Embracing Climate Change Uncertainty: A Practice for Impossible Questions
How do we hold space for what feels unanswerable?
In this episode of the Behind the Scenes Edition, host Jessica David welcomes Madeline Bugeau-Heartt, Program Associate at The BTS Center, to guide us through a contemplative practice. This episode isn’t about solving anything — it’s about embracing what feels impossible.
Main Practice:
Madeline shares a guided meditation that invites listeners to sit with the “impossible questions” — the ones that don’t have tidy answers, especially in the face of climate uncertainty. Born from personal experience and deep spiritual reflection, this practice reframes uncertainty as sacred, not something to be avoided, but something to be honored.
Key themes include:
- Holding profound uncertainty with reverence
- Embracing not-knowing as a spiritual act
- Honoring the questions that shape us
- Cultivating bravery, not certainty
Listeners are encouraged to move outside (if possible), settle their bodies, and gently bring their impossible questions into presence, not to “figure them out,” but to tend to them as holy.
Next Steps:
- Try this practice again — or share it with a friend.
- Reflect on your impossible questions: What are they whispering?
- Journal. Walk. Breathe. Notice what unfolds.
Join the Conversation:
Share your experience with us:
Email: podcast@thebtscenter.org
Text or Call: 207-200-6986
Keep journeying with us — the next episode in this series features a practice led by Jessica David.
About the Podcast:
Climate Changed is a project of The BTS Center, a spiritual leadership organization based in Portland, Maine.
Produced by Peterson Toscano. Music by EpidemicSound.com.
Find more episodes and transcripts at climatechangedpodcast.org
Meet Our Guest
Madeline Bugeau-Heartt is a Program Associate at The BTS Center. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School and NYU Tisch, she brings her background in experimental theater, farming, and caregiving into her work. Madeline is passionate about creating spaces for radical imagination, deep embodiment, and joyful resistance, especially as we navigate life in a climate-changed world.
Meet Our Host
Jessica David is a Master of Divinity candidate at Harvard Divinity School, founder of Local Return, and President & CEO of Rhode Island Community Investment Cooperative. With 20 years of experience working at the intersection of people and place, Jessica focuses on the intersection of spirituality and money, supporting community wealth-building and strategic organizational development.
