“Every piece of the universe, even the tiniest little snow crystal, matters somehow. I have a place in the pattern, and so do you.” — T.A. Barron
The day is so dark and cold, there’s not enough natural light to read a book by. I have to turn on several lights to get any work done and it feels antithetical to the season. In herbalism, specifically plant-spirit herbalism, winter is the time to look at one’s roots. It’s associated with hibernation, story telling, the hug of warm soup on a bitter day. It’s a time for slowing down and I’m trying to. From this week until the 1st of January I will be solely in maintenance mode. No writing, the only language studies I’ll be doing involves gently learning the Greek alphabet and reviewing some Latin grammar.
I’ve been studying a lot lately for my eco-chaplain studies and I came across the term ‘Geologian’, coined by Thomas Berry, it simply means ‘earth scholar’. And it got me thinking, what regenerative practices and methodologies would such a person use? How can I discover these and incorporate them into my own practice? These are the questions I will hold onto for the next few weeks. I don’t know if I’ll have an answer. But I believe 2026 is going to be the year of seeking it.
Language Studies
- Latin | Currently working on reading tiers 1 & 2 in ‘Reckless Love’ a reader. Continuing to work through ‘Latin By The Natural Method’. My current weakness is translation to Latin, so I’m planning on going through ‘Getting Started with Latin’ but doing the exercises in both directions. I’m also trying to built a habit of daily reading on ‘Legentibus’.
- Attic Greek | Working on memorizing the script and pronunciation this month in anticipation of our study group next month. I’m also ordering a copy of ‘Getting Started With Ancient Greek’ (It’s not Attic, but it will help with my reading) & the Rainieri-Dowling Method for Ancient Greek.
- Hieroglyphs | GlyphStudy group: Working through Chapter 2 of ‘How To Read Hieroglyphs’, which covers plurals, consonant signs, and royal names. Lot’s of worksheets and vocabulary to memorize.
- French | Attending Rosetta Stone live sessions and working on a Busuu course.
Links:
- Leonardo da Vinci’s Largest Collection of Drawings and Writings is Now Completely Digitized
- A Year of Tolkien: A 2026 book club reading Tolkien’s lesser known works
- I asked an Earth-aligned chatbot if we should boycott AI.
- Structure Over Chaos | How to Self-Learn Like a PhD Student
- Teach Yourself Anything – How to Study like a PhD student
Reads:
- ‘The Voice Of The Earth’ Theodore Roszak
- ‘Ecological Feelings’ Joshua Trey Barnett
- ‘Sudden Unexpected Noctural Death Syndrome among Hmong Immigrants: Examining the Role “Nightmare”‘ Shelley R. Adler
- ‘Situating knowledges, making kin and telling stories – Geographical encounters with Donna J Haraway’ Beth Greenhough