About

About Dear Earth
On the 25th of July 2019 I attended a local meeting about climate change.
I’d known for a long time that we’ve been harming our planet, but I hadn’t let this bitter knowledge enter my heart. I sat and listened to all the science, and witnessed the emotion of others listening. Thick layers of denial receded for a second and I felt my first jolt of sadness.
Over the next few weeks I read the Extinction Rebellion handbook, and every few pages I wept. I started waking in the night feeling frightened. I began to reappraise the way I lived my whole life. I saw the necessity of joining with others – for mutual support, and to shake our political and economic systems into the huge changes necessary if we want to continue living here.
Alongside the amazing Extinction Rebellion community, my faith as a Buddhist and my work as a writer are big support pillars for me. I hope that my words here may help you to find your own supports – the things that lead you into a closer relationship with the earth and your fellow human beings. I hope that they might point you towards the grief, and to the riches that are a side-effect of this terrible journey.
I’ll also share my own every-day struggles as I live with you all through these strange times. How we can find the middle way between denial and apathy/despair? Why does it feel so impossible to be the perfect eco-warrier? What is the purpose of grief? How can we look after ourselves and each other as we go forwards? How can we keep remembering to appreciate the astonishing beauty that still surrounds us?
I don’t think it’s going to be easy. And we don’t have to do it on our own. Whatever happens next, we can love each other and the earth right now.
You can now read more than 100 of my letters in my book, Dear Earth: Love, grief & activism. This year I’m doing an hour’s vigil outside every day until COP26 in November 2021 – read more here.
About me

I am first and foremost an ordinary foolish being. I sometimes work too hard & eat too much chocolate & I like to be in control & I have lots of tangled complications as well as lots of lovely bits.
I live in the Bright Earth Buddhist temple in Malvern, the UK, which I run with my amazing husband Kaspa (we are both Buddhist priests in the Pure Land tradition). I work as an IFS psychotherapist and I have written novels and non-fiction books. My main site is here.
We have two dogs, a cat & three bunnies, and we definitely won’t be getting any more pets for a while. I love books, growing veg (when I’m not feeling too lazy), vegan cake, visiting sacred places, walking Aiko and Ralph on the common, and learning.
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My main site is here. I left social media in October 2020 and am staying away for now! It makes me happy to hear from people – email me.