Photo by Gary Bendig on Unsplash Over the last 8 years working in the environmental space, I’ve seen (and felt) climate and environmental despair up close. It hung in the air in my grad program. It showed up in the gaps between words; in the heavy silences that came when we discussed “the future” – … Continue reading Timely Notes on Climate Fatalism
Originally published in SAGE Magazine, February 2020 As a student of religions and ecology, the times I’ve spent in the tropics have afforded me a special affection for these places. While my own affections cannot compare to those of someone tied to a place by blood or birth, I’ve come to deeply appreciate the tropics … Continue reading Waste and Void: The 2019 Wildfires and Jeremiah
September 8th, 2021 Early September days are among the most beautiful days we get in the mid-Atlantic. The dry air we typically get at this time of year, the temperate days and cool nights are a relief after the humid heat of August. The smell of leaves as they begin to yellow and summer’s last … Continue reading What Does It Mean to Move On Twenty Years After 9/11?
Originally published in SAGE Magazine, a publication of Yale School of the Environment. Read the original here. lived in a small community outside Wheeling, West Virginia for seven months in 2020. New Vrindaban – a spiritual community drawing on Vaisnava Hindu tradition, current population 100 people and 70 cows – was my refuge from COVID-19; … Continue reading Holy Land
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in the Lord alone I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, More than watchmen for the morning. – Adapted from Psalm 130 This time, like so many other times, is a time of waiting. Waiting for light; waiting for spring; waiting for political change; waiting for … Continue reading My soul waits for You, O Lord
A homily/essay written for Govardhan Puja, October 28, 2019. There are those certain holidays when you just want to be with your people. Depending on your upbringing, it might be Thanksgiving; Christmas; Yom Kippur; Diwali; for me, Govardhan Puja ranks high on that list. No matter where I am, on Govardhan Puja I make it … Continue reading Giriraj’s Radical Love
Originally published at http://www.sacredecologyforum.org. I spent the summer working with family forest managers in Ohio and West Virginia, and sat to write an essay during an outing. I spent a peaceful morning on a hilltop overlooking the Ohio River. To my left and right are ridges and valleys thick with greenery, dusted with morning fog. … Continue reading Flowing with the River
Discipleship in the Last Supper: What Vaisnavas Can Learn from the Followers of Jesus A reflective essay written during Holy Week, 2019. The church is quiet and dark. The altar is stripped of its embroidered fabrics and the cross lies bare upon the ground. Jesus is about to be arrested by the religious police and … Continue reading Discipleship in the Last Supper
Recently I had the pleasure of conducting an interview with Mat McDermott, a contributing writer for Patheos, on Hindu identity. It was engaging opportunity to express my experiences as a White person adopting a Hindu practice and culture. When and why did you first identify as Hindu? I started exploring a Hindu identification pretty immediately. … Continue reading Interview on Hindu Identity
What is the potential of locally-focused food enterprises for economic and community revitalization? That question is at the heart of an endearing, if sometimes rambling, book by Vermont farmer Ben Hewitt. The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food (Rodale Press, 2009) examines the role of food-based enterprises in the … Continue reading Review: “The Town That Food Saved”
Allegra Lovejoy 