My Redwood Teacher - a new booklet!

Michael Kearney
Jul 25
2 min read

Hi everyone,

I am writing this just one week after my beloved mentor and dear friend, Joanna Macy, died at the ripe old age of 96. While I grieve and miss her hugely, my heart is radiating gratitude for this great, dear soul, who loved our world and all its beings with such fierce compassion. It felt to me that, in her final weeks, the good Karma of her lifetime of boundless generosity was coming back as waves of warmth, and tenderness, and joy, enfolding her and all of us who were blessed to be gathered at her bedside.

I want to tell you about a little booklet that I've just published, which I dedicate to Joanna.

It's called "My Redwood Teacher: Five Lessons on Deep Resilience."

It's been a lot of fun putting this together over the past couple of months. It's a collaboration with the artist David Pfendler, whose beautiful illustrations light up its pages. In it, I tell the story of a remarkable California redwood tree who has become my teacher over the past 5 years. This resilient redwood is a beacon of hope for me. I've received some incredible teachings from this elder, which I believe can help us to not only survive but to thrive amid the many challenges we are facing in this time of what Joanna called "The Great Unravelling." I see these simple yet profound teachings benefiting many: a burned-out activist, a grandparent desperately worried about her grandchildren's future, a young man overwhelmed by news he's just received that he has far-advanced cancer. I hope that it will be helpful to anyone who wants to stay present and not shut down, despite the relentless tsunami of frightening news coming our way every time we turn on our newsfeed.

The booklet is short - just over 20 pages - but there are QR codes embedded throughout that become portals to more information and ideas, as well as guided meditations. I hope that it will be truly helpful to many.

Here's the blurb from the back of the book:

Our world is on fire, and too many of us are burning out.

"Self-care" as we know it is not enough.

We need something more.

We need "deep resilience."

But what is this, and how can we tap into it?

This is the story of a redwood tree who showed me what deep resilience means,

and the steps we need to take to make this part of our lives in a way that allows us to

stay open-hearted, present and engaged in our wounded and beautiful world.