Homage to Gaia*

And praise for "Carbon: The Book of Life" by Paul Hawken

*In Greek mythology, Gaia is the primordial goddess of the Earth, considered the ancestral mother of all life.

Dear Sisters and Friends,

Happy Earth Day (in the U.S.) and Happy Spring (in the northern hemisphere. My mother didn’t like Mother’s Day because she felt every day should be Mother’s Day. I feel the same about Earth Day.

I have had an asparagus fern in my bedroom for about 25 years. It was prolific for a long time but then in the last few years it started to noticeably decline. About two months ago, I looked at it and said “OK it's time for you to go” and carried it down to the compost bucket in my kitchen. But just as I was saying my final good-bye, a small but obvious patch of green spoke to me and I thought, well, maybe I’m going to give you another chance. I repotted the plant (and found it seriously pot found), I fed, watered and pruned it, and brought it back up to my bedroom. Ever since, I have given it (her?) my close attention and, lo and behold, she is rebirthing and returning to her former self, sending up a new shoot every day. I decided to make this a metaphor, a teaching, an inspiration for this crazy and distressing moment we have arrived at when our life systems are crumbling and an oligarchic power is on full onslaught against the living world. To paraphrase Buckminster Fuller, don’t fight against the existing reality, focus on a new reality that make the existing reality obsolete.

Around the time that our planet was becoming more urban than rural, I intentionally moved with my family to a semi-rural place. I wanted my kids to “know” nature. I was concerned then about our planet’s health; I am alarmed now, like so many of us. What we need to do urgently is align with nature like all other species do. Instead, we are doing the opposite, falsely empowering entitled and dangerous men and some sycophantic women who enable them. We need to dismantle patriarchy now and, if we don’t, we will die. It’s that simple. Women’s voices and the rise of the feminine are the wedge into patriarchy.

I resonated with these words from Marianne Williamson:

The first time I noticed it, really noticed it, I was driving through New England. Weren’t the fall colors a bit less bright than usual? Then in Washington DC, I remember looking at trees near the Lincoln Memorial thinking, but wait, those are a sort of a brownish pea green aren’t they? Then the countryside in England, that was what clinched it for me. The glorious greens weren’t all that glorious anymore. I went from concerned to a bit terrified in the space of an instant. . . . Damn, when they said the planet was sick … they weren’t kidding. It is sick, the way a person who’s sick starts to appear differently.

What people don’t fully understand is that when the planet and nature are sick, we are sick, because we are nature. Interestingly, native cultures don’t have a word for nature because they never thought it was different from them. The colonizing world has so much to learn from the indigenous and I am excited to see signs that more collaboration is happening. I will talk about this more in my next post.

So, as spring is doing it’s best to erupt (early and in spite of the hottest March on record), I thought I would give you some of my favorite “frames” from Paul Hawken’s new book Carbon: The Book of Life.

The real solution (to our rapidly warming planet and related crises) is to create more life on earth because the biosphere creates the atmosphere. . . . What does more look like? Pure water, clean food, vibrant cultures, honored people, ancient forests, human health, equity, education, abundant fisheries, wildness, quiet green cities, rich soil, living wages, and dignified work.

Paul Hawken

Paul is a bestselling author and a leading voice calling for the regeneration of nature and humanity. Over the years, he has been a steady inspiration to me. He brought me to tears a number of years ago listening to him talk about “Drawdown”, a virtual library of all the things we can do not just to stop planetary heating, but reverse it. Empowering women, of course, is high on the list.

Here are a few frames among the oh-so-many amazing anecdotes and inspiring tales in “Carbon”.

Historian John Mohawk, a Seneca born into the Turtle clan, describes pre-Columbian Turtle Island (America and Canada) as a continent where hundreds of tribes and nations resided in bioregions, learning how to live and thrive with regional plants and animals over hundreds of generations. That Turtle Island is referred to as the New World speaks to the pervasive settler delusion. According to Mohawk, these cultures were not based on money, and food was never sold. Mohawk described a culture where “everything that ever happens to you is watched. When you’re small, if you don’t thrive, they notice. If they feed you something and you don’t thrive, they notice. If they feed you something else and you do thrive, they notice. Every possibility they have at their fingertips can be tried; they are motivated to watch and see which foods help people the most. Not which foods help people make money, but which foods have the best biological impact, especially on young and old people.

A woman, Eunice Newton Foote, Paul tells us, was one of the very first people to sound the alarm about the danger of greenhouse gases but was ignored.

. . . in 1856, an amateur scientist and women’s rights activist who did the first experiments with sealed carbonic acid in glass bottles placed in the sun. Her conclusion: the results measured in her glass jars could happen to the planet: ‘An atmosphere of that gas would give our earth a high temperature.’ Her work was ignored for nearly a century because scientific gatherings did not allow women to speak.

A story with a similar theme of women’s silencing, Paul tells about a female botanist’s journey to tell the truth in spite of ridicule from her established male colleagues,

In Monica’s case, the botany establishment has done exactly that, even to the point of booing her at conferences. Zoë Schlanger points out that it is only the men who loudly protest and heckle. Yet those same male botanists freely acknowledge that beach evening primroses increase their nectar within three minutes of hearing the sound of a buzzing bee. Science has objectified plants for centuries, so why not a female botanist, too?

Paul recounts his visit to a farm in England that was virtually dead until it was “re-wilded” by Isabelle Tree.

On the train to Knepp, I looked out the window at pastures with the telltale bluish-green appearance produced by chemical nitrogen fertilizers. Hedgerows were rare. When I arrived at Knepp, I was surrounded by a scent—the indescribable fragrance of soils, grasses, flowers, meadows, and woodlands. In 2019, an introduced white stork nested on one of the castle turrets. It was the first time this had occurred since 1414, before there was a Britain. When I visited in 2023, there were more than twenty nests. At least half the flock was wheeling overhead . . . Not only did new bird species arrive, but those already resident increased their numbers dramatically.. . .

In his amazing chapter about the intelligence of plants, Paul writes. . .

We might ask, what is more important to the planet, plants or people? If the plants leave, we follow—within days. If we go extinct, plants thrive, and the remnants of our civilization will be covered over by trees, roots, and vines. We like to think we are the most important organism on the planet, a delusion we may want to reconsider.

This book made me feel a lot better about things — purposeful, with more clarity about a way forward. I hope it does the same for you.

We can no longer continue to devalue or objectify the feminine or the non-human world. Time’s up. A new world order awaits us. Let’s begin.

Invitation to reflect . . .

What’s something you can do to restore the biosphere?

In Carbon, Paul recounts many instances where women’s voices have been silenced — and it has cost humanity and the living world dearly. What can you do to strengthen your voice?

Prefer to listen? Just press the play button above.

p.s. I am excited to share with you the cover blurb on my upcoming book.

Humanity is at a crossroads. Climate change, rising authoritarianism, and deeply stubborn hierarchies of gender, racial, and economic inequality are all symptoms of an outdated patriarchal culture; one that is dying, but not going quietly.

Collaborative Hardball is both a rallying cry and a practical guide for women—and anyone who supports the rise of the feminine—to reclaim power, redefine negotiation, and dismantle the systems holding us back.

Author and seasoned negotiation expert Susan Coleman asserts that how we negotiate—whether in the boardroom, the bedroom, or on the global stage—matters now more than ever. For millennia, patriarchal norms and violence have muted and de-skilled women, making us more deferential and accommodating than is our nature. In reality, we carry the essential ingredients and are uniquely positioned now to be the collaborative force that is so urgently needed to lead humanity forward, model true partnership, heal divides, and create a more hopeful future.

Our voices—firm, fierce, and fair—and our rootedness in true gender equality that balances feminine and masculine energy are the foundation for the world we want to leave our children.

Blending actionable tools with powerful stories from her own life and the lives of other inspiring women, Coleman introduces a revolutionary “New Negotiation” that blends the strategic mastery of collaboration with a feminine-infused strength that comes from knowing who we truly are.

This isn’t your typical negotiation manual. It’s a manifesto for systemic change. Whether you’re navigating high-stakes deals, personal relationships, or global movements, Collaborative Hardball will sharpen your voice, ignite your confidence, and equip you to lead with purpose in every arena of your life.

Dive in—and join the collective uprising of women ready to change the rules and reshape the world.

Links to interviews with Paul about Carbon.

https://resources.soundstrue.com/podcast/paul-hawken-a-love-letter-to-the-flow-of-life/

https://landing.pachamama.org/paul-hawken-2025?utm_campaign=8972076-CALL%20RP%2057%20Paul%20Hawken%202025&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-83Pk4LXK_OI7-Fta09OjkaGEjOOdiovYN_hN8RzIgkCC5gukFqN-UWS3itzEhubP2ytPY9zKsZbMsbacbFKFaRBQuptw&_hsmi=358096319&utm_content=358096319&utm_source=hs_email