There are few low-stakes words that engender more discomfort than “Can I offer you some feedback?” It’s not that most of us are against feedback as a concept — we are not in denial about our faults and genuinely want to improve. But that doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable to hear. (Particularly, since someone … Continue reading A Faith that Lasts: Using Feedback
Perhaps one of the strangest, and most troubling, developments of the past hundred years in the West has been the shift in talking about ‘citizens’ and ‘the public’ to talking about ‘consumers’ and ‘tax-payers’, as though our sole purpose in life and society is to consume and to give back (as little as possible) to … Continue reading A Faith that Lasts: Obtain a Yield
If there is one word I’d use to describe most people I know, it’s “tired.” Even as ‘work-life balance’ and ‘self-care’ have become buzzwords, and the pandemic caused a dramatic reduction in people’s activities, it seems we are all exhausted. Something is critically wrong with how we manage our energy. This is interesting, since we … Continue reading A Faith that Lasts: All about Energy
So far, this series about lessons from permaculture in building a life - and spirituality - that is resiliant and sustainable has been all about observation. And today’s post continues on that theme. It’s about observing patterns, and keeping them in mind as we make changes to the system that is our life of faith … Continue reading A Faith That Lasts: From Pattern to Detail
In Tuesday’s post, I discussed the first lesson from permaculture that I think can help us build a more sustainable life of faith, the importance of observation: How, in order to build anything lasting in life, we need to understand our environment, the givens of our situation, and the nature of the problem before we … Continue reading A Faith that Lasts: Think and Act in Systems
Matthew Root 