#2-009: Story in Our Bones - Climate Acting and Being with Osprey Orielle Lake
Osprey Orielle Lake is dedicated to creating a more sustainable and harmonious world, where people are connected to each other and the land.
Her recent book The Story Is in our Bones tells the story of local communities all over the world led mostly by women who are standing for climate justice.
The founder of Women’s Earth Action Network, (WECAN), Osprey finds renewal and wisdom in the redwoods, the oceans, and the stars, especially during difficult times.
In this conversation we talk about the difficulty of shifting worldviews while simultaneously campaigning for local reforms.
Here are three key takeaways from the episode:
- Urgent Environmental Issues: Osprey Orielle Lake highlights urgent environmental issues faced by the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network, including fighting against fossil fuel pipelines and deforestation projects. Understanding and addressing these issues is crucial for creating a sustainable future.
- Activism and Connection with Nature: Aminata Desert Rose and Osprey Orielle Lake discuss the importance of cultivating the ability to listen and have a relationship with the earth. From embracing activism as a way of living to educating ourselves about nature, it's essential to connect with living earth, even in urban environments.
- Energy Activism and Spiritual Approaches: The conversation delves into the concept of energy activism and the importance of spiritual activism, such as meditation and prayer, within the ecosystem of active activism. Balancing manifest and energy-based activism is key for driving positive change.
Together, we can learn, grow, and take action to protect our planet and create a more sustainable world. Stay tuned for more insightful episodes from Mother Tree Network! #EnvironmentalActivism #Sustainability #MotherNature #PodcastEpisode
TRANSCRIPT
Aminata Desert Rose:
Hey, everyone. It's Aminata, Desert Rose Plant Walker firewoman, and I'm here today with a very special guest, Osweh Aurelia Lake. She's the author of The Story is in Our Bones, and the co and the founder of Women's Earth and Climate Action Network. So welcome, Osprey.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Thank you so much. Good to be here with you today.
Aminata Desert Rose:
It's good to have you. It really is. I've enjoyed your book. I was sent it a few months ago, and, I really love how you integrate your story into it or your stories into it and the stories of the of the women and and and folks who you have worked with or who have observed, you know, working for the earth and her protection. So I I just wanna say straight up, I loved your book. I think it's an amazing book. And and in the mother tree community, we're actually reading it as a community. We'll be discussing it in April.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Well, I tell you just made my heart glow. Thank you so much for those generous words, and I'm I'm really thrilled and very honored that, your group is reading it. Thank you.
Aminata Desert Rose:
Yeah. So I I guess I wanna start we started for every interview by asking, the person what is good. So what is good to you today on any level that you wanna address that?
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Wow. Well, what is good today is, you know, we've just here in the northern hemisphere celebrating the spring equinox right now. And, I was up this morning and looking at some trees outside of our house that are now blossoming and just the the beauty of the petals and the aroma and the birds singing. And it was just beautiful to see that because there's a lot of difficulty in our world right now. A lot of pain, a lot of suffering, a lot of violence. And just to tune back into nature and mother earth and see that ever beauty making that is going on every day. And that's what I'm living for and fighting for and wanting communities all over the world to to be able to be centered in earth connected, communities and families and homes and countries where this is the focus, our relationship with each other in the land. And it was just good to have that breather in the midst of of so much turmoil.
Aminata Desert Rose:
Yeah. Yeah. Me too. It is such a such a counterpoint to the suffering that's happening right now. And one of the things I wanted to ask you, because you talk about this in your book, was about, some ways, you talk about multiple timelines, you know, and you talk about how there's one world that is coming apart. And, and there's another world being pulled forward, being brought forward. Tell me about, like, how do you hold both of those things? Where do you put your focus? If both of those things are true, where do you put your focus?
Osprey Orielle Lake:
That's such a marvelous question, really. I I think it's an ongoing process. It's like a living question you asked me because it's something I ask myself literally every day. So you put your finger on something that's really, deep in my thoughts and heart right now is, you know, how to really, welcome this world that I many of us are pulling forth from the deepest part of our bones, if you will, the deepest part of our spirit and soul really seeing this world of equity and a healthy nature and changing our economy and living in reciprocity with each other and the land. And there being real reparations for frontline communities, and respect for, you know, indigenous peoples and black and brown communities, and all these things that we are really knowing are part of our human experience and could be more of how we're actually living, and, you know, localizing our economies, local localizing our food systems, caring for neighbor. All of these things, are near and dear to us. And so part of the work we do what we can and how I live in my own personal life is is birthing this this world. We know it's possible.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
That many people are already living at a very local level. And how do we nurture that and create projects and programs and community to bring that forward in our creativity and the artists and all of it that comes with that way of living we want to be in and, you know, dip in and out of hopefully in our daily lives. And then, you know, as you mentioned, there's this other world that is, you know, can't we can't ignore. I don't want to ignore. We we need to intervene into that space. And so also in my writing, but also in my work at the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network, it's a constant intervention. You know, as many great, thinkers and leaders have said, you know, this kind of oppressive power system that we live in is not going to just sort of roll over because we're making demands or calls to actions. We have to intervene whether that's through voting, whether that is for you know, we do a lot of different delegations bringing frontline women's voices to go meet with financial institutions, to go meet with governments, and to really express the changes we want, you know, whether that's through, you know, having protests, having meetings, writing reports, doing campaigning.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
There's all kinds of ways to stop bad projects from happening, whether it's fossil fuel or deforestation in the Amazon. You know, it takes many forms, but how do we actually intervene of the in these systems so that we can connect with human beings who want to make the change but also need a different view? And how can we have interventions that, bring healing and equity to a system that's really failing most of us? And it's not even, obviously. And so, you know, that's how I sort of look at it like as someone who has white privilege. What is my role to intervene in the system just to name it of patriarchy, racism, colonization, and capitalism? You know, to me, these 4 systems and I would add, you know, right now, militarism, imperialism that come with those systems. And how do we dismantle them? How do we take them apart? How do we transform them? And so, you know, to sort of the last thing I'll say about this great question you've asked is, like, this is the world I see I wanna live in and is filled with beauty. And here's the world that we have not to create just binaries, but, you know, we're in in these very difficult systems that are harming us. And what is the space in between and how do we sort of bridge in here through, education and campaigning and many different modalities where we begin to, transform the current system into one that we want. And so this is what I'm really, getting into in the book and in our work because I also feel if we if we don't engage the powers that be, they will just continue.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
The elite will continue. That elitism and that supremacy will continue. And we need to to intervene into that space and offer our agenda and our ideas and our creativity and our love and all the ways that we can, in in this time of really trying to balance what's happening in our communities and with the land.
Aminata Desert Rose:
Yeah. I noticed that you you do toggle in the book, in terms of the intervention and the stepping back. The intervention and the kind of processing and being grateful. It's like, it's it's a really interesting dance that you're doing, and and you talk about it as being, I don't know if you use the word, multi I mean, you talk about multiple timelines, I think. But there's something about it where it's, where it's not linear, and and it seems to be like, well, I guess it gets down to worldview. Like, how do you cult how do you create a new a different worldview than the one that we have been surrounded by and disciplined into. You know? So, which I think is the title of your book, the stories in our bones. So tell us about, like, how do you see cultivating that different worldview?
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Yeah. So that as you were mentioning, the book is the story's in our bones, as you said, and then the subtitle is how world views and climate justice can remake a world in crisis.
Aminata Desert Rose:
Mhmm.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And so that's really the the, subtitle really lends itself to your question in the sense of, you know, at the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network on a daily basis, we're dealing with very immediate situations. As an example, right now, in Wisconsin and in Michigan, there's an Enbridge, fossil fuel pipeline that, know, I won't go into all the details, but we're really fighting to stop that because it will harm indigenous and black communities, particularly in their water and, the, you know, possible leakage from this new pipeline. There's already pipeline in the ground that is overdue. And so, you know, it's a rather urgent situation and also because it will contribute to the climate crisis with more fossil fuel production. And so we're engaged now getting out there, campaigning, you know, going to Washington DC to talk to lawmakers about stopping this pipeline. So it's just like one example. And we're working in the Amazon to stop deforestation, and we're reforesting in areas and bringing back forest in the Doctor Congo, in the Otome region. So there's all these very daily activities of things that we can actually do to transform the current system, stop harms, build beauty.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And at the same time, you know, we need to in from my corner of the world, step back as we're also doing that. So there's these short term immediate fires that need to be put out in other words or places where we could really create a beautiful change, with food sovereignty or food security in the region. At the same time, I kind of see that if we were to, be able to pick up a magic wand and end the climate crisis, let's say, tomorrow, it actually would be wonderful. Yes. But it wouldn't really necessarily stop our way of thinking that got us into the crisis. It wouldn't stop environmental racism. It wouldn't stop colonization. It wouldn't stop what is happening in Gaza.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
It wouldn't stop environmental degradation because we're continuing to have a culture of over consumerism. We continue to have white supremacy. We still have these structures of of economy, under capitalism in which it's an extractive economy in which we're gonna continue to take more and more from the earth than fit within the planetary boundaries. And so none of that would stop. And so, yes, we're, you know, every day working to help communities in any way we can, but at the same time, we need to go upstream and look at our world views. What how do we get into this crisis? What is our thinking? How do we transform these systems that caused these harms? And how do we come back to being in an Earth lineage and and being, in a in a place of egalitarian societies as some of our ancestors, many did in the past. And how do we actually, get rooted again in, equity and justice and love and care and reciprocity with the land. And that's an up stream question because that involves our world views and how we see ourselves in relationship to land.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And I'll just give one example of, you know, when we look at what's happened in modernity, there's this idea that we're no longer part of nature. We're above nature. Humans above nature. And so how do we regenerate these ancient knowledge systems that we all had wherever our ancestors are from originally that we are living in an animate cosmology. We're living in a world of relatives. The trees are our love relatives. The water is our relatives. All humans are equal and are our relatives.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
The the mountain is alive. The wind is alive. And how do we bring back the fact that we're in this living universe? Because when we see the earth is alive and are relative, we will treat the earth differently. And so it's also a worldview question of how do we come back to balance in egalitarian societies and how do we also regenerate the sense of an animate world that we are part and particle of?
Aminata Desert Rose:
Yeah. You know, when you just said that, 2 questions I have I wanna ask you. I wanna ask you about Earth lineage, so let's put a little pin in that. But the other piece about what you said in terms of worldview is, the Earth as living, and everyone about us is a sibling, but also as, maybe an authority. Having a perspective that we need. What do you think about that? Like, consulting the land, the earth, the trees, on what do you want? What would you have us do next?
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Yeah. That's a beautiful, framing, and I, really resonate with that absolutely. You know, again, you know, sort of taking into account, that the earth is alive and the trees and the rivers and the mountains are alive, there also are teachers, is how I would look at it. And I know, you know, when I wrote this book, the first place I went to see the idea is in the ancient redwood trees, that are here on the California coast. They're very, very old, 1,000 of years old. And I think that when we sit with nature, we have different thoughts and experiences if we tune in and listen. And whether it's the ocean or the river or the the trees or if we have a garden. And also, you know, thinking about people in urban environments even if there's a tree right outside your door or you can look up at the sky and look up at the stars at night.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
You know, whatever access we have. Sometimes even if we're in a confined situation, closing our eyes and imagining the earth under our feet and the deep deep deep roots of our connection to the land wherever we are. And listening, as you were saying, you know, listening to the earth. And, I I do think there's so much knowledge just from observing and being in nature and watching how nature is reciprocal in all of her magnificent activities and diversity. And we have so much to learn from nature. And in another component of it on a very practical level is a whole field of science called biomimicry, which you might have heard of, which is to really, you know, look to nature for solutions because nature is always producing activities that are healthy and, are thriving for life and bring the thriving of nature. And so how do we also look to nature for solutions? I think is also a component of this because nature is very sophisticated. And every time we step out of the natural laws of the earth or don't do things that create life enhancing conditions, we continue to harm our communities and harm the earth.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And so I think going to the earth and listening is so essential both at a spiritual, emotional, and mental level in terms of guidance, but also at a very practical level about how to invent things, how to do things that are, conducive to a healthy ecosystem.
Aminata Desert Rose:
Yeah. Yeah. And I I I, you know, just looking at my own evolution, you know, in terms of how my activism has evolved over time, I remember talking with somebody in the early nineties. This is, like, back when I was in grad school, and this is a group of young black people, and we were talking about something. And, Alice Walker had just come out with a collection of essays, I think. And one of her rephrase or maybe was a poll, one of her rephrase was hug a tree. When they do this to you, hug a tree. And I remember this one young student who was there, I was like, yeah, I really love that.
Aminata Desert Rose:
He was like, come on, Amanda, hug a tree. And I and I, you know, and I laugh because at that time, the way we understood the world, that does nothing. You know, that's just, you know, you opting out. But there's a whole shift going on right now. Right? And how we look at who makes change, who is wise, who has consciousness. And so that advice to hug a tree has really come back to me. And I, I wonder how do you recommend that people start to have a relationship and be able to, to cultivate the ability to listen?
Osprey Orielle Lake:
It's a great question. And, you know, you re reminded me to something that Alice Walker said that, her rent for living on earth is her activism. She said it it's not exactly the phraseology she would, but I really love that quote from her. Like, the rent that we pay here is our activism. And, you know, in this moment, I I really resonate with that. In terms of of listening and connecting in, I mean, one thing that I thought was really interesting, I found this study about how, you know, most people do live in an urban environments. The main you know, all of the world, people mainly live in cities at this point. That has increased over the years.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And that, you know, people can easily identify thousands of logos from companies and businesses. Just look at the logo and know what that company is and name it. So we're very schooled in that. But if you ask people to walk right outside their front door where they live maybe for many, many years and ask them to name just one tree or a bush or a plant or a bird outside their front door where they live every day. They have no idea what the name of that plant or tree or insect crawling on the pavement is. No idea. Right up the side of front door. No judgment.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Just stating what is.
Aminata Desert Rose:
Yeah.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And so I think that's a very good and confronting question, about what we're actually paying attention to and what we're learning about. And so we're bombarded with, you know, commercials and, you know, constant advertising. And so we're familiar with the language of corporations and companies and consumerism. But we're not aware of, you know, nature in the same way. And so, you know, when, you know, people come to me and ask a similar question, I say, well, I think, you know, for me, the first place has been literally go outside. Take time to, you know, get some plant books or you can even research it online if you don't have access to buying books. And look at your plants and identify them and start to get to know the names of these plants. What do they like? What do they need? Are they healthy? One friend of mine, she had this problem in California, of this disease that's affecting oak trees.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And so we did, like, you know, 2 months of research on that kind of oak tree and what's going on and what are some natural remedies that could help those trees. And eventually identified some minerals and different things that we needed to do to feed those trees and, you know, take responsibility for those trees right outside her house. And what could we do to protect them and help them and listen to them that whole built a whole relationship between us and those oak trees. You know, now, you know, we're their friends. We're finding out all about them and listening to them and listening to what they need and researching, scientifically what was needed. And so I think just as a simple beginning point, but it's not so simple, is we actually have to get engaged and active in educating ourselves about nature because it's not something we're talking about. And so I think just identifying the plants outside our homes, finding out what the birds are, it begins this relationship. It brings us into our earth lineage to be, you know, living relatives with all the beings around us.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And I would also add, you know, as an example here where I live in Nevada, I've gone out to find out where my water comes from. And there's a lake not too far from our home and some of our water comes there. So I go visit that lake. Years ago, I lived in another region where I used to lead hikes, women's hikes up into the watershed so people could actually see where did their water come from. We would go on a long hike walk following the watershed until it went into the municipal holding area.
Aminata Desert Rose:
I love that.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Yeah. And it changed, you know, years later. I still get emails from people who went on those walks who are like, every time I turn my faucet, I think about the mountain where we went hiking. And that relationship and they, you know, were telling me that they're they're checking in to make sure the water's healthy and what's going on and what are the water tables and, you know, are we in a drought or not? And just this awareness about where we live, the water, the land, the forests, the species right outside our door. All of this changes us like you were talking about with hugging a tree changes our relationship and one, it to me, it makes us happier because we're living someplace and we're connected and rooted to place, but it also helps us take care of the land and begin to develop this reciprocal understanding of where we are so we can also be life enhancing versus just consumers and extracting from the land because then, you know, it led to us caring for these oak trees. Like, how do we not only listen to the land and get connected for our own well-being, but also then it helps teach us over time how to have a relationship with the land and help the species around us and really move back into what many of our ancestors live, which is to enhance the land. What are we doing that's actually helping the forest, helping the grasslands, helping the animals around us? Because, that is also core to this. And the last thing I'll say on this is, you know, it's one of the things that, you know, really excites me about a lot of respect for our indigenous sisters and brothers and the knowledge they have of the land, their traditional ecological knowledge around how to be keystone species as humans.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Lila June Johnson is a really wonderful teacher around this. She's a Navajo, beautiful, powerful woman who's also an artist who who teaches about how, you know, we were at one time a keystone speaking species, indigenous peoples here in Turtle Island, the United States of America and worked with the land. And even though when, white settlers came here, it looked like wilderness. It wasn't. It was land that had been tended very carefully to ensure, you know, balance and ecosystems. And I think this is something that we need to really talk about and figure out once again, how do we get our modern societies to move from, being a detriment to the land into a different framing and worldview of how do we actually enhance nature and be a part of nature in a healthy way.
Aminata Desert Rose:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I'm thinking about use because you're talking about changing world views. And so, and the first step is to move the body towards something.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Move the
Aminata Desert Rose:
body and the attention, you know, out of the spaces where we get colonized. Honestly, if you look at where these screens, you know, whatever size they are, the the constant piping in of information, and and there's something different about the pace of nature. It's almost like it's not you know, the language is is more symbolic. It's it's, it's different. It just takes a different tuning.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Yeah. I love what you said about pacing. It's really, I think, such a big component. And, you know, as we talked about earlier, in my book, I'm also addressing this concept of time, time and pacing, and how we actually are, you know, from from my understanding, in a real interesting time puzzle, you might say, a time riddle.
Aminata Desert Rose:
Mhmm.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Because on the one hand, I see that we really need to slow down and listen to nature and have time for our friends and family and to do things in a really deep and well and, thoughtful way. And at the same time, we live in a society under capitalism and colonization that is so extractive of our time, our attention, our spirit, our emotions, our thinking, and just constantly pushing us forward just to pay rent, care for our families, and get food and take care of our health. Those basic things are under enormous pressure every day. And so we're not really living at the pace of well-being, most of us. And this really takes away from our health and also our ability to tune into listening to nature while you're scrambling around trying to get to your next appointment or meeting your meet your bills or whatever is going on. And so, you know, we have rare moments where we get to actually maybe get quiet to see what does our not to rhythm and pace, to be in a different, worldview, a different mindset, and a different relationship with ourselves. And so I do think that pace is a really big thing and how, at the same time, we need to slow down and maybe garden or, you know, do things that bring us into a place with the land and also help us care for our families. You know, we we also know that the climate crisis and environmental degradation are piling down on us.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And so I know at the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network every day where I get emergency calls at least 2 or 3 times a week, you know, around some crisis. You know, whether it's a fossil fuel pipeline that has exploded or some company coming into one of the communities that we work with, with a new deforestation project or it goes on and on. And this requires a certain kind of campaign fired up energy, which I don't think is bad. You know, this is how to respond to crisis and urgency, but, you know, it, it's there's there's different timelines. And this is why I was sharing at the beginning of the book that what I'm learning you know, everyone has different ways of entering this for me. I've sort of entered into this realm of a multifaceted timeline where I have to allow myself to be in nonlinearity, non in a nonlinear framework. In other words, I need a way to be, you know, with nature, be with my family, friends and close to nature and be in a slower pace while simultaneously I'm fired up and racing forward on a campaign that's urgent? And how do I sit with both those things at the same time? And that is literally my daily life. I'm doing both at this time attempting to.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And it's just what is. And it it from a sort of a western logical view, it doesn't make sense. But when I let go and I accept it, it seems to work to some degree. And it seems to me unavoidable. In other words, I must have some quiet or I cannot function and support the work that we do. But I'm also aware there's a lot of late nights, early mornings, and, you know, extreme situations to be in. Some of the women we work with are land defenders whose lives are being threatened for their land defense. Like, that's not gonna go on hold.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And I these are my friends and family and colleagues. And, yes, I'm gonna respond quickly. So, I've tried to just, relax into that both are gonna happen at the same time.
Aminata Desert Rose:
Wow. I'm just taking that in because it is so real. It is so real. I wonder how you feel about subtle activism or energy activism. One of the things that I've noticed, and this could be do you know what I mean by that?
Osprey Orielle Lake:
I'd love to hear your definition. That would be wonderful. Thank you.
Aminata Desert Rose:
Yeah. When I when I think of those terms, I'm thinking of people who are doing work in other realms. So there is the 3 d realm of, you know, the meetings with lawmakers and the elections and the on the ground land defense and then the support of the people on the ground and land defense, like getting resources to them. So that's one one form of of action for change. Another form of action for change is to work at it on an energetic level. You call it worldview, and I think it is partly mindset is worldview in that sense, but it's also it's it's immaterial, nonmaterial, energetic. You could call it spiritual, where you are or you call it prayer. People do different forms of what I would call energy activism.
Aminata Desert Rose:
And so I wonder it could be holding a vision, you know, as opposed to, like, holding the vision of what this what this right relationship with the earth could be in your community, outside your house, or, you know, however big you wanna make it. Does that explain what I'm talking about?
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Absolutely. Yes.
Aminata Desert Rose:
So I wonder how you feel about that kinda activism, and I wonder if you ever do any of that.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Yes. I do. I just hadn't heard that specific term, so thank you. I've I've never heard the term energy activism for spiritual activism, but I haven't heard specifically of energy activism. So thank you so much for that beautiful, definition. Yeah. I absolutely think that's key. You know, and I I I also like your description explanation because it's it could be different for different communities of people and how they might tune in spiritually.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
It might be meditation. It might be prayer. It might be visualizing things. So, each to their own for sure. But I do think it's really important, in the ecosystem, if you will, of active activism. And I think that's sort of the model that I operate from is that, when we do work to bring healing to the earth or activism, it's an ecosystem. And so however each of us feels that we are best aligned or attracted to or make sense to us is where to plug in. I just believe that, we're at such a critical tipping point for humanity and our living ecosystems that wherever people feel that they're passionate about or make sense to them.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
The main thing is roll up your sleeves and get in, you know, to to get engaged, not step back on the sidelines. 1, because we're all needed right now. And 2, the earth needs us. And 3, it also helps with our anxiety and helps with our concerns. Because when you act, you also generate hope for yourself. You you're actually participating in this great moment of transition in the human adventure, if you will. You know, we are in this big enterprise together as the human species at a a critical cusp point, you know, at a critical moment. And so everyone needs to get engaged as far as I'm concerned.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
No one needs to be on the sidelines, but we don't all need to do the same thing. You know, we should do it in the way that we're called to do that we're called to do. And that could be prayer or meditation or, you know, whole you know, I know, some of the women we work with do a lot of spiritual work around the water and protection of waters and forests. So I think there's a myriad of ways in the ecosystem that is collectively part of the new trajectory, The movement we're trying to get into to change where we are to where we actually need to be going. The only other thing I will say on that one piece is that that's, you know, my bottom line on it. But I wanna put a little flag, which is, I do think it's also important to be critical because there is also, you know, what some people have term spiritual bypassing or bypassing in different ways. So I think, you know, I would just put one caveat, which is and, you know, it's not a place to escape. You know, I wouldn't want the energy work or spiritual activism to not have a critical look at not, of sort of saying, okay.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Everyone else will be responsible to take care of it. You know, I'm I'm very enlightened, and so I'm not gonna participate. Mhmm. And so I just think it's important to be balanced when we look at these things. It's also true of of sort of the more manifest activism that you talked about. I mean, there can be all kinds of problems in being very, very active on the ground with no, time for reflection or meditation or, assessment of one's assumptions and worldviews. So you can get out there and just start doing action. Well, maybe your action's not helping.
Aminata Desert Rose:
So, Asprey, one of the reasons one of the levels that I wanna get to is, how has your work, you know, working on the front lines or supporting people on the front lines, stepping back, cultivating relationship, slowing down, speeding up, like, being living in both of those spaces. What I guess I wanna know is, who or what do you feel is supporting you? Are there ancestors that you work with? Are there nature spirits? Who or what is bodies of water?
Osprey Orielle Lake:
So for me, it's very, very important to have places on the land that I can go and get renewal and listened to the advice of nature as we've been talking about. So for me, that place is, the redwood trees I was mentioning earlier. I often go to the redwood trees. I try to go hiking as often as possible on the land. I'm also here on the California coast. So, you know, this is an ocean place. And so going to the ocean is hugely renewing and also informative. So I would say between the redwood trees and the ocean, then we have a couple of times a year, the whale migrations here, which I really love to see, the gray whales migrating.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
These are all very important to me and also the night sky. It's very important to me, at the end of a big long workday when it's not raining, to go outside and to look at the night sky. And I find that seeing the stars, is very, you know, we're talking about worldview and paradigm shifts and different mindsets. Somehow for me along, of course, with the ocean and the redwoods, seeing the stars is also really profound because it kind of gives that perspective of reminding me and all of us that we're on this planet and space. And it's something we don't talk about on a daily basis because of all the things we were talking about in modernity and just our daily lives and the pace that we live. But, you know, if I stop and just take a minute and realize where we are, I I just find it very startling. It's such a contrast to looking at our computer screens and everything else, and yet it is so profound that we're on this living planet in space. The magnificence of it, the miracle of it, it's just so astonishing.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And to bring that perspective in on a frequent basis has really transformed how I do everything, to keep remembering, the fact that we're, you know, in this gift of life, really. And how it's hard to even put our minds around how profound it is that there are even human beings at all that have evolved. And what are we doing with this precious gift and this wonder and this awe? What are we doing with this? And what is my responsibility? And, this is this is something that is very deep and something that, I come back to again and again. And then in terms of humans, you know, I'm very fortunate over many years to have incredible mentors, you know, particularly, indigenous leaders and black women that I have learned from. I I think those have been my main teachers. And, and I have learned so much from from women's leadership, frontline women's leadership, and also indigenous women who are very connected to the land and have taught me so much. So I owe everything to to the mentors that I have that I have that are both human and nonhuman. Mhmm.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Mhmm.
Aminata Desert Rose:
Yeah. I just had a conversation with Barb Horn, who was also on the show, who's a student of the night sky. And it was just in that conversation I realized, wow, we are in space right now. We are in space. So, yeah. Yeah. And you do talk about that in your book. I love that you begin your book by looking up at the night sky and pointing out the constellations and how in Orion, there's stars that are really, really far away, like, thousands of light years, and there are some that just a few 100 light years.
Aminata Desert Rose:
And so those were in 2 different timelines by just being able to absorb those stars.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Exactly. I I just, you know, because the the book is very vast in scope, with many stories and many, different experiences of how we can change a worldview that when I started by saying, how can I create enough space on the page and in the reader's mind to open ourselves to this discussion? And that's exactly, you know, what came to me is, you know, looking at the night sky, these constellations. And as you said, by the time the light of those different, stars come to me here on earth, they're completely in a different timeline because of how light travels, how many light years it takes to actually touch the earth with that light. And so that really moved me into understanding while I'm standing here, but I'm seeing various timelines, but I'm having that experience. So we can understand more about living in this multifaceted timeline because it's happening to us every day. And we look at the night sky, we actually can experience that. And I find that very intriguing and also helping us to expand what we think is reality, what we think is as time. Yes.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And how time is not linear in this way that we think. And also begin to have contemplations about past, present, and future. Because we look at those stars, actually, we're looking at the past. Right. Because by the time light gets here, that time has already passed for that star, but this is our present experience. Yes. So we also have, timelines that are crossing over. And, also, it helps us think about, the fact that what we're doing right now in the present moment is what is going to impact the future.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Because we can't continue business as usual. We can't just sort of deal, at a very superficial level with a lot of the issues that we're facing today. We have to go deep, which means both understanding the past and root causes, but also going deep in our imaginations about all the possibilities that could be that would address, a full spectrum of solutions that would impact everyone and the earth in a good way. And so these timelines are really important because we need to understand we're on this living planet. We're part of this incredible evolution that's going on in space. And what is our relationship to past, present, and future, and how those things are connected, and what is my personal story within that? What are my choices that are going to impact future generations? And all of that for me happens when I'm looking at the stars because we're in these multiple timelines.
Aminata Desert Rose:
Wow. That is beautiful. That is beautiful. And, and we have access to the stars. I know a lot of us live, as you said, in urban centers, and there's a lot of light pollution, and we can still get access. There's still some access. So, Asprey, we're gonna need to wrap up, but I wanna ask you, one more question. And that question is, if there's anything that you want people who, you know, are rooted in justice and love to to to think about or to do differently after hearing this interview, what would that be?
Osprey Orielle Lake:
Oh, gosh. I have so much love and, excitement and, yeah, respect for people who are working in the realm of justice and love. To me, the the we are kin. We are together. We're working collectively together. And, you know, I just look to all of us as, you know, mutually working together on a collective vision for a different world. And the one thing I would say is, you know, I hope everyone who's working in the space, has friendship, has community, has love and well-being because it's challenging work. It's such beautiful work, and we need each other.
Aminata Desert Rose:
Beautiful. And if people wanna stay in touch with you or they wanna find out more about you, where we should they
Osprey Orielle Lake:
go? There well, for, the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network, our website is wwwwecan, w e c a n, and then the word international spelled out, we can international dot org. And then for my book, I have a website under my name, wwwospreyoreallake.earth. And you can find it about my book there. And, of course, the book is available on all the the normal book places online that people can can get the book. And, I would love for people to get the book, not not from the sense at all of consumerism and capitalism and buying my book, but I want to be in conversation. You know? The the book that's really written for our communities, for our movements, for people working in the space and, you know, this just the fact that through the book I got to meet you, I'm thrilled. This has been a delicious conversation, I have to say. Just beautiful.
Osprey Orielle Lake:
And so the the want of sharing the book is I want to be in conversation or others to have conversation, on this topic because, you know, it's part of how we're gonna move forward, and and that's why I'm excited about it. And, yeah, just thanks so much for having me be here
Aminata Desert Rose:
with you. Beautiful. Thank you, Ospray Oriole Lake, the author of the story is in our bones. The story is in our bones. I love that. Love that illusion to our ancestors, deep knowledge, all of that. So I highly recommend it, and we will see you on the next time.
