May You Be Happy, Healthy, and at Peace
Late summer musings on pacing, preparedness, and more-than-human support
Dear Livable Futures Community,
Sending everyone strength and love.
What forms of gentle relief are present for you today? A cool breeze? A cup of tea?
Today, I find myself browsing cookbooks for a weekend recipe and puttering around in the yard a bit at the end of summer here in the Northern Hemisphere. I can sense the light changing and days shortening ever so slightly as we move into autumn.
It is Friday and I love the easing into rest that the end of the week brings. My family and I practice Shabbat and I am always grateful for the structure of rest it provides amidst activity, a vital form of weekly pacing.
While for us this is a Jewish practice, I think it is a lovely practice for anyone to adopt. It doesn’t need to be complicated. Make a day each week sacred, a time for rest, family, food and a break from all work and commerce. If a day feels like too much, maybe an afternoon or an evening can be set aside with love and intention. Lighting candles helps. Saying a prayer or mantra or meditation or singing is also rich and supportive. It is nice to do this in community but not essential and our more-than-human friends can join us too.
Perhaps you already have your own ways of structuring time to make it more humane? I’d love to hear more about the practices present in our community!
Prepared Not Scared
I’m staying present with extreme heat and fires around the globe these past three months and standing in solidarity with those who are suffering. And I am savoring the blessings present in my day: the shade of the trees where I live, a cool water bath for my feet, the air conditioning (I notice a spike of concern that comes with any energy usage and a renewed commitment to encouraging the landlords to get the house fitted with solar). Softening into the magnitudes.
The fires have me musing again on preparedness and wisdom my artist friend Jen Rae gave me from her long years doing climate change and resilience work through artistic practice and facing planetary conditions head on.
I met Jen when I was presenting Livable Futures in Melbourne/Naarm just before the pandemic and she blew me away with her integrity, inspired activism, and generosity. In conversations with Jen, she helped me understand that most of our governmental emergency preparedness plans are woefully underfunded and inadequate and that it doesn’t take much to overwhelm the system of emergency response. We definitely saw this in action in the Maui fires but it is true to varying degrees wherever we are.
The lack of governmental capacity to respond can leave one feeling anxious, alone, afraid, paralyzed even and angry (and yes, we should be demanding better) and it can also call us in to start determining what we need to do in the case of emergency including how we might help ourselves and our neighbors.
In fact, a great first step is probably getting to know those neighbors. Who lives near you? What are their skills and vulnerabilities? What do you have and what do you need as a community?
I’ve worked a bit on preparedness from a spiritually grounded and communal sensibility and if folks would like more on this, let me know!
Resilience Practice: Green Growing Support
I’ve been away from my garden all summer so this is a time of weeding and becoming reacquainted with the plant friends growing in my personal micro ecology. My absence has allowed some weeds to thrive and because they are also great support plants for beneficial insects I’m leaving them in all their wild proliferation (perhaps it is time to stop calling them weeds).
The houseplants want attention and I’m grateful to the way they keep me focused on small acts of care daily.
My house is surrounded by many trees planted by ancestors and I am finding grounding in focusing each day on the eternal energy they offer. The trees do not judge or want to change me, they are busy growing expansively with every cell they have reaching toward the light and creating precious cooling shade. Wise and rooted oak friend and cedar twins and other neighbor trees whose names I don’t yet know.
Who are your green growing neighbors? Consider drawing your attention to them, and reflecting on the fullness of their acceptance for you and everything you are right now in this moment.
I am also tending to myself with extra care this week, this month, this season of my life and I invite you to do the same.
Consider the support offered all the time in the more-than-human life around you and rest in the pleasure of this awareness.
Inspiration: Jen Rae, Refuge and the Centre for Reworlding
If you’re needing some inspiration right now, check out REFUGE and the more recent work Jen Rae is leading: The Centre for Reworlding. Here is a short description to get you excited,
“Grounded in First Nations knowledge systems and protocols, the Centre for Reworlding is a brave 100-year project. Our focus is working towards intergenerational justice, building creative resilience and applying intersectional collaborative approaches in how we work with others— so we can adapt climate disaster risk reduction and resilience strategies to meet the needs of diverse communities.”
And their beautiful land acknowledgement, worth reading in full, includes this important acknowledgement,
“We pay our respects to their ancestors and Elders past and present and acknowledge their enduring legacy of care for Country so we may enjoy the stars, drink from the waters and continue to learn from the land… it is our elders and kin who hold the key to healing Country, others’ ancestral lands and the world’s broken systems for the health and wellbeing of all our future ancestors.”
I did an interview with Jen that I hope to edit for the podcast soon, energy allowing, stay tuned!
Mantra for Today
My favorite mantra at the moment is,
“May all beings everywhere be happy, healthy, and at peace.”
When I say this, I can feel myself release tension, breathe with more ease, and relax into trust. I hope it is supportive for you as well.
The mantra is probably as old as time but I heard it first form Louise Hay and if you like her vibe, you can sign up to get affirmations from her body of work sent to you directly: https://www.louisehay.com/affirmations/
May you be happy, healthy, and at peace,
Norah
