Small Actions for the Natural World Beat Waiting for Perfect Ones: Here’s My Commitment After 13 Days
Day 13 of our 13-day challenge reminded me that commitments aren’t about perfection; they’re about showing up consistently with love and courage
Congratulations. You’ve completed the 13-Day EcoSpirituality Challenge.
You’ve shown up. You’ve practiced. You’ve shared. We’ve grown together.
Today is International Day Against Climate Change (or for Climate Action), which connects with UN Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action. We’ve come to life in the world, looked more deeply into our relationship with her, and taken action.
Now we commit.
What Surprised Me Most
I was surprised to be able to post daily for the last 13 days, with long, detailed posts that reflect the fundamental aspects of what I’m doing.
In this way, I not only created a challenge for others, but I also used this as an opportunity to deepen into my own spirituality. These 13 days weren’t just teaching. They were practice. They were formation. They were me showing up alongside you.
I am not the expert. I am only a little further along on this journey and wish to share it with you so you can see that this is all doable.
This challenge has urged me to think about ways to deepen my own Camino experiences of Walking as a Spiritual Practice. It’s connected me more intentionally to what I’m building toward September 2026. It’s clarified my calling.
What the Community Taught Me
Just how many ways are there to do this work? How do different people share in different ways?
This diversity shows that this is doable for us all. How we can learn from one another and thus improve upon our own practices while also deepening into community and kinship.
You shared sit spots. You honored loss. You gave back to the land. You fixed things. You told your stories about why you care.
Each person’s approach was unique. Each person’s entry point was valid. Each person’s practice mattered.
That’s the lesson I’m taking forward. There is no single right way to practice ecospirituality. There is only your way, rooted in your place, with your gifts, in your time.
The key is that we must start.
My Commitments Going Forward
Here’s what I’m pledging to do, be, and practice:
I commit to continuing to write and share this work openly on Substack. These reflections matter. This public practice of thinking through ecospirituality, contemplative walking, and climate action serves both me and readers. I’ll keep showing up here.
I commit to increasing my annual pilgrimage walk from one week to two one-week trips in 2026. The land is calling me to walk more. To deepen my own practice before guiding others. To spend more time in silence on ancient paths.
I commit to continuing to wander to connect myself to the land. This is my baseline practice. Walking. Being present. Listening. The land speaks. I commit to continuing to listen.
I commit to launching the Rewilding the Soul EcoSpirituality Certificate at Cherry Hill Seminary. This program will marry academic rigor with spiritual practice. It will serve seekers who want depth, not just surface. It will honor both intellectual inquiry and embodied experience.
I commit to teaching the EcoSpirituality cohort while finishing my Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy studies. This rounds out my experiences and what I’m qualified to offer. My next edge of practice is deepening my own training while simultaneously teaching others.
I will continue holding space for others.
The land is calling me specifically to this. Not just to walk alone, but to guide. To create containers where others can experience what I’ve experienced. To be present to their unfolding.
I will do this by bringing research and a professional perspective to this work. As a trained researcher, I have the tools to marry ecospirituality with academic rigor. This allows me to speak with multiple populations. Spiritual seekers. Academic colleagues. Professional consultants. Corporate leaders. The bridge matters.
These are concrete. Specific. Doable. Rooted in love for the work and the land.
What I Invite You to Remember
Here’s the most important thing: it is better to take small actions on a regular basis than to wait forever to take larger actions.
You do not have to do this work professionally to make an impact.
It does not matter what religious or spiritual perspectives you hold. We are all part of the natural world and thus wherever we start is fine.
This is not a conversion. This is remembering that we are already all connected.
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
Pick one commitment you can actually keep. Not the most impressive commitment. Not the one that sounds best when you share it. The one you’ll actually do.
Today and into tomorrow. Next week. Next month. Next year. Beyond.
UN SDG 13 and What’s at Stake
The UN is increasingly being pushed aside due to corporate interests. As a result, we all need to remember that its efforts are on behalf of the whole world, not only those who have financial power over others.
Sustainable Development Goal 13 focuses on climate action. Taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
This goal matters because it centers collective action over individual profit. It recognizes we share one planet. It calls for justice for communities most impacted by the climate crisis.
Corporate interests want us to forget this. They want us focused on getting more, resulting in larger individual carbon footprints, while they extract without accountability. They want us to close our eyes to suffering while they continue business as usual.
We resist this by taking concrete action. By connecting our spiritual practices to climate justice. By showing up in community rather than isolation.
We can all take some concrete action to make the world a better place.
Your Commitment Today
Choose ONE commitment you can keep.
Make it specific. Make it doable. Root it in love, not guilt.
Write it down. Speak it aloud. Tell someone. Make it real.
It could be continuing your sit spot practice. Learning more about your watershed. Supporting Indigenous land rights. Reducing consumption in one area. Joining a local environmental group. Speaking up about climate.
Whatever you choose, commit to it. Then show up consistently.
Commitments aren’t about perfection. They’re about showing up with love and courage.
What Happens Next
The challenge may be ending, but the practice continues.
Keep going. Keep caring. Keep connecting. The Earth needs you, and so does this community.
If you’re a bit behind, revisit these 13 days. Do one each week. Or one each month. There is no wrong way. Engage with these practices as they fit your needs.
The land is patient. The land is listening. The land remembers every small action taken with love. Listen to the land, and you will hear this.
Thank you for being part of this journey toward ecospirituality and climate action rooted in love and kinship.
Thank you for showing up. For practicing. For sharing. For growing.
The work continues. The commitment deepens. The kinship expands.
I’ll see you on the path.
Thank you for completing the 13-Day EcoSpirituality Challenge. If you found value in these daily practices, consider subscribing for ongoing reflections on EcoSpirituality, sacred walking, and climate action as spiritual practice. The journey continues.
What is your commitment? Share it in the comments below—and let this community hold you accountable.