"...When she forgot beauty, all was brutal.
But beauty always came to lift her up to stand again.
When it was beautiful all around and within,
She knew herself to be corn plant, moon, and sunrise.
Death is beautiful, she sang, as she left this story behind her.
Even her bones, said time.
Were tuned to beauty."
~Joy Harjo
Mandala by Amara at a Mother - Daughter Retreat
Greetings ~
Blessings on the new year. Blessings on the full moon of this day, and the fullness of this time, the spring here in the Northern Hemisphere, as we honor women who are rising and standing and taking to the streets all over the world (International Women's Day), and the truth and reconciliation happening and not happening (International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims) - both United Nations observances this month. We certainly continue to have many opportunities, with fires, and now the primary elections and the coronavirus, to align with and stand for beauty, justice and life and not become overwhelmed and blinded by fear, despair or outrage.
On my drive home this afternoon after speaking at Pacifica Graduate Institute for International Women's Day, I spotted the beginnings of a fire in our mountains. Turns out it is a small brush fire, and fire fighters have mobilized quickly, with folks in the vicinity being evacuated, and rain is expected tomorrow. Here is to this full present moment....
How do we not succumb to a state of fear and disturbance, which causes us to have a narrow focus, revert to self protection and separation and contraction? And instead open to and maintain a state of possibility, creativity, connection, collaboration and emergent wisdom? There is no one way, but rather many practices, gatherings, teachers, experiences that help us to remember our true nature, and heal from our conditioned imprints of terror and shame. I have been exploring the concept of resilience, defined by Resilience Alliance as 'the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and re-organize while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks.' Last fall, I had the good fortune of co-teaching a course at Esalen Institute called The Ecology Within, about just this, thanks to my friend and colleague Rene Henery, who invited me to collaborate. The two of us, along with Charles Eisenstein, climate activist and change agent, sat on a panel to explore Being Human on a Living Earth in Times of Ecological Initiation. One of the things I am most sure of is the tremendous beauty, resilience and generosity of our mother earth. Just as it is our nature. Nature is resilient. We are nature. Nature is speaking through so many now, screaming, creatively acting, love making, finding new ways, remembering old ways. Of course, for many, perhaps most, there is tremendous trauma to metabolize. Which requires presence, containment, and care. When we are present, in our mammalian bodies, allowing our experience of the moment, without trying to fix or change, we strengthen our capacity to be with ourselves and others. When we have our basic needs met, our natural inclination is curiosity, collaboration, kindness and care. Strengthening our relationships with each other and the more than human world is essential, and a part of a system recovering from disturbance. And supporting and being inspired by our young people, reinvigorating rites of passage so more people recognize and act in accordance with their true nature - finding the courage and strength to align with ones heart and souls calling. As we are initiated, we come to know ourselves as unique and interconnected, sharing our planetary home with countless other living beings, understanding the systems within which we operate and are conditioned by so that we can take full responsibility for our place in the web of creation and participate fully in the mutuality of our co-liberation and care for people, place and planet.
I am very grateful to those who are leading the way, young and old, indigenous activists, those walking with me and beside me, those who have gone before, the women, my family and friends, everyone with whom I have the privilege and honor of working, my human mentors. I am grateful for the work, co-liberations, and collaborations, with the Global Youth Peace Summit in California (check out the website for teens summer 2020 program and apply now), Tara Mandala Family Retreat's Youth Wilderness Fast (also in 2020, registration open now), The Institute of Emerging Visionaries Immersion on the Big Island of Hawaii, and the Solidarity and Compassion Project.
I find myself inspired to write with more frequency and be in touch more often these days. Which may make the length of these newsletters a bit more digestible! I hope you choose to join me on the journey! If you would like to be kept informed about local offerings please sign up here. Grateful to be on the journey with you. It takes all of us, standing together, in courage, doing our particular piece. Reminds me of a song I learned years ago from a beloved mentor:
"I love the mountains and I love the desert. I love the rivers that flow to the ocean. A people united will not be divided. Come out of your houses, and take a stand. Stand for the children and stand for the future. Together in courage. Together in peace."
with wild blessings,
Alexis
Upcoming Events
Grief Ritual Altar
Saturday, March 28, 2020 9:30am-6pm
Arroyo Hondo Preserve, Santa Barbara, CA
An opportunity to honor our personal and collective grief with regards to the sorrows of the world, loss of loved ones, ancestral grief, trauma, places in ourselves that have not known love, what we expected and did not receive, and the reality that everything we love, we will lose. Grief is a healthy and natural response to life, it reflects our love and the capacity of our hearts. When we allow it to move through us, without a story, it connects us to our humanity. Being real with our grief can motivate aligned and inspired action, while despair can keep us stagnant and disconnected from life.
Soul Activism Series for Women
5 month women's groups meets once a month
Santa Barbara, CA
Initiatory Mentorship for women ages 20-35, meets one Saturday a month on the land.
Embracing Wisdom for women mid 30s and up, meets one Monday evening every three weeks
These groups are an opportunity for women to resource and nourish themselves in a circle of trust and support. A community catalyst for healing and vision - bringing out the most authentic parts of you in order to engage a purposeful life and awaken your soul's calling in service to life. Together we look at what needs clearing and integrating, what stories, patterns and beliefs are no longer serving who we are and what we are here to do and lean into a circle of support to celebrate, hold and water our visions.
More information on the website. BOTH GROUPS ARE FULL
4 month series ~ Sundays &/or Fridays 3pm-5pm
Come to one or all for a sequential arc of deepening
Yoga Soup, Santa Barbara, CA
Sunday, January 26, 3-5pm: Darkness and Renewal
Friday, February 28, 7-9pm: Grief and Love
Friday, March 27, 3-5pm: Resiliency and Courage
Sunday, April 26, 3-5pm: Belonging and Collective Care
A community forum for wholeness and resilience to meet these times of cultural and ecological initiation. We will unite in a shared context of our love for the world and common care for people and planet, to build connection and courage for bringing forth what is most alive in us in response to a world in need of repair. We have unique gifts to share, as well as obstacles that prevent us from our natural and full expression. We need community and containment to see and be seen and explore our basic humanity. We will engage our love and heartbreak, questions of purpose and participation, and simple practices to listen to ourselves and each other. The theme will vary each month and the form will remain more or less the same.
Introduction to Council Training
May 16 & 17
with Yamin Chehin & Sofia Rose Smith
Santa Barbara, CA
The facilitation training workshop series emerged from a community call for in-depth training to delve into tools, skills and practice around working with groups. With a focus on honing the tool of your own intuition and heart to navigate a group field, these workshops will provide a safe and structured setting in which to explore how we can meet these tumultuous times with an open heart, and create places and opportunities for others to explore what it means to be human. The trainings are relevant for working with groups in a variety of settings, and will provide you with skills, frameworks and a deepened sense of self awareness.
Wild Awakening Women's Retreat: Women, Soul & Nature
April 16 - 20, 2020
with Janice Setser
Cuyama Valley, CA
In this 5 day semi-wilderness retreat, with nature as teacher, we are supported to find our natural rhythms and remember parts of ourselves long forgotten. We will share and weave our stories in a community of women, awaken unique expressions, listen deeply to the collective call, and follow our curiosities, desires, dreams, longings and wild impulses.
Limited to 10 participants
Register by March 22, 2020
Mundane Miracles, Holy Wonders & Other Tidbits
The morning after the winter solstice, I walked in silence with a small group up a mountain trail under the stars of a dark sky to welcome the rise of the solstice sun after the longest night of the year. I have always loved winter solstice, and also sunrise. I have also always loved the vantage point of looking down at the city of Santa Barbara from the mountains above. It puts things in perspective, and usually I am most at home on the edges, closer to nature. The past few years, I have lived right in town. There a few live oak trees outside my home, and also quite a bit of cement, noise, business, hustle and bustle. I deeply appreciate the small city park down the street, with old live oaks, bay and sycamore trees, along the now dry Mission Creek bed, or Amal Amal, as I understand the Chumash call it. This year, the local fall harvest of bay nuts and acorns was abundant in my neighborhood, and I was able to fill some baskets with delicious sources of nourishment a short walk from my home. This is a miracle. Now, spring is in full bloom after only a few moments of winter. Flowers blooming, manzanita trees blossoming, many of my favorite plants are coming in green and fresh, some plants have already come and gone. Earlier this year I made my own local version of a Japanese new year traditional soup with seven local medicinal plants, to welcome in the new. I gathered nettles, hummingbird sage, pearly everlasting, artemesia, plantain, figwort, woodmint, and others... what a blessing.
One of my favorite things is taking my 22 month old nephew out at dawn to greet the rising sun on the cliffs of the ocean. We sing songs in the language of this place, drink dew drops off the grass and forage wild foods. Foraging is one of his very favorite things too. He already has a relationship to the plants, knows which we can eat, which are for tea, which not to touch, how to identify, etc. He calls them by name, knows their uniqueness, and is growing a relationship to this place. Not having raised a child myself, this is a holy miracle to me. How young ones learn. How much they know and register. Their capacity to pay attention. They are still so deeply connected to the dream state and the other world. I love this time with him. The preciousness of holding a small child in my care. This is the energy I wish to cultivate with myself, all people, this planet and all life. When I get rattled by the world of humans, I seek out wild nature, always a balm that brings me back to myself in presence and gratitude. I am very aware of the privilege of this opportunity and access and I am committed to making experiences in wild places more available to more people, especially young ones, and supporting organizations that also do this work.
FILM
Dawnland by the Upstander Project - FREE screening on March 26. Visit here for more information.
First Light by the Upstander Project
"For centuries, the United States government has taken Native American children away from their tribes, devastating parents and denying children their traditions, culture, and identity. First Light documents these practices from the 1800s to today and tells the story of an unprecedented experiment in truth-telling and healing for Wabanaki people and child welfare workers in Maine.
In 2015 the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that Native people in Maine continue to be targets of "cultural genocide." The commission is the topic of the Emmy® nominated documentary film, Dawnland, which aired on Independent Lens in 2018."
POEMS & QUOTES
THE LIFE OF BEAUTY
The sung blessing of creation
Led her into the human story.
That was the first beauty.
Next beauty was the sound of her mother’s voice
Rippling the waters beneath the drumming skin
Of her birthing cocoon.
Next beauty the father with kindness in his hands
As he held the newborn against his breathing.
Next beauty the moon through the dark window
It was a rocking horse, a wish.
There were many beauties in this age
For everything was immensely itself:
Green greener than the impossibility of green,
the taste of wind after its slide through dew grass at dawn,
Or language running through a tangle of wordlessness in her mouth.
She ate well of the next beauty.
Next beauty planted itself urgently beneath the warrior shrines.
Next was beauty beaded by her mother and pinned neatly
To hold back her hair.
Then how tendrils of fire longing grew into her, beautiful the flower
Between her legs as she became herself.
Do not forget this beauty she was told.
The story took her far away from beauty. In the tests of her living,
Beauty was often long from the reach of her mind and spirit.
When she forgot beauty, all was brutal.
But beauty always came to lift her up to stand again.
When it was beautiful all around and within,
She knew herself to be corn plant, moon, and sunrise.
Death is beautiful, she sang, as she left this story behind her.
Even her bones, said time.
Were tuned to beauty.
~Joy Harjo is the United States poet laureate. She is the first Native American to hold the position.
We are the DNA of Earth, Moon, Planets, Stars
We are related to the universal
Creator created creation
Spirit and intelligence with clarity
Being and human as power
We are a part of the memories of evolution
These memories carry knowledge
These memories carry our identity
Beneath race, gender, class, age
Beneath citizen, business, state, religion
We are human beings
And these memories
Are trying to remind us
Human beings, human beings
It’s time to rise up
Remember who we are.
~ John Trudell
"Relationships move at the speed of trust. Social change moves at the speed of relationships."
~Kenneth Bolding, Peace Activist/Quaker