Dear all,
What I have loved most about having a little more discretionary time this month has been the freedom I’ve felt to reach out to people in my web of caring—feeling like I have time to respond if they suggest more. We’ve had a string of incredibly beautiful days, my garden has been producing (my newest discovery is lambsquarter and parsley pesto), and I am ever more aware of the creativity, wisdom, imagination and hard work of birthing a new era that is there to be found among people all over the world. I’m feeling deeply grateful to be alive in this world.
Speaking of which, Alive in this World is the title of a book of my poetry that has just been published! Check it out at Barnes and Noble or Amazon. I have a series of essays as well, drawn from this column over the years: That Clear and Certain Sound; Finding Solid Ground in Perilous Times. If you’d like to help me think about marketing, or have ideas about ways to spread the word, I would be thrilled to hear from you!
Love,
Pamela
First Words
As I root a native thanksgiving address—"the words that come before all else”—into my daily life, I find it steadily growing me. Traditionally, when Haudenosaunee people (formally known as Iroquois) gather, they start with these words which help orient everyone in the same direction. Thanks are offered to the earth in all its manifestations—water, plant and animal life—to the sun moon and stars, and to the ancient wisdom carriers and the Spirit Creator. The recurring phrase—"and now are minds are one”—binds the community together in shared thanks.
I first experienced these words in a native context. It was early morning on the Six Nation Reserve in southern Ontario. A group of Six Nations people and allies had gathered to honor the treaties and protect the earth in a ten-day paddle down the Grand River. We stood in a big circle as the thanksgiving address started our day. That first morning a translated summary was offered to the non-native speakers. For the rest of the trip, we listened to these first words in Mohawk, Cayuga and Oneida. (For some who were reclaiming their language, these were first words in more ways than one.)
I couldn’t retain all the contents, so when I found them in a children’s book at a pow-wow I bought a copy. I read it, brought it home, and propped it up in my workspace—where it sat till a retreat of my Quaker meeting on right relationship with native peoples this spring. The leaders were determined to get us engaged not just with our heads, but with our hearts and bodies. There were long breaks where we were encouraged to walk with attention to the land and the people who walked this land for thousands of years before us. When asked how we could extend the experience of this retreat, I realized I could take my morning walk with native people in my heart.
My first attempts left me puzzled. How could I join with the original people on these city streets? What would I see and experience that would have been familiar to them? I was distracted by how completely the land had been transformed. Then I remember the book, propped up, patiently waiting for my attention. I could take the words that come before all else on my morning walk. For the first couple of times I was mostly just trying to remember the list of things, the order. I used the book as a reference when I got home, and when a phrase puzzled me I thought to look up the original and was reminded of the full content.
As I settled in with this practice, the gifts started coming. I already knew about being thankful for the water and the food plants and the trees and the moon, so initially it felt like a simple frame for familiar content. But then one morning, the prepositions hit me. The first words call us to be thankful not for these parts of our world, but to them. They call us to direct relationship. All of a sudden I could see how being thankful for, though certainly much better than nothing, carries with it a sense of separation. Here was a profound shift toward right relationship with the world around me.
Another morning I was struck by the obvious: I am trying to craft a private practice from what is, at heart, a communal experience. I think of the recurring phrase at the end of each section: “And now our minds are one.” We gather to find a way forward together, and start with the words that come before all else. We send thanks to the earth that provides everything we need, to the water and the animals and the plants for giving us life. In whatever decisions or actions we take, we do so with this shared understanding in the front of our minds.
What if these words started every board meeting, every gathering of people where decisions are made that affect the web of life that supports us all? Knowing that they are powerfully communal, I commit to absorbing their wisdom deep into my bones, and seeing how they might lead me in community.
Most recently I have found myself moved to send not only greetings and thanks, but love. As I walk and connect and send love, I find my body opening up, moving in new ways. It’s like a dance is growing inside me. I think of all the restraint with which I have held myself all these years, and give more thanks to the Haudenosaunee and the words that come before all else.
Gifts and needs
Kale that made it through the cold has gone to seed.
Big leaves I used for pesto early in the spring
have made way for stalk and flower.
Order and logic suggest I pull them out—
let old make way for new.
I could use the space, it’s true. And yet, and yet
these little buds are just the thing in salad greens
bees are buzzing round the flowers
and I would save some for the seeds.
Could we find a way to honor all these gifts and needs?
Pull one great plant, but pick the buds for salad,
try for one last batch of pesto with the leaves
plant new basil in that space,
leave the second plant for bees and buds and seeds,
maybe think again when basil needs more space?
This dance is complex, yet I would choose it every time
over straight rows, bare soil and mastery.
My soul is nourished by the company.
Imagine: A new economy is possible!
A growing circular food system in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Family farmers in São Paulo’s rural south grow food that is healthy for consumers, for the environment and for themselves. A chef in the bustling urban center designs his menu around fresh food that is on offer each week. And another sells affordable organic meals in the outskirts of the city. These are just a few faces of a circular economy transformation that is reshaping São Paulo’s food system.
A circular economy redesign of São Paulo’s food system represents a $140 million opportunity with the potential to drive down CO2 emissions and enhance local biodiversity. Navigating between its rural and urban territories, the short video, ‘A taste of circular economy in São Paulo’, shows how different actors within the city are working together to realize this opportunity in building a more regenerative, distributed and inclusive food system.
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/news/new-mini-documentary-showcases-são-paulos-circular-food-system-transformation
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
Alaska voters’ adoption of ranked-choice voting as a way to combat polarization and increase voter choice.
https://www.vox.com/2020/11/19/21537126/alaska-measure-2-ranked-choice-voting-results
The successes of a campaign to get apparel companies to pay $22 billion owed to factories and workers throughout the global south.
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/03/payup-garment-workers-won-stolen-wages-fashion-industry/
A stunning set of recent victories of climate activists over fossil fuel companies:
The cancellation by its owner of the Keystone XL pipeline after years of opposition from climate campaigners
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/09/keystone-xl-pipeline-canceled
A remarkable set of shareholder votes and court rulings that have scrambled the future of three of the world’s largest oil companies.
https://link.newyorker.com/view/5c92fd0e24c17c329bfe869be9uu1.n2e/d8d6252a
A victory for Dutch environmental groups in a court ruling that gives Shell nine years to cut its carbon emissions by 45% from 2019 levels in order to comply with the Paris climate agreement.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26052021/dutch-court-gives-shell-nine-years-to-cut-its-carbon-emissions-by-45-percent-from-2019-levels/?
Resources
Alive in this World
A book of poetry in three parts: A Home with the Trees, Commuter Encounters, and A Home with the Earth
Available in paperback and e-book at barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com.
That Clear and Certain Sound; Finding Solid Ground in Perilous Times
A book of my essays, available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors
The Financial Roots of the Climate Crisis
Link to a talk I gave at a church in Houston
https://vimeo.com/showcase/7910215
Envision or Perish; Why we must start imagining the world we want to live in
An article I co-authored with George Lakey
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/02/envision-or-perish-why-we-must-start-imagining-the-world-we-want/
Money and Soul
My newish book (based on a pamphlet of the same name) available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors.
("If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small.")
Money, Debt and Liberation
A video of a talk I gave at Pendle Hill in January, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7nP8eJ5vy8
Toward a Right Relationship with Finance
A book that I co-authored on Debt, Interest, Growth and Security.
The growth economy is failing to provide equitable well-being for humanity and a life-sustaining future for Earth. However our institutional endowments and individual retirement are dependent on that same growth economy. This book:
• offers background on our current economic system--how it is based on unearned income on the one hand and debt on the other, with a built-in momentum toward economy inequality and ecological overshoot;
• frames the conversation within the context of our deepest values and beliefs;
• suggests plausible and historically grounded alternatives to the current system, particularly with regard to financing retirement; and
• invites everyone to imagine new forms of durable economic and social security, and to help create the relationships and institutions that will make them a reality.
With many people now counting as never before on the performance of Wall Street for retirement security, how can this system be challenged with integrity and effectiveness? Can we break with our dependence on financial speculation and build up new structures of security in a transformed, life-centered economy?
To order the book, or read it on line, go to http://www.quakerinstitute.org/?page_id=5 and scroll down.
Finding Steady Ground
If you need reminding of some simple ways to stay grounded in challenging times, I recommend this website, which I helped a friend develop following the last presidential election.
www.findingsteadyground.com
Other resources from my friend Daniel Hunter
Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide. http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide
Climate Resistance Handbook, or I was part of a climate action. Now what? https://commonslibrary.org/climate-resistance-handbook-or-i-was-part-of-a-climate-action-now-what/
Leading Groups On-Line. https://www.trainingforchange.org/training_tools/leading-groups-online-book/
More resources
Posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: New link: https://www.peaceworkersus.org/docs/muscle_building_for_peace_and_justice.pdf (or just google the title)
Link to a talk I gave at a church in Houston
https://vimeo.com/showcase/7910215
Envision or Perish; Why we must start imagining the world we want to live in
An article I co-authored with George Lakey
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/02/envision-or-perish-why-we-must-start-imagining-the-world-we-want/
Money and Soul
My newish book (based on a pamphlet of the same name) available via QuakerBooks or other on-line distributors.
("If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small.")
Money, Debt and Liberation
A video of a talk I gave at Pendle Hill in January, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7nP8eJ5vy8
Toward a Right Relationship with Finance
A book that I co-authored on Debt, Interest, Growth and Security.
The growth economy is failing to provide equitable well-being for humanity and a life-sustaining future for Earth. However our institutional endowments and individual retirement are dependent on that same growth economy. This book:
• offers background on our current economic system--how it is based on unearned income on the one hand and debt on the other, with a built-in momentum toward economy inequality and ecological overshoot;
• frames the conversation within the context of our deepest values and beliefs;
• suggests plausible and historically grounded alternatives to the current system, particularly with regard to financing retirement; and
• invites everyone to imagine new forms of durable economic and social security, and to help create the relationships and institutions that will make them a reality.
With many people now counting as never before on the performance of Wall Street for retirement security, how can this system be challenged with integrity and effectiveness? Can we break with our dependence on financial speculation and build up new structures of security in a transformed, life-centered economy?
To order the book, or read it on line, go to http://www.quakerinstitute.org/?page_id=5 and scroll down.
Finding Steady Ground
If you need reminding of some simple ways to stay grounded in challenging times, I recommend this website, which I helped a friend develop following the last presidential election.
www.findingsteadyground.com
Other resources from my friend Daniel Hunter
Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide. http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide
Climate Resistance Handbook, or I was part of a climate action. Now what? https://commonslibrary.org/climate-resistance-handbook-or-i-was-part-of-a-climate-action-now-what/
Leading Groups On-Line. https://www.trainingforchange.org/training_tools/leading-groups-online-book/
More resources
Posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: New link: https://www.peaceworkersus.org/docs/muscle_building_for_peace_and_justice.pdf (or just google the title)
