Note: this is the audio version of my 'listen and co-create' posting on 'a calm presence'. 

On September 23, 2024, while driving in Victoria BC to record a conversation with educator and musician Azul Carolina Duque for conscient season 6 (to be released in 2025), I was listening to Nate Hagens' The Great Simplification episode 139 : Bioregional Futures: Reconnecting to Place for Planetary Health with regenerative living activist Daniel Christian Wahl. 

As I listened to the 36th minute of this engaging podcast, I felt a wave of relief ripple through my body, as if a burden had been lifted…

I stopped the car to listen to that 36th minute again : 

• It makes a difference how we go out and, bizarrely, if enough of us - all of humanity - reaches the point of maturity of caring more about life and less about individual lifespan or our species survival and we find our peace with maybe living the end day of a relatively young species, then I think exactly in that point, we will find the maturity to develop the patterns that will take us into not dying an early death as a species.

‘That’s it’, I said out loud. 

‘This is the horizon I have been looking for: ‘patterns that will take us into not dying an early death as a species’.

Which patterns?

I was also touched by the notion of dying with dignity (how we go out), which is on my mind and in my spirit lately. 

Azul and I in Beacon Hill Park, Victoria, BC, September 23, 2024

Wahl’s notion of ‘finding peace as a relatively young species’ came up during my conversation with Azul who kindly shared the 3rd type of hope in an upcoming publication by the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective of which she is a member: 

• The hope in composting harm represents the idea of acknowledging that we are past several critical tipping points, and that substantial consensus is unlikely to happen and that we will inevitably have to confront the consequences of our harmful actions and the harmful actions of those who came before us, too. So this hope says that new possibilities will emerge only after we have been taught by the partial or general collapse of our current systems, which is what this person, Daniel was saying in the interview. So it's about visualizing a process in which we are left with no other choice but to transform our relationships with the planet, with other species and with each other, to metabolize and repair the harm we have caused, and collectively learn to coexist differently through the awareness that we are part of a wider metabolism that is bio intelligent.

Later that day I mentioned this insightful 36th minute in the Wahl interview during my conscient podcast conversation with composer Kenneth Newby (e207 kenneth newby - living with grace) who said: 

• The planet's not dying. Our place and our version of it may be dying. So how do we deal with that? How do we accept and live with the knowledge that our version of it is dying. It's not something to panic about in the sense that the whole thing's going away, hopefully. We don't know, but I think that notion of living with grace, living without fear, trying to live without anxiety, because those are just places where we flounder, shut off and develop toxic escapes. People will drink themselves and take whatever drugs they want to take to escape. 

My conversation with Kenneth reminded me of this quote from Adam Urban’s ‘10 Reasons Our Civilization Will Soon Collapse’ that I used in my first a calm presence posting, called why? : my rationale for creating 'a calm presence' newsletter. I go back to it often:

• People have asked me, "If we're all doomed anyway, then what's the point of scaring people? Why not just let them live their lives?" It's a fair question. My answer is that the more people know about our predicament and start preparing for what's coming, the greater chance humanity has of surviving this century and creating sustainable societies in the distant future. I don't know if that's even possible. Perhaps we will pass so many climate tipping points that temperatures will rise high enough to snuff out life across the entire planet. Or perhaps after the population declines and the planet warms, new societies will spring up in places like Greenland and Antarctica. They won't be societies that use fossil fuels, so they will likely be much simpler and more connected to the Earth. Maybe these societies will learn from our mistakes and take better care of nature—and each other. If there's any chance that a future like that is possible, then we should do everything we can to make it happen. The first step is to inform people about what's happening, and the second step is to help them prepare.

Why does any of this matter? 

Reality.

why? https://acalmpresence.substack.com/p/why

My experiences on September 23rd reminded of advice dharma teacher Catherine Ingram offered me in July 2023 that inspired the creation of a calm presence:

• Yes, there’s a point in going on. It is to be here for others who are not as strong or clear as you and who will be frightened and in need of a calm presence.

But how does one achieve and maintain ‘a calm presence’?

I found some answers in this except from Yin Paradies’ September 25, 2024 Facebook posting drawn from the Intercultural Communication Handbook.

• Sensing, attending and being patient requires slowing down, pausing, and taking time to listen, look, feel and learn. Seeking to activate and use all our senses to relate as part of the world. This involves learning through relationships, through actions and through careful attention, not just through asking questions and talking a lot. Being patient and humble enables recognition of the myriad of messages that humans and non-human beings are always sending out.

Note: for more on Yin’s work see 

e193 yin paradies - interweaving everything with everything else or on Yin’s YouTube channel.

I was struck by this sentence in particular : 

• Learning through relationships, through actions and through careful attention, not just through asking questions and talking a lot.

There's a lot to consider in his words for a podcaster who spends a lot of time and effort talking and asking questions!

The timing of this  is good because I'm taking a break now from both conscient podcast and a calm presence for a few months as I prepare season 6 - which I think is necessary - exploring arts and culture in times of crisis and collapse. 

I’ll be doing that collaboratively and co-creatively with those who are interested in joining me. 

To summarize, I feel privileged to have received a generous offering through the above quotes that I have presented to you today. 

For me, all of this comes down to: listening and co-creating. 

To listen and co-create. 

I would like to thank those I have quoted and their kin.

*

END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). 

It’s my way to give back.

In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and its francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. 

Your feedback is always welcome at [email protected] and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads or BlueSky.

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on March 26, 2025