For my Interspecies Practice, I decided to try my hand at creating a prayer garland. A prayer garland is a single, continuous strand of beads. This one is made of thirty‑one prayer beads.

he land you live on is not generic. It is a small, intricate ecosystem with its own habits and moods. You can hear its voice in the earliest birdsong of spring — the chickadees testing the morning light, the crows calling across the tree line to share news only they understand. You can see it in the way native plants open themselves to the sun or fold inward when rain is near, responding to cues older than memory.

Animism invites us to see the land, animals, plants, stones, and waters as beings with their own wisdom and presence. This perspective challenges us to rethink how we relate to the living world and to find a right relationship that honors all life.

the time has arrived to acknowledge how over time we have outgrown the old language of "Pet ownership" not because love is new, but because we finally have words spacious enough to hold what we have always known. The new words that define this relationship is animal companion.