On being a compost pile

By Jen Peer Rich

I look out into the natural world and see nothing is wasted. The earth is sustainable and balanced in such a dynamic way, every spec of life material feeds on other life material, from the macroscopic to the microscopic. Nature is very efficient.

As I think about waste in my life, not just material waste like trash and plastic, but also psychological waste, I enter this thought stream to investigate if natural intelligence sustainable and efficient in the same way nature is?

Is there such a thing as psychological waste or are we actually busy composting inside?

I grew up with strong attachments to a false sense of self. That false me was shaped by systems, culture, and by the experiences I had growing up. By the time I reached adulthood, I was head deep in a fixed sense of who I thought I was, mixed…