This week's video was inspired by meeting Miriam Morrill through The Nature Journal Club on Facebook. Miriam is a fire expert and educator who is working on an amazing international effort to promote awareness and understanding of fire ecology through nature journaling and art (learn more at www.pyrosketchology.com).

While I was making the video, I was originally thinking of finding voices for fire-damaged landscapes. Fires are impacting vast parts of the American West, where I live, and we can no longer pretend these fires are an abnormal blip. They are now a fact of life, so we need to start filling these empty, damaged places with stories and understanding.

However, I soon realized that fires are just one type of damaged landscape that need our voices and compassion. You don't necessarily need to seek out fires, you can find damaged landscapes almost everywhere and all of them need to be lifted and supported with our attention.

This reminds of the most important book I've read in many years, The Blue Sapphire of the Mind by Douglas Christie. This book deeply affected me because Christie utilizes contemplative spiritual traditions as an opening of full awareness and empathy for the ecological wounds and disharmonies of our time.

Merging the profound insights of Christie's book with the free-flowing creative experiences of nature journaling feels like the beginning of a new, and much needed, conversation. What do you think? And what resources have you found to inspire you?

(If you've stuck with me and read this far, I hope you'll consider helping me continue this work by subscribing to my videos or making any type of PayPal donation, paypal.me/LukasGuides. Making these weekly videos is a full-time calling and effort, and I sincerely appreciate the support of this community of voices.)