As children, we have our own hidden worlds. This beautiful conversation with children’s author Jon-Erik Lappano looks at being our innate selves, while finding pockets of wildness and writing. 

We talk about unmitigated and imaginative play in nature. We look at the joy of the creative process, and what it feels like to make something (like a beautiful book) that you can hold in your hands. We talk about good storytelling, what it feels like to have a secret language with animals, and how we each relate to the world, even if that is quiet or quirky. We talk about darkness—the painful fleetingness of time, being swallowed up by the forest—but also wonder and magic. 

Jon-Erik Lappano is a Governor General’s Literary Award-winning Canadian author of books for children. He stays up unreasonably late working on things, and at his age, he should really know better. He lives in Stratford, Ontario, in a wild old house occupied by his wonderful, patient wife, three lovely, lawless children, and an unseemly number of pets. 

His new book, The Language of Birds, was published this week by Random House Studio and is illustrated by Zach Manbeck.

This is a conversation about discovering sacredness and deconstructing empire.

Church of the Wild brings nature, spirituality, and reverence together, regardless of specific religion. But many of us, despite feeling a spirituality in nature, are out of practice with prayer and have lost sacredness in our daily lives. 

This episode of Reseed is a conversation about how to find sacredness, and how doing so is a rejection of empire building, patriarchy, and violence. As sacred creatures, humans can build refugia: havens of growth in the midst of unstable terrain.

Guest Victoria Loorz is a wild church pastor, an eco-spiritual director and co-founder of several transformation-focused organizations focused on the integration of nature and spirituality. After twenty years as a pastor of indoor churches, she launched the first Church of the Wild, and is the author of Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred. 

Listen to hear more about how—at a moment where almost nothing is sacred—to find sacredness in our lives and in our wild world. 

Modernity lets us be comfortable in isolation, and can make it difficult for us to turn towards nature and community. Many of us struggle with mental health challenges like anxiety and depression—and nature can help us heal. It can be helpful to see how our brains and internal worlds are a worthy part of the natural world.

Author Jarod K. Anderson joins Reseed for a conversation about letting go of shame, finding worth, balancing courage with care—and going to wild places with no agenda.