Francis Weller And Carolyn Baker Converse About Grief And Joy

Francis Weller And Carolyn Baker Converse About Grief And Joy

Grief is subversive, undermining the quiet agreement to behave and be in control of our emotions. It is an act of protest that declares our refusal to live numb and small. There is something feral about grief, something essentially outside the ordained and sanctioned behaviors of our culture. Because of that, grief is necessary to the vitality of the soul. Contrary to our fears, grief is suffused with life force.

Edge-Dwelling: A Social Ecology For Our Times, Part 4: Low Tide, By Dianne Monroe

Edge-Dwelling: A Social Ecology For Our Times, Part 4: Low Tide, By Dianne Monroe

What we see and what we cannot yet see, what we know and cannot yet know, become the edge places from which we create new ways for humanity to live as part of our Earth community, weaving from the frayed edges of what we leave behind a bridge to the potential and possibilities of what we can become. These qualities and abilities enable us to do a dance of co-creation, visioning and building the future out of and together with what exists today.

A Date With Death Over Coffee, By Shepherd Bliss

A Date With Death Over Coffee, By Shepherd Bliss

These are the sorts of deaths that I carry, not only in my memory, heart, and soul, but in my body. I work to make sure they do not either silence or immobilize me in the quest for social justice. Each death is unique and personal. We can recover from them. Death Cafés are not grief groups where people get counseling. They exist to talk and listen to stories about death, without judgment. They can be more fun than I would have imagined.

Moving Beyond Fear And Into The Joy Of Mindful Preparation, By Burl Hall

Moving Beyond Fear And Into The Joy Of Mindful Preparation, By Burl Hall

Carolyn Baker is such an Edge-Dweller.  She writes “with unrestrained passion and urgency” about navigating the collapse of culture. According to Carolyn, it is no longer a debatable issue that our culture is, indeed, collapsing.  The signs are everywhere, for those with open eyes.  Our ecology, politics, economy, personal and social conditions have all deteriorated.  Our politicians no longer are in hiding regarding who actually supports them.  It is those large-scale corporations, who are nothing less than sociopathic entities that politicians such as Romney, and his counterpart, Obama and the Supreme Court justices, proclaim as “people.”

American Heart Month: Heartbreak And The Happy Heart, By Carolyn Baker

American Heart Month: Heartbreak And The Happy Heart, By Carolyn Baker

By the time some readers see these words, Valentines Day will have become a distant memory. Nevertheless, the entire month of February has been designated American heart month, and for twenty-eight days we have permission to pay attention to the human organ, the heart, yet throughout the entire year, we have little or no permission to pay attention to the psycho-spiritual “organ” we call “the heart.” During the month of February, however, it is acceptable to think about the physical organ by focusing on heart disease and to cautiously entertain the psycho-spiritual organ on Valentines Day by way of eating chocolate, having sex, and sending flowers.

Edge-Dwelling: A Social Ecology For Our Times; Part 3: Middle School, Misfits, And The Milky Way, By Dianne Monroe

Edge-Dwelling: A Social Ecology For Our Times; Part 3: Middle School, Misfits, And The Milky Way, By Dianne Monroe

I believe this ability to see both within and beyond the boundary of something (galaxy, community, culture, civilization) is an important quality of Edge-dwelling – one that can be discovered, learned, cultivated. It’s a practice we can grow within ourselves.  This ability to see both within and beyond is a crucial quality for our times – living within and at the edge of a crumbling civilization, entering an epoch of human-created climate change whose impact on our Earth is not yet known.  This is a huge edge to be living on.