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4.4.2015
post script re: liberation through fiery hellhole
Dear Friend,
Sitting with a dying ocean is heavy stuff. I want to follow the 'apocalypse: liberation through fiery hellhole aka childbirth' with this brief explanation on my meaning with the words and what I have learned from turning my attention back to more than the suffering; suicidal undertone of this age.
From Panic to Patience
There's humor to be gleaned somewhere, always. I find humor in words and the way words are used. I had fun with words in the last post. Unless you were in the room with me, you may not have caught the laughter.
There is a stark humor in "earth will be a fiery hellhole incapable of supporting human life". Joining fiery hellhole in the same breath as liberation and childbirth had me laughing outloud because, for me, the fiery hellhole is precisely what liberation and childbirth felt like. The fiery hellhole is funny when the fire is out.
Childbirth is a form of liberation. Every birth is different. For some, there is extreme heat and pressure during transition. The child may experience the fiery hellhole as the head moves through a swollen cervix. In this case, the mother also experiences extreme pain; the feel of a bowling ball dropping and then passing out of her body.
If Earth is a mother in labor, the human being is the child. The child in the mother's womb has a mind of its own. The child can thus respond to the mother's movements, easing the labor process. In truth, the mother and child act as two intelligences in one body. Keeping the lines of communication open between the two intelligences is key for a successful birth. A relatively painless birth without drugs is possible. Drugs do confuse and distort the line of communication between mother and child.
If Earth is a mother in labor, the child is in a poor position. The child is neck first or shoulder first or butt first, anything but head first. The child has not been attuned to the mother's movements. The child must switch positions if the child and the mother are to survive. There is no surgeon available to cut the baby out.
The fate of mother and child depend on resolving panic with patience, which allows discernment. In panic, no one waits for answers to questions like Do I move up or down, right or left, sideways or rightways? Do I stay still? Panic does not pause to ask. Panic moves hastefully in a familiar direction and risks getting stuck in an even tighter place.
In response to word of a dying ocean, the challenge for each human being is to move from a panicked state to a listening state. Collectively then, we will accomplish the most direct switch from an unfortunately possible fetal position that makes live birth is impossible to an ideal position for moving through this transition.
From Productivity to Creativity
A certain segment of the human population has prioritized productivity over health and pleasure for many generations. This period of intensive production has nearly exhausted ecosystems of their wealth and has cost the mental and physical health of those participating. Production without rest for the sake of production alone destroys the body.
With ecosystems and individuals exhausted, human beings are learning once again to live and produce according to the creative flow of energy. This creative flow, often touted as a new way of being and producing, is actually the original, indigenous way of being and producing.
Producing in the creative flow is different than the mode of production solely interested in an end product. Creative production is keen to energy depletion, whether that be the depletion of the craftsman or the source from which the craftsman receives material.
With creative production, the goal is not the end product but the maintenance of vital energy. The integrity of the craftsman's end product is determined by both the regeneration of his energies through rest, food, and pleasure, and the regeneration of the source's energies.
The urgency of the situation fueling a switch to creativite production is real and not to be underestimated. If Earth is a mother in labor, I believe we are in a moment when the child can still listen to the mother's movements, switch positions, and move safely through. Neither child nor mother is dead yet. Death is in the room, though, as always. The child is the one who will decide the outcome of this birth experience.
Haste Makes Waste
In my own felt urgency and deep exhaustion, I pushed the 4.1.2015 post out, ignoring the depletion of my own energy in the interest of producing something. This is a pattern from the old way of working that says I must produce on a schedule. The push was also because I had maintained a gaze extensively and almost exclusively on loss through the month of March, another old pattern from my forest advocacy days. Swimming in the depressed, suicidal energies of a narrow perspective, I experienced burnout for the first time in many years.
Creative production requires stillness and rest. There is a magic to working with and not against the creative flow of energy. With pause and patience comes information that is otherwise unavailable yet or goes unnoticed when the craftsman is pushing through.
Relax and Accomplish More
If there is a general request from Earth right now, it is that human beings relax; work fewer hours to accomplish more.
Accomplish more by accomplishing what is needed. Life is not meant to be a production line. Life is meant to be a wandering, wondering experience. Any which way, the end of the body's life is death.
The ocean, this "single salt water system which flows through everything on the surface of the earth" is on its last breath. Collectively, humanity's focus should be to ensure the salt water system continues to support life. The actions required for the ocean to survive are as diverse and interwoven as the actions that have inspired this moment of crisis.
Will Earth's death be postponed?
Is this Earth's hospice or is this Earth's resurrection?
I am personally devoted to Earth's resurrection; to being a child who listens and makes amends when I fail to listen. I refuse to fall into the trap of judging what is possible now based on what past civilizations have experienced by way of not listening in a crucial moment such as the crossroad this civilization stands. I will listen to the needs of my own body and soul, claim what is mine to be and do, while encouraging others to be and do theirs. The system that works is already designed and human beings are a part of that system. Whether I am tree, squirrel, or human being, when I'm doing my best thing and others are doing their best thing, the system works.
Human beings access and forward the intelligence of the working system not through objectivity, but through subjectivity. The working system is not a function of individuals telling one another what to do. The working system is a function of clear-minded individuals, human beings among them, who are capable of listening to and acting on the instructions specific to them while trusting others to do the same.
Birth is not a medical emergency, but a life process the mother and child are fully capable of managing without panic. Please see Ina Mae Gaskin's talk on childbirth in the relevant links below.
Love and Blessings, thank you
Megan
See the 4.1.2015 post...
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Upcoming Events
2015 Animas Valley Institute Programs ~ April to November 2015
Great Salish Sea CD Release Concert ~ April 10, 2015, Bellingham, WA
Planetary (film release) ~ April 22, 2015 Global
Strike a Tree Pose ~ Participate today for Earth Day April 22, 2015
BirthKeeper Summit ~ April 30-May 3, 2015, Berkeley, California
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Sew the SEEDS:
Saving Earth’s Endangered and Diverse Species
a community arts quilt project
about endangered species
inspired by the Names Project
Make Your Own Panel
Design the panel.
Include common name, scientific name, and anything else you want.
Choose your material. Medium weight cotton works best.
Think about the source of all materials.
Consider reused and repurposed fabrics.
Each panel should be 3’x6’, plus a couple of inches for finishing.
Backing is a good idea; batting is not necessary.
Create the panel. Techniques can include appliqué, paint, stenciling, collage, and photos. Fabric glue works well. Thick paint can crack and peel. Photos can be scanned and printed as iron-ons.
Schools, please sign the back of the panel with school, grade, teacher’s name, and all students’ names.
Individuals, provide your name and any other pertinent information.
Find out about your species, why it is endangered, and what can be done. Report your findings.
Send pictures of your panels, and what you've learned to Sew the SEEDS.
info at sewtheseeds dot org
see Sew the SEEDS for more information
panel: Sea Otter by Ms Harada and Ms Rabina's sixth grade homeroom classes
Thomas Starr King Middle School, Los Angeles, California
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ex·tinc·tion wit·ness
project statement
Definitions provided on the home page of the ex·tinc·tion wit·ness website include definitions for bare and compassion.
ex·tinc·tion wit·ness exposes unconditional love and realized empathy,
that is empathy free of suffering.
There is also the definition for extinction as the term is applied in physics, reduction in the intensity of light. All life forms are expressions of light.
ex·tinc·tion wit·ness bears witness both to the reduction of specific manifestations of light (an estimated 75 to 200 species passing each day) and to the renewal of light in the human being.
ex·tinc·tion wit·ness understands darkness and calls the light back through the realization of the person's direct access to life's creative energy, also known as Love, The Creator, The Source, and God, among other concepts.
ex·tinc·tion wit·ness honors mystery and encourages the protection of light in all its manifest diversity.
please see
Invitation to Pause
3:44~minute introduction to ex·tinc·tion wit·ness
featuring the work of a few contributing artists
see other ex·tinc·tion wit·ness short films
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"Political movement on the issue of climate change
will be like the rise in average
global temperatures ~ non-linear.
Things like the Pope weighing in...
to demand action,
tip the balance.
We will look back at this time
and wonder how
it could ever have seemed impossible
to get political action on the issue."
~Karyn Strickler in response to
things to see & do
This Changes Everything
by Naomi Klein
Project Drawdown
DRAWDOWN (ˈdrôˌdoun) n.
The point at which concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere begin to decline.
‘What’s Possible'
2014 UN Climate Summit Opening Film
First Policy Switch:
From a strategy of reducing problems to reversing them
Blindspot Think Tank, UK
"People are not inherently destructive and economic activity need not remain dependent on exploiting people, planet and the potential of the future. The economic vehicle need not remain stuck in reverse, making reverse progress. Janis Birkeland (2008) offers the third strategy option of ‘positive development’: 'The view that negative impacts are an inevitable consequence of development has blinded us to the obvious. We could design development to increase the size, health and resilience of natural systems, while improving human health and life quality.' "
read the First Policy Switch...
Women's Climate Action Agenda
Women's Earth Climate Action Network ~ WECAN
Derived from the collective efforts of the 2013 International Women's Earth and Climate Summit, major points of the Women's Climate Action Agenda action plan include: limiting global warming to 1.5-2.0 °Celsius ceiling, urgency to protect intact forest and assist with forest regeneration, leave almost all of the remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground and stop further fossil fuel exploration and development. Women are calling for an emotional connection to all children, present and future.
read the Women's Climate Action Agenda...
Climate Disruption
a film by Kelly Nyks & Jared P. Scott
Climate Disruption tells the why and what of the People's Climate March.
watch Climate Disruption...
Reverberations Of War
edited recording of the 9.5.14 poetry reading at Shakespeare & Co., Missoula
listen to Reverberations Of War...
The Arctic Methane Monster’s Rapid Rise, Jennifer Hynes’ Power Point presentation about the predicted release of a superpower of methane from the Arctic. The presentation is dramatic and inflammatory, and Jennifer Hynes notes her personal belief that there is no avoidance of a Near Term Human Extinction.
The lens one gazes through and how one manages the response to information determines more than can be known.
For the science, it is worth watching Jennifer's presentation.
Much of the information she shares is solid and the danger is real.
However, the conclusions Jennifer draws are tainted with fear, to which we are all susceptible. Jennifer's conclusions are challenged by this review from Steven Running, Regents Professor, Director at Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, University of Montana:
"Well, [Jennifer Hynes] has sure spent a lot of time reading up on this science. The slides shown are from solid research papers and datasets, I use some of them myself. Boreal methane hydrates are real, and there is a lot of it. However the thermodynamics are such that there is no way it could melt out and be released within a year or two, and the biosphere will not simply collapse. Her final statement that within a year the Arctic sea ice will be gone is simply a wild extrapolation. The latest Arctic sea ice data, downloaded 10min ago, shows that 2014 did NOT end up as the biggest melt on record, and there is no evidence that Arctic sea ice will be totally gone by Sept 2015 ie 1 year from now. Antarctica also has a large ice mass this year. So her projection that the ice will disappear and the biosphere will simply unravel in the next 1-2 years simply has no factual basis. I admire the kind of passion and effort people like her bring to the global warming issue, but passing around this sort of misinformation does not help us to have a mature discussion about humanity's next choices." ~SR
It is important to read both Jennifer and Steven, to act now in a steady, focused, determined fashion as if there is no time to stall or sidestep ultimate solutions.
Fracking May Be Worse Than Burning Coal
Bill Mckibben
“In a paper published in the journal Climate Change in May 2011, they concluded that somewhere between 3.6 percent and 7.9 percent of the methane from fracking wells was escaping into the atmosphere as its made its way from underground to end user. Which is a lot. More than enough, as we shall see, to make fracking worse for climate change than the coal it was replacing.
... We need to look beyond methane leakage for a moment, and think about the transition to gas in a larger context. Because if we’re replacing coal with gas, it means we’re not replacing it with something else. .. in fact, in just the same years that we’ve learned to frack we’ve also learned an awful lot about how to scale up wind and sun. And that means that far from being a bridge, the big investments in natural gas may actually be a breakwater that keeps this new wave of truly clean energy from washing onto our shores.
… As it turns out, economists have studied the dynamics of this transition, and each time reached the same conclusion: because gas undercuts wind and sun just as much as it undercuts coal, there’s no net climate benefit in switching to it. For instance, the venerable International Energy Agency in 2011 concluded that a large-scale shift to gas would “muscle out” low-carbon fuels and still result in raising the globe’s temperatures 3.5 degrees Celsius—75 percent above the 2-degree level that the world’s governments have identified as the disaster line.
…to meet that two-degree target (and since just one degree is already causing havoc, we sure should), global gas consumption would have to peak as early as 2020. Which is, in infrastructure terms, right about now—if we want to be moving past natural gas by 2020, we need to stop investing in it now.”
read Fracking May Be Worse...
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Feral Theatre's
Funeral for Lost Species
Please see this short film for highlights from a performance and sculpture installation at St Peter's Church, Brighton Fringe Festival, May 2011. Many artists contributed to this innovative exploration of extinction and ecological grief, in which audiences and participants engaged on a visceral and emotional level with humankind's power to destroy and create.
See 'Funeral for Lost Species' on Vimeo
Also please see The Life Cairn Project
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this Extinction Symbol is NOT
an ex·tinc·tion wit·ness creation
and ex·tinc·tion wit·ness encourages
the placement of this symbol
in public spaces
you may even tattoo this on your skin
per the request of the artist
who is based in the UK
please DO NOT commercialize
the extinction symbol
ie please DO NOT print the symbol on t-shirts
mugs or other products for sale
please create this symbol
in your own way
in a special place
preferably in view for all to see
Thank You!
more at Extinction Symbol
join in at flickr group
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