I’m Christine. I live on the North Shore of Nova Scotia / Mi’kma’ki, where my husband and I raise three beautiful humans and a menagerie of pets. We are privileged to steward 160 acres of fields and Wabanaki forest.

Our days consist of all the busy-ness of work and kids and life, but in the in-between moments, we lean into things like gushing over ridiculously cute mushrooms, wondering whose poop is that on the trail?, and getting over-excited when Francis, our resident Barred Owl, perches in a tree close to the house.

I have spent a lot of my life feeling like the world is BIG and its problems are BIGGER. It is easy to get discouraged. But as my days on this planet accrue, a lot of my thinking has crystallized around this idea: It is important to pay attention.

As Mary Oliver once said, “Attention is the beginning of devotion.” If you pay attention, you will fall in love with the world. And when you love something? You take care of it.

So come, let us have some tea and talk of happy things. Let’s linger over those luminous ordinary moments. Let’s find light without denying the darkness. We can talk about hard things in a way that keeps hope alive. We can fall in love with the world.

Welcome to Joyful Activist.