Don Chatfield
Q: Where are your roots deepest? What is your story? How did you get involved with your work?
A: My roots are deepest in the natural world, and that goes back to childhood. My dad, uncles, and grandfathers took me on a lot of fishing and camping trips as a child. We camped across the country, from coast to coast, and that’s how we saw the land.
I always had a sense of being at home in nature. I was in Boy Scouts, which gave me a great excuse to be in the woods for two weeks every summer. I also noticed as my spirituality began to awaken, that nature is where I have my most direct experience of the Divine. Those roots show up later in my life, in my work with communities working to protect their environment, and different efforts to conserve land and really care for our Earth.
My story is that I sensed a call to ministry when I was 14 years old. That was very clear to me, but I couldn’t see how I was going to fit in any organized religion. Nevertheless, I went to seminary and really watched for opportunities to minister in different ways. Early in my ministry, I got frustrated, feeling like I was talking and preaching a lot, but not actually getting a lot of work done. That’s what led to getting another master’s degree in land use and the environment because I could bring that ministerial presence to working with indigenous communities or other groups to find common solutions. I’ve seen this arc throughout my life that’s really about community formation, bringing people closer together, building bridges, honoring diversity, and caring for the world around us.
I got involved with All Souls while my wife and I were directing an interfaith retreat center called the Osage Forest of Peace. We lived in a contemplative community, with other people, so we meditated together three times a day, we ate all our meals together, and we observed one day a week in silence. We brought in retreat groups, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Christians of all different flavors, and a lot of interfaith dialogue. We really expected that we would probably retire there. We were on vacation, and I wasn’t supposed to be checking my email. I did, and I saw a recruiting email about the lead pastor position at All Souls. I turned to Karen, my wife, and said, “It sounds like they’re describing me,” because they wanted someone with pastoral and nonprofit management experience with a deep commitment to the earth. The interesting thing is we had dreamed of coming to Vermont right after grad school, so Karen was enthusiastic about applying. We did, and fortunately, I was selected.
Q: How do you see perenniality in your organization?
A: A lot of our work here is about developing greater consciousness and exploring how we are paying attention and being truly alert to what’s going on. There’s a misperception that can overtake people that everything is new, and they get blinded by things that really are not that important. A lot of our teachings come from perennial philosophy and are about awakening to what is real.
There’s a famous Hindu prayer that includes the line “From the unreal, lead us to the real.” The reality is that we live in a perennial world. We live in a world that’s based in cycles. If we love it, it’s auto renewing, cares for itself, and cares for us. A large part of the perennial connection at All Souls is giving people the opportunity to wake up, be alert to what’s happening around them, and to help them connect with the cycles of the natural world. Typically, at least once a year, we offer a forest bathing-program. We like to do that in the wintertime when there’s snow on the ground. It involves very intentional walking in the woods and sharing a tea ceremony together outside in the cold. You can notice, even in the dead of winter, that life goes on and preparations are being made for rebirth. We also offer a form of ecstatic dance once a month on new moon evenings, which helps people to connect with the rhythm of the moon.
This ties in with the perennial philosophy. There are spiritual understandings and truths that have been with us for centuries. When we begin to wake up, there’s a sense of rootedness and groundedness and peacefulness that takes hold in people’s lives. I really see that consciousness as central to giving people the ability to connect with perenniality.
Q: What is one recent learning, unlearning, or relearning you have experienced or explored?
A: I had Covid for a long time. I was quarantined in a bedroom on the second floor of our house for 19 days. I had no choice but to slow down and spend time in solitude and in silence. It’s interesting what happened during that time. I didn’t have any choice—I couldn’t come to work.
I found myself sitting by the window in the bedroom looking down. We have a pollinator garden in our backyard, and I started noticing all the things that were taking place that I’m often oblivious to. I watched both bees and wasps making the rounds to all the different blossoms, and then, some birds would come over. I could see a spider weaving a web, and I was amazed at how rich and complex the life was in my own backyard. I learned the beauty and richness of natural life.
This reminded me of a scene in a play by Thornton Wilder, called Our Town. In that play, there’s a character, Emily, who dies during childbirth. Later in the play, she has the option to go back and relive
one of the days of her life. She chooses her 12th birthday. What she sees going on stuns her. It’s so much that she can’t take it, and she has to be taken back to her grave. As she’s leaving, she says, “Goodbye, world. Goodbye, Grover’s Corners. Mama and Papa. Goodbye to clocks ticking. And Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee … Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? — every, every minute?” That was the kind of feeling that I had during quarantine, when I slowed down. I had that quiet time. The things that are unimportant just dropped away. I became acutely aware of what a wonderful web of life we live in.
Rev. Dr. Don Chatfield is an interfaith minister with a history of leading spiritual communities and nonprofit organizations. Don’s educational degrees include a Master of Divinity, a master’s degree in land use and the environment, a master’s degree in counseling, and a PhD in human and organizational development. Prior to coming to All Souls, Don was the executive director of the Osage Forest of Peace, a contemplative inter-spiritual retreat center near Tulsa, Oklahoma. At the Forest of Peace, Don launched a new School of Spiritual Direction and successfully hosted international interspiritual dialogues in partnership with the Charis Foundation for New Monasticism and InterSpirituality. Don’s previous experience includes working as chief operating officer at the Sonoran Institute, a nonprofit environmental organization in the western United States, and as the executive director of a nonprofit agency in Tucson dedicated to serving the needs of the homeless and working poor. Don served for a period as a therapist, working with those experiencing chemical addictions, sex and love addictions, and eating disorders. Don and his wife, Karen, have been married since 1987 and live in Shelburne. Don enjoys cross-country and downhill skiing and bicycling.