Resurgence & Ecologist magazine Issue 348 • January/February 2025
The gift of life

In this issue of Resurgence & Ecologist, we celebrate the joyous theme – The Gift of Life.

In his Slow Read article, Paul Evans shares his surprising discovery of the enchanting and mostly overlooked ecosystem hosted by the ‘dead-looking’ gnarly stump of a tree felled by a storm, and that got us thinking about how the The Gift of Life often shows up in the most unexpected places.

We go on to explore this idea with articles that shine a light on The Gift of Service, and The Gift of Young People and Their Superpowers.

We feature many deeply moving and life-affirming pieces – from textile artist Anna-Louise Meynell’s extraordinary tale and work with artisan weavers in India, to Sharmila Desai’s celebration of the gift of yoga, to Satish Kumar musings on the divine entanglement that is the gift of life.

Highlights

Reviving Lake Uru Uru: Gustavo Blanco
Deadwood living: Paul Evans
Opening to grace: Sharmila Desai
Life is sacred: Satish Kumar

Featured articles

Cooperative ways forward

Jan Goodey considers the future of farming and the role that a secure and sustainable plant-based global food system can have in staving off the worst-case scenario of climate breakdown. Cooperation and communication will be the key to a successful transition.
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Reviving Lake Uru Uru

Gustavo Blanco, a founding member of the Uru Uru Team in Bolivia, winners of the 2024 Iris Project main prize, explains what winning the prize means to the project - and how they use Indigenous wisdom to tackle environmental devastation in the lake.
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Opening to grace

Sharmila Desai describes the gift of rooting on her ancestral lands in Goa and of embracing yoga as a whole life practice of being and doing. She shares her devotion to the rescue water buffalo and abandoned cows she and her family so lovingly tend and take care of.
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The gift of finitude

Finding aligned purpose and value in your work has never been more important, with pension ages rising and the prospect of a 50-year working life looming. Stephanie Paterson, considers what work could look like if we genuinely see it as part of life - and understand that life itself is a gift.
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Life is sacred

"Life is one. But it manifests in a million forms. We celebrate the unity of life." Satish Kumar reflects on the sacredness of life and articulates why there is no matter without spirit and no spirit without matter, concluding that it is this divine entanglement that makes all of life a gift.
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Celebrating Dartmoor

Lara Goodband, curator of the new contemporary exhibition Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape, explains why the place is so evocative and important to artists, and Matthew Shaw reviews the exhibition which comes at an important time in Dartmoor's history.
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Picture Credits

Cover image: Fabulous Fungi, Upspring by Jana Nicole; Photo © Mint Images Limited/Alamy Stock Photo; Planting totoras © The Iris Project & MakerChange Studio; Tvisha with baby water buffalo Rama, photo: Justyna Traczyk; Hermit (Candlelit Glasshouse) by Lara Cobden; Photo © Jonas Gerlach/Unsplash; The Summoning Stones © Alex Hartley, commissioned by RAMM, Exeter City Council, 2024

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