I have some very exciting news to share! Dirt Church: Answering the Call to Rewild Spirit is now available!
This offering has been a work of love and devotion to what I’ve come to know as the Sacred Wild. And not just the wild of the world we call home, but also the wild within.
“When I started writing this book, I did not realize the journey I was about to be led on. Sitting on a blanket in my backyard in northern Georgia, underneath Grandmother Pecan tree, I heard a gentle whisper in my heart.
Write a book called Dirt Church. Rewild yourself.
What I thought would happen was that I would write a book on finding God in the wilderness. What actually happened pushed me beyond the edges of what I thought I knew—into a wider, wilder, and deeper view of Spirit and love for this planet than I could have imagined that afternoon gazing at the sky through the limbs and leaves.”
Over the past couple of years, through wandering in my own backyard, trails and woods nearby and at great distance in New Hampshire and Vermont, I’ve been gently and sometimes startlingly led into a deeper knowing and trusting. This book became greater than a book about nature and spirituality and also became a book about the systems and institutions we live within and a longing and commitment to nourish new ways of being.
I’ve heard Spirit in the call of the red-winged blackbird (who just returned, by the way), witnessed the Divine in rambling blackberries, and even felt Mystery and Presence in the morning dew on my bare feet.
In all of this I’ve known -explicitly- that I cannot keep it to myself.
“Loving the wild of the world and within is not a call to more individualism. It is a commission to be an intentional part of the web of life, to invest in community, and to love all others and ourselves fiercely and actively.”
Loving the wild of the world and within calls us to rewild spirit. It calls us to move further up and into the Sacred Wild. We are called to a deep re-imagining.
“Creeds, theological pontifications, and the like have replaced direct knowing of the Divine through Earth connection. We have forgotten to look to the stars, to place our hands on a tree, to put our bodies in water and then to listen and know.”
Throughout the book, there are many themes connected with this larger theme of rewilding. Chapters are dedicated to topics ranging from resilience and connection to artificial intelligence, spiritual community, faith, and more. Queerness and wildness is woven throughout the pages as well as calls to dismantle white supremacy culture and institutionalism and calls to care for our Sacred Earth. Each chapter ends with an invitation to participate in a practice to integrate rewilding into your own spirit and community. Reciprocity lies at the heart of each invitation.
In the spirit of reciprocity and the Gift Economy (See The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer), I have made the songs included in the book available for unlimited streaming. There is also an option for purchasing the downloads of the songs or making a donation to support my work. These songs are meant for singing in community and preferably outside.
You can find those songs on the Dirt Church page on my website, as well as resources and more on the book.
Celebrate with me!
To celebrate the release of Dirt Church, I invite you all to join me for an online celebration over Zoom. April 1st, 6:30-7:30PM Eastern. I will share some readings and a song, and lead practices from the book. To register for that, follow this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/4PRpkA7USMa8zt-6SZkYJA#/registration
Thank you all for your support and kindness and encouragement. I hope you love this book.
Whether you have experienced spiritual trauma, have deconstructed, or long for something more, this book offers a path for you to step outside and grow your love for the wild of the world and within.
With wild hope and love,
Charity
Link to buy the book (Universal link that allows you to choose which retailer you prefer): https://books2read.com/u/4AZXgq
