Convocation Stories, Part One: Walking for Peace, Listening for Song

Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
This is a special bonus episode of Climate Changed created for the end of the year, aseason when so many of us are holding questions about justice, about the environment, and
about the future of our climate changed world.
you
Peterson Toscano.
We know this time of year can bring a mix of things.

(00:26):
Reflection, exhaustion, hope, uncertainty.
For many of you, it may feel harder than ever to know what to do, what difference yourlife and your commitments can make.
And that's exactly why we wanted to bring you this mini-series.
At our 2025 BTS Center Convocation, a group of people stepped forward to tellclimate-centered personal stories.

(00:47):
Not lectures, not data, not policy statements, stories.
Grounded in lived experience, imagination, vulnerability, and courage.
In the weeks leading up to the event, each storyteller worked with an experiencedstorytelling coach from Stellar Story Company.
This was a phenomenal experience for storytellers and story listeners alike.

(01:10):
These stories remind us that one of the most powerful tools we have is our own voice.
Your life, your struggles, your questions, your joys, these can help others move, imagine,and act.
Storytelling helps us find connection again.
It makes climate work feel human and possible.
In this mini series, we'll share two stories in each episode from Convocation storytellerswho worked for months with coaches from the Stellar Story Company.

(01:40):
They crafted deeply personal reflections that invite us to consider our own paths towardscourage, belonging, and climate commitment.
eh you'll hear stories from Reverend Sara Hayman and June Zellers.
Nicole Diroff introduced both of them at convocation and you'll hear her voice shortly.
But before we begin, we want to share some good news with you.

(02:05):
There will be a Season 4 of Climate Changed, and this upcoming season will bring somethingspecial, a new guest host joining Nicole Diroff, Autumn Brown.
Autumn is the recipient of the 2025 Margaret Brent Award from St.
Mary's College of Maryland and the 2020 Auburn Seminary Lives of Commitment Honoree.

(02:28):
She's a graduate of Sara Lawrence College, studied at Oxford, and continued hertheological education at the General Theological Seminary in New York.
She's a speculative fiction and creative non-fiction writer.
Her work appears in journals, anthologies, and collected works.
In 2024, her band,
also named Autumn, released two EPs produced by Meryl Garbus of ToonYards.

(02:53):
And many of you already know her as co-host of the podcast, How to Survive the End of theWorld, which she creates with her sister, Adrienne Marie Brown.
And that podcast helped me survive COVID, let me tell you.
Autumn lives in Minneapolis with her three brilliant children.
We're thrilled about this next chapter.

(03:15):
And for now, we hope these Convocation stories can be a gift, a companion for this moment.
Let's begin.
Nicole Diroff I'm an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and proud to serveas associate director at the BTS Center.
We love authors and keynotes.
We've done some of that.

(03:35):
We do some of that.
But the intention of flipping the script is actually that our plenary sessions are focusedon people who have been sitting at these tables and are taking the leap to tell a story.
We wanted to make sure we did that as well as we could.
So we found an amazing organization called Stellar Story Company.
In July, we said convocation is coming up, here's our theme, who among you has a storyidea, a seedling of an idea that you might be willing to share with this community?

(04:05):
And we were hoping, hoping, hoping we got a few people to respond.
And we had over 20 of you who submitted ideas.
We selected seven storytellers and those seven people have been working with coaches for afew months and like many sessions.
And we're so grateful because they
are taking this moment as really important, as a moment for them to develop skills, butalso for us to receive a story that they have been lovingly, prayerfully crafting for this

(04:36):
community.
Their stories spark, well, lots of things, but maybe also spark stories that surface forourselves, that we hear a story and that sparked something in ourselves.
First up, I'd like to invite June Zellers.

(04:56):
June is an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Augusta, andshe regularly practices with the Kennebunk River Zen Sangpa.
June is so active with the BTS Center, and we're so grateful to you.
you
I am 45 years old, recently divorced, and a partner in a respected law firm.

(05:24):
And I am sitting on a mountainside in Western Montana.
I'm at Eagle Song Camp.
I am here with 27 other women who will become my Eagle Song sisters, and indigenousteacher, Brooke Medicine Eagle.
We're doing a three-week physical and spiritual training

(05:46):
that culminates in a two-day vision quest.
Now you may wonder, why am I doing this?
I wondered that myself.
I need some soul level answers to what isn't working in my life.
I've only been practicing law for six years and by all outward appearances, I am quitesuccessful.

(06:09):
But internally, I am finding this work soul crushing.
I expected a heavy workload and big demands on my time, but what I didn't anticipate wasthat unnecessary aggressiveness and downright mean-spiritedness would not only just be

(06:30):
condoned, but would actually be rewarded.
I've been a member of my women's spirituality group at church for a number of years now,and through them I've learned to connect with the earth
by doing ritual and ceremony outside.
Those experiences led me to other workshops, which led me to this camp.

(06:55):
So it's the last couple of days of Eagle Song Camp and it's the first day of Vision Quest.
As I'm hiking up the mountain to my spot, I'm actually feeling really well prepared.
We have trained for the last year under Brooke's supervision and I have hiked, I havefasted, and I have sat outside once a week, all year in all kinds of weather.

(07:21):
I'm carrying all my supplies up the mountain with me.
They are two containers of water, a sleeping bag, a tarp, paper and pencil, and a whistle.
It's about mid-morning when I arrive here at my VisionQuest site.
It's a large grassy knoll about halfway up the mountain, and it has a really nice view ofthe valley below and the ranch where we're staying.

(07:50):
There's a big pine tree in the middle.
and it's tall enough that I can sit under it.
I'm spending most of this first day getting myself oriented and creating a medicine circlearound my site.
So I am calling the directions, I am chanting, I am asking for guidance, and I'm settingintentions.

(08:14):
And one of my intentions is that I am going to be safe within my medicine circle, that nocreature can enter.
without my invitation.
And that's important because I'm supposed to stay here for the next 48 hours.
If I get sick or I'm in trouble or something else happens, I'm supposed to blow my whistleand stay put till help arrives.

(08:40):
Only when I hear this big outside gong down in the valley do I have permission to leave.
you
So now it is evening, it's beginning to get dark, and I am sitting in meditation.
Slowly, a soft, warm, but oddly radiant light seems to envelop me.

(09:05):
As the light grows brighter, I feel like I'm receiving this big download of unconditionallove.
Time seems to stand still.
But eventually the light fades and I end my meditation and I'm thinking, yes, this is whyI'm doing this.

(09:27):
But as I get ready for sleep...
Only the horses from the ranch come galloping up the mountain.
They are snorting and kicking up their hooves and making a lot of noise.
And this is pretty unusual.

(09:47):
The horses have been around this whole time and they're usually just off calmly grazing.
Now, I have never lost my childhood affection for horses and as an adult I ride forrelaxation.
But there is nothing relaxing about these horses tonight.

(10:11):
Nevertheless, I'm supposed to stay in my circle, so I try again to get comfortable forsleep.
But before long, the horses come galloping back down the mountain, just as loud as beforeand seemingly even more agitated.
Now, generally, I don't get easily alarmed, but I'm beginning to be a little concernedabout being trampled as I sleep.

(10:39):
despite my medicine circle.
So I decide to sit up with my back against the pine tree and see if I can fall asleep thatway.
And that must have worked because the next thing I know, I am waking up.
somebody is in trouble.

(11:00):
Another thing you should know about me is I am weirdly calm in a crisis.
and I always instinctively move towards what's happening.
So I break the rules.
I leave my medicine circle and start hiking toward the sound of the whistle.

(11:21):
As I'm moving across the mountain, I run into another sister who's doing the same thingand we decide we're going to pair up and see if we can help.
Now it's the middle of the night and the terrain is getting a little rough.
And then the whistle stops.

(11:42):
Well, we realized that we're not going to be able to do this, but hey, we're wide awake.
So we hiked down to the ranch because we want to know what's going on.
When we get there, we find that our sister in distress, she's back at the ranch and she'ssafe, but she's going to stay there for the next two days because we learn she was being

(12:04):
stalked by a mountain lion.
Not comforting.
But we are reassured that others are chasing the lion out of our vicinity, and we'reactually admonished to go back to our spot and do what we're supposed to be doing.
So I hike back up, and now I have a whole lot of agitation.

(12:27):
I must have fallen asleep because it's the next morning.
As I'm waking up, everything seems peaceful.
As I open my eyes, however, I see eight horses.

(12:50):
They are standing around me, they're all facing me, and they are all just outside of mymedicine circle.
Their heads are down and they are quietly grazing.
I look at them, they look at me, they look at each other, and then they just quietly walkaway.

(13:12):
So I'm thinking, are they protecting me or were they just here like checking to see if I'mokay?
Whichever way, I'm thinking this is pretty cool.
And I cannot wait to see what happens today.
And then absolutely nothing happens.

(13:33):
I mean nothing.
It is the most boring 24 hours.
of my entire life.
So now it is the next morning.
I awake this morning, not to the sight of horses, but to the sound of a song.
It's actually more like a chant.

(13:55):
I sit up trying to orient myself to what's happening.
I think the earth is singing.
I am just enchanted by this.
I don't know how long I sit just listening.
But eventually my thinking brain kicks in and I realize I think I want to remember thisand remember it accurately.

(14:18):
So I find my paper and pencil and I write down the three syllables that seem to berepeating themselves.

(14:39):
As I do, it starts to rain.
But it's a warm, gentle, soft rain.
Then the rain picks up the chant and makes it more melodic.
I feel like I could just sit here and listen to this forever.

(15:04):
you
but I hear the sound of the gong.
Vision Quest is over.
I pack up my stuff and start hiking back down the mountain, and the song continues.
When I get to the bottom, I get to a brook that I've crossed so many times.
But this morning, the brook is singing, and it's a totally different song from the rain,yet they harmonize beautifully.

(15:41):
I return in silence as everyone else does and sometime during the afternoon the song fadesaway.
Even so, I am feeling so honored and grateful to have received this wonderful gift andit's a gift I really want to share with you.

(16:03):
However, it's rather ironic that I received this gift because I am
and always have been tone deaf.
There is no way I can replicate what I've heard.
But what I can share with you is it's been 32 years since my vision quest.

(16:28):
I have never heard the Earth sing again, but I have kept that song alive in my mind as asilent chant or as a mantra.
It reminds me, particularly in times of difficulty,
or sorrow and grief that regardless of my circumstances, the spirit of life is soincredibly joyful and my soul, our souls are designed to be radiant.

(17:05):
you
you

(17:44):
Sara Hayman serves as minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ellsworth, Maineand has been in that role for a bit.
14 years.
That's a good stint with the community.
She's a justice mover and shaker here in Maine.
I'm excited to hear this story because I got to see her on the State House steps at theend of a journey that she's going to tell you a little about.

(18:19):
For seven years now, I have been going on walks intentionally, making time to do that toget a grip on my life, really to get grounded again, to feel more spacious and less
overwhelmed about having to respond to all of the crises that are happening in the world.

(18:42):
to say nothing of holding the demands of the work that I love and struggle with as aminister serving a small congregation here in down East Maine.
In the spring of 2018, I was able to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain, 500 miles withmy partner.

(19:04):
I did not get a single blister.
On the third to last night, I did get bedbugs.
Thanks.
That same year, a little later on, I traveled with my mother to Newfoundland, the placewhere her mother was born.
I got to walk on dirt paths over green peninsulas that jutted out up to the sea and ontiny paths on shale rocky mountains where the blueberries were going nuts.

(19:36):
It was wild and barren and alive.
Like my mother and like my grandmother, I felt I belonged there.
For my 51st birthday, I got to be in Ireland.
able to walk three days alone on the Dingle Peninsula.

(19:56):
I thought I would love it and I hated it in moments.
I was completely nauseated by the smell of sheep poop.
By the end of it, I didn't eat meat for a month after I got home.
Here, a little closer to home, I hike on trails that are part of a land conservancy that Ilove, up and over granite ledges and in woods familiar with fairy paths that have

(20:26):
moss-covered rocks and pine needle duff that blankets the ground.
It is one of my favorite things to sit on the South Peak and to drink hot tea from my ownthermos.
Walking...
Gratitude just bubbles up in me.
It's a renewal of my spirit.
It's a deeper breath.

(20:48):
I feel energized again.
I love my work again.
I'm more open-hearted.
I am less tight and constrained.
oh
in February of this past year.
The invitation arrived by email.
Did I want to be part of a small planning group that would organize a large public action?

(21:15):
what would be a long walk for peace here in Maine.
Sherry Mitchell sent that invitation I didn't know I would receive.
Sherry Mitchell is a Penobscot spiritual leader and activist.
She's a human rights attorney.
She's the founder and the executive director of the Land Peace Foundation.

(21:36):
And for at least a decade now, she's been inviting all of us to be a part of indigenousceremony that can help us remember
our fundamental belongingness to each other and to sacred earth.
Over the course of seven short weeks, we would help bring this vision to life.
A prayer walk would emerge.

(21:58):
We called it a journey for peace and friendship.
Over eight days, we'd walk 82 miles beginning in Indian Island, the Penobscot reservationand walking all the way to the State House in Augusta.
There'd be a large opening ceremony and closing ceremonies hosted and held by indigenousWabanaki leaders.

(22:22):
And they would make room for other faith and cultural leaders to speak.
Every day was shaped by morning and evening ceremony.
Again, different people, different voices calling us to remembering why we're walking andwhy we're walking together.
An invitation that I knew I wanted to participate in, so I didn't ask my churchpermission.

(22:45):
I told them I am doing this.
I asked them to join me.
So the prayer walk began on a drizzly day.
It was Earth Day.
300 of us were gathered.
at the back of the Sockelexis Arena on Indian Island.
The Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis was there welcoming us to their home place.

(23:07):
Wabanaki ceremonial drummers and singers, they were helping to ground us.
We had a potluck.
We set off, 200 of us, this column of people making our way.
In that moment, I felt within myself kind of the rhythm of walking, settling in.
There was the day that we arrived around lunchtime at a park where pizza had beenmiraculously delivered.

(23:32):
It's delicious.
I sat in the bench in the shade, also delicious.
Took off my shoes and my socks, rested and chatted with someone, knowing we still hadeight miles to walk.
Starting walking again after you stop is not easy.
It's not easy.
We walked on a road.

(23:53):
three days that was busy with cars flying by and trucks.
I wondered about our safety.
People would yell out of their windows at us.
They would give us the finger.
They would also pay no attention, make no eyesight whatsoever, which is something that wedo.
I worried at times if we were safe.

(24:14):
So I'm walking, I'm lost in my own thoughts.
I'm climbing another hill on this road and I notice this guy standing in his driveway byhis car.
He's looking up at us and he calls out, what are you doing?
And without thinking, I reply, we're walking for peace and friendship.

(24:35):
And he says, okay, I guess we all need more of that.
And we do, we all need more of that because it's almost the end of the day and we'realmost at our destination and I hear church bells ringing.
And there is this gorgeous ragtag group of people that is clapping and smiling and they'rein front of this little white church welcoming us in and I can...

(25:05):
Yeah, they have made chocolate zucchini muffins that are delicious and there is coldbubbly water in cans.
And I can feel in them this longing to be part of the connection that we're creating.
And that evening for prayer, we sat in old pews, that afternoon sunlight poured in throughopen windows.

(25:28):
We walked two more days on that road, at times in pouring down drenching rain.
And other times moving so slowly, actually wondered if we'd get to the end.
And we did.
It's closing ceremony day.
A large group has assembled to celebrate the walk and to hear the meaning making and thestories of what's happened.

(25:53):
My colleague is not able to be there, so I'm now responsible for making sure the speakersknow when it's their turn.
And I'm up and down.
I'm a little frantic and frazzled.
And my tension is divided.
And at some point, Sherry says, Sara, it's your turn.
So I step up to the microphone and I take a deep breath.

(26:16):
I realize in that moment, I don't actually know what I'm gonna say, which is terrifying.
There are hundreds of people on the state house steps.
So I take another breath and I feel this litany of thank yous fill me up and also pour outof me.

(26:37):
Thank you, Sherry Mitchell.
for inviting us to have and create this shared experience of remembering our belongingnessto earth and the groundedness that is possible and the embodiment of peace in my being
that means I might also be able to be a friend across divides.

(27:00):
Thank you to my fellow walkers, which it turns out included several people from my littlechurch.
Thank you for the gift of being here, I say out loud.
For being from here, for developing and experiencing these relationships that are callingme to bridge divides and to know in my own being the capacity to be changed from the

(27:22):
inside out.
I'm feeling all the connections, standing in front of this group that we've woven togetherbetween and among us, and I am joyful and I am tired.
I know that we've made a difference and I know that I feel different.
This is what is also true.

(27:42):
It's six months later.
I wish I could tell you that my life has been changed forever.
It has in very small ways that are still very much at work in me.
I am still overwhelmed.
I am a tangle at times, more often than I want to have to admit to you.
I struggle to live up to the responsibilities of liberal religious leadership.

(28:05):
More days than not, I wish that I was walking with friends for connection or alone togather my own thoughts to feel that wisdom.
Every time I put on my boots, I make myself get up from my chair, I get myself over to themountain that's 17 minutes from my house and I climb that mountain, I sometimes still

(28:28):
feel, I still touch that connection and that soul nourishment.
Every single time, no matter what, I always feel a little bit better when I'm walking.

(28:51):
Hearing these stories again, I'm struck by how both Sara and June use movement, physicalmovement as a way into emotional and spiritual movement.
Sara takes us along road after road, mile after mile, until the walking becomes a form ofprayer.
June takes us up a mountain into solitude, into fear, into wonder.

(29:12):
Both stories remind us that climate storytelling doesn't have to start with the climatecrisis.
It can start with the body, the land,
our rituals, the things that ground us.
I agree.
And I'm thinking about how both storytellers used specificity, the sound of horses, thecadence of prayer, the smell of sheep, the ache of walking eight miles.

(29:37):
Those details made the stories feel lived in.
And I remember when I first heard them online because I was part of the onlineconvocation.
And even though there was this distance for streaming on Zoom, it felt so present.
And they also made the emotional stakes clearer.
Climate stories can feel abstract, but when someone shares something intimate andparticular, it becomes a doorway for others to enter.

(30:03):
Yes, and I appreciated how neither Sara nor June forced like a moral of the story orpolicy takeaway.
Instead, they just let the story breathe and they trusted their listeners to make meaning.
That's a powerful craft choice, especially when talking about climate where people oftenexpect to be lectured.
This may be one of the biggest lessons for anyone listening who wants to write a sermon,an op-ed, a newsletter reflection, or even a social media post.

(30:31):
You don't need to argue someone into caring.
You can simply offer your life.
Well said.
And both stories show us that climate storytelling is not separate from spiritualpractice.
It is spiritual practice.
It asks us to tell the truth about where we've been moved, where we've been afraid, wherewe've been transformed.

(30:54):
Climate work often feels like a burden, a duty, but stories remind us that it can also bea place of resilience, creativity, and connection.
A place where our souls stay radiant.
borrow Jun's beautiful language.
Maybe the most important thing these stories show is that no one has to be an expert tomake meaning.

(31:14):
You don't need a big platform, you don't need perfect language, you just need to bewilling to share a fragment of your experience.
Maybe that's where culture shifts can begin in the quiet honesty of stories like these.
We're grateful you spent this time with us.
Many thanks to June and Sara for sharing their stories and thanks to Stellar Story Companyfor working with each of our storytellers.

(31:39):
Learn more about the services they offer by visiting StellarStory.com.
If these stories stirred something in you, we hope you'll keep going.
Share this experience with someone in your community.
For instance, you can post your reflections on social media.
The people who follow you trust you.
Tell your own story.
Your voice matters a lot more than you may think.

(32:01):
your reflections by email at podcast at the btscenter.org or leave a voicemail at207-200-6986.
We have these details in our show notes over at climatechangepodcast.org.

(32:22):
I'm Autumn Brown, artist, mother, and freedom worker.
And I'm Reverend Nicole Diroff, Associate Director at the BTS Center.
This season on Climate Changed, we're asking what it means to and to lead in a climatechanged world.
You'll hear from spiritual leaders, artists, and healers who are helping us imagine whatfaithful leadership looks like right now.

(32:48):
Leaders like Katie Mears.
who works on the front lines of disaster response.
Tori Stevens, who believes imagination is our most powerful climate tool.
Norma Wong, a Zen master and native Hawaiian leader who invites us to breathe throughcollapse.
Rabbi Ora Nitken Caner, who helps us find holiness in uncertainty.

(33:10):
And Frances Weller, who reminds us our two sides of the same bridge.
Together, these conversations inspire courage
connection and community.
Join us for Climate Changed, a podcast from the BTS Center.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at climatechangepodcast.org.

(33:35):
you
Make sure you're subscribed to Climate Change so you won't miss the next episode or seasonfour.
Coming soon.
You can find out more about the BTS Center and the many programs we offer atthebtscenter.org.

(33:58):
You will find full show notes and all three seasons of our podcast episodes atclimatechangetpodcast.org.
And I'm Peterson Toscano.
Thank you for listening.
In our next episode, you will hear two more stories from the 2025 BTS Center Convocation.

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