THE WORLD IS OUT TO WELCOME YOU.

This is a guiding sentiment for my work here and it comes from something that was said to me as a child. When I was in moments of distress I would be told: “The world is not out to get you!” As though that would make it better. Even as a kid I knew my distress was not about the world being out to get me—it was a reasonable response to stimuli, to development, to the wild things that happen here at Earth School. But if you hear that enough times—and your religion also reinforces the idea that the world is evil—you start to believe it, and never even notice the amount of discord and disconnection it brings.

Until I did see it and I didn’t believe it any more. And finally things started to make sense.

There is abundance and there is work to be done. We will need wonder, joy, compassion, resolve, curiosity, humility and love to do it. Here, I want to practice those things.

Practically speaking, what is happening here?

I started this Substack in the winter of 2023 under the name Peace of the Whole. In the fall of 2024 it had a rebirth as Spiral Bound. The content is much the same, but with a new resolve and more tearing down of old ideas. I talk about cyclical living still, but also dismantling my fundamentalist, patriarchal Christian upbringing, and finding new ways of doing life in accordance with the seasons, true abundance, and the many crises we’re facing right now.

I stopped doing paid subscriptions along the way, partly because I couldn’t handle the pressure and partly because I didn’t want to support Substack in a monetary way. In the future, I may find a way to accept donations but not right now.

I would love for this to be a conversation with you, dear reader. Please, if you have something to share, join in!

The writer:

I’m Ema. The path that’s led me here has be winding and so far includes: a degree in anthropology, small farms, libraries, botanical dyeing, and care work. I live on the stolen homelands of the Wabanaki in Maine with my husband and twin cats.

You can reach me at: ema@sunshinehouse.xyz.