Our EcoDharma Doula for the Year of the Wood Snake
Meet Gregory Webster, Touching the Earth’s second EcoDharma Doula.
Recognizing the sacred begins when we are interested in every detail of our lives.
Chögyam Trungpa
I am writing this on Shambhala Day morning, which is the day I begin my term as EcoDharma Doula. I certainly have some big boots to fill, and my first duty is to thank David Takahashi for his immense contribution as the Collective’s first Doula. He created a significant body of work during his tenure, much of which is collected here on the Touching the Earth website. So if you want to explore his 12 step plan to recover from fossil fuel addiction, find technological solutions to minimise your own personal impact, or tools to build community resilience, I heartily encourage you to browse the archive content here.
In many ways it would be folly to try and emulate David’s approach; he had it covered. So I hope to take a slightly different tack, and take my cue from social thinker Dougald Hine’s reflection (based on the work of John Michael Greer) that “a problem has a solution: you can fix it and it goes away, leaving the situation much as it was beforehand. A predicament has no solution; it is something you have to live with. You can do a better or worse job of living with it, but you cannot make it go away.” Over the coming months, as the Year of the Wood Snake unfolds before us, I’ll be sharing essays, poems, and perhaps some other media, reflecting on different aspects of what it means to live with the predicament that faces us today, in all its manifold complexity. It’s been said before and it’s worth repeating: our tradition was made for this moment and we are blessed to have the tools to help navigate the uncertain terrain before us.
I look forward to seeing you in the Google Group and on this website throughout the year; I hope you enjoy the ride!
Gregory Webster, EcoDharma Doula,
Shambhala Day 2025
A 12 Step Fossil Fuel Addiction Recovery Program
- Surrender: Admit powerlessness over fossil fuels and that our addiction to them has caused harm to ourselves and others.
- Hope: Believe in the possibility of a sustainable energy future and commit to working towards it.
- Faith: Decide to turn away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy sources.
- Honesty: Take an inventory of how our addiction to fossil fuels has impacted our lives and the world around us.
- Trust: Admit to ourselves, to others, and to a higher power the nature of our wrongs.
- Willingness: Be ready to work on addressing and rectifying our past and current mistakes regarding fossil fuel use.
- Humility: Humbly ask for help from others and higher power to overcome our addiction to fossil fuels.
- Responsibility: Make a list of all persons and entities we have harmed through our addiction to fossil fuels and be willing to make amends to them.
- Accountability: Make direct amends to such people or entities wherever possible, except when doing so would injure them or others.
- Awareness: Continue to take personal inventory of our actions and decisions regarding energy use and be willing to admit when we are wrong.
- Patience: We seek to improve our conscious contact with the natural world and strive to live harmoniously with it.
- Service: Carry the message of sustainable energy to others and practice these principles in all our lives.