get the journal of small work* letters for an immersion in new writing that explores positive, regenerative futures.

tulip

imagine living in ways that create the conditions for all of life to thrive, while adapting to profound uncertainty. the letters/essays/poems look at the small work of patterning our everyday practices off a collaborative, not conquering, way of being. becoming a small works patron is community supported activism and creates pathways to new films and growing volumes of the journal of small work* book. elisa rathje writes weekly-ish, and thrives on our patron conversations and requests. find out more.

to relocalise is to become present –

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

getting out of our own way –

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

the latest variation of a climate in flux –

the latest variation of a climate in flux clearly suited the grapevine, as the farmhouse disappears beneath its leaves as if to pull a blanket over and turn in for a nap. the intensity of our lives wants a buffer and a break like this. inside the shady house i practice a sequence of care … Read More

as if compelled by a force–

as if compelled by a force to speak i posed a vision to my community and our leaders. a lot of us gathered at the edge of a bicycle park at a rally for safe cycling on this small island, to ask questions of our elected member of the legislative assembly, who cycled there, with … Read More

what’s needed now –

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

the quandary we face now—

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

when we choose to live closely bonded with the land –

when we choose to live closely bonded with the land, to turn to it in reciprocity, tending to the soil and the water and the plants and the animals for our mutual thriving, we are reclaiming a pattern of collaboration with all that lives. when we take the responsibility for what we need back into … Read More

what happens when we pause to listen –

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

at the receiving end –

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

the critical work of our time –

the critical work of our time is not in grand gestures. it is in what i like to call the small work. the tiny step that requires the most energy, because it is the first. all the energy bound up in avoidance, in meaning to, in wishing, fearing, procrastinating, it’s more than enough to do … Read More

when my first child was tiny

when my first child was tiny, as i drove across the bridge i’d picture the semi colliding with the pickup ahead, steeled to danger, hyper-aware that another life was held in my hands. vigilant. i might’ve stayed paralysed like that, but in seeking health through nutrition and herbal support, a long line of healers, my … Read More

getting things done

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

the recipe that calls

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

the state of the world is unnerving –

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

making a minimal, utilitarian wardrobe–

the project of making a minimal, utilitarian wardrobe falls to long winter evenings. stormy weather gives us a little more time to practice our skills, working on an ambitious project of making, mending, reconstructing more and more of our clothes. i’m trying to make just the clothes i would use in my daily life, cosy … Read More

the future we want to live in –

the future we want to live in may well be systematically — culturally, politically, economically – out of our reach. corporations and billionaires may well hold the power-to-change in ransom to a structure that goes on extracting compounding interest from a planet on the brink of collapse. and yet. it may also be true that … Read More

acting like the world revolves around us –

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

as we become fluent in the life we want to live –

as we become fluent in the life we want to live, immersed in living systems, there are particular dialects we begin to pick up on. one of those is how community happens. the isolation of recent years is particularly painful because we’re social animals, we need our herd, our flock, we cannot do this alone … Read More

our kith and kin –

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

next to an actual nap –

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

coming of age –

coming of age, coming to consciousness of a greater world and one’s place within it, it must always have been a rite of passage fraught with apprehension and possibility. but emerging into a world in civilisational collapse is quite another matter. for those of us who have tended to complacency, too overwhelmed in getting on … Read More

the generations returning to the land –

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

having awoken –

To view this content, you must be a member of appleturnover’s Patreon at $7 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

the entrance –

In the face of ecological crisis, it doesn’t matter about my front entrance, no. But all of us lucky enough to have a front door, we live each day in impactful ways. We can share knowledge to shift into attunement with a living, thriving earth. Our designs, habits, actions, our stories matter when we share and learn from each other.

biochar –

Conceiving of ourselves as wasteful and exploitative, a pox on the planet, really, depends on daily systems that reinforce this story through linear waste-streams. Extract, manufacture, ship, sell, consume, throw away. Yet the compost toilet captures human ‘waste’ nutrients in the ‘waste’ product of sawdust and transforms it through nitrogen-powered heat and microbial alchemy into rich soil to nurture a thriving, water-holding garden. We are always making organic matter. Whatever else I did today, I made more life. So it is with biochar.

the journal of small work-book, pages 1-4

if half-sleep yielded writing, writing became a social post, a post became a radio recording, which in turn became a video-podcast, then perhaps the transcript that is printed as pages of a book that you’ll assemble with your own hands and read in your own way, is itself just about ready to dream again, as … Read More