Joy as the Compass
Freeing Yourself from the Seven Activist Addictions
by Edveeje Fairchild, M.ED.
Publication Year: 2025
In this honest, hard-hitting book, Edveeje Fairchild shares her story of walking away from her successful career as a non-profit executive to become the CEO of her own life. As she recovers from her addiction to activism, Edveeje learns several important truths:
- Leadership and activism do not require sacrifice, suffering, and hard work.
- We must first become the change before we can lead the change.
- Nature and the world don’t need saving. We do.
- Joy is the only meaningful life GPS.
Joy as the Compass explores seven “activist addictions” that lead to inner ecological burnout while offering seven “wild remedies” that illuminate the path of soul restoration. Join Edveeje on her personal soul safari as she learned how to root her life, leadership, and activism in joy rather than suffering and sacrifice. Dare to make Joy your True North.
Table of Contents
Dedication vii
Foreword 1
Part One
Finding True North: If It Isn’t Hell Yes! It’s Hell No! 7
A Pilgrimage of the Soul 9
If You Want to Change the World 12
Reimagining Activism 15
My Journey to Joy 17
The Shoulders of Giants 19
The Path Ahead 20
My Failures Have Made Me Wise 24
That’s Just How Life is 25
Living from Joy 29
It’s Not Our Fault 30
How We Got Here: The Short Story 31
The Corporate Capitalist World 32
The Academic World 33
The Nonprofit World 34
Soul Forgetfulness 35
The Masculine and Feminine Principles 36
Activism Rooted in Resistance 36
How We Move Forward: The Wild Remedies 39
Part Two
Confessions: The Seven Activist Addictions & their Wild Remedies 47
Addiction One: Sacrifice 49
Addiction Two: Suffering 65
Addiction Three: Control 82
Addiction Four: Busyness & Overwhelm 98
Addiction Five: Struggle & Force 119
Addiction Six: Drama 134
Addiction Seven: Effort & Hard Work 152
Part Three
Walking Out to Walk On: A Sabbatical Manifesto & Field Guide 171
Epilogue 195
We Can Choose Joy 195
Glossary of Terms 199
Recommended Reading 205
Appreciation & Acknowledgments 209
About the Author 211
Praise for Joy as the Compass
A deeply touching book with soul-deep revelations.
—Pia Bjorstrand, attorney and Board Chair of End Ecocide Sweden
If soul-deep freedom is something you yearn for, then listen to the stories and wisdom Edveeje has on offer. This book is part confession, part gentle confrontation: What would it take for you to choose a life of freedom and joy?
—Deborah Frieze, author of Walk Out Walk On, founding co-President of the Berkana Institute
We need a visionary guidebook for these times, but better yet, how fortunate to find an experienced, wise, and skillful guide who brings us back to the unrefutable veracity of our own inner compass—the deep knowing of our soul’s purpose, the intrinsic, vital intuition of our physical body, the nuanced language of our emotions, indeed the abundant cornucopia of Feminine Wisdom that is universally available for us to resource in every moment.
Edveeje Fairchild’s Joy as the Compass is such a guidebook. Immensely readable, her story is unflinching honest, and often personal. However, within this, and indeed because of this, we feel her compassionate humanity and the transpersonal application of her message. The book offers companionship, council, key practices, and a blueprint for bringing bliss, meaning, and catalyst to life’s many key thresholds and initiations. Those from multiple walks of life will find Joy as the Compass a practical, treasured, and much-needed resource as they navigate personal change and collective cultural re-genesis in these seminal times.
—Sarah Drew, author, Gaia Codex
I hold Edveeje as a true life guide for following your bliss. She will leave you more deeply in love with the gift of being alive.
—Clare Dubois, Founder of TreeSisters
Joy as the Compass is a bold, compelling, and utterly necessary read for anyone daring to imagine and work for a better world. In beautifully crafted prose, Edveeje offers guidance on how to carve a more nourishing, joyous way of working to create change without ‘clearcutting’ your own soul. Dare to pick up the gauntlet she is throwing down…it might just change your life, and the world!
—Alexandra Pope, Co-Founder of Red School and co-author of Wild Power: Discover the Magic of your Menstrual Cycle and Awaken the Feminine Path to Power and Wise Power: Discover the Liberating Power of Menopause to Awaken Authority, Purpose and Belonging
For those of us who have dedicated our lives to work for the common good, this book is an essential reminder that the common good also includes ourselves. There is no separation. Being there for others requires being there for oneself, or else there is a discontinuity between doing and being. Edveeje Fairchild’s book Joy as the Compass provides a roadmap of encouragement to follow one’s bliss while “becoming the change we seek.” It is also a strong reminder that nonprofit organizations require governance that is in alignment with their vision.
—Dr. Phil Snow Gang, founder of the Institute for Educational Studies, author, Educating for Right-Action and Love
Edveeje Fairchild | About the Author
As the founder of A Woman’s Nature School, Edveeje inspires and encourages women leaders to follow our deep joy and desires as we collectively conceive, gestate, and birth The Great Work in service of the Sacred Feminine and the restoration of Nature. Edveeje holds a Master’s degree in Education with an emphasis in Sustainability and Women’s Studies and has midwifed hundreds of women and countless projects, organizations, and businesses at the regional, national, and global levels. As the founding Chief Operations Officer of TreeSisters.org, her unique Nature-Based Feminine Wisdom retreats have inspired thousands of women to craft and live soulful, wild, and authentic lives rooted in rest and grounded in joy.
You can find her at joyasthecompass.com