In this interview world-changing, Christian leader, Scott Sabin, shares some insights after 30 years of leading the breakthrough sustainable development organization, Plant With Purpose. He is joined by noted author, legendary bass player, and innovative pastor, Rev. Jimi Calhoun and the co-founder/executive editor of AllCreation.org, Chris Searles.

Plant With Purpose is a nonprofit organization utilizing globally-strategic reforestation, regenerative agriculture, community-savings groups, purpose groups, and open-hearted, Christian-based, spiritual engagement, communities and support to lift roughly one million of the world's most isolated and under-resourced people out of poverty today. When Scott started with the organization as executive director, 30 years ago, they had one program with 80 participants. 

Learn More

• ScottSabin.com 
• PlantWithPurpose.org

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"CARE": Curious. Appropriate. Responsive. Empathetic. 

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Rev. Jimi Calhoun is lead pastor at BridgingAustin.org, a TRUELY legendary and important musician, and a noted author (JimiCalhoun.com) who's just published his fifth book.

Chris Searles is a founder/director at BioIntegrity Partnerships (biointegrity.net), which produces AllCreation.org, and co-founder/exec. editor at AllCreation.org.

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PROGRAM
0:00 Welcome
5:45 SCOTT

13:10 INCLUSION
30:30 REDEEMING “WORK”

39:25 “POVERTY”

46:40 THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE 

59:55 WHAT IS A #1 PRIORITY? 

WELCOME
0:00 Chris Searles, co-host/producer

0:45 Intro' Rev. Jimi Calhoun, co-host

2:15 Intro' Scott Sabin, co-host
5:45 Scott: “We stand on the shoulders of giants... Literally, everything we’re doing now, we learned from our local partners... They're planting the trees, not us, almost 62 million trees now... Managing over $12 million of their own money... making about an 18 to 20% return on their investments..."

INCLUSION
13:10  Jimi, story on Landi the landscaper and being a Christian missionary in Belize (Central America). "The first thing I learned (as a missionary) was to value people as you find them... When you're inserted into a different culture you have two choices,  try and convert them to what you're bringing, or allow yourself to be stretched a little bit... Sensitivity and humility, those are our bywords."
20:30 Scott, on the prejudices against subsistence farmers, “The people we work with are our Partners not our projects... We have as much to learn from them -- or more, than we have to offer and it’s in working together that anything’s accomplished.”
22:25 Jimi, story on Castillo the part-maker, "Ingenuity doesn't come from regurgitating what came in, it comes from your observation and what you're able to do with what you see!"
24:50 Scott, "Most of us couldn't survive in these environments, so people we might look at as uneducated, or who might be discriminated against by their own governments, are incredibly resourceful and managing to survive in conditions that would kill us. They've got a lot to teach us."
26:00 Jimi, "I have a responsibility to love you as you are, to serve you when I can, and to love you whatever it is that you need. That's what I mean when I say the word, Christian."
27:20 Scott, "I've become convinced that part of our purpose is to serve others..." Scott talks about one of his first visits to the Congo and the freedom fighter turned peace-maker, “I realized I had gifts to offer...”

REDEEMING "WORK"
30:30 Chris, "We should take pride in our potential..."
31:30 Jimi, “In work and worship you find God." ... "You have to define work... I never think of any call I make or any conversation I have as work... It’s all geared towards improving the life of someone else in whatever way they need it..."
33:50 Scott, "I don't want to romanticize things… There’s a lot of places and a lot of people where work is drudgery or slavery, or serves no purpose, or is abusive, so I don’t want to romanticize that. But I do think that, at its best, in the Kingdom of God there’s an alignment between purpose and what we do, and that we were made to be co-creators… But again, I don't want to romanticize: being a subsistence farmer on a barren hillside somewhere in East Africa is HARD."
35:25 Jimi stories on the banana lady; Indentured-Irish "slaves" and African slaves 
38:30 Scott, "Some of Plant With Purpose's work is to bring good news of Redemption and offer opportunities to redeem work."

"POVERTY"
39:40, Chris, "How do you define Poverty and relate it to caring for "the least of these"?"
Scott - “Poverty: “A state of hopelessness.” Western definitions tend to be a lot about a lack of material things. Those of the global south, talking about poverty, it tends to be much more: hopelessness, discouragement, embarrassment… My definition, a lack of agency or perceived agency and opportunity — which can be closely connected to hopelessness. If you’re hopeless you don’t exercise what agency you might have.”
Jimi - “What does poverty mean to you when you hear that word? … Poverty has more components to it than economics. . .”  … It took men a long time to realize that they were acting exactly as they should. You know, I thought I could come down and offer some pointers… And that’s NOT what they needed. They needed somebody to come along and say, I understand your attitude. I get why you see the world the way you do... there’s not a lot of good options on your horizon, you don’t see a way out of this.”
Scott: Economically wealthy, but spiritually-impoverished. “We come in many ways impoverished as well.”

FUTURE WE CHOOSE

Biospherically, the system is designed to renew; we’re just sitting on top of potential all the time 

__Scott, “First we saw a vicious cycle between environmental degradation and the impoverishment of their farms…” we had a vicious cycle, what I learned from theim is there si a possibility in that of actual creating a virtuous cycle…  We often look at human need and environmental issues as a zero sum game, and I think there’s tremendous potential if we: 1) seek the win win, 2) approach everything from a spirit of abundance rather than scarcity, 3) partner with those we serve, “Probably the greatest untapped resource in the world (is subsistence farmers), they have so much to offer, so much creativity, THEY’RE THE OINES who planted those 61 million trees!!!!”

__ Chris, How to utilize and implement PWP’s ideas locally?
__ Scott, Looking for the win win; Being good news for Creation, “Are we in our communities of Faith life-giving or death-dealing? We can be a living witness to the Kingdom of God, bringing good news to ALL of God’s creation... You...

http://casperrawls.com for more

Songs
1. Blue River
2. Route 88

Band
Casper Rawls (guitar & singin)  
Glenn Fukunaga (bass)
Bukka Allen (keys)
Chris Searles (drums)

Photo courtesy of Bob Zink

Special thanks to everyone @ The CC

Casper plays The CC regularly:
https://continentalclub.com/austin
Don't Miss! #austinsown

Photo by Sam Greyhorse
Special thanks to Katrina & everyone @ The CC

And James Burton.

Casper plays The CC regularly:
https://continentalclub.com/austin
Don't Miss. 

Songs: 
1. Call Me the Brees
2. Suzi Q
3. The House is Rckn

here are "some highlights"
band:
Casper Rawls
Bukka Allen
Glenn Fukunaga
Chris Searles

Live at the Continental, June 8, 2023
recorded on Chris' phone

Programme:
0:00 Going Down (Freddie King)
5:45 Don't They Know Who We Think We Are? (Casper Rawls/Suzie Elkins)
9:30 Ode to Billy Joe (solos)
14:10 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Dylan)
19:45 Hot Dog (Owens/Dedmond)
24:30 The House is Rockin (solos)
27:10 See y'all soon-(name?)

#########

Photo by Sam Greyhorse.
Thank you, Sam.
More Sam photos here.

Songs? 

Marj Barlow: A Lifetime of Transformation. Marj Barlow, Ph.D., grew up on a tiny West Texas farm during the Depression / Dust Bowl era. A harsh life by modern American standards. Today, more than 90 years later, her contributions to the recent transformation of human identity are large. She has led and supported historic change as an Academic, Therapist, and Entrepreneur before the 1980s, and has spent most her retirement years as a pioneering and internationally-renown sustainability leader at the world's largest commercial carpet manufacturer. 

In Part 1 of this 2-part interview, AllCreation editor, Chris Searles, asks Marj to recount some of the Amazing highights of her life journey, to give us a scope on "transformation," and shares some of her most essential insights on life. 

In Part 2 she shares about how the Feminism movement began, her views on biosphere care, and her compass of joy.

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About Darcia

Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Psychology Emerita at Notre Dame, a fellow to the American Psychological Association, and a fellow to the American Educational Research Association. She's written, co-authored, and edited more than 20 books. Her book, Neurobiology and The Development of Human Morality won the William James Book Award. 

References

• The Evolved Nest
• Neurobiology and The Development of Human Morality
• Restoring the Kinship Worldview
• Four Arrows (co-author / co-editor of “The Kinship Worldview”)
• 9 components of the Evolved Nest
• Alloparents 
• Iain McGilchrist, The Master and his Emissary
• Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Honorable Harvest (from Braiding Sweetgrass)
• Linda Hogan (Chickasaw Nation)
• Genevieve Vaughan,  Maternal Gift Economy
• Nature’s Gift Economy
• David Abram, Spell of the Sensuous 
• Human microbiome 
• Symbiosis
• Melvin Konnor
• James Prescott 
• Allan Schore, neurobiological attachment
• Jon Young, Coyote games
• Tamarack Song, games to develop intuition
• David Bohm, physicist, “The real intelligence is insight intelligence and it comes in from the outside.”

Program

0.00 Welcome & Intro

I. THE KINSHIP WORLDVIEW 

2:50 What is a “worldview”? 
4:30 What is a “Kinship” worldview?

6:58 Contrast the Indigenous worldview of connection with the Western worldview of disconnectedness 

II. THE EVOLVED NEST

9:35 What are the characteristics of an “evolved nest”? 

11:35 Components of the Evolved Nest:

>>>   11:45 Soothing perinatal experiences

>>>   13:00 Breast feeding

>>>   14:25 Lots of affectionate touch, no negative touch

>>>   15:20 A welcoming social climate

>>>   16:25 Alloparents who are responsive 

>>>   16:55 Self-directed play with multiple-age playmates

>>>   17:55 Nature connection 

>>>   19:14 Routine healing experiences 

22:20 On being an animal 

III. RESTORING THE KINSHIP WORLDVIEW

24:55 Talking about the book -- What are you trying to convey with the precepts? 

30:18 Darcia: To understand our Nature as a Human species is to understand what Thriving looks like

>>>   happy, calm, quiet minds
>>>   gleeful, childlike

>>>   sense of humor that’s not hostile

>>>   holding hands, sitting together, enjoying being together… 

>>>   try to make the other person laugh and feel safe

>>>   there’s no big ego, it’s “us”.
32:00 The Honorable Harvest, Darcia shares favorite quotes,
“Sustain the ones who sustain you and the Earth will live forever.”

34:50 What healing medicine feels like , Tom shares a quote

37:05 Darcia: We have a lot of unhealed grief and trauma we pass on, instead of taking time to heal

37:30 What is the relationship between the Sacred Feminine and The Maternal Gift Economy? 

40:25 Communion, holy union, co-creation, and our interconnectedness 

41:10 Darcia on Nature connection, or “Ecological Attachment”, experiment

42:30 Rooted and connected: “our roots extend out from our skin and our other body cavities” 

43:20 The microbiome; We are communities 

44:00 Where does your passion for restoring the kinship come from, how are you teaching this? 

IV. RESTORING OUR WORLD
48:10 What should we be doing to restore the nest?

>>>   Make sure you yourself are centered; Nature connection is one of the best ways to heal. 

>>>   Learn to get back to social joy. 

>>>   Learn to guide the conscious mind into connection; build the communal imagination. 

52:12 What is sustaining your spirit right now?

>>>   I sing to the 6 directions

>>>   I sing on my land

>>>   Lying on the Earth, leaning against a tree, huggling with spouse

>>>   Try to make my husband laugh, sing and dance together

>>>   Keep aware: I am and always will be part of the Earth

V. CONCLUSION

54:30 Final thoughts

>>>   The first precept: the recognition of spiritual energy in Nature; find that guardian spirit... 

57:00 Tom reads a final quote, on Community Welfare (Dona Enriqueta Contreras)

57:56 End 

Quotes

“(In a) welcoming social climate, the mother feels supported, the baby is wanted, the community is delighted with having the baby around, and the baby feels like they belong, that they can make a difference, make other people smile and laugh as they are made to smile and laugh…”

“The mother is there to be affectively attuned to the baby’s emotional systems to keep maintaining them in the best bio-chemistry for growth.”

“You want to let children have that (self-directed play) experience when they’re young...

About Jeremy
Jeremy Lent is author of two breakthrough books on consciousness and Western Civilization. The Patterning Instinct is a cultural history of humanity’s search for meaning, and The Web of Meaning explores and weaves together wisdoms from ancient China, traditional Indigenous communities, Western philosophy, and today's Sciences. Jeremy also recently launched a global network for ecological civilization called The Deep Transformation Network. 

References

• The Patterning Instinct
• Web of Meaning
• Deep Transformation Network
• Confucianism
• Taoism
• Buddhism
• Neoconfucianism
• Complexity science
• Director of the UN (tom’s first question)
• Coral reefs will collapse
• UN predicts billions of people will be facing severe water stress
• Jevan/s paradox
• Slavlov Zizek 
• Dualism
• Humans and nature are selfish
• Systems orientation to the world, how things connect 
• Gei Wu: to study nature in order to learn how to trive
• The Selfish Gene is not true
• Mutually-beneficial symbiosis
• Consensus trance
• Ecological Civilization

Program
0:00 Welcome & Intro

A REALITY CHECK

4:00 How series is the ecological crisis? 

7:40 How much disruption & suffering do you envision? 

10:30 What’s driving this?

16:15 How have we made “meaning” here in the West?

20:30 Why do we believe Nature is a machine?

A NEW VIEW OF REALITY

24:00 What ancient Asian, Indigenous, and complexity science wisdoms are you drawing from now?
28:00 Chi & Li explanation 

29:00 The contrast between neo-Confucian Gei Wu, Materialism’s desire to conquer maurer 

34:15 Separation from Nature, our way of life, is madness, isn’t it?

38:00 And the opposite, re-connecting, brings out love?

CONNECTING to an ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION
39:50 So, is the first step to reconnect to our own bodies?

42: 50 What are the moral implications of our modern way of life? What is an Ecological Civilization? 

47:15 Please identify some “ecological principles”

51:10 What is The Deep Transformation Network?
53:50 What keeps you going as a “possibilitarian”? What is your spiritual source, what is helping you do this?

WRAP UP
58:00 “How are your connections?”

Quotes

"You don’t have the universe without all the stuff and all the relationships…"

GET THIS DOWN, FROM AROUND 33:00 “Every one of (the big shifts) happened because of symbiosis with other species, where they take their specifalist skills … and that is what we get from … today, where if we walk in a forest we get … and transfer their seeds … and the fungal network underground… the whole thing is a symbiotic ecosystems. And if we can start to look at our human relationship, not at how can we conquer it, but ___ then we have a chance at shifting our trajectory

“We can really understand “love” as being really, like, the realization and embrace of (our) connectedness. When we open our eyes, to that oconnectedness, embrace it with our being, that is love. . . It’s all about this recognition of connectedness.”

“I think therefore I am” … is saying that thinking capacity is the only thing that actually is fundamentally my identity… but again, this is where modern science shows how fundamentally wrong that is…”

“It’s actually not the only part of our intelligence… What we really are as human beings is a combined, conceptual conscousness that allows us to think in those symbolic ways, and, what we can think of as our animate consciousness, our embodied wisdom, which actually is that vast bulk of what we are as human organisms and is also a gateway to connect us with the rest of life, because some of the deepest elements of what we have within our bodies are what we share with all life. And again, modern science validates that.

"Half of the genes we see in a banana are shared with us."

"… And that’s not just a gee whiz fact, what that basically points to is that the way in which our bodies organize themselves, the way in which they actually are coherent and allow us to have awareness and consciusness are deeply similar. . . In Biology this is called “homology,” the deep history of our evolution is shared with all these other creatures around us…"

“Once we realize that other animals, far from being machines, are actually sentient, feeling beings. and, in fact that any animal with a nervous system and a brain capable of cognizing, the chicken, cows, and pigs that we put in those factory farms, those are animals that suffer. And they may not think in the same way we do, but they are suffering in every bit just as terrible a way from torture and a diminishment of their own life possibilities, just as humans would. . . There is a deep, a profound, moral implication to that. 

It’s quite possible that what we’ve done with factory farming, where 80 Billion animals every year are tortured and slaughtered for our benefit, is perhaps the greatest amount of suffering that has ever been caused on Planet Earth since life began billions of years ago. We have to face up to that. 

An “Ecological Civilization” looks at Life itself as the basis for how we actually construct our society.

“Ecosystems are based on principles of Life hat gave allowed them to be flouring in many cases through millions years, through changes in climate, through all kinds of disruptions, these ecosystems can accommodate that and stay healthy and resilient. 

An Ecological Civilization asks, “What are the principles that we can learn from nature that we can apply to human Civilization that can allow for flourishing into the indefinite future?"

“The ancient Chinese had a concept called, “Ren.” To them Rev meant this profound sense of deep interconnectedness of all life. This recogniction that we have … the opposite is “no Rev”, which translates to anestesia.  

“Perhaps the most important principle is mutually-beneficial symbiosis.”
...

About Joelle 

Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA)

other related work

About Interfaith Power & Light

• National office
• State affifiliates

References

Joelle's book
Rabbi Fred Sherlinger Dobb

Environmental Torah

Dobb’s source sheet to inform a Jewish response to climate change

when we can violate Shabbat to save a human life 

5782 is a Shmita year

Faith community land acknowledgements 

Jewish Brohaut (?, food prayer) 

Quotes 

We have to make time to release and restore.

I am feeling grief that is grounded in tremendous love -- and then suddenly, with my heart open and my hands open, that's a tremendously powerful thing. Right? It's like -- I'm gonna to be a warrior in the world for the things I love...

Audio processing and improving by Jeffrey Haley. 

Shmita Project Northwest

Shmita is deeply concerned about social justice. Shmita isn’t just about letting the land rest, it’s about the release of debt, and jubilee. Deidre from Shmita Project Northwest challenges us to think about, “what a Shmita year look like today?”

We need a Shmita year. Deirdre Gabbay, ___, ____, shares not only an explanation of what her group is doing, but her inspirations and the many relevant ways that a Shmita year is at least a good template for how we address today’s numerous social crises. 

Deirdre Gabbay is director of The Shmita Project Northwest, an organization dedicated to bringing attention to the Hebrew calendar's seven-year Shmita cycle which centers the relationship between the earth and the wellbeing of the human and more-than-human world, through education, inspiration, community-building, and programmatic support. She founded Ahavat v'Avodat HaAdamah, "Love and Service of the Earth," in 2015 to establish an environmental presence for the Pacific Northwest rooted in Jewish text, tradition, and practice, specifically to support a response to climate change. Deirdre is a member of Congregation Beth Shalom, Seattle, and a member of the board of directors of Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light. Together with her husband she is raising a family on Queen Anne. She blogs at shmitainseattle.com, where all of her divrei Torah (sermons) can be found.

400

All of these calamities show the potential for disconinute 

445

On the positive side it really taught us the discontinuity 

As scary as it was it was also encouraging. And now all of us, across the planet, have this muscle memory — that things can jump out of their ruts. MORE HERE

545

This Covid year gives us a hint of what a Shmita year could be. And the Torah teaches us that 

700

What if we were to embrace this, what would a Shmita year look like? 

One of the strengths of a Faith-based point of view is that there’s a vocabulary for a sense of commanded-ness. 

So how do we summon this sense of commanded-ness? 

The maximalist vision that i have is that someday the whole world will recognize the need for the land to rest for a whole year and that they will rest alongside of it in some meaningful way. 

 It’s the earth, it’s the land that’s commanded to rest and to observe a Sabbath of complete rest for the Lord. It’s about a relationship that we’re not even really a part of. This is part of the way the world works. It’s part of an operating manual, between God and the land. 

What if ordinarily people were to take a year off from their lives… The Shmita would open this up, for ordinary people to think about how to bring this into our culture… I think the Shmita raises the possibility of thinking about this, outside of a global pandemic. 

Shmita is deeply concerned about social justice. Shimta isn’t just about letting the land rest, it’s about the release of debt, and jubilee.  

Audio processing and improving by Jeffrey JJ Jo Jo Get Back! Get Back! Alfonoso Haley. 

About Deirdre
Deirdre Gabbay is director of The Shmita Project Northwest, an organization dedicated to bringing attention to the Hebrew calendar's seven-year Shmita cycle which centers the relationship between the earth and the wellbeing of the human and more-than-human world, through education, inspiration, community-building, and programmatic support. She founded Ahavat v'Avodat HaAdamah, "Love and Service of the Earth," in 2015 to establish an environmental presence for the Pacific Northwest rooted in Jewish text, tradition, and practice, specifically to support a response to climate change. Deirdre is a member of Congregation Beth Shalom, Seattle, and a member of the board of directors of Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light. Together with her husband she is raising a family on Queen Anne. She blogs at www.shmitainseattle.com, where all of her divrei Torah (sermons) can be found.

References

Quotes

About Joelle 

Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA)

other related work

About Interfaith Power & Light

• National office
• State affifiliates

References

Rabbi Fred Sherlinger Dobb

Environmental Torah

Dobb’s source sheet to inform a Jewish response to climate change

when we can violate Shabbat to save a human life 

5782 is a Shmita year

Faith community land acknowledgements 

Jewish Brohaut (?, food prayer) 

Quotes 

We have to make time to release and restore.

I am feeling grief that is grounded in tremendous love -- and then suddenly, with my heart open and my hands open, that's a tremendously powerful thing. Right? It's like -- I gonna to be a warrior in the world for the things I love...

About Our Guests
Rev. Dr. Daryl Horton is Pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Austin, TX. A native Austinite, he has been married to his college sweetheart, Dr. Shalonda Horton, for over 25 years. He has served the Austin community in different capacities and a variety of leadership positions. Pastor Horton stands boldly for equity and justice as a leader and resource for the greater Austin area. His goal is to mobilize disciples for mission throughout our community. Read his full bio here. Rabbi Neil Blumofe is a husband and father of three, and serves as Senior Rabbi at Congregation Agudas Achim in Austin, TX. He is involved in Jewish teaching and learning locally and in national and international settings, and is active in civic life and leadership in Austin, Texas. Read his full bio here.

Connect
Visit the Rev and Rav Facebook page here.

References

Quotes

Harmony, walking on this planet and knowing that life is a gift and that embodiment is a gift and, as one of my yoga teachers used to say, “The universe has gone through all this trouble for centuries and millennia to create you in this form, right now, and that’s the gift.”

And I don’t think it’s that complicated. I think that just walking, just being on this planet, connected to the sacredness of life and the gift of living in this body that’s such a sophisticated instrument that allows us to hug and taste and move and think and speak; coming back to the awe, to the awe of what we have know and also to the gratitude for it.

“Enjoy every sandwich.” 

It’s simple. From realizing the preciousness, so much comes, so much giving and truly living comes. 

About Janene
Among her many accomplishments, Janene Yazzie is co-founder/CEO of Sixth-World Solutions and a co-convener of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group to the United Nations High Level Political Forum on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. She works on climate change, water security, food security, energy development, and nation building. She is also a program manager for the International Indian Treaty Council and a co-founder of the Navajo Nation Little Colorado River Watershed Chapters Association, where her work ranges from infrastructure policy-making to restoration and protection of traditional ecological knowledge. To learn more about Janene, visit Sixth-World Solutions.

Selected Quotes

“Our challenges are so complex. Our histories are so complex, and our solutions need to mirror that. In order to protect and restore biodiversity our solutions need to have the same type of diversity, informed by the limitations and types of relationships that exist within our ecosystems.”

“What are the social/cultural structures that need to be created so that we’re creating communities that are sustainable and regenerative? Those are the types of solutions we need everywhere... It’s going to look different everywhere.”

"Don't give up. Don't give up. A beautiful world is possible and it’s being birthed right now, and it needs all of us to be there to help guide it into existence. We do that by breathing love into the work we’re doing. By breathing love into the relationships that surround us. By breathing love into ourselves, because we often forget ourselves in all of this process. And if we can do that then we can find ways, no matter what challenges we’re facing, to continue to stand in our power and bring life to the solutions that are needed for our world and our communities." 

Listen to Part 1 of Janene's interview here. 

About Janene
Among her many accomplishments, Janene Yazzie is co-founder/CEO of Sixth-World Solutions and a co-convener of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group to the United Nations High Level Political Forum on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. She works on climate change, water security, food security, energy development, and nation building. She is also a program manager for the International Indian Treaty Council and a co-founder of the Navajo Nation Little Colorado River Watershed Chapters Association, where her work ranges from infrastructure policy-making to restoration and protection of traditional ecological knowledge. To learn more about Janene, visit Sixth-World Solutions.

References 

Philmer Bluehouse (in memoriam)

• "Our objective is harmony"
• On Navajo peacemaking

Selected Quotes

“Where do the stars know your name? Where is that place, that moment where you have that first memory of looking up to the stars and recognizing that you’re this speck in the universe. Where is that experience rooted? And how can you use that to reclaim your connection as a human being living on this Earth, tied to an interdependent and interconnected relationship to everything from the stars in our universe to the soils under your feet. Start that journey there."

"ALL of our places need to be protected. We need relatives that are willing and able to stand in defense of all sacred life and do it in a way that is meaningful, in a way that is authentic and genuine to their real histories, to where they’re connected, to where they come from."

“When you don’t understand the histories of where (our) practices come from, then you’re not honoring them the way you think you are."

“If we’re not able to tap into something deeper, into a deeper connection and a deeper imagination based on where we’re connected to, to place, then we’re gonna continue to be limited in our solutions and our understanding by that dominance worldview.”

"That’s part of the beauty of it: It’s not a quick fix. We can be patient with ourselves. We each have a responsibility to take on that journey, to take on that path of self-discovery. And when we do that, and we invest in right relationship with those around us and with other forms of sacred life, non-human life, that’s how we win.”

“Not only do we inherit the resiliency of our ancestors, we inherit their tremendous love and their tremendous power of believing and hoping for a different way, a different future, different outcomes.”

“We’re not here to save the Earth. We’re here to re-establish and remember our deep connection to our Mother and what a gift that is. But we’re actually here to really grow and evolve as a species, and to remember and restore our connection to each other, and to rebuild our own ecosystem -- the ecosystem that sustains us as human communities so that it’s back in balance with the natural ecosystems that exist around us. And we’re perfectly capable of doing that. For everything we have done wrong, we are capable of creating a solution to heal that, to address it, to take responsibility for it and to create a new way. And that’s what gives me hope and that’s what keeps driving me.”

Listen to Part 2 of Janene's interview here. 

We apologize for some of the audio quality! Yes it gets noisy at time. We were having trouble throughout the session, but Daniel was so “on” we didn’t want to stop. Please bear with the various pops and purrs. Also, Daniel's dog joins us at a few key moments. 

Daniel Lavelle is US Director for Survival International, one of the world’s leading human rights groups working to empower tribal peoples with “control of their lives and lands and the freedom to determine their own futures.” IN this episode we talk about why indigenous empowerment is priority one for the global environmental solution. Daniel earned his PhD in Philosophy and Environmental Science, Policy and Management from UC Berkeley in 2016. Here are the questions we explore in this eye-opening session. 

• Tell us why Indigenous Peoples are so important to the global environmental solution? 
• What woke you up to Indigenous rights as a focal issue for human advancement?
• What have you learned from Indigenous Peoples after working with them in the field? 
• Is “indigenous wisdom” (stewardship of the earth) a real thing?
• What are the best ways to help indigenous people now? 
• What does the future look like if and after we achieve the Indigenous Peoples’ Solution? (Ubiquitous empowerment of land occupation rights, self-determination, basic safety and human rights, and respect for all traditional peoples. 

“These are insights I will think about and integrate over time.” — Jared

Recommended links

• SurvivalInternational.org
• Stephen Corry's blog series exploring the worldview behind today's conservation
• Survival's page about Uncontacted Tribes
• Survival's petitions page

Quotes from this episode, by Lea Seigen Shinraku, 

“To get people involved, i think, there has to be some spirit of aliveness and creativity and a desire to want to do things, not from a place of shame and fear, but from a place of wanting to support life and co-create with other humans the world that we want." 

“We need to be super creative and we all need to do it so we can meet today’s challenges. We need our full selves to be brought to bear.” 

"Learning is trying, making a mistake, reflecting, and trying again... Pay Attention. Assess. Try Again. "

About Lea
Lea Seigen Shinraku is founder of the San Francisco Center for Self Compassion. Visit sfcenterforselfcompassion.com for meditations, newsletters, and more of her work.