Carolyn Baker

Community Grounded In Grief In The Age Of Limits

Grief reveals the undeniable reality of our bond with the world…It is grief that moves us in the direction of contact, towards the helping hands and embrace of others…without it we would not know the heartening quality of compassion, could not experience the full breadth of love, the surprise of joy, nor celebrate the sheer beauty of the world.

The Five Stages Of Collapse, By Dmitry Orlov - Book Review

Many of us who have been researching collapse for a decade or more repeatedly use the word in writing, speaking, and daily conversation, but few of us have the opportunity to define it with such precision or personal experience as one finds in Dmitry Orlov’s forthcoming book 'Five Stages of Collapse: A Survivor’s Toolkit'.

The Soul of Community

People use drugs, legal and illegal, because their lives are intolerably painful or dull. They hate their work and find no rest in their leisure. They are estranged from their families and their neighbors. It should tell us something that in healthy societies drug use is celebrative, convivial, and occasional, whereas among us it is lonely, shameful, and addictive. We need drugs, apparently, …

The sanctity of food: Conscious eating as a spiritual practice

Throughout human history, particularly in indigenous cultures, food has been perceived as sacred. The word sacred is not a religious term but rather one that simply means “set apart” or not of the ordinary. It is also related to sacrifice which may mean that something is sacred because it derived from something sacrificed. For example, we speak of battlefields and military …

Mutually assured well being: The continuity of community and individual resilience

In the face of incessant climate-change related natural disasters, severe economic contraction, energy depletion, escalating violence, resource wars, and a burgeoning loss of civil liberties, many communities throughout the world are responding resiliently to the unprecedented challenges of our time in ways we could not have imagined even two or three decades ago. Relocalization movements, …

Book Review: Not The Future We Ordered: Peak Oil, Psychology, and the Myth of Progress

If you visit John Michael Greer’s Amazon Page you are likely to be incredulous when you discover how many books he has written, and you’ll soon discover that collecting all of his articles online is nearly an impossible task. A voracious reader, a prolific writer, a brilliant thinker whose work is intermittently sprinkled with delightful humor, Greer has become one of the most …

“Promised Land”: Energy and ethics in the age of economic decline

The Gus Van Sant movie “Promised Land” written by Matt Damon and John Krasinski was recently panned by one reviewer who used “Promised Bland,” to describe her reaction to it. While it is true that this film does not offer an impassioned feud between the good guys and the bad guys by portraying the evil energy company pitted against the innocent, hard-working, salt of …

The impact of evolutionary nuns on shaping the next culture

The nuns provide a model for all who are exploring ways in which humanity can reconstitute itself and forge a post-industrial culture that radically departs from the paradigm of industrial civilization. Members of Sisters Of The Earth are deeply involved not only with social justice issues, but with local organic food efforts, permaculture, the Transition movment, raising awareness on climate …

Massacres, droughts, and a society unraveling

In the anger phase of societal unraveling, we must not only be aware of its perils but prepare ourselves with great intention to navigate it. One of the first issues we must grapple with is the reality of trauma. Increasing dissolution of the fabric of the culture is by definition traumatic for those who rely on it for basic necessities, identity, lifestyle, distraction, and sense of well being.

Limitless wisdom in the age of limits

One mile north of the Mason-Dixon line in Southeastern Pennsylvania, nearly 200 people from the US and beyond, gathered this weekend on the land of Four Quarters Inter-Faith Sanctuary to consider Peak Oil, climate change, and economic meltdown—and the collapse of industrial civilization.