Denise Rushing

I am unaccustomed to rage.

Even as a child, I understood that the game was rigged.  Over time, I've become even more aware... though I have had the luxury of not having to think about it all the time--to not have to face it, and the feelings it brings up, day in and day out. All day.  Every day.

Until this week.

This week has been particularly difficult  (the supreme court nomination hearings) and has exposed yet a another level of the rigged game.   It brought up in me a deep rage--and I felt it all week in the pit of my stomach... I was struck by the injustice of it all. 

I felt like throwing up.

It gave me the opportunity to imagine what others have felt over generations of systemic injustice.

I understand that I am both privileged and oppressed.  I've benefitted from the rigged game in so many ways... from being able to walk into a store without suspicion to having access to higher education. I have also suffered from the rigged game--from wanting society and power structu…

Pachamama Alliance has a course entitled "the Gamechanger intensive".  In it they share the qualities of a gamechanger in these times (Source: Pachamama.org):

1. You understand that all life is connected. You see the human family, in all its diversity, as an integral component in the web of creation, and you are committed to building a society that reflects and reveres the sacred and interconnected nature of all life.

2. You stand for a sustainable, just and fulfilling future. You stand for, and act from, an informed vision that a sustainable, just and fulfilling future for all beings is essential urgent, and possible.

3. You recognize an evolutionary force at work. You recognize that the evolutionary force that put the stars in motion is moving through us and is a dynamic, self-organizing process whose grace and guidance we can trust.

4. You appreciate that human beings are called to become “evolutionary activists.” You realize that humanity has now become an active driver …

The historic and inspiring Global Climate Action Summit, @GCAS2018 closed yesterday with a strong Call to Action to "step up ambition", chart a clear path towards a zero-carbon future and to empower grassroots climate action. So let’s work together to amplify this call.https://www.globalclimateactionsummit.org/call-to-action/
We can do this.  It is our Great Work.


"The Great Work before us, the task of moving the modern industrial civilization from its present devastating influence on the Earth to a more benign mode of presence, is not a role we have chosen. It is a role given to us, beyond any consultation with ourselves. We did not choose. We were chosen by some power beyond ourselves for this historical task. Yet we must believe that those powers that assign our role must in that same act bestow upon us the ability to fulfill this role. We must believe that we are cared for and guided by these same powers that bring us into being." 

- Thomas Berry, The Great Work

My grandbabies are taking their first steps now--and in a few months from now they will be RUNNING... in a couple of years, skipping.

They don't know it now, but these baby steps are opening up a whole new world for them. Today, they cannot imagine playing varsity basketball or hiking Mt. Lassen, but any of that is possible.

What does this have to do with reversing global warming?

Drawdown shows us that reversing global warming is possible, yet the required change to human behavior and systems seems massive from our vantage point today.

This presents us with a crisis of imagination. A spiritual crisis... one that can be solved with baby steps.

What do I mean?

Today, most people are sitting on the sidelines out of overwhelm, apathy, despair, cynicism or worse. We need to get connected and take action together. Yet, many cannot imagine how to do this.

Behavioral change expert and Stanford University Professor B.J. Fogg (tinyhabits.com) says that there are three things that need to b…

As compassionate, sensitive, open people, we can all be overcome by the magnitude of the losses we
see every day. Even the most optimistic among us will be affected by the staggering losses and the daily affronts to our values, sensibilities, and even our sanity.

It is painful. So painful that sometimes we are tempted to close up rather than live from the heart.

Joanna Macy and her "work that Reconnects" asserts that we ought not be afraid of the pain of the world.

If you are not afraid of it, then NOTHING can stop you.

For all life

Remember this? The Soil Story



Well, "Kiss the Ground" has a new trailer out.  It's only a minute long and it is fantastic:



Yes, living soil can help reverse global warming. 

Individual actions matter--and they add up. And large policy issues matter, and so writing and calling policymakers in important.

 But our whole human economic system needs to change! We need ways to successfully disrupt the destructive economic systems and ways to challenge dominant thought-patterns and change the cultural story.  We can't do this with only those above two levels of action.

Luckily, there  are two more levels of action where real change happens. Will Grant and the Pachamama Alliance shares how this works. 

Watch:

Author and speaker Charles Eisenstein offers a powerful perspective on the potential we each have to make a difference.

Credit: Pachamama Alliance