growing a new world in agaya and ubuntu
It can be instructive and healing to include some acknowledgement of the land and the people who lived there as part of our gatherings. We can learn important things about appropriate ways to act with integrity in our local ecosystems from the indigenous peoples of the land. Who are the indigenous people where you live? What do you know about their history, and how they may be engaged in protecting their land and culture now?
An opportunity to review our Octal Meditation and discussion from the December 2019 Solstice. We talked about gratitude, loss, growth, friendship, community, restoration, regeneration and resilience, with a particular emphasis on the record-breaking heatwaves and fires in Australia.
In Novasutras, we help one another deal with our emotional responses to the climate and extinction crises through practices like meditation and shinrin-yoku. Developing deeper awareness of ubuntu and agaya enhances our emotional resilience. Dr. Michelle Merrill, founder of the Novasutras Movement, discussed some of these ideas in an interview for an article about climate grief that was published last month.
As the Novasutras Movement emerges, we need a few people to come forward and help make this collaborative vision a reality. In order to get securely rooted so we can begin to really thrive, we need teams of people who can help us reach more people, through social media, outreach, writing, audio/video work, local organizing, fundraising and creative arts.
Thanksgiving can become a celebration of agaya and ubuntu, through the Native American tradition of the "Thanksgiving Address." What are you grateful for? How does this bring us together to abide in ubuntu and agaya?
