Back in November we wrote: “Healing centered approaches are surfacing in little pockets, and in different places. As we connect with others we find there’s both inspiration and disequilibrium about what the next steps in the movement should be for each of us. How do we change a non-functioning system, or build a new one, without replicating or reinforcing the problems we’re attempting to resolve? It’s powerful to feel and experience relationships and new connections with this work. A slow shift that is perceivable above the surface is starting to take place. It’s like we are the mushrooms, each popping up from where we are, yet connected by mycelium below the surface sometimes stretching unknown for miles in hidden places. And like mushrooms we’re trying to figure out how to use the resources that are there, that are already starting to decompose as food, as fuel, to get work done.” As we wrap up a Certificate program in Healing Centered Education with the Acosta Institute this month the strength of the “mycelium” is even more palpable. We’ve met people across the US and beyond working on all these levels to make healing spaces for ourselves and the people we serve. When we met Dr. Coleman (Sacred guest for episode 3) in Albuquerque this April, she was moved to learn that seeds she planted years ago have begun to produce fruit beyond her community. If we listen in an embodied way for our elders and ancestors then we feel the fact that we’re not alone, and we’re not doing this for the first time. In truth we might feel our place in between past and future, in a long-term story.
Whew! That’s a lot. Time to rest. We’ll be logging off of our Engage work until the beginning of September. Our next Campfire Chat will be Wednesday, September 18, 12:00-1:00pm ET. We hope you can join us! In the meantime, please enjoy the podcast and this poem from Angela Carolina:
A shift in the algorithm
Summer coming to an end
Sleep and death coming upon us
An invitation to learn, to dive deep into attachment
Am I ready? Do I want to? Sitting with the demons of the past usually feels like the summer swimming pools I loved playing in as a child
Fear and adrenaline and the possibility of overcoming the deep end – my favorite!
With winter preparing itself to settle into the city – I wonder am I ready?
Fall arrived and gathering with new ones arrived. New books – new connections – and food. A moment passed and an excitement bubbled in my belly. A community seeking to change the algorithm of colonial indoctrination between the two of us. Time passed and relationships developed. Trust? Was that what my nervous system was feeling as I exchanged intimate details of the dark cloud that visits me on occasion. What a beautiful place to be!
The cool air moved its way into the city.
Work crawled its way onto my shoulders and sat there with its professional standards as it let me know that it would no longer need my services.
The community of new connections with all its tenderness and love no longer felt like a haven.
I promise I’m reading or at least trying to get around to it
I promise I want to do the work or at least make myself do it
I promise I’m feeling the new learnings seeping into the spaces between my synaptic connection of binary design and bending me in more ways than I feel I can bear.
Winter is fully set into my apartment even if most say it wasn’t a harsh winter at all. I can’t go outside – the cloud has arrived with a full on lightning show with a great thunderstorm as it’s orchestra
I can’t go outside, I can’t go outside, I can’t go outside
How do I tell them the deep end of the pool might swallow me this time.
I need to go home, I need the desert, I need my tia Elma, I need my daddy, I need my mom!
I promise im reading, I promise I’m trying to make the connections
The storm clouds are too dark to see in front of me
But there is a warm embrace every gathering with this community of new connections
New thought provoking ideas that hit my body with curiosity
The storm clouds have lightened up, April showers are among us for the beautiful May flowers but I’m headed to the desert. To the warmth, to the sun, to the home that birthed me
The swift scent of attachment sneaks itself between me and my dad in the midst of the tenderest of moments
Is this the change in the algorithm? Is this the healing work between the two of us through an equity lens?…
Provocation for you: How was your Sept-June? What shifts in algorithms do you sense as you move into the current season? If you feel moved, please write a poem to express your experience. We would love to hear from you so please share it with us if you’re willing!
With tenderness and gratitude,
Angela Carolina & Lauren
What are waves? “Waves transmit energy, not water, and are commonly caused by the wind as it blows across the ocean, lakes, and rivers. Waves caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun are called tides. The ebb and flow of waves and tides are the life force of our world ocean.” https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/wavesinocean.html