Resources & Networks – Page 2

amaMpondo environmental defenders on South Africa’s Wild Coast bring the same spirit of resistance to extractive mining interests today as their forebears did to the apartheid state in the 1960s.
Their connection with the land, and the customs that underpin this, makes them mindful custodians of the wilderness.
The amaMpondo say they welcome economic development, but want it on their own terms, many preferring light-touch tourism over extractive mining.
The amaMpondo’s worldview and values are passed down through the generations through the oral tradition.

By LEONIE JOUBERT originally published in Mongabay

MPONDOLAND, South Africa — The day the prospectors came, so did the storm. It was 2007, and clouds barreled toward the coast, driven by a wind that churned up dust and foretold of the downpour to come. Beyond the rusty dunes, the Indian Ocean surged with equal force.

“It was scary,” says Mamjozi Danca, a traditional healer who has lived here all her life.

Her family couldn’t bring the cattle in from grazing, and “even cooking wasn’t easy.” They hunkered down in their rondavel, a round homestead with a thatched roof not far from the mineral-dense dunes of Xolobeni on South Africa’s Wild Coast, to wait it out.

Xolobeni is a village on a 24-kilometer (15-mile) stretch of wilderness about four hours’ drive south of the port city of Durban. It has become synonymous with a two-decade-long fight by the Indigenous amaMpondo against extractive mining interests that had sights on the powdered titanium in the dunes. There have also been more recent attempts to conduct seismic surveys for offshore oil and gas.

When traditional healer Mamjozi Danca was born into a violent apartheid state that tried to dispossess her people of their land and culture, the amaMpondo fought back. Now they are fighting to protect their heritage from mining corporations. — When traditional healer Mamjozi Danca was born into a violent apartheid state that tried todispossess her people of their land and culture, the amaMpondo fought back. Now they are fighting to protect their heritage from mining corporations. Image by Leonie Joubert for Mongabay.

Herbalists burn imphepho, African sage (Helichrysum odoratissimum), as an incense during prayer. This fragrant herb grows wild in the Mpondoland grasslands. Image by Leonie Joubert for Mongabay.

On the day the mining prospectors came for their sand samples, the storm drove them away, Danca says. It was frightening. But it was a sign, she says, a miracle even.

This, by her interpretation, was the spirits of the ancestors bringing a message to the people, using the vocabulary of the elements.

“If we allow [mining], [we] will never be able to access any medicine, the beach, the sea, or food,” Danca says. According to her, it was a message of solidarity: we, your forebears, will fight alongside you, the living, who are protecting our ancestral lands.

When the government later granted a prospecting license to Mineral Sand Resources, an Australian company, the community challenged its legality in court, resulting in the license being suspended.

The spirit of resistance to these would-be profiteers is the same one that fueled the amaMpondo’s fight against the apartheid government in the 1950s and early 1960s, sources tell Mongabay. And it is their connection with “the land” — the web of life that surrounds them, and where the spiritual world is said to exist — that environmental defenders say they are willing to die for.

Some already have.

The amaMpondo want economic development, but on their own terms, with many preferring light-touch tourism over extractive mining. Some families offer rustic catered accommodation for hikers trekking up and down the coast, such as here at the popular Mtentu River mouth. Image courtesy of Travis Bailey/Siyasizisa Trust.

Nature: Where the living and the spirit realm meet

It’s no accident that this place is well preserved, the locals say. Their custodianship has kept it this way.

The land is their mother, they say; it is their identity, something they respect. In their belief system, the land owns the people; the people don’t own the land.

When the amaMpondo speak of “the land,” they aren’t referring merely to the soil beneath their feet, which can yield X bushels of corn that can be sold for Y dollars at the market.

They’re talking about the rains that roll in on a storm, and the water filtering into the wetland where the grass aloes grow. They’re talking about the springs where they collect bathwater, the grasslands where their herds graze, and where they gather plants for medicines and mystical charms. They speak of the forests that burst with fruit, and offer firewood or timber. They mean the rivers that run into the ocean where they cast their fishing lines, and the fish that nourish them.

Xolobeni’s rusty titanium-rich coastal dunes are synonymous with the amaMpondo’s 20-year battle to keep extractive mining out of their ancestral lands. Image by Leonie Joubert for Mongabay.

The Pondoland Centre of Endemism is globally recognized for its unique plant diversity, with rarities such as the Pondoland coconut (Jubaeopsis afra), the Pondoland conebush (Leucadendron pondoense) and the Pondoland ghost bush (Raspalia trigyna).

It is also here, in nature, where the amaMpondo connect with the spirit realm.

The amaMpondo’s spiritualism is a blend of African animism and Christianity. They say that when someone dies, their spirit doesn’t go away to a far-off realm — a heaven, or hell, or a cycle of reincarnation — but lingers close by, staying near to places they loved when they were here in their physical bodies.

“Those who have passed on cling to the places close to their hearts,” says Sinegugu Zukulu, a conservationist, ecological infrastructure expert and Indigenous knowledge specialist. “Just like living people are everywhere, so are those who have passed on.

“There are those who reside in the ocean,” Zukulu says, “some are in the mountains. Some reside in waterfalls; some in beautiful, peaceful pools; some in forests.”

Everything is said to be a being. That means protecting individual species and the ecosystems in which they occur — the grasslands, forests, rivers and ocean — is as much about ensuring people can meet their daily needs as it is about protecting the spiritual places where they connect with the numinous.

To understand this, Zukulu says, a person must witness their daily practices.

Traditional healer Malibongwe Ndovela collects plants for medicines and mystical charms thatgrow in the grasslands and forests at the Mtentu River mouth, a popular overnight stop for hikers. — Traditional healer Malibongwe Ndovela collects plants for medicines and mystical charms that grow in the grasslands and forests at the Mtentu River mouth, a popular overnight stop for hikers. Image by Leonie Joubert for Mongabay.

A walk through the grasslands uncovers the medicinal plants tucked away among the grazing, which explains why they won’t plow all the virgin land. Most of the natural veld remains intact, with just a few small vegetable beds for each family.

Healers only collect bark from the north-facing side of a medicinal tree, so it doesn’t die.

“In customary law, we are not allowed to cut down fruit-bearing trees,” Zukulu says, “because they give food to wildlife, like birds, bees and insects, and to strangers on long journeys.”

Out of respect for the ancestors, and the need to keep in good standing with them — ancestors are said to have the power to punish, if someone strays — conservation practices take the shape of a ritual or lore, becoming practical while being imbued with the metaphysical.

Losing their land to extractive development will break these lores and customs, they say.

But fighting to protect their way of life has come at a cost.

Traditional healers use the smoke from the coals of a yellow wood tree (Podocarpus latifolius) tocleanse a cattle herd of problematic spirits and stop the animals from fighting. — Traditional healers use the smoke from the coals of a yellow wood tree (Podocarpus latifolius) to cleanse a cattle herd of problematic spirits and stop the animals from fighting. Image by Leonie Joubert for Mongabay.

In 2016, a community leader with the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC) — which, together with civil society organization Sustaining the Wild Coast (SWC), helped spearhead the legal challenges to the titanium mine and other extractive development efforts — was killed. Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Rhadebe was shot in a suspected hit linked with resistance to the titanium mine. His death has not been thoroughly investigated and his killers remain at large. Zukulu and fellow activist Nonhle Mbuthuma, another ACC leader, found their names on a purported hit list that began circulating before Rhadebe’s murder, believed to be issued by a person or people in the community who were pro-mining.

This hasn’t stopped the community. Now they continue with a protracted legal battle against the energy giant Shell, which planned offshore seismic surveys about 770 km (480 mi) south of Xolobeni to find oil and gas. So far, they’ve kept Shell’s prospecting license application snarled up in legal proceedings. Meanwhile, in April 2024, Zukulu and Mbuthuma received the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for the community’s efforts to thwart Shell.

The legal case centers around more than just the potential environmental impacts of the sonic blasting, such as injury to sound-sensitive marine life like dolphins, whales and the near-extinct African penguin (Spheniscus demersus).

The amaMpondo argue that it’s also a threat to their cosmology.

“Shell’s disruption of the ocean risks disrupting and disturbing those who have passed on, and the living don’t know what it may lead to in their lives,” Zukululu says.

It is no accident that Mpondoland is well preserved, the locals say. Their custodianship has kept itthis way. They want economic development, but on their own terms, with many preferring light- touch tourism over extractive mining. — It is no accident that Mpondoland is well preserved, the locals say. Their custodianship has kept it this way. They want economic development, but on their own terms, with many preferring light-touch tourism over extractive mining. Image by Leonie Joubert for Mongabay.

Remembering hard times

Today, Mamjozi Danca is in her 60s. Like most of her generation, she doesn’t have a precise calendar date for her birthday, but uses the oral tradition to mark her arrival in the world.

She was born, her father told her, when the amabulu, the soldiers, stormed into their home, ripped off people’s jewelry and amulets, and looted the kitchen for food. This was the kind of intimidation tactic that the state used to bully the amaMpondo to submit to a national land-grab policy that aimed to push the country’s majority Black population into reserves and keep the country’s best farmlands for the minority white elite.

Part of this included imposing “betterment schemes” on Indigenous communities that were intended to upend traditional governance structures and communal land and grazing customs. State-sponsored chiefs drove wedges between communities. Extractive taxes forced Indigenous men to head to the mines, mostly in Johannesburg, as part of a conveyor belt of exploitative migrant labor.

The amaMpondo may not live solely off the produce of their farms, but being able to keep animalsand grow vegetables and maize goes a long way towards boosting their food resilience. — The amaMpondo may not live solely off the produce of their farms, but being able to keep animals and grow vegetables and maize goes a long way towards boosting their food resilience. Image by Leonie Joubert for Mongabay.

The amaMpondo were having none of it, rising up in a peasant resistance to this violent and illegitimate state in the 1950s and early 1960s. The culmination of the Mpondo Revolt came on June 6, 1960, when a group gathered at Ngquza Hill, not far from Xolobeni. The military flew in, dropped tear gas and gunned down 11 people. In the months that followed, the state hunted down and arrested others believed to be complicit, sentencing 30 to death for their part in the uprising.

It was into this maelstrom that Danca was born.

Today, Danca, a member of the ACC, is defiant. The amaMpondo were fighting to protect their land and way of life during the revolt; now they’re fighting the same system that wants to dispossess them of their inheritance today.

“I will never give up. I will never stop fighting,” she says.

Stories keep customs and cosmology alive

On the day the helicopters came, before Christmas 1960, Nozilayi Gwalagwala clutched her newborn boy as she felt the pah-pah-pah-pah-pah of the propellers’ vibrations. She recalls the choppers wobbling as they hovered near her rondavel.

Today, at 98, she crumples her housecoat into a tiny bundle to show how small her infant was, not even 24 hours old.

It was six months since the Ngquza Hill massacre, and a fortnight after the government issued draconian measures to suppress the revolt. Soldiers had returned to round up resistance stragglers who were boycotting tax payments and rabble-rousing against puppet chiefs.

Nozilayi Gwalagwala, 98, is a “living library” of stories and history. The amaMpondo’s care for the environmental is rooted in their customs and cosmology which are passed down through the oral tradition. Image by Leonie Joubert for Mongabay.

Nozilayi Gwalagwala, 98, has lived off the land for a whole lifetime, growing crops such as maize, beans, and potatoes, and investing in cattle as a way to build wealth. Image by Leonie Joubert for Mongabay.

Gwalagwala’s husband was captured that day. He was locked in the back of a truck to ship the prisoners away when it got into trouble at a tricky river crossing and overturned. Many were injured. When news reached Gwalagwala, she feared her husband was dead.

It took a week to track him down, alive but seriously injured in a hospital 55 km (34 mi) away. Much of the journey to find him was on foot, carrying her infant. The baby was later named Gunyazile, because he was born during a time when the “authorities forced the people.”

These were hard times, and her child would forever carry this history in his name.

Today, Gwalagwala tells this story in the presence of her grandson, Lungelo Mtwa, born to the late Gunyazile. Mtwa is 29. After he completed his diploma in tourism management, he returned to the land of his forebears, where he now works as a tour guide.

Tour guide Lungelo Mtwa (29) is taking on the mantle of storyteller from his grandmother NozilayiGwalagwala (98), and brings the amaMpondo history to life for the hikers who trek along the coast. — Tour guide Lungelo Mtwa (29) is taking on the mantle of storyteller from his grandmother Nozilayi Gwalagwala (98), and brings the amaMpondo history to life for the hikers who trek along the coast. Image by Leonie Joubert for Mongabay.

Their tale encapsulates the amaMpondo’s wishes. Many welcome development, but want it on their own terms. Light-touch tourism allows them to draw on their culture and the region’s unique biodiversity by offering authentic catered accommodation and guiding services to hiking parties that trek up and down the coast.

“She is a living library,” Mtwa says of his grandmother. “You can hike the Mpondo coast alone, but it is these stories that bring the place to life.”

The amaMponodo’s stories, archived in the oral tradition, carry the customs and cosmology that have ensured the Wild Coast remains wild, then and now, and burns with the spirit of resistance to external powers that wish to profit from their inheritance.

Banner image: Traditional healers use the smoke from the coals of a yellow wood tree (Podocarpus latifolius) to cleanse a cattle herd of problematic spirits and stop the animals from fighting. Image by Leonie Joubert for Mongabay.

Articles, Legal Rights, Resources & Networks, Uncategorized

To Protect Nature, our Law Should be Based on Interconnection

May 31, 2024June 10, 2024 Joanna Tomkins

By Alex May – Earth Jurisprudence to Defend the Rights of Nature

Hereunder is an extract from an essay by British author Alex May, which explains how the writing of new biocentric laws is instrumental in the Great Turning.

Reviewing our jurisprudence means studying and rewriting the principles on which our laws concerning the rights of Nature are based. These Gaian Practices are crucial for the regeneration and rewilding of our planet. On the one hand, Holding Actions denouncing crimes against other-than-human beings will achieve stronger arguments and rally wider groups of population if they are backed by official laws. And, on the other hand this regulatory approach to the rights of Nature will have a snowball effect on prescription and adoption of new laws across all areas of our capitalistic societies, and this will eventually have a incremental impact on the global Shift in Consciousness, therefore affecting all Three Dimensions of the Work that Reconnects.

Atomised

We know that radical change is needed to avoid catastrophe, and it is vital that we think about this in terms of system change. Relying on each person to doing their bit, in a political framework based on individual responsibility, has failed, and we must change the systems that we all act within.

For the most part, we know what sort of change is required in terms of social change, political change and economic change, with reports, targets, frameworks and new systemic approaches proposed. But law as a system has been, for the most part, overlooked.

Our law should shift to looking at relationships, such as between humans and their ecosystems, instead of just being about individual rights and rights-claims.

Our legal system is an interwoven part of our society and our economy. It structures human activity and social relations, and it affects how we understand the ourselves and the world.

For example, the way law focuses on individual rights reproduces our individualistic conception of society and the way we think of freedom as individual entitlement without responsibility. Yet despite this role law plays, it has mostly faded into the background, seen as a neutral and technical social system instead of a powerful influence in our way of life that itself must be changed.

Humans are interconnected with each other and with the natural world. Yet our society, economic models and legal systems do not recognise this, seeing us instead as atomised individuals.

Harmonious

In our legal systems, individual (and corporate) rights are the primary building block, and when we think about freedom, it is individual freedom that we think about. This is mistaken: in our interconnected world, individuals live in a dense network of relations and relationships. Society is not an aggregation of individuals, but a dense, interwoven web.

Our legal system is based in this flawed individualistic model, seeing us as separate from each other and from the natural world. Instead, it must shift to a paradigm based on interconnection, recognising and working to change the network of relationships we live in.

The network of relationships which make up our society can be empowering and sustaining, or they can be harmful and destructive. They can create conditions of freedom and allow us to live fulfilling and sustainable lives, or they can smother, abuse and exploit us. Law, as part of this, can be used to oppress people or to liberate them.

Once we recognise this, we should see that law’s role should be to transform this web of relationships – social, economic and ecological relationships – from harmful to harmonious.

To be clear, the argument is not that law should be used to influence these relationships, and nor is it that law is the only way we should do this.

Life

Instead, the point is that law already influences all sorts of relationships in society, and that our legal system itself must be transformed as part of the broader social and political change that is needed.

Earth Jurisprudence points to the way that the relationship between humans and the rest of Nature is currently mediated by law. In our legal systems, nature features chiefly as property which can be owned, dominated and plundered by human owners.

Individuals and corporate actors are free to destroy ecosystems and cause ecological harm in their search of profit. Environmental law is secondary, almost an afterthought. Instead, protecting Nature should be the norm, not the exception, and sustainability should be a core principle across our entire legal system.

Earth Jurisprudence proposes a transformation of legal systems to address this: to make Nature an equal part of our legal system by granting it rights. This would give Nature the ability to protect itself, via human intermediaries.

Recognising Nature’s rights in our legal system would also help us to see nature as valuable in its own right, instead of just as a resource for us to use. It would also embed in our culture the idea that we are part of a community of life on this Earth, instead of that our environment is some ‘other’ which we are separate from and more important than.

Personhood

Legal transformation has been mostly overlooked in the last decade, with one exception: the idea of ecocide.

The Stop Ecocide campaign seeks to make the destruction of nature an international crime. This call has been picked up by the Extinction Rebellion movement and mentioned by youth climate strikers as part of the change they call for. Making ecocide a crime is certainly welcome, but the transformation that our legal system needs is far bigger, and it is a shame that ideas like Rights of Nature have not yet received broader recognition.

Legal rights of nature have been introduced in some places around the world. They are recognised in Ecuador’s constitution, and have entered the court in legals challenges seeking to protect nature reserves from mining permits.

In New Zealand, a particular river system was given legal personhood, and in Colombia and India courts have developed rights for particular ecosystems.

Transform

Rights of Nature is only one part of the transformation of law that we need. The idea of interconnection can be the core of this framework, helping us to see the broader shift that is needed.

Our law should shift to looking at relationships, such as between humans and their ecosystems, instead of just being about individual rights and rights-claims. It has the potential to help change how we relate to each other, seeing ourselves collectively instead of individually.

We could also see the role of law as being about transforming the network of relationships that make up our society, instead of being about protecting individual right and individual freedoms. In this view, law could be used to transform social relations which are unjust or exploitative to being just, harmonious and empowering.

About the Author

Alex May is the founder of the Interconnected Law Project which seeks to develop and share ideas about law and ultimately transform our legal systems.

Interconnected Law is an approach to law based on interconnection, care, nurture, community and love.

With Gratitude to Alex May for this sharing for our blog and for the clarity of other students of nature’s jurisprudence around the world.

I also recommend reading the Bioneers website for more information on the Rights of Nature: https://bioneers.org/earthlings/

Articles, Poems, Resources & Networks, Uncategorized

The Empty Bowl and the Alchemy of Uncertainty

April 16, 2024April 16, 2024 Joanna Tomkins

by Barbara Ford

To listen to this article read by the author, please visit the Deep Times Journal where it was originally published last year: https://journal.workthatreconnects.org/2023/09/02/the-empty-bowl-and-the-alchemy-of-uncertainty/

Last year, I had the great good luck to visit my beloved friend and teacher, Joanna Macy, a brilliant elder of our time. We spent the afternoon together, catching up on family and news in the dappled sunshine in her backyard. Ukraine was on her mind. She traveled throughout Russia after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 and had dedicated herself to supporting the communities there as they coped with the physical, emotional, and cultural injuries of that event. (As an aside, some communities there are still using Geiger counters to find the least radioactive spots in their environs, so that they can plant gardens and guard the children from the ongoing threat of exposure as toxic particles move with the wind and the dust.)

At some point after this deep and thoroughly unvarnished conversation about the state of the world, she looked up into the tree branches above us, newly opening buds filtering the sunlight, turned to me smiling widely and said, “I am so grateful to be alive at this moment in history!”

how to stay present in the face of those reckonings, and the unavoidable truth of uncertainty as our constant companion on the journey.

This is not uncharacteristic of her, to be honest, but I was sitting with a kind of stunned awe, again, at this person who, while willing to stare deeply into the abyss of the pain of the world, still found herself in this place of deep gratitude. That statement, and that moment, reminded me of all the times over the years she talked about the reckonings our world was bound for, the tumult of fires, literal and cultural, that threaten our world. Her work, and mine, is largely centered on how to stay present in the face of those reckonings, and the unavoidable truth of uncertainty as our constant companion on the journey.

In the Work That Reconnects, a body of practices developed by Joanna, there is one practice called the Truth Mandala, or Circle of Truth. Within a circle of witnesses, a person enters and interacts with objects symbolic of emotional states that might arise in confronting one’s pain for the world. For example, a pile of dead leaves symbolizes grief. A large stick, tightly held, symbolizes anger. One of the objects I have a great resonance with is an empty bowl, which is connected to confusion, uncertainty, numbness. Each object has a correlating quality to each emotional state. Grief is connected to love. Anger, to one’s passion for justice. The emptiness in the bowl makes a space for the new to arise.

That empty space is a kind of scrying bowl, a place to seek new meanings, new ways of being with the unknown.

For me, the empty bowl has been a deeply meaningful image in my life and creative work. It comes up in dreams, in paintings, in poetry. That empty space is a kind of scrying bowl, a place to seek new meanings, new ways of being with the unknown. As such, the bowl becomes the container of process that helps transform my struggles with uncertainty and reclaim qualities that are born out of that alchemy.

I’ve been a climate activist for over twenty years now, and the climate crisis has been a difficult but important teacher in this endeavor. We are still learning so much along the way, including how the climate crisis intersects with so many other crises of the human and more-than human world. As more and more communities start to experience, first-hand, the unprecedented changes in climate phenomena, more of us are faced with a deep uncertainty about everything: Where can we live, safely? What will our children have to contend with? What is worth focusing on? And, lastly, is there a future at all?

Climate futurist Alex Steffen is a voice I’ve come to appreciate in this moment. He writes,

…the planetary crisis ain’t the Apocalypse. We do not face the End of Everything. We face the obliteration of our certainties, sure. We also face the destruction of many of the wonders of nature. And we face the reality that for billions of people, life will feel pretty damned apocalyptic, even as humanity as a whole staggers along. We live now in a trans-apocalyptic world. (1)

I need to breathe here, as I write. To breathe, and to also mention that the word “apocalypse” does not mean the end of everything, but, in fact, comes from the Greek words that mean “to uncover or reveal.”

So much is being revealed.

The truth is, whole communities of people have gone through some version of apocalypse

All the cultural crises of our time–climate chaos, fascism, racism, inequality–have deep roots in time, and in consciousness. The truth is, whole communities of people have gone through some version of apocalypse, whether it is the genocide of Native American communities, the enslavement of African people, or the Holocaust. Worlds have ended, if not the world. The results of colonization and domination cultures have spread to the entire planet. While some communities are disproportionately affected, what’s new is that, now, all people, species, landscapes, and living systems are threatened by the effects of the mindset that put climate chaos into motion.

Alex goes on to say:

It’s important to live when we are. Being native to now, I think, is our deepest responsibility… being at home in the world we actually inhabit means refusing to consign ourselves to living in the ruins of continuity, but instead realizing we live in the rising foundations of a future that actually works. It may be a fierce, wild, unrecognizable future, but that doesn’t mean it’s a broken future. Indeed, it’s the present that’s broken beyond redemption. (1)

It’s not that our future is broken, but our present. And, if enough people find a way to offer themselves to this present brokenness, a viable, less broken, and more just future might be built.

Nothing has ever been certain, actually. Crops fail. Health fails. Accidents happen. This has always been true. Joanna Macy says this:

I know we’re not sure how the story will end. I want so much to feel sure. I want to be able to tell people…it’s going to be alright.” And I realize that wouldn’t be doing anybody a favor. First of all, we can’t know. But secondly, if… we could be given a pill to be convinced, “don’t worry, it’s going to be okay”, would that elicit from us our greatest creativity and courage? No. It’s that knife edge of uncertainty where we come alive to our greatest power. (2)

We all have different lived experiences of uncertainty, and varied capacities to cope. People are facing houselessness, disability, family difficulties, oppression. I’m not here to tell anyone how they should be strong in any adversity. However, some folks might find comfort in the exploration of ways to navigate these times.

Let’s talk about the connection between uncertainty and creativity, for example. The writer Meg Wheatley says that we can’t be creative if we refuse to be confused. She states: “Change always starts with confusion; cherished interpretations must dissolve to make way for what’s new. Great ideas and inventions miraculously appear in the space of not knowing.” (3)

Fire bowl by Barbara Ford

Artists of all kinds have always known this. The very act of creating is dependent in a large part on opening to possibility, to emergence, to unpredictable discoveries. As an artist and a poet, I find that the best work is born out of not knowing what the hell I’m doing, honestly. I continue to struggle with the process. It’s not an easy path. It is humbling and sometimes disorienting. At the same time, when something unexpected and wonderful arises, it feels like I have been a vessel for some other, larger truth teller. Call it Muse, or God, or Trickster, it is a feeling of deep connection.

One creative practice I’ve tried is improvisational singing. That’s when you literally open your mouth and sing sounds or words and you don’t know what they will be until they are sung. In the beginning, I was afraid- of sounding bad, of getting it wrong, even of being boring. But the truth is, the more you just throw yourself out there, risking shame and oblivion, there are moments of clarity and communion between all the so-called “bad” notes. The power of those moments can eclipse the fear of failure.

two of the gifts of uncertainty are artistry and emergence, the empty bowl that holds all that can be born

So, I posit that two of the gifts of uncertainty are artistry and emergence, the empty bowl that holds all that can be born. Releasing ourselves from “needing to know” in order to act can lead us through a portal to the mystery, a sometimes messy, divine truth.

And, as you might imagine, this portal also can lead to wonder. What is wonder, after all, but a kind of beautiful, embodied acknowledgement of the workings of mystery? The fact of a sunset isn’t what makes us wonder. The confluence of color, space, the moment as it meets our open heart is where wonder arises.

Another gift of uncertainty is honesty. Many of us have grown up with a bias towards facts over truth. Our educational systems reward the learning of facts, sometimes more than the gifts of curiosity and wonder. If more of us were taught the valuable skill of honoring what we don’t know, of being okay with the vulnerability of that stance, I think our capacity for rich and honest relationships, for experimentation, for creativity, would grow our hearts and communities in some lovely ways.

Ironically, if we were honest about our not-knowing, we would be more in touch with our own truth and the truth of others.

Right now, around the world, there is a growing tide of fascism. Fascism, in effect, is a kind of evil sureness of one’s right to absolute power over a populace and the planet. We watch in horror as Russia invades Ukraine. We see in the United States actions by politicians and plutocrats asserting similar ideals. This kind of toxic certainty, coupled with a disdain for empathy and mutuality, is at the heart of so much unnecessary pain and destruction. It is the antithesis of justice. It is the antithesis of care.

The ones who embrace uncertainty are the ones who, through their vulnerability, reap the twin gifts of humility and empathy.

The ones who embrace uncertainty are the ones who, through their vulnerability, reap the twin gifts of humility and empathy. Humility reminds us of what we still need to learn, and what to unlearn. It softens our armor, our resistance to change the parts of ourselves who, unknowingly, have learned habits and assumptions that perpetrate harm. Here’s one example from my life: As a white person striving to unlearn the racism I absorbed growing up, I strive to read and learn as much as I can about racism. However, it has taken some experiences that broke me a little, interactions and truth-telling that brought me into a deeper conversation with my humility. At first it was difficult. I resisted. I was attached to my innocence. When, over time, I became more comfortable with not-knowing, and less attached to protecting myself, I found myself better able to learn, more grateful for the learning. It’s definitely an ongoing journey, but one, now, I value as some of the deepest learning of my life.

Humility and empathy dwell together. They both depend on focusing outside of the self, on the willingness to see and honor other viewpoints. Both remind us of our true belonging to each other and the world, and of the pointlessness of perfection. Both are born out of an acceptance of the uncertainties we all face, and the truth that we need each other to face and navigate them together.

The writer Rebecca Solnit has made it her business to address ideas of hope, courage, and what she calls “radical uncertainty”. Her book, Hope in the Dark, is essential reading. She writes:

Hope locates itself in the premise that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognize uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able to influence the outcomes – you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists adopt the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. (4)

Did you notice how she links uncertainty with possibility? And how she links certainty, in either direction, as a potential limitation to take action in the world?

“Who shall I be, no matter what?”

As a result of this kind of inquiry, my deepest question right now as an activist, and, indeed, just as an individual, is “Who shall I be, no matter what?” It releases me from the false binary choice of success or failure. What is courage, after all, but the heart’s strong dance forward in the face of uncertainty? In fact, uncertainty is a parent of courage, and the sibling of hope. Not a passive, waiting kind of hope, but an active hope that compels us toward the future with agency and love.

Here’s another quote from Rebecca that I hold dear:

Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal… To hope is to give yourself to the future – and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable. (4)

Creativity. Vulnerability. Honesty. Humility. Empathy. Courage. Hope. May these alchemical qualities guide us into the complicated and tumultuous future, and may we find joy in the company of brave, artful, and loving friends in the journey.

Song for the Empty Bowl

we fill the emptiness with stones
with fire, with memory and bones
with fury songs and quiet poems
and prayers for all the quiet ones

this emptiness can hold a drum
a knife, a seed, a place to hide
but mostly what I fear has come
a bowl of tears, a rising tide

uncertainty is my lament
my prayer, my home, my quiet friend
the spells of all the breaths we hold
the songs unsung, the tales untold

to find this dance, to sing this song
an ancient sphere, to waltz upon
this empty bowl, my deep unknown
my curve of grace, my silent koan

References:

Steffen, A.,”We All Live in California Now,” essay at: https://alexsteffen.substack.com/p/we-all-live-in-california-now. June 10, 2022.
Macy, J., interview Joanna Macy and the Great Turning in film by Christopher Landry, 2016.
Wheatley, M. J., Turning to One Another, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc., 2009, p.45.
Solnit, R., Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, Haymarket Books, Chicago IL, 2016.

Barbara Ford is a longtime WTR facilitator, artist, writer, and activist living in Portland, Oregon. She has been active in the climate justice movement for over twenty years as an arts organizer, as well as supporting the activist community with WTR inspired events to grow a culture of self and community care. She has created the Radical Gratitude model for expanding our ideas about gratitude, and is offering new writings in her Substack newsletter called Cultural Artisanship in a Changing World (https://barbaraford.substack.com).

Check out Barbara’s new artist website at:
www.confluence-arts.net

Articles, Resources & Networks

The Greening of the Self: Joanna Macy’s Wisdom Meets Forest Bathing

November 29, 2023November 29, 2023 Joanna Tomkins

8th June 2023 by Hugh Asher, founder of the An Darach Forest Therapy organisation based in Scotland

In a world marked by rapid and increased urbanisation, technological advancements, and environmental challenges, it is easy to lose touch with our natural surroundings. However, the human-nature connection has been an intrinsic part of our existence since the dawn of humanity. Recognising this connection and building upon it can lead to both individual and planetary healing. This concept, often referred to as ‘The Greening of the Self’, has become a more mainstream focus of attention in recent years, drawing inspiration from the work of visionary thinkers such as Joanna Macy and influencing the nature-connection practice of Forest Bathing.

This article explores the concept of ‘The Greening of the Self’ and how Forest Bathing, guided by Macy’s teachings, can nurture personal transformation and ecological consciousness.

The Greening of the Self and the Work of Joanna Macy

At its core, The Greening of the Self is an invitation to rediscover our deep interdependence with the natural world and to acknowledge the impact our actions have on the environment. Joanna Macy, a renowned environmental activist and scholar, has played a pivotal role in popularising this concept. Macy’s work focuses on deep ecology and the exploration of our ecological identity. She proposes that by reconnecting with nature, we can experience a profound transformation, not only on an individual level but also in our relationship with the Earth.

Embracing the Great Turning

Joanna Macy’s philosophy revolves around the concept of the ‘Great Turning’, a shift towards a more sustainable and interconnected way of living. She emphasises the need for a deep ecological awakening, where we recognise ourselves as an integral part of the web of life. Forest Bathing, with its focus on mindful presence and communion with nature, serves as a gateway to this awakening. By immersing ourselves in the sensory wonders of the forest, we open our hearts and minds to the interdependence and interbeing of all living things.

Forest Bathing

Forest Bathing, or Shinrin-Yoku, is a transformational practice rooted in Japanese culture. It involves immersing yourself in nature, usually a forest environment, and mindfully engaging with the sights, sounds, and scents of nature. This practice is not just a leisurely walk in the woods; it is a purposeful and intentional way of connecting with the natural world. Research has shown that Forest Bathing has numerous physical, mental, and emotional benefits, including reduced stress levels, improved immune function, enhanced creativity, and a deeper sense of connection with the environment.

By immersing ourselves in nature, through the sights of lush greenery, the gentle rustling of leaves, the fragrance of wildflowers, and the feel of the earth beneath our feet, we are reminded of our intrinsic bond with the natural world. Through this reconnection, we begin to perceive ourselves as a more integral part of a larger ecological web, where every living being is interconnected and interdependent.

The Greening of the Self and Forest Bathing

The Greening of the Self and Forest Bathing have profound implications not only for our personal wellbeing but also for the health of the planet. As we deepen our relationship with nature, we develop a heightened sense of responsibility and stewardship towards the Earth. We become more aware of the consequences of our actions and the urgent need to address pressing environmental issues such as climate change, deforestation, and biodiversity loss.

This shift in consciousness calls for transformative action on a global scale. The Greening of the Self inspires us to engage in sustainable practices, advocate for environmental justice, and support conservation efforts. By cultivating a sense of an ‘ecological self’, we become catalysts for change, working towards a more sustainable and harmonious relationship with the Earth.

Reconnecting with Our Senses

Forest Bathing provides a unique opportunity to engage our senses fully. Joanna Macy encourages us to take steps to address the numbing and deadening effects that modern life can inflict on us. In the forest, we are invited to listen to the symphony of bird songs, inhale the intoxicating scent of pine, touch the rough bark of ancient trees, and savour the taste of fresh air. By attuning ourselves to the subtleties of nature’s sensory offerings, we awaken dormant aspects of our being and rediscover the richness of our embodied experience.

Cultivating Gratitude and Reverence

Joanna Macy also advocates for gratitude as a transformative force that can shift our consciousness from despair to empowerment. Forest bathing, as a practice of deep presence, fosters gratitude for the abundance and beauty of the natural world. As we bathe in the gentle sunlight filtering through the canopy or witness the intricate dance of leaves in the wind, we are reminded of the magnificence and generosity of nature. Such encounters invite us to cultivate a sense of reverence, nurturing a deep bond with the Earth and igniting our responsibility as stewards of the environment.

Healing and Resilience

In the face of ecological crises, Joanna Macy emphasises the importance of embracing our pain for the world, acknowledging the grief and despair that arise. Forest Bathing provides a safe and supportive container to process these emotions. As we surrender to the healing presence of the forest, we can find solace and restoration. The quiet whispers of the trees and the gentle flow of the river can serve as catalysts for inner healing, building emotional resilience, and inspiring compassionate action.

Final Thoughts

The Greening of the Self and the practice of Forest Bathing offer a profound pathway to personal and planetary healing. By reconnecting with nature and recognising our intrinsic interdependence with the natural world, we can experience a transformative shift in consciousness. This shift empowers us to take action, not only for our own wellbeing but for the wellbeing of the planet. As we embrace our ecological selves, we become active participants in the collective effort to create a sustainable future for generations to come.

Resources & Networks, Uncategorized

The Vows of the Work That Reconnects

November 2, 2023November 2, 2023 Joanna Tomkins

King Protea

We were reminded of these vows yesterday during the Gaian Gathering. These are words that we can voice aloud while witnessed in a workshop or to ourselves, as we are always witnessed by the Earth and each other in a myriad of ways. They are such profound anchors for our collective in this time of Great Turning…

I vow to myself and to each of you to commit myself daily to the healing of our world and the welfare of all beings.

I vow to myself and to each of you to live on Earth more lightly and less violently in the food, products and energy I consume.

I vow to myself and to each of you to draw strength and guidance from the living Earth, the ancestors, the future beings and our kin of all species.

I vow to myself and to each of you to seek liberation from patriarchy, colonialism, and racism in all dimensions of my life.

I vow to myself and to each of you to support you in your work for the world, and to ask for help when I need it.

I vow to myself and to each of you to pursue a daily spiritual practice that clarifies my mind, strengthens my heart and supports me in observing these vows.

Articles, Legal Rights, Resources & Networks

UN: “Children have the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment”

September 5, 2023September 5, 2023 Joanna Tomkins

I am excited about this news from the United Nations, an excerpt of which is hereunder. Of course we know that within traditional institutions like this, with slow heavy politically-engineered routes to actions, big steps like this on paper are only baby steps on the ground, and we have no time to spare. Yet it gives me courage to read this vision from this global bureaucratic body. And hopefully this will encourage states to adopt new laws in that respect.

This immediately gives credit to the work of countless NPOs working with children on the one hand and with environment on the other, and can possibly also fuel more synergy between both those areas of focus. I think this can also create a much needed bridge between the field of education and environmental and ecospiritual awareness. With conventions like this isn’t it time to reform the curriculum so that we are not teaching our children how to destroy their future?

The Rights of the Planet also need urgent recognition on a global scale. These rights are essential to support the work of other activists working on the front line today, defending what is left of wilderness and regenerative life. Together with the rights of our children and the future generations, rights for the Earth herself leave no space for more plundering. – Joanna Tomkins

See hereunder an extract from the UN press release:

GENEVA (28 August 2023) – The UN Child Rights Committee today published authoritative guidance on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change. The guidance specifies the legislative and administrative measures States should urgently implement to address the adverse effects of environmental degradation and climate change on the enjoyment of children’s rights, and to ensure a clean, healthy, and sustainable world now and to preserve it for future generations.
The Committee has adopted its guidance, formally known as General Comment No. 26, after two rounds of consultation with States, national human rights institutions, international organizations, civil society, thematic experts and children. The Committee received 16,331 contributions from children in 121 countries; children shared and reported on the negative effects of environmental degradation and climate change on their lives and communities and asserted their right to live in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
“Children are architects, leaders, thinkers and changemakers of today’s world. Our voices matter, and they deserve to be listened to,” said 17-year-old Kartik, a climate and child rights activist from India and one of the Committee’s child advisers. “General Comment No. 26 is the instrument that will help us understand and exercise our rights in the face of environmental and climate crises,” he added.

“This general comment is of great and far-reaching legal significance,” said Ann Skelton, Chair of the Committee, emphasising, “as it details States’ obligations under the Child Rights Convention to address environmental harms and guarantee that children are able to exercise their rights. This encompasses their rights to information, participation, and access to justice to ensure that they will be protected from and receive remedies for the harms caused by environmental degradation and climate change.”
The general comment clarifies how children’s rights apply to environmental protection and underscores that children have the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

This right is implicit in the Convention and directly linked to, in particular, the rights to life, survival and development, the highest attainable standard of health, an adequate living standard, and education. This right is also necessary for the full enjoyment of children’s rights.
The general comment further asserts that States shall protect children against environmental damage from commercial activities. It specifies that States are obliged to provide legislative, regulative and enforcement frameworks to ensure that businesses respect children’s rights, and should require businesses to undertake due diligence regarding children’s rights and the environment. Immediate steps should be taken when children are identified as victims to prevent further harm to their health and development and to repair the damage done.

Articles, Resources & Networks

Down to Earth, Defend the Sacred

September 5, 2023September 6, 2023 Joanna Tomkins

It seems that around the world the veil is thinning. As the expected climatic changes put more pressure on voters and consumers, the expected reactions of outrage are rising too. Unfortunately the reaction from the Industrial Growth Society’s most arduous defenders is at its strongest now too, as they feel the ridicule of their modus operandi. Criminalisation of activists is sadly surging. It is indeed hard to admit for the most guilty – although, indeed, we are all conniving unwillingly on a large scale – that one’s life goals are geared to destroy. So, it’s easier to try to eliminate those who are pointing a finger at the crime.

When the same mob mentality that makes corporates believe they are acting as good citizens of the “normal” world tips in a more compassionate direction, the majority will assuredly turn around and stand up for the defence of Life too. Now, more than ever, as more people start to engage in Holding Actions, to detain the harm, other must continue to create awareness and build resilience for the years to come. The Great Turning is here and it will come at a cost but there is only one way: forward and together.

Hereunder I would like to reproduce an editorial from ‘Down to Earth’, the environmentalist section of the Guardian. It seems there is an increase of action from people from all walks of life fighting ruthless agents of corporativism and negligent politicians who fail to represent the rights of the planet and the future generations that will inhabit it after they have gone. Once again we applaud and jump on board to commend and recommend the work of journalists that free our opinion and inspire us to talk about what is really concerning our heartminds. There are links in the text to interesting articles. Thanks for reading! – Joanna Tomkins

By Nina Lakhani, climate justice reporter, 30/08/2023

“Arresting climate and environmental activists is so widespread that it’s almost become routine – applauded, even, as governments and corporations label those who block roads, disrupt shareholder meetings and throw confetti at tennis matches as radical lawbreakers. But jailing ordinary people trying to stop the destruction of the planet – while the industries responsible keep profiteering and elected officials keep letting them – isn’t normal or accidental.

To understand what’s going on today, I recently travelled back to San Miguel Ixtahuacán, a rural community in the western highlands of Guatemala, where 15 years ago Indigenous-led opposition to a sprawling Canadian gold and silver mine became one of the earliest documented cases of a transnational corporation – and its state allies – weaponising the legal system against environmental defenders.

Patrocinia Mejía, a 63-year-old grandmother, was among scores of community members slapped with arbitrary criminal charges, which divided and crippled the social movement. “We were so scared of being captured that we didn’t hold our meetings any more, and I was too afraid to show my face at protests,” Mejía (pictured above) told me. Even today, six years since the mine was closed, the divisions and collective trauma were gut-wrenching to see.

Experts told me that what happened in San Miguel Ixtahuacán proved to be so effective that criminalisation spread across Latin America and is now deployed globally as part of a playbook of tactics to divide communities, and detract attention away from legitimate debate and protests about environmental and climate harms. Guatemala was a textbook example of a draconian crackdown and became a laboratory of sorts, said Jorge Santos, the director of Udefegua, a Guatemala-based rights group tracking attacks on defenders.

It’s worth noting that criminalisation is among a gamut of repressive tools being used against climate and environmental activists, which also includes online attacks, financial sanctions and even kidnap and assassinations. Yet criminalisation stands out as it exposes the barefaced nexus between corporations and governments. Corporations can hire private security thugs to intimidate and attack grassroots leaders, but they cannot arrest and charge them without their political and law enforcement allies.

Take the case of Mylene Vialard, a French translator from Colorado, who faces up to five years in jail for her role in trying to stop the expansion of Line 3, a tar sands oil pipeline with a dire environmental record. Minnesota law enforcement – which along with other agencies reportedly received at least $8.6m in payments from the Canadian pipeline company Enbridge – made more than 1,000 arrests between December 2020 and September 2021. Overall, at least 967 criminal charges were filed including several people charged under the state’s new critical infrastructure protection legislation – approved as part of a wave of anti-protest laws inspired by the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), an ultra-right US group backed by fossil fuel companies. (Similar laws are spreading across the world). Yet the vast majority of charges were dismissed, suggesting the mass arrests were about silencing and distracting protesters – not public safety or national security as was claimed at the time, according to Claire Glenn, an attorney at the Climate Defense Project who has represented more than 100 Line 3 protesters.

Over the next few months, we’ll be reporting on the criminalisation of climate and environmental activists globally; connecting the dots between these seemingly disparate cases is key to exposing who and what is behind the crackdown.”

To stay in this loop, you can sign up for the Down to Earth weekly newsletter here (The Guardian free environmental email. “The planet’s most important stories.”)

Articles, Events & Reviews, Films, Resources & Networks

Films that Reconnect: “In Death is Life”

August 3, 2023August 4, 2023 Joanna Tomkins

I enjoyed reading this editorial that I received in my email… And watching this short film about the incredible Irish peat, by the winners of Waterbear’s prize this year.

The young winner duo Swantje Furtak and Frankie Turk are committed educating people about the importance of wetlands through their activist work at RE-PEAT, a youth-led collective that pushes for a future where peatlands are protected. Kudos.

Hereunder is an introduction to the beautiful work by S. Furtak and F. Turk :

Peatlands are some of our oldest living ecosystems, forming and surviving for tens of thousands of years. Many have existed back when our human ancestors were only toying with early agriculture, when we first started forming towns and cities, and – more recently – when we started radically altering our global climate and ecology. Composed of semi-decomposed plant matter (peat) preserved in water, peatlands are like capsules of deep time.

“In Death Is Life” is a short documentary about a community in rural Ireland with a long history tied to their peatland ecosystems. For generations draining and cutting the peatland was part of their local culture. Traditionally, the peat (or “turf”) was cut in the early summer, dried outside and burned as fuel in the cold winter months. This cheap and accessible material also powered their struggle for Independence during Ireland’s colonial rule. However, starting in the 1700s, through a rapid industrialisation process turf cutting became mechanised and happened at a much larger scale.

In a healthy state, peatlands are the planet’s largest terrestrial carbon store (holding twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests), they are hotspots of biodiversity, and have the capability to slow us down.

These unique traits drove us, Swantje Furtak (24) and Frankie Turk (27) to tell the story of the peatlands in Ireland. Coming from different paths, we have both sunken deeply into the topic of peatlands. In a long call in 2021, we started dreaming of the idea to create a documentary series. We started to collect stories of peatland communities across the world – Ireland, the Congo, Latvia, Germany and Indonesia.

Nearly every country on the globe has peatlands, in different shapes, colours and histories. You probably have a peatland near you! And it is like Tommy said: If you allow the peatland to slow you down, it can change your time.

Watch SHORT FILM now

Note: You will have to log in first to Waterbear. It’s free. Find hundreds of shorts and series by organisations life sustaining missions. Gratitude.

Resources & Networks

The Sanity Project by Charles Eisenstein

July 11, 2023July 19, 2023 Joanna Tomkins

Rachael and I joined the Sanity Project in June. Hereunder some words from its emissary….

Introduction to the Sanity Project (on the network New And Ancient Story – NAAS)

“With this offering, I aim to establish an oasis of sanity, a studio of sanity, and an incubator of sanity for coming times. We have seen in recent years a mounting madness that took on a new and virulent form during the Covid era. Though that particular expression of madness has abated, the social and psychic conditions that spawned it are still in place. Our politics, our culture, and our public discourse swing to new extremes of derangement.

Getting swept up in mass hysteria is just one type of insanity. Resisting it takes a psychic toll. Those who try often succumb instead to despair, depression, addiction, extremism, and conspiracy theories.

I speak here from experience – I too went a little crazy during the Covid years. The experience confirmed that I cannot stay sane alone. At key moments, friends and allies said the right thing to me at the right time and brought me back to sanity. With this program, I aim to pass that gift onward and to create conditions by which many of us can stay sane together.

What do I mean by staying sane?

To hold center, and return to it when you lose it
To hold a good and true story of self and world
To be able to abide in not-knowing for as long as it takes for authentic knowing to emerge
To hold peace amid information warfare
To distinguish and hold your truth in the midst of hysteria
To build sustaining connections with human and other-than-human beings, to have an ongoing experience of kinship.
To build resistance to manipulation and covert fundamentalism
To access a wholesome wellspring of sense, meaning, and identity
To fortify the integrity of body/mind/spirit
To mutually reinforce all of these with others, to form islands of sanity in a world that is still far from sane
To be a seed crystal that brings a higher level of sanity to all you touch”

Join here | The Sanity Project (charleseisenstein.org)

Hereunder also is an animation that he directed and his interpretation under that…

“Hi everyone, I am so proud to share with you this short film, the first I’ve written and directed myself. It has deep relevance to the theme of this program. I won’t comment on it yet, because I think the story itself exercises more power than any interpretation of it can. So please take it in as you would any other film. Maybe watch it a few times.”
– Charles Eisenstein –

“The choice that [this film] represents isn’t only a choice made before lifetimes. It is an ongoing choice, day to day, moment to moment, about how to engage the world.

One way to engage (or really, not engage) is to stay in whatever temporary comfort realm one can manage with distractions, entertainment, addiction. Yet none of these can be permanent, and even the most sublime experiences of immersion in nature or lovemaking cannot be prolonged beyond their right span. At some point, the awareness grows that we are on the brink of a pit, that right beneath us, just a shift of attention away, is a world that begs our service. To rest, to recharge, is important in order to render that service well, but when the batteries are full, restlessness will seize even the most indolent among us. So, the choice to attempt a permanent disengagement from the world to abide in its pleasurable precincts is futile.

A second way to engage is with a heavy spirit of duty, overcoming by force of will a reluctance to enter the fray, carrying a subtle distaste for the lower realms. It comes from a false sense of superiority, and leads as well to a partiality of engagement. One stays half in, half out, never fully committing to embodiment.

The film portrays a third choice. The luminous beings plunge into the pit — all the way in. And they do so in peace, in joy, in serenity. They do not feel sorry for themselves as they take the plunge. They meet their mission gladly.

I will confess — I didn’t actually make this film for you. I made it for me. I’m the one who has so often hung back from life, stayed timidly a little bit above the fray. I’m the one who often engages life joylessly, with too heavy a sense of duty. I’m the one who, sometimes, sees people with ungenerous eyes blind to the truth that they here on the same mission I am.

As I enter more deeply into the “fray” of a political campaign, I hope to do so as the people in the film do — fully, but not as a fighter, not to become a creature of the Pit. I will watch this film from time to time to help me stay serene in the knowledge of what I and all others are really here for. May this film help you, as it has helped me, to see with generous eyes and speak with generous words that summon what is seen into manifestation.”

Articles, Poems, Resources & Networks

Emergence and Power-With

May 26, 2023May 30, 2023 Joanna Tomkins

Extracts from the book Active Hope by Chris Johnstone and Joanna Macy

Hereunder are some of my favourite extracts from the book Active Hope, some which we used for our online Gaia Speaking course “Active Hope in the Great Turning” this month during the Seeing with New Eyes session. I am drawing inspiration again from this section of the book as I prepare the section Going Forth, as it indeeds fills me with Active Hope.

It illustrates so well how we can Go Forth with the joy of being an synergetic part of humanity, one through who inevitably emergence with happen. And if we align with the concept and practice of “power-with”, this emergence will most certainly be produced in the direction that we personally wish humanity to follow. I hope these words provide as much relief as they do to me in these challenging times where we feel called to make a difference. – Joanna Tomkins

While the conversations between Mandela and de Klerk played a pivotal role in bringing apartheid to an end, this historic change wouldn’t have happened without a much larger context of support. Within South Africa, people risked their lives daily to engage in the struggle for change. Around the world, millions of people played supporting roles by joining boycotts and campaigns. If we focus only on each separate activity, it is easy to dismiss it by thinking, “That won’t do much.” To see the power of a step, we need to ask, “What is it part of?” An action that might seem inconsequential by itself adds to and interacts with other actions in ways that contribute to a much bigger picture of change.
Remember our example of the newspaper photograph? When seen under a magnifying glass it appears as just a collection of tiny dots, but when, from a little distance, we see the photo as a whole, the larger pattern comes into view. In a similar fashion, a bigger picture of change emerges out of the many tiny dots of separate actions and choices. This link between small steps and big changes opens up our power in an entirely new way. Each individual step doesn’t have to make a big impact on its own — because we can understand that the benefit of an action may not be visible at the level at which that action is taken.
Shared visions, values, and purposes flow through and between people. Nelson Mandela was deeply committed to a vision for his country that many were holding; the power of that vision moved through him and was transmitted to others. This type of power can’t be hoarded or held back by prison walls; it is like a kind of electricity that lights us up inside and inspires those around us. When a vision moves through us, it becomes expressed in what we do, how we are, and what we say. The alignment of these three creates a whole that is more than the sum of its parts. The words below, from Mandela’s defense at his trial in the 1960s, mean so much more because of the actions that followed them:

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

THE POWER OF EMERGENCE

The concept of power-with contains hidden depths; so far we’ve described four aspects. First, there is the power of inner strengths drawn from us when we engage with challenges and rise to the occasion. Second, there is the power arising out of cooperation with others. Third, there is the subtle power of small steps whose impact only becomes evident when we step back and see the larger picture they contribute to. And last, there is the energizing power of an inspiring vision that moves through and strengthens us when we act for a purpose bigger than ourselves. All these are products of synergy and emergence; they come about when different elements interact to become a whole that is more than the sum of its parts.
At every level, from atoms and molecules to cells, organs, and organisms, complex wholes arise bringing new capacities into existence.

At each level, the whole acts through its parts to achieve more than we could ever imagine from examining the parts alone. So what new capacities emerge when groups of people act together to form larger complex social systems?
Our technologically advanced society has achieved wonders our ancestors could never have envisioned. We’ve put people on the moon, decoded DNA, and cured diseases. The problem is this collective level of power is also destroying our world. Countless seemingly innocent activities and choices are acting together to bring about the sixth mass extinction in our planet’s history.
Seeing with new eyes, we recognize that we’re not separate individuals in our own little bubbles but connected parts in a much larger story. A question that helps us develop this wider view is “What is happening through me?” Is the sixth mass extinction happening through us as a result of our habits, choices, and actions? By recognizing the ways we contribute to the unraveling of our world, we identify choice points at which we can turn toward its healing. The question “How could the Great Turning happen through me?” invites a different story to flow through us. This type of power happens through what we say and do and are.

NOT NEEDING TO KNOW THE OUTCOME

The concept of emergence is liberating because it frees us from the need to see the results of our actions. Many of our planet’s problems, such as climate change, mass starvation, and habitat loss, are so much bigger than we are that it is easy to believe we are wasting our time trying to solve them. If we depend on seeing the positive results of our individual steps, we’ll avoid challenges that seem beyond what we can visibly influence. Yet our actions take effect through such multiplicities of synergy that we can’t trace their causal chain. Everything we do has ripples of influence extending far beyond what we can see.
When we face a problem, a single brain cell doesn’t come up with a solution, though it can participate in one. The process of thinking happens at a level higher than just individual brain cells — it happens through them. Similarly, there’s no way that we personally can fix the mess our world is in, but the process of healing and recovery at a planetary level can happen through us and through what we do. ”

For this to happen, we need to play our part. That’s where power-with comes in.

THE HELPING HAND OF GRACE

All the individuals on a team may each be brilliant by themselves, but if they don’t shift their story from personal success to team success, their net effectiveness will be greatly reduced. When people experience themselves as part of a group with a shared purpose, team spirit flows through them, and their central organizing principle changes. The guiding question moves from “What can I gain?” to “What can I give?”
We can develop a similar team spirit with life. When we are guided by our willingness to find and play our part, we can feel as if we are acting not just alone but as part of a larger team of life that acts with us and through us. Since this team involves many other players, unsuspected allies can emerge at crucial moments; unseen helpers can remove obstacles we didn’t even know were there. When we’re guided by questions such as “What can I offer?” and “What can I give?” we might sometimes play the role of stepping out in front and at other times that of being the ally giving support. Either way, we think of the additional support behind our actions as a form of grace. Based on an interview with Joanna, this poem, edited into verse by Tom Atlee, founder of the Co-Intelligence Institute, expresses well the grace that comes from belonging to life:

When you act on behalf
of something greater than yourself,
you begin
to feel it acting through you
with a power that is greater than your own.

This is grace.

Today, as we take risks
for the sake of something greater
than our separate, individual lives,
we are feeling graced
by other beings and by Earth itself.

Those with whom and on whose behalf we act
give us strength
and eloquence
and staying power
we didn’t know we had.
We just need to practice knowing that
and remembering that we are sustained
by each other in the web of life.

Our true power comes as a gift, like grace,
because in truth it is sustained by others.
If we practice drawing on the wisdom
and beauty
and strengths
of our fellow human beings
and our fellow species
we can go into any situation
and trust
that the courage and intelligence required
will be supplied.

POWER-WITH IN ACTION

Here are three ways we can open to the kind of power we’ve been describing. We can:
• hear our call to action and choose to answer it.
• understand that power-with arises from what we do, not what we have.
• draw on the strengths of others.

There will be times when we become alerted to an issue and experience an inner call to respond. Choosing to respond to that call empowers us. Once we take that first step, we start on a journey presenting us with situations that increase our capacity to respond. Strengths such as courage, determination, and creativity are drawn forth from us most when we rise to the challenges that evoke them. When we share our cause with others, allies appear; synergy occurs. And when we act for causes larger than ourselves, the larger community for whom we do this will be acting through us.
We can experience our call to action in many different ways. Sometimes the uncomfortable discrepancy of realizing that our behavior is out of step with our values motivates us. Our conscience calls, and when we step into integrity, more of who we are heads in the same direction. At other times our call is more of a powerful summoning. We just know, even if we’re not sure how, that we need to be somewhere, do something, or contact a particular person.
If we think of ourselves only as separate individuals, then we understand these intuitive calls purely in personal terms. Recognizing ourselves as part of the larger web of life leads to a different view. Just as we experience the Earth crying within us as pain for the world, we can experience the Earth thinking within us as a guiding impulse pulling us in a particular direction. We can view this as “cointelligence,” an ability to think and feel with our world.

Developing a sense of partnership with Earth involves listening for guiding signals and taking them seriously when we hear them.

Category: Resources & Networks

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