Compost Creed

We believe in the embodied power of the living world, 

the miraculous forces that create and sustain all life, 

the sacred breath and pulse of the planet.

We believe this power is not distant or foreign

but part of us, with us, in and around us, 

generative, constantly creating, binding us 

as essential participants in the common wealth.

We believe that life is continuous with death, 

that the grave becomes the seat and seed of newness. 

Like the fallen forest tree, we are fully alive in 

and a part of that which arises from us.

Even as we recognize that our bodies are reefs of life, 

that we are always and only air, light, water, mineral, 

we proclaim that our matter will be transformed.

We acknowledge that the ways we inhabit this world 

affect all others, human and nonhuman, living and nonliving, 

in our time and the times to come.

We believe that power breathes in us and through us, 

that it calls us to live with compassion for others and ourselves.

As we breathe in concert with the breath of life, 

we find our truest selves in the oneness of the world

and become a blessing to all around us in life and in death.

We respect the wisdom of those who have lived longest among us,

who most fully embrace their communities, 

who foster and spread lovingkindness, 

who live in harmony with their surroundings.

We trust that if we linger with them and listen, 

they will offer us their truths, 

through which we will live more fully, 

become conduits of compassion, 

and enter into wholeness.

We believe in the ancient patience of the trees, 

the intricate interconnections of fungi, 

the dynamic energy of the sun, 

the perpetual renewal of rain, 

and the living light enfolded 

in the working, warming darkness.

– Ron Balthazor and Lee Ann Pingle