What on Earth next...
An invitation to join us in (un)learning together
Last Saturday I watched a funeral take place in my home city of Bath.
Hundreds of red rebels, mourners, drummers, artfully raising awareness of the accelerating decline of ‘nature’ - of more than human life on this Earth.
It was a beautiful and provocative spectacle, juxtaposed surreally between busy shoppers and bemused hen parties.
Chris Packham, one of the UK’s most selfless and courageous activists with influence shared some words at the end. I captured some here .
His emphasis for action was on ‘WE’ the people, not ‘THEM’ the institutions.
It was a crew invitation.
I’ve been thinking a lot of late about the exhausting stuckness of it all,
The endless protests, campaigning and social posting
Pointing out the seemingly blindingly obvious to those in power:
Destroy nature = destroy ourselves
Keep burning fossil fuels = fry ourselves
Pollute the waters, soils and air = pollute ourselves
Bombs and violence to create safety for some = fear, divisiveness and insecurity for all
We are not separate from any of these actions.
All life is interconnected, entangled.
We are nature and nature is us.
What we do to the Earth and to each other we do to ourselves.
This isn’t some crazy bat shit.
Even the leading edges of Western Science now understands this intimate relationality and interconnectedness to life.
We’ve been caught in a spell of separation casted through at least 500 years of violent extractive progress, from colonialism and Empire, to Capitalism, Modernity and Neo-Liberalism.
But the spell is breaking.
We can all feel it, see it, sense it, if we’re alert and honest.
So what on Earth does one do ?
There are many ways to step into service in these times
I wrote about this in a lengthy post in 2019
I wanted to share again Joanna Macy’s model ‘Three dimensions to the Great Turning’ which I find helpful.
She offers three key interconnected areas of action on the journey towards life-sustaining cultures, and in each of those dimensions there are countless roles and ways of participating:
1. Holding Actions:
Halting/slowing down the destruction of ecosystems and climate breakdown from ‘business as usual’
2. Life-Sustaining Systems and Practices:
Re-imagining and re-designing the systems that support human life
3. Shift in Consciousness:
From inner care to compassion for all life, developing our capacity to act for the world, for all life on Earth
Try plotting yourself in one of these dimensions on your current actions, or maybe where you are most drawn too.
The invitation is to learn to move between all dimensions as life presents itself.
With Becoming Crew we are really focussing on serving ( in our own humble ways) ‘shifts in consciousness’ and ‘life sustaining systems and practices’.
We spend a lot of time exploring and creating spaces and experiences to (un)learn the destructive behaviours, beliefs and stories of ‘business as usual’.
To learn to notice and to let go of these deeply pervasive systems that show up inside of us as well as around us.
And to practice new ways of thinking, being and relating which are in right relationship with life, life-sustaining.
From this place we begin to slow down and halt the destructive behaviours of ‘business as usual’.
So here’s an invitation to the launch of a series of three online gatherings over three months which are open and accessible to everyone.
We are collaborating with a distributed faculty of guest teachers, pioneers in both hospicing the old and destructive ways and midwifing new ways of perceiving, thinking and being.
Together we offer you live, participative, (un)learning sessions, and practice driven change rooted in the following ongoing inquiry:
How might we compost & re-imagine the dominant story of our times, the story of our separation?
This series of gatherings will take place over 3 months. They have been curated to work together as an (un)learning cycle but you are welcome to join any individual session.
These are participative, experimental gatherings.Â
Each session will offer creative fertiliser from guest teachers as well as practices to creatively respond to the session as a way of being in relationship with the 'content' offered.Â
After attending a gathering you'll also have access to our ongoing community of practice, which includes seasonal online gatherings around the Wheel of The Year
3 months 3 gatherings - everyone welcome.
Pick one, two or all three .
For curious people, longing to create more beautiful, peaceful, life-sustaining cultures.
Please join us, and do share with friends and colleagues.
There are many other pathways to explore in these times.
With Love and Courage