EP48 - How Connecting with Nature Can Transform Your Inner Peace

Leah Rampy and Beth Norcross spent the first half of their careers trying to save the planet with their heads. Beth worked on forest policy on Capitol Hill. Leah earned a PhD, ran a nonprofit, and held leadership roles in Fortune 100 companies. Both burned out, and both found their way back to the divine through the woods.

Together they wrote Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of Trees, winner of a Nautilus Book Award. In this conversation we talk about:

• The blinding flash of the obvious that activism and spirituality were never meant to be separate
• Hugging trees, and meaning it
• A tree that folded in half when its heartwood rotted, and what it takes for a person to lose heart
• Why the tree you climbed as a kid may have been teaching you all along
• Reciprocity with the living world, and holding grief in community
• Why a red oak never envies a white oak
• Tiny ways to connect with nature on an ordinary day, starting with your toothbrush

Beth returns next week to lead us through a guided meditation.

Connect with Leah: leahrampy.com | Substack: Reweaving Earth and Soul
Connect with Beth: bethnorcross.com
The book: Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of Trees (Broadleaf Books)