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

Intentional Community for Human and More-than-Human Beings, with Ruth Padilla deBorst | Ep. 146

·47 min·3 clips

Ruth says Christians need “biblical lament and not denialism” before any practical response.

Forrest Inslee opens the conversation by placing it within Earth Keepers’ wider focus on practical action for social and environmental justice. Ruth Padilla de Borst then offers a close look at Casa Adobe, an intentional community in Costa Rica. The community is not presented as a housing arrangement alone, but as a way of life that makes room for the more-than-human world. That idea gives the episode its center. The river becomes a major point of reflection. Ruth speaks of it in relational terms and links care for it to reconciliation. Cleaning up the river and opening it to people are treated as acts of bringing back together what has been split apart. From there, the conversation broadens into a larger reflection on creation. Ruth describes creation as diverse, alive, and good. She pushes back against any narrow sense that worship belongs only to a Sunday service. Instead, standing in awe of the world itself becomes part of worship. The river is named as a sibling, not a possession. That language points to a different moral imagination. Creation is understood as a community of fellow worshipers. Psalm 19 and the goodness of a world full of life, insects, bees, and balance help deepen that point. The episode also touches the book of Job. Ruth reads it as a challenge to move beyond self-centered suffering and recognize participation in a larger life-sustaining system. The tone stays warm and reflective throughout. It takes its time. It is also willing to name distance, harm, and the need for reconciliation without letting go of hope. The result is a portrait of Christian ecological community that feels lived rather than theorized. It also shows how place, worship, and justice can belong in the same conversation.

As heard by us

A grounded meditation on ecological kinship, where worship, cleanup, and access all point back to neighborliness.

Ruth Padilla de Borst makes creation care feel less like a niche conviction and more like ordinary shared life. The setting stays close to Casa Adobe in Costa Rica and the river nearby, and that narrow focus works.

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Why you'd press play

For a view of creation care that treats rivers like neighbors, press play.

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