06/22/2026
Have you heard? Our new story endeavor, Good Stories, is featured on our new page Sacred Earth: Common Ground. Follow the page; read the stories; share with friends and family. And "like"! 👍💚
We invite you to join us for Good Stories, a storytelling journey into connection, wonder, and the sacred.
“It’s all a question of story,” said cultural historian and Catholic “geologian” Thomas Berry. “We are in trouble just now because we do not have a good story.” Berry believed that the stories we tell shape the way we live on the Earth and with one another. When our stories are rooted in fear, separation, consumption, or despair, we lose our sense of belonging. But stories of connection, wonder, compassion, mystery, and sacred presence can help restore and renew us.
For three years, Arizona Interfaith Power & Light (AZIPL) has produced “Sacred Earth: Common Ground” events where we have invited people to tell stories about times and places where they were deeply connected to themselves, their neighbors, nature and/or the holy. The Celts called these mysterious encounters “thin places,” where the veil between the physical and the spiritual became thin, and distinction between the ordinary and the sacred became indistinguishable. We would like to share some of these good stories with you, hoping that they will inspire your own good stories.
Neuroscience and ancient spiritual traditions alike teach us that storytelling helps human beings connect, something that facts and arguments alone cannot do. When we hear someone speak honestly about awe, wonder, grief, gratitude, or transformation, something deep inside us is awakened. We remember that we, too, have stood under a night sky and felt humbled. We, too, have sensed mystery in the natural world. We, too, have experienced moments of insight, awe, and invitations to transformation.
In a time of ecological crisis, polarization, and disconnection, these stories matter. They help us reconnect with what is sacred. They nurture compassion and resilience. They remind us why the Earth is worth protecting and why community is worth cultivating. They remind us that we are not alone.
Follow the “Sacred Earth: Common Ground” page. Read the stories. Share them with friends and family. Sit with the memories they awaken in you. And perhaps ask yourself:
"When have I experienced a deep connection?”
"When has the world felt luminous, alive, holy, or mysteriously whole?”
"What story within me is waiting to be remembered?"
Through Good Stories, we can rediscover common ground, resilience and a passion to care for our Mother/Sister Earth.
