Welcome to Falling with Heron

a website for contemplating the spirit of our relation with the Earth in a climate of change.

What has drawn me to the seemingly solitary way of heron is also what draws me to the hermit catholic way of Merton who was always opening toward interfaith dialogue, civil rights, and nature relations… A regular ceremonial practice that can be evoked by the presence of heron or a seasonal change is an act of taking time to clear space in our lives for mystery to take the lead and show us all the willfulness that needs to be let go. (Fall Equinox Post) Like heron, we stand rooted in the mud around us, and from this position we are called to deconstruct, destabilize, and prune the ship, starting in the place where we work and live. But that is not all, for in the living spaces that open up, we need to begin naturalizing those viable seeds from our canadien-celtic ancestry that can take root here in the spirit of embracing diversity and life on Mother Earth." (in Odagahodhes)

Timothy B. Leduc,

Earth-Based Author & Educator

My name, Timothy, originally means "He who honours God or the Creator", but for too long my canadien catholic ancestors have held to a Creator who is seen as outside of creation. Heron is one of many Earth guides described in my writing and this website who have helped me to spiritually ground how I approach the responsibilities of this name. My writing and teaching arises from the time I spend walking in the forests and along the waters of south-eastern Ontario where I live with my partner and two children, and work as an Earth-based social work educator at Wilfrid Laurier University. I am the author of three books, including Climate, Culture, Change: Inuit and Western Dialogues with a Warming North (UOP, short-listed for 2012 Canada Prize) and A Canadian Climate of Mind: Passages from Fur to Energy and Beyond (MQUP 2016); and the Editor of the book by Cayuga Elder Gae Ho Hwako Norma Jacobs Ǫ da gaho dḛ:s: Reflecting on our Journeys (MQUP 2022).