The Future Is Local
In the cloud-kissed highlands of Monteverde, Costa Rica, the rainy season begins as mist curls through ancient trees like Spirit’s breath. Here, amidst bromeliads and forlornly calling bell birds, the Earth speaks in a thousand voices. And if we listen—truly listen—we hear a sacred call. As a sacred ecological evangelist guided by Buddhist practices and the Quaker tradition, I know ecosustainability is not just a civic responsibility—it is a spiritual path, a covenant with the Living World.
Quaker faith teaches us to "walk cheerfully over the Earth, answering that of God in everyone." But in Monteverde, we learn also to answer that of God in everything—in the hummingbird’s wingbeat, the towering strangler fig, the cry of howler monkeys at dawn. Living sustainably here means aligning our daily choices with the larger body of Life. It means protecting the forest not for what it gives us, but because it is us.
Monteverde’s story is one of vision and faith. In the early 1950s, a group of Quakers from Alabama, driven by a deep commitment to nonviolence, sought refuge in this mountainous cradle of biodiversity. They settled here mostly as farmers but quickly discovered their symbiotic relationship to trees and to water. Their role was not to conquer, but to coexist—and in doing so, they helped to protect one of the world’s most fragile and precious cloud forests. Their legacy calls us to continue this faithful stewardship.
Today, we face unprecedented planetary crisis. The biosphere is unraveling—rapidly. Climate extremes, mass extinction, and ecosystem collapse are not distant possibilities; they are unfolding in real time. Meanwhile, the international supply chains and corporate food systems our world depends on are becoming increasingly brittle—threatened by geopolitical instability, fossil fuel decline, and ecological overshoot.
The age of global abundance built on extraction and never-ending growth is ending. The future is not industrial. The future is local.
In Monteverde, we are working hard to cultivate that future—through regenerative agriculture, water conservation, forest preservation, permaculture practices, and community cooperation. We are not perfect in this regard but many here sense the urgency to work at it out of as sense of resilience, spiritual integrity, and love.
Quaker simplicity teaches us to "let our lives speak." Here, that means re-learning how to live with the land, not on it. It means recognizing that God is not just in people, but pulsing through every root and raindrop. To live sustainably is to honor the sacredness of all being.
I invite you—Friend, seeker, or simply soul-awake—to join with us in this movement. Hopefully, you are already practitioners in this holy pursuit. Whether you’re planting a garden, supporting a local farmer, capturing water runoff, installing renewable forms of energy, or reimagining your community’s food systems, you are part of this sacred unfolding. Let your actions reflect reverence. Let your neighborhood become resilient.
The Earth is not a resource. It is our kin. Let us act not out of fear, but fierce love—for Life, for each other, and for the generations to come. Let us meet this moment not with doom, but with gospel—with “good news” rooted in the sacredness of Life. Let us remember: the Earth is not a problem to be solved. She is a miracle to be honored.
Come. Let us build a future worth inheriting.
—Tom Cox, Esfera Faith
