Search Results

Leading a Nurture Nature Wild Walk at Jamaica Bay, NY June 2017 (LoraKim 3rd from right) Well, people often wonder why I always dress in veterinary surgical scrubs and a clergy collar. It’s not easy sometimes, for some do not like being reminded of organized religion, and others have reactions to the medical field, or to the brightly colored scrubs. Still many others appreciate being reminded of the hope, beauty, and affirmation of the deep meaning, wholeness, or sacredness that animals bring to their lives. I wish I could easily convey through how I dress how I want to hug all of life in a global embrace, but instead I often have to explain why I wear a collar. My reasons are much the same as those that Johnny Cash gives in his song, “Man in Black, "I wear black for all those held back, for the countless who have died, and for the poor and beaten down." If I had his musical skill, I would explain in guitar riffs, but instead I will explain with a few short words: "Bodies matter. All bodies. No exceptions." The veterinary scrubs say that there is value in caring for animal bodies, and in the relationships between humans and other species. The clerical collar says that there is value in caring for human bodies, and the relationships between humans and All (some would call this God/Goddess, others would call this Spirit of Life, Evolution, Nature, Life, or Existence). Participating in the People's Climate March, September 2014, NY (LoraKim with thumb up) Worn together they say that all species have a “right to ethical consideration.” This sometimes startles people because they might think that I am saying certain individuals of some species have more value than those of others, most specifically, that human individuals matter less than animals, or certain demographics of humans matter more than others. This is why I wear the clergy collar, because I am not placing any individuals on some hierarchal continuum of worth and dignity. I am for all humans, and for all life. When I dress as I do I am strongly witnessing for justice, deeply embedded in many religious traditions. My clothes display my belief that humans are at risk of subordinating other humans on the grounds they are subhuman or that those other humans are the “true animals.” My dress says that I am against white supremacy and racism (and all “isms”). If we say that other species do not merit our moral consideration, then we can say the same of other humans. Presenting at River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation March 2017 Worn together the collar and scrubs offer my hope that we can achieve a better life for humans, other species, and our ecosystems when we tap into a deeply embedded sense of a shared animality with all of life. As Niel deGrasse Tyson said, “Accepting our kinship with all life on earth is not only solid science, in my view, it's also a soaring spiritual experience.” We live better when all live better. As a collared veterinarian I am saying that we are here to heal, care, and love one another. Adapting Johnny Cash’s words: "There’s things that never will be right I know And things need changing everywhere you go So I love to wear a rainbow every day To try to make other lives more okay These clothes are worn so that burdens need not be And so that all of us may one day be free" #Clothes #clergy #UnitarianUniversalist

Every individual is interconnected in beauty. It is a beauty we were born with, wild and inescapable. Yet, we lose sight of this. To see beauty, we need to observe ourselves and others nonjudgmentally by asking what are the feelings and needs behind behaviors. We connect to other’s beauty by using our bodies, our senses, and our cognitive empathy (using our thinking, feelings, research, and understanding of science). One Earth Conservation's Nurture Nature Program is now leading Wild Walks, helping us see and experience beauty in nature. Wild Walks help us pause and see how we walk in beauty - the beauty within (Emotional Intelligence) connected to the beauty in other humans (Social intelligence), connected to the beauty in other species (Multispecies Intelligence), connected to the beauty of relationships (Ecological Intelligence), connected to the beauty that is beyond words or thought (Spiritual Intelligence). All these intelligences build upon and contribute to each other, all of which we use to affirm beauty during a Wild Walk, intentionally at first with guided practices, and later let our scientific, naturalist, and chattering selves go wild. Human nature is inherently wild, but we too often over-domesticate it with cognitive loops entrenched in culture’s stories of oppression that diminish worth and beauty. Instead, let us take a walk on the wild side for freedom, letting our hearts sing for all wild things in the family of life, liberating all. Walking in Central Park, NY (photo by Ahodges) Take a look at our schedule of events coming up so you can join a Wild Walk - this weekend in Bluffton, SC (if Hurricane Irma allows it), then in White Plains, NY; Manhattan's Central Park, NY; Manhasset, NY; and Nantucket, MA. Also, here is a free Wild Walk Guide you can use if you cannot join us. Even for just a few minutes, go outside, and if you cannot walk, move part of your body or imagine doing so, moving your heart to welcome all wild things into the family of life. To find out more about the principles behind One Earth Conservation's Wild Walks, attend one of our workshops or retreats, or sign up for a course on our Nurture Nature Academy. #nurturenature #wildwalks

Totality slipping away Time seemed short. Friends along the path of totality kept telling us how they expected solid traffic jams leading up to the eclipse on August 21. Angst ridden as we hit traffic going to JFK airport in NY, we got to Charlotte, NC by plane an hour late. Dark now, we wisely guessed what might come in the next 24 hours and upgraded our usual economy rental car to a SUV with foldaway seats, figuring we’d have to sleep in it. Heading to Knoxville in the dark, we passed over the Smokies, unable to see the beauty with our noses to the road. Sleepiness overcame us at last as the clock turned over into a new day, and we had to call it quits near the Tennessee border. Curling into our SUV seats I buzzed with thoughts of what Annie Dillard said of the eclipse, “The sky snapped over the sun like a lens cover. The hatch in the brain slammed.” I hoped I was not too hyped by what Annie wrote in her famous essay, “Total Eclipse,” and prayed as the rumble of diesel engines in the rest stop slipped away that I could still the thoughts and really take in the many worlds of which earth is only one. When we woke up at 2:30 a.m., we did what most of North America does at this hour – we went in search of a Waffle House. Finding one on just the other side of Knoxville, which we considered a major hurtle to get through, we slurped coffee until a reasonable hour when we could show up at my friend’s farm in Englewood, TN. She met us in her PJs on her gravel driveway, swinging a flashlight to guide us in, for it was still dark at 6 a.m. in these parts. The eclipse gathering in Eastern Tennessee We had made it to the totality path with plenty of time to spare. Now shifting to decaf coffee, we chatted until the time came to fall asleep once more. Refreshed, we woke to picnic basket packing and were soon off to a community gathering atop a grassy knoll with mountains and farms all around us. Praying hands casting moon shadows We still had two hours to totality, but the time went so quickly. There was so much to do! Every one of the 20-some cars that perched on that hill came with people who had different stories about how they ended up there. They each brought their own expectations, desires, and toys to engage the eclipse. Out came the colanders, cork boards, special eclipse glasses, cereal boxes with pin holes, double mirror reflectors, planet and star charts, cameras, binoculars, and telescopes. My favorite, though, was folding our hands as if in prayer to see how the sun cast moon shadows on the ground. The trees too gave into sun worship, their leaves casting hundreds of moons on the grass all around us. Leaves casting crescent moon shadows on the ground On that hill, we turned to the west to see from whence would come the wall of dark, the shadow that would take us over and turn day into night. It took some doing, and some astronomy review to figure out how it would be that the shadow would come from that direction, and why. By then we had finally gotten tired of correcting one another – the sun does not move and the moon does not rotate on its axis, and we no longer needed pads of paper, pencils, flashlights and oranges, and google searches to explain the movement of objects in the sky. We became still, as did everything around us, as temperature and humidity dropped, and midday evening came on. Selves disappeared as we were drawn out, we the many from Wisconsin, Indiana, Georgia, and several from New York, including a van full of young Hasidic Jewish men. Right before totality they went skipping down the country road, in search of cows who might communicate to them what they felt when day turned to night. We humans certainly didn’t have words for it at this time. Sharing the eclipse with Hasidim young men It never did turn to night, and in that I was disappointed. Instead, I was in thrall of what did happen: a sunset that glowed off mountains in every direction. It’s as if the sun couldn’t decide which landscapes to adorn and so chose them all. We twirled, like an ancient dance, to take it all in, and then wham, the stars and planets came out. First appeared Venus to the west, then Jupiter and Mercury to the east, aligned with the sun and the moon. Off to the south, Sirius hung bright. Eyes freed from glasses we took it all in, and then it was over. It was as if someone died. The time had been too short, and our hearts were like so much laundry hung out in the sky, our tears to dry. It is a cruel thing to have learned to love so deeply this existence, only to have the object of our longing snapped away. They say it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, but I couldn’t testify to the truth of that. I longed for the totality of love and life eternal in the company of the tribe that had swayed together on that precipice overlooking all that is beautiful. On the way out of the Smokies along the Little Tennessee, beauty was everywhere once the dark had passed Here is something else that came to me unbidden. The following day I was weepy and the images of the planets, sun, moon, and a sunset bigger than any IMAX screen were constantly in my mind’s eye. I also noticed that I was much more observant than usual over the next several days – I saw details and colors that normally I overlook in pursuit of ego’s claims. All that looking up and out had rewired my brain, quieted some of those cognitive loops and invited a mental integration that knew what beauty was, which is everything. Scientists study the phenomenon of looking up, for it causes different mental flows and can bring on feelings of wonder, awe, oneness, and compassion. Indeed, that is the aftermath of experiencing totality, which if we humans could wake up enough, we would know that it is happening all the time. Nothing, no one, is outside of the beautiful whole of everything. This awakening is the goal of our Nurture Nature Program, so that we can meet out in that field beyond wrongdoing and "rightdoing," where the Sufi poet Rumi says, “The world is too full to talk about.” We offer the Nurture Nature Academy, workshops, retreats, Wild Walks, and a newly-planned eclipse retreat in 2024 when all our senses can experience totality once again in North America. Please join us to “let the beauty you are be what you do.” (Rumi again!) #eclipse #lookingup #nurturenature

I have worked in Latin America for over 30 years, engaging in what often seems the hopeless cause of securing the flourishing of parrot and people. I have done this through war, gunfights, assassinations, and the violent drug and illegal wildlife trades. The costs of these tragedies have been not only loss of life and suffering to those I know and love, but also internalization of these events that contributed to bouts with depression and post traumatic stress disorder. The reward has been living a life of growing awareness of beauty, and acceptance of the world, just as it is. Conservation then, is not war, but a practice of peace, for ourselves as conservationists, and for those we serve. This hope of peace is not just my story or the story of Latin America, but of all of us. For this reason we at One Earth Conservation have just published my memoir, “Conservation in Time of War.” We offer it to a world where climate change, terrorism, political polarization, and the loss of biodiversity threaten us all, and where a deep understanding that everything is connected in beauty can bring healing and hope. I hope it helps you and yours, and your work. To get a copy, it is now available on Amazon. We will be offering it as an ebook/kindle edition soon, and hopefully next year in Spanish. We want to get the message out about the harm of the illegal wildlife trade and the hope of conservationists that work to save earth and earth's beings. I invite you then to contribute by getting this book, reading it, and sharing the stories with others. All funds raised from this book will go to help the parrots and people of Latin America. Here I am in Guatemala in 1994 examining a wild yellow-naped amazon chick #book #memoir #parrot #conservation

Endanged yellow-naped amazon chicks in their nest on Ometepe Island Join us for 3 days, participating in parrot conservation and growing your spirit during a mini Nurture Nature Retreat, December 4-6, 2017! Ometepe Island There is an island in Lake Nicaragua that is bursting with hope. Recent population studies of the endangered yellow-naped amazon indicate that there might be 1,000 birds there. It's an incredible density of birds. Last year we discovered something even more amazing – the birds are breeding much earlier than anywhere else in their range. This is a scientific marvel! The hard news is that these birds are getting poached for the illegal wildlife trade. Working together with the LOCOs (Loreros Observando y Conservando en Omtepe) and Flora and Fauna International, One Earth Conservation is studying and protecting these birds, and we'd like you there to witness this incredible story of parrots and people. December is the start of the breeding and field conservation season, and your presence will help animate our conservationists and your contribution of resources (time and donations) will help kick off the project for the year. LoraKim with members of LOCOs Who should come? Please come if you would like to contribute to parrot conservation in Latin America and to One Earth Conservation. This is not a onetime event – we hope to build bridges and relationships, which is paramount if we are to save the parrots of Latin America. One Earth’s board members and volunteers will attend, and we encourage past and future donors and volunteers to come as well. This is a 20-year project, as are all our efforts in this region. It takes no less than this commitment to preserve our cherished earth. What are the costs? You will provide your own transportation to the island, and pay for your own lodging and meals. We will guide you in making these arrangements, as well as reserving space in a hotel. Your estimated cost for transportation to and from the island, food, and lodging is $1,000. For the three days that you are with us, we will provide transportation, logistics, and the guides who will accompany us. We are finalizing the costs for this at this time, however we anticipate that we will ask for a $300 minimum donation in addition to your costs to meet our expenses and grow this conservation project on Ometepe. The donation will be tax deductible, as One Earth Conservation is a nonprofit organization. What will you do? You will be helping Dr. LoraKim Joyner, who will be there in early December to check on the birds and train the local conservationists in doing wild parrot exams. We plan on slowing down our busy schedule so that we can host visitors to help us with our population monitoring by counting parrots of all kinds, including hundreds of green parakeets. You will also help us examine wild nests and young parrot chicks. You will work side by side with the conservationists known as the LOCOs, sharing their work and lives as you get to know the promise of these dedicated people who are working hard to protect their cherished homeland. In addition, Flora and Fauna will take us to a community that is employing sustainable agricultural practices and preserving their forest. During this time we will also offer a Nurture Nature retreat that invites you to connect ever deeper to nature and birds, increasing your resilience and nourishing you before you head home. We must nurture ourselves if we are to nurture and preserve nature. LOCOs studying wild yellow-naped amazon chicks Plan on spending three full days with us, starting the morning of either Monday, December 4 or Tuesday, December 5, 2017 (final start date is to be determined soon). Plan to arrive the day before. We can guide you on how to make arrangements to get to the island, and once there, we will shepherd you through hands-on conservation work. During the middle of the day we will have workshop and retreat experiences that will nourish you, empower you to build a more beautiful world, and teach you about parrot conservation. Our retreat atmosphere is part of our Nurture Nature Program, which grows our five natures: emotional, social, multispecies, ecological, and spiritual intelligence. Come a few days early or stay later – Nicaragua and Ometepe Island are beautiful places to connect to this wondrous earth. You can enjoy the many other opportunities to connect to nature in this region. More details will be forthcoming. Please reserve your spot now by filling out an application we will send to you (space is limited). To apply and for more information, contact us here. The deadline for reservations is October 15 and for donations is November 15. Join our team on Ometepe Island. If you come, we can build something great together. (We'd love for you to help us advertise and let people know about this - here is a flyer) LOCOs, Flora and Fauna, and wildlife regulatory officers #Nicaragua #Ometepe #ecotourism

One Earth Conservation Mid-year Update in Photos August 2017 Pacific Coast, Guatemala Yellow-naped Amazons 11 nest trees registered, monitored and protected – no nests poached! (photo of yellow-naped amazon chick in nest in Los Tarrales by Manuel Galindo) Cuyamel, Honduras Yellow-headed Amazons 8 nests registered monitored and protected – no nests poached! (first photo of community rangers, military, and project lead Roger Flores, second photo of Roger Flores instructing students - photos by Roger Flores) La Moskitia, Honduras Scarlet Macaws 36 nests registered, monitored and protected – no nests poached! (photos of conservationist Pascacio Lacuth checking on a scarlet macaw nests with two chicks!) Ometepe Island, Nicaragua 8 nests registered, monitored, and protected – one nest poached (photo of Dr. LoraKim Joyner with biologists and community ranger, and of nest with two chicks) Concepcion, Paraguay 20 days of monitoring – lots of poaching here! (photo of 4 of the handful of hyacinth macaws in our monitoring area still flying free, photo of 2 poached chicks for sale in our area – photos by Andres Alvarez) Nurture Nature Program Nurture Communities and online Nurture Nature Academy started! (photo of Jamaica Bay Nurture Nature Retreat and Wild Walk) Looking Forward to Rest of 2017 Three week conservation trip to Guyana Population count of yellow-naped amazons in Valle Department, Honduras Population count of yellow-naped amazons on Island Guanaja, Honduras Avian medicine and conservation medicine lecture series in Catacamas, Honduras Community visits Moskitia, Honduras Islands of Hope Ecotourism and Nurture Nature Retreat, Ometepe Island, Nicaragua Twelve more Nurture Nature retreats, communities, and presentations Publication of “Conservation in Time of War” #poaching #conservation #nurturenature #success

This is the third in a series about the world of trees as seen through my eyes while in Honduras in May 2017 (Part 1, Part 2). Being outdoors working in trees and looking up at them is a meditation for the soul, even if we aren't conscious of it. There are some concious actions we can take, though, to ease any ecoanxieity we might be having, to connect us to life around us, and in so being nurtured can nurture others. To find out more about nature practices that can nurture, One Earth Conservation has a Nurture Nature Program to assist you, including a Nurture Nature Academy. Please check it out, and in the meantime... First you can hug a tree. As you wrap your arms around the tree, feel the tree and life embrace you back. You can make a game of it, such as seen in this video. Then listen to the tree. If you have a stethoscope, all the better. Hear the sap rising from the roots to nourish the tree, and feel nurtured yourself. Take a walk in the trees as guided here by this video meditation. Don't forget to look up as you go, as guided here in this next video meditation. And if possible, climb a tree. Thanks to the children of Mabita, Honduras for making these videos possible! #children #nurturenature #trees #Honduras

It is time that we as individuals and organizations lead and demonstrate a new way of learning and community in a multispecies, multigenerational, and multicultural context. We need to address the disconnection between humans and nature, and provide tools and support for adults to help children who thrive when they are able to connect to nature and animals. Children do better if unfettered in nature without negative value constraints placed upon them by their peers, family, and community, which hamper their formation of relationships that empower them and increase their resilience. Adults facilitating children and youth flourishing need to understand the emerging paradigm that sees humans as deeply embedded, belonging, and nurtured by nature and our relationships with other animals. They must also face the challenge that we as a society don’t know how to support learning and nature connection in a way that that crosses generational, cultural, and species walls that humans have constructed. Barriers also arise from our own evolutionary biology. We need to capitalize on engaging with this changing paradigm to produce the happiest and most connected adults we can who can in turn empower and sustain their efforts to save the planet. To best serve children to grow into this future, adults accompany them in their development through their teens and young adulthood. This mentorship needs to happen in relational community where adults understand and live this paradigm of loving all nature, including human nature, and for this reason, adult leaders need to be trained in these techniques and understand the foundations so that they can pass this on in an embodied and intuitive manner. They become the change they wish their charges to see and be in the world. For this reason, One Earth Conservation is expanding its Nurture Nature Program to include guidance for teachers and facilitators who lead multigenerational nature and animal experiences, and learning of all kinds. One Earth Conservation believes that a multigenerational, multicultural, and multispecies milieu is the bright hope for the future of our children, and for that reason we provide learning and tools for adults to bring this to their work, relationships, and programs. Our kickoff event is a workshop on Saturday, October 7 in White Plains, NY. For more information and to register, go here. We will be following this up with webinars, a course on the Nurture Nature Academy, and a book, Nurturing Nature: Facilitating Compassion in a Multigenerational, Multispecies, Multicultural World. We hope you will join us. #workshop #multgenerational #multicultural #children #nurturenature

Last week I showed some of the secret beauty of trees by revealing what we saw in tree cavities during the parrot nesting season in La Moskitia, Honduras. This week I continue with the theme, and show the beautiful surprises that can be found on the outside of trees. A succulent plant on a dead limb in a Caribbean pine - looks like an alien monster or strange snake to me! This is the first year we have seen so many trees impacted by yellow-bellied sapsucker drill holes. They drill to reach the sap which they consume. Too many holes can harm a tree. I was flat on my stomach for hours in a small blind trying to catch this adult scarlet macaw coming out of her nest after feeding her chicks. When investigating nests we are often surprised by the life around the trunk of the tree. Two liberated macaws interacting in the pines. Here are some green-winged teal remains at the base of a scarlet macaw nest. We believe that peregrine falcons might be hunting these birds in the nearby river and bringing them to this tree to consume. While observing a scarlet macaw nest, this king vulture flew into the nest tree to visit for a few minutes. This young tree won't last long with such a load of caterpillars. Always the wonder of the trees can throw us curves, showing us marvels we least suspect. #trees #insects #Honduras

I have come to love trees. The admiration was always there, climbing to perilous heights as a child and perched up high, singing to them, the birds, and the sky. In adult years when I was no longer a climber, I watch others go up into tropical trees to see what secrets their cavities held. Chicks would be temporarily lowered, so marvelous, and when they were not present or too deep to reach, a camera that had captured the essence of life in trees would come down for my eyes to behold. It’s hard to stay on the ground when so much of what happens in trees is “up.” It was even harder this year when our field vehicle broke down and I couldn’t even go to help climb trees or examine chicks, let alone first hand touch the trees and crane my neck upward. Instead I waited, not so patiently, back at the research station for the data forms and camera to come to me. With more time on my hands than usual (which is to say I wasn’t running flat out all day and up to all hours processing samples and interpreting data sheets) I actually finished reading a book – The Secret Life of Trees. A world of wonder opened up for me, so that when the photos were viewed, or when I did the nest observations that I could walk to, I became mesmerized with trees. There is so much life in cavities, roots, in trunks, in bark – there is a whole world that doesn’t evolve around endangered and endearing parrots. Trees “talk” to each other and if we observe and listen we can hear the songs and be wowed beyond reckoning into knowing they are in our family of life. Here is some of the beauty in trees: 6 week old yellow-naped amazon chicks 8 week old scarlet macaw chicks Scarlet macaw eggs close to hatching Scarlet macaw eggs in a swirl of possibility No chicks or eggs, but a lagoon many meters in the air. Adult parrots come here regularly to drink. It looks like this tree cavity has a water habitat for who knows what more beauty that we cannot see. Beauty of many cockroaches below and unseen bats above #Honduras #LaMoskitia #trees #parrots #conservation

Wildlife conservation is about science and field work, and it is also about education, raising awareness, building relationships, caring for one another, and just having fun. Recently in Honduras we combined all of this into an outing with the children of the Miskito village of Mabita. We began with the idea of doing a parrot count with them. To do a parrot count, it is best to find a clearing with a 360 degree field of vision. Where else better to do that in most towns than in the middle of the soccer field? Almost every town has one. So that is where we went. First we had to train them in the use of binoculars and Identification. Then they looked everywhere they could to point out birds flying by. ​ Some birds were close. Others were far away as the light drifted away, flying through sun beams and clouds. While we were counting, others in the village were cooking and preparing a celebratory meal. Then we all sat down and ate, and afterwards we did some dancing and some sharing, and gave out parrot "Fly Free" wrist bands. There must be celebration in conservation, otherwise we won't make it through the long haul. #Honduras #Mabita #populationmonitoring

One of One Earth Conservation's goals is to work with marginalized communities in Latin America, helping people's dreams come true. Our vision is to be in solidarity with them as they preserve and cherish their wildlife, and by witnessing and contributing our presence and resources, we can help make their dream of a more beautiful and just world can come true. Opportunities to make dreams a reality can be few and far between. That is why we are there. That is also why, in desperation, so many people migrate north in search of jobs, health, and safety. One young man left Honduras in 2004 to make his way to the USA, where after much risk and heartache, he realized his ambition to become a police officer. He also helped make a more wondrous world by becoming the son of One Earth Conservation's Co-director, LoraKim Joyner (who was a Unitarian Universalist minister when she met Yency, and not a missionary as recently reported in various news outlets). The video below tells his story of perseverance and commitment to live in a more just world. #Honduras #immigration #marginalization