navigate my days. Today I appreciated the heron’s screetch. Maybe tomorrow it will be a snail on the path, or a ripe strawberry. Cold water on bare skin as rain falls after a stretch of dry days. The sun rising over swaying prairie. The kiss of warm breeze or the way sunflowers follow their namesake with daily nods to our shared life-force.
Subscribe here: Ordinary Collisions
Heidi Barr | Author 