Earthkeepers: A Circlewood Podcast on Creation Care and Spirituality · Forrest Inslee

Do One Thing: Earthkeeping as a Lifestyle, with Ruth Valerio | Ep. 126

·35 min·2 clips

Ruth Valerio says, "I just take one step," instead of trying to do everything at once.

1. Earthkeepers: A Circlewood Podcast on Creation Care and Spirituality centers this episode on Ruth Valerio and earth care as a Christian practice. 2. Ruth Valerio is a British author, speaker, and activist, and Christine Sein co-hosts with Forrest Inslee on the conversation. 3. The episode asks how faith, justice, and environmental care fit together in daily life. 4. Ruth says her concern began with faith and social justice, especially Isaiah 58 and the call to "spend themselves on behalf of the hungry." 5. She says a university book called "Who's Earth" opened creation care to her as "a second conversion." 6. She says her theology had to become practice, because talking about care for creation without living it would make her "a hypocrite." 7. Ruth describes childhood influence from a mother who studied biology and kept saying, "isn't the Lord amazing to create all these beautiful things?" 8. She remembers growing up near London, sitting in a barn with cows, reading, eating a picnic, and talking to the animals. 9. She says she later realized she was not separate from nature, because "I am natural" and part of creation. 10. Christine connects that idea to listening and learning to notice details, like birds, tadpoles, and the life cycle of a frog. 11. Ruth recalls walking with her youngest daughter during lockdown and standing in the middle of a silent road at sunset while a blackbird sang. 12. She treats that moment as proof that reduced human noise can let other creatures be heard more clearly. 13. Ruth argues that earth care matters for all followers of Jesus because Colossians 1:19-20 says Christ reconciles "all things" to God. 14. She says the Old Testament links God, people, and land in a triangle of relationships, citing Chris Wright and Amos 8. 15. She says the land responds when people live unjustly and that Isaiah shows the trees and fields rejoicing when people return to God. 16. She quotes David Wilkinson's idea that "matter matters to God" and says the Christian faith is physical and earthy. 17. On human justice, Ruth says earth care and human care are "totally integrated" because people depend on land, seas, air, and food. 18. She gives Iraq as an example, saying villages there are running out of water and the climate crisis is feeding poverty and migration. 19. The tone is conversational and reflective, with Christine and Forrest asking practical questions and Ruth answering in a grounded, pastoral style. 20. People interested in faith-based climate action, simplicity, and church mobilization will likely want this episode, while listeners wanting a detached theology lecture may skip it.

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