Reaching Out

 These are challenging days we're all living through on this earth. Yes, there have been hard times before, but what we know now is that environmentally, these hard times are directly threatening our home. Our home is the friendly and supportive planet we've been nourished and held by all our lives. When we have the courage to look at the statistics, to look at the projections into the future, it can be so scary that things feel hopeless. It might feel like we should just bury our heads in the sand, stay home and wait for the end! Even when I'm getting joy out of watching nature documentaries, always now at the end there is a warning: this wonderful natural world will not last unless we do something to halt the progress of climate change. Now. So though I am left filled with beautiful images from the films, I end up being reminded that we are in a crisis of huge proportions. All of us. 

When we're alone in our homes, being reminded of the climate crisis and asked to do what we can to address it, can feel confusing. What can one person do? It's overwhelming to take this on, even in our own minds.  And so it can feel hopeless. In contrast, what I've felt multiple times in just one week is the wonderful change in perspective that can come when you join with others to address problems like this. For instance, yesterday I attended the monthly meeting of Citizens Climate Lobby. Conveniently, it was just a few steps from my home in the cohousing common house, yet usually I seem to have other things to do when their meetings have happened. I am so glad that I wandered into this one yesterday, for it was filled with action, positive plans, reports from people actively working on climate change issues, support for local projects. Rather than being dismayed and paralyzed by the awful truth about what is happening to our earthscape, these folks were banding together to do something about it. And they are part of a national organization, little groups of us meeting all over the country, tuning in together, sharing information. There is a positive energy created from meetings like this, people who together take on serious issues.

The truth is that there are many, many organizations like this! If you know where to look, the landscape is crawling with groups who see the threats, and find ways to work together. We've found that there is power in doing things together. Together we can share worries, insights, support, ideas, information, and then forge a plan to move ahead in a positive way. Just today I got an email from the local Sierra Club listing exciting events for the summer and fall including a meeting with prairie experts, lessons on how to support biodiversity at home, an outdoor event telling us about our local migrant American White Pelicans, multiple showings of two important films (Kiss the Ground and Common Ground) and more. 

Another group that is becoming very important to me is Quaker Earthcare Witness, a North-American organization doing its best to support the earth in a myriad of ways. I am the representative from the Iowa Quakers to this group, and even though all our meetings these days are on zoom, I feel like the folks I meet with are my friends. And that is important, for feeling part of a team is empowering. As I am talking with people from Canada and Mexico as well as every state in this country, it becomes clear that people working together can move mountains.

In this country, we've been in an age of individualism for a long time. Our history tells us that the immigrants who came to this country initially were trying to find freedom from unfair or restrictive laws in their home countries. We prize the accomplishments of individuals throughout our culture. However, in this age of individualism, we have often lost the connections that are an essential part of a healthy atmosphere for any lifeform, and as humans we're feeling this loss more and more. Especially in cities, neighbors don't even know each other, and their lives are not tied together by activities in common. Once children grow up, most often they forge new paths wherever their jobs take them. The opportunity to carve out our own lives is exciting and freeing, but sometimes in a new place it is hard to get solid connections with supportive people. So we have to learn how to do this. The evidence tells us that there are many people who are lonely and disconnected. And in a time when our survival as a planet depends upon the people of the earth rising up and taking strong and fast action, it's a real disadvantage that we are used to thinking as an individual, not as a group.

The people who have come to live in our cohousing community, Prairie Hill, have made a conscious choice to align their lives with other folks, living on the same piece of land, taking care of that land and of each other. We've chosen a form of governance (sociocracy) that levels the playing field. In our meetings, we have "rounds" where each person speaks their truth. And if we can't agree on something, we give it time. We are learning about how communities work, responding to needs as we build strong, accepting, healthy places to grow and live well.

When I get panicky about our future here on our home planet, I like to pull myself out beyond the surface.  I imagine I'm someone looking at the earth from a distance.  That gives me a little perspective, lets me take a deep breath and see the earth in a larger context. It helps me remember that this planet has already gone through a number of extinctions, and though these left things temporarily devastated, the earth each time had the ability to recover. There is every reason to think that the earth will eventually recover from the forces that are behind our current climate change. The story of the earth will go on, whether or not humans continue to live here. Somehow that makes me feel a little better. It also leads me to make friends with the earth, learn its ways, and do what I can to delay if not stop our slide toward life-threatening changes in the climate. And for me, the way to do that is to reach out to others and to the earth itself. Together as a team (or thousands of teams) we can show up for the good work.