Seeds for Thought: an Ecopsychology Blog

Halloween

Animal Senses

Today in an online conversation about animal senses and the work of the fabulous David Abram, my fellow blogger, the equally brilliant Bob Worcester, had this to say:

"Ecopsychology ... sees the subjective impressions
of the world shared beyond the realm of human senses
into the multifaceted dragonfly eye, the nose of the fox,
the green attentive eye of the maple tree (now gone red).

We seem to be cleansing our pallet of the techno/industrial
language of the 20th century while striving for the sweet,
organic sounds of language connected to the humus of our
experience.  Our fires are tended by "other than human"
watchers and the "full story" seems to require the expansion
of our merely human empathy."

Is he not wonderful?! I am constantly amazed at the beauty of Bob's writing.

And going back to David Abram, whose work I also greatly admire; I took some great notes on his session at this year's Bioneer's conference (you have to scroll down towards the end of the post since his was the last session of the day). It's a good thing I took these notes, too, because alas it appears they didn't manage to capture it on tape!

Preparing for Winter

I made my last trip of the year to Québec City and Montreal last week, counting on there being no snow while I drove the 1000 km to get there and another 1000 km to come back.  There was no snow; however, it rained the whole week I was away.  Still, I'd prepared by having my winter tires put on the car, and I ventured forward with caution, driving slowly enough to enjoy the amazing scenery of going upstream on the shores of the mighty St. Lawrence River.

Upon my return, I heard on the news that the snow had followed us on our return trip.  I laughed at this good planning on my part but knew I am going to have to face winter, and soon.

Thinking Good Thoughts is Not Enough

Increasingly I hear from friends involved with various New Age and traditional spiritual ideas and practices that the solution to our community’s and the world’s increasingly threatening political, social, economic and environmental crises is positive thought. “What we think is what we create,” they say. Many work hard at improving their mental state, but few of them seem to take much interest in practical action in the outside world. They seem to prefer meditating, holistic health practices, therapy, taking workshops or going to yoga classes. All worthy endeavors, of course, but perhaps not sufficient to address our current historical challenges.

Indeed, if we look at history we see that the great positive changes and advances were often the result not only of enlightened ideas but also hard work, tenacious persistence, profound resistance and incredible bravery. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi, although highly spiritual, didn’t just think good thoughts about racism or colonialism. In addition to prayer and meditation, they took specific actions to create change.

Bioneers

I've just returned from three days at the legendary Bioneers conference and am still reeling a bit from the sheer range & volume of sensory input.

Relevant highlights include meeting the folks from WEAD (the Women Environmental Artist Directory), the incredible DestinyArts dance performances from young people, Sophia Qunitero from the Latina filmmaking non-profit ChicaLuna & their commercial arm Sister Outsider Productions, a fabulous rapper called Goodfellow, a  session on EcoArtists that included Helen and Newton Harrison, and last but by no means least an amazing session with David Abram & Susan Griffin on Re-visioning the Language of Environmentalism.

I wrote about all these experiences & more, in detail, in The Beauty Dialogues if you want to hear more about this wonderful annual event.

Wild Space

In her latest book, Sallie McFague makes reference to a concept she calls “wild space”. She defines it as the area where someone’s personal identity is distinct from the normal or “typical”. Being old, disabled, ethnic or odd creates a “wild space” for the individual to see the world from a non-standard perspective. She feels this is important since most of what is portrayed about the “world” assumes a “typical” perspective. The uniqueness and exquisiteness of the world may best reveal itself from odd angles. Some writers take to a wheelchair, a grey wig or black face to get a different sense of what the world is like. It might be interesting to take this a step further to imagine how the world looks to a dragon fly, a fir tree or a deep sea creature.

hope, decimation for socialists

hope.
aspiration, same root as spirit, from breath. No god but the mystery of the animation of clay, which we now understand.

Many people will carefully eke out their last pennies, but once in debt will let it build up to astronomical levels, after all negative numbers aren't real are they?

the victorians were very upset at the impending extinction of the great auk, they loved them so much it became a race to stuff and mount the last one.

false hope::being 'too negative'::sobbing

This is partially in response to Medusa's most recent post. And partially in response to a Big Cafe on sustainability I attended yesterday. And partially in response to an article that Linda brought to our attention to in an e-mail last month...

I'm not going to try to articulate this very well.
I'm not going to try to tie everything together neatly.
I'm too burnt out for that.
I don't have time for 'being positive' right now.
I only have energy for mourning and preparation.
I may not even have time for sobbing...
...although: I am about to facilitate an ecopsy workshop in three hours...
...so maybe it will find a space there...

Thanksgiving Canada

For the beauty of the earth
Sing O sing today
For the glory of the skies,
Sing O sing always
For the love which from our birth
All around us lies.
Creator God to You we raise,
grateful songs of praise.

For the oceans and the shores,
For waves that on them beat,
For the rocks and stones and sand
That lie beneath our feet

Nature, Creativity, Ritual

I love the energy of creativity, and I have a particular love for what happens when a group starts linking in to that energy together.

I'm also passionate about the natural world… stones and sky and redwoods and hawks and fresh water and salt … and about rituals that connect us to our oneness with all that is.

All these elements are combined in art like my good friends at RedEarth produce… check out their new website!