Marilyn Hamilton's Blog, page 27

How Can We Influence City Development in Creative Economy

Interview with Marilyn Hamilton for Civic Forum of Regions of the 60th Parallel

Interviewer: Lev Gordon, Co-Founder Living Cities Russia

LG: How can a citizen influence city development?

MH: I would start with considering that as citizens we should express gratitude for our cities. They are the most complex systems yet created by humans.

What should you be grateful for? That you live in a place where it is possible to express what you are passionate about. What you love to be, do, share and co-create is your greatest gift to the city. Knowing what you love about yourself can also help you find what you love about your city.

Find that “corner” of the city that you love and invite others to share their beloved places. Notice what brings life and energy to those places when you are together. It is inevitably your passion – and that leads you to discover purpose and priorities.

When we look at Map 1 of Integral City, we can see a map of how we have grown our capacity to express our purpose and priority. It is amazing to think that each of us has actually been evolved by Gaia (our planet Earth) to express the purpose that gives us greatest Joy. When we discover how our purpose can serve the greatest need in the community – the cross-roads of what we love most and the city’s greatest need – then we have discovered the nexus of how we can influence city development. We serve it with the energy that comes from aligning person, purpose and priorities.

James Lovelock was the author of the Gaia Hypothesis – that the Earth is a living system. Earth/Gaia is our prime ancestor, and we are a fractal of her as a living system. So, we are part of a living planet and the highest form of city development is to create Living Cities for humans who are fully alive.

LG: Why is it important to cooperate with government, business, NGO’s / Academia?

MH: As a Citizen you are part of Gaia’s City Design pattern. The Citizen is one of the 4 Voices of the Human Hive. The other 3 Voices are Civic Managers (government), Business Innovators, 3rd Sector (NGO/Academia).  (I have learned this from the honeybee hive who has these same 4 roles.)

Until recently most of human evolution has practised competition as the way to move forward – that is because humans are a very young species – and Competition is typical behavior for a young species. However, as evolution biologist  Elisabet Sahtouris points out, the next stage of development for a maturing species is Cooperation and Collaboration.

So, to cooperate is to evolve – and specially to cooperate with the 4 Voices of the Human Hive means that you are cooperating with the whole system. By the same token, those other 3 Voices must also cooperate with citizens. It is by sitting around the same table as 4 Voices that we can make the wisest cooperative decisions.

For city development this creates the conditions for optimum health, wellbeing and justice.

LG: What are the skills and worldviews that are key to achieving the previous 2 conditions (influence and cooperation)?

MH: I propose that the Human Hive needs 12 Intelligences that are shown on the Integral City GPS. Those skills can be classified as Contexting, Individual, Collective, Strategic and Evolutionary.

They can also be calibrated with the Master Code of Care: That we must Care for Self, so that we can Care for Each Other, so together we can Care for our Place(s) and altogether we can Care for our Planet.

As a city we can use this Master Code of Care for governance and decision making that enables Placecaring and Placemaking.

In order to achieve this balance, I propose that the Intelligence of Meshworking is a critical skill to master – to become aware of the need to generate self-organizing conditions along with structuring scaffolds that support our evolution of ever-complexifying capacities.

LG: What is a creative economy in a broad sense?

MH: A creative economy at its core is Regenerative. It follows the flow the evolutionary impulse that enable Life. It enables us to sustain ourselves, connect with our environment and regenerate.

A creative economy honours the past, appreciates the present and imagines the future. It builds on the 3 questions:

What works well here?
What doesn’t work so well, and we need to let go of?
What do we imagine for our future together?

A creative economy draws on all the 12 Intelligences as they are expressed through Care for Planet, Place, People and Person.

We can see how as individuals we are interconnected with a holarchy of relationships. We are all nested together on the Planet.

LG: How can we develop a creative economy in a city?

MH: First we must find the energy for creativity in the city (see the response to the first question above). When we find the energy in ourselves, then we join with the energies of others. Those are the pre-requisites to discovering what are the core Values that our creative economy must express. Within the heart of those Values, lies the inherent Purpose of the city. If Gaia has evolved human as her Reflective Organs – then the city is the organ, our organizations are its organelles and us citizens are the cells in that organ.

Like our own bodies, the planet has cities as organs that serve her purpose as a living system. It is vital that our creative economies arise from discovering our purpose in service to Gaia’s living system.

As Reflective Organs our creative economies must regenerate – always learning how to replace, recycle, recreate within Gaia’s healthy boundaries of Source and Resource. That is how the evolutionary impulse uses our human systems to produce Beauty, Truth and Goodness.

LG: What else would you like to share?

MH: At Findhorn Ecovillage where I live on the 59th parallel we use 3 principles to ensure that we are creative, regenerative and in service:

Co-create with the intelligences of nature.
Listen deeply to self, others, evolutionary impulse.
Work as Love in action.

And that is the example I give you for 58 years of creative, regenerative life from the 59 the parallel.

The Flash of the Phoenix Tail – Responses to Findhorn Lockdown Policies

When the law suddenly restricts your usual routines to connect with other people, your physical workouts and your access to entertainments, sports and creative expression – what are you going to do?

In the Findhorn community – used to the daily engagements of meals in the Community Centre (CC), singing Taizé in the Nature Sanctuary, unlimited hugs on greeting and meeting, sacred dance in the Universal Hall and unlimited visits to the Phoenix Shop – these government regulations were a definite shock to individual and collective systems. (Read more about systems and structures here.)

The strangeness of physical distancing and the reality checks of police visits respectfully warning about the strictures against singing together was complicated by the myriad of conflicting opinions from the health and scientific sectors. Who to believe about what to do? As usual, the community itself had conflicting opinions about right actions and responses under the circumstances. If you want a sample of the multitude of approaches from shielding, tracking and tracing, supplementation for strengthening immune systems, meditations, tapping, sacred dance (on zoom), potions, lotions and notions – it is probably safe to say someone in the community has tried out one or more of these approaches.

In fact, in order to keep everyone posted on the latest news the New Findhorn Association devoted a special Covid page on its NFA website to keep people informed and connected to reliable news source (and also manifested our very own town criers to spread the news).

Besides the physical distancing, the artists in the community longed for their studios, media of paint, clay or stone and opportunities to exhibit their creations.

Aligning with this great need to express themselves and devote the endless hours of imposed retreat (an irony not lost on a community built on spiritual/developmental retreats!) a grand project emerged.

Why not create a mosaic in front of the Universal Hall/Phoenix Café on the unfinished gravel surround?
What about a theme captured by a Phoenix wrapping itself around the two doors of the Phoenix café?
Who better than artist Lesley Downie to design and produce the whole image of fiery head to swishing tail? And then imagine how the elements of dragon body parts, scales and colour could be created by volunteers firing clay tiles and setting them into a grand stone piazza laid by stonemasons to embrace the Phoenix? Why not invite more volunteers to gather stones of particular hues from Findhorn beach to inlay these gems of Nature into the energy design?
Who could possibly manage a project of this grand scale under lockdown restraints? Why not Caroline Shaw who had been the original project manager (over 40 years before) on the Universal Hall itself? (She had lots of time since she couldn’t travel back to Australia.)

And so, the Phoenix Mosaic project was born in the early Spring of 2020 – and proceeded throughout the summer with community volunteers co-creating an amazing unfolding Best of the Dragon Clan.

So now at the end of our Covid 19 Year we have had the experience of acting on an artistic impulse. Co-creating the life conditions to make our actions productive, effective and even lawful!! The Weather Angels cooperated and delivered dryness during the day (and enough rain in the evenings to keep down the dust from the stone work). And every volunteer who participated has already celebrated the accomplishment. While the rest of the community stands by to admire the great unveiling on the November 22, 2020 58th Birthday Celebration.

Such a project has rescued us from feeling too sorry for ourselves, given us the satisfaction of collective achievement and left a legacy of this year that captures our positive, healthy, co-creative actions in art.

These actions and responses have been by far the best medicine we could have prescribed for Findhorn under our potentially depressing life conditions. There is no doubt that the Findhorn principle of “Work is Love in Action” is still alive and thriving – and the Master Code of Care can be enacted in ways that support individuals, collectives, place and planet.

This blog series explores calming practices and resources from the four quadrants of reality used in the Findhorn Community during the pandemic months of 2020. They include:

All Quadrants – Finding a Road to Calm Through the Quadrants in Findhorn
Upper Left Intentional – Islands of Calm – a Findhorn Meditation for VUCA Times
Upper Right Behavioral – The Flash of the Phoenix Tail – Responses to Findhorn Lockdown Policies
Lower Left Cultural – Phoenix Rising as Findhorn Community Spirit When Life Conditions Challenge Life
Lower Right Systems/Structures – Findhorn’s Web of Structures and Infrastructures of Care

Findhorn’s Web of Structures and Infrastructures of Care

The pandemic has brought extreme pressures on Findhorn Foundation (FF) – the core organization from which a larger community has emerged over the last 58 years – as well as its web of interconnections in the surrounding community.

One of FF’s founders, Peter Caddy described Findhorn Foundation as “a community living and working with God at the centre”. So, spirituality was in FF’s DNA. Out of that intention emerged a Mystery School. From the Mystery School emerged an Intentional Community, and from both these manifestations emerged a Learning Centre. Finally, because of the extreme northern Scotland life conditions where Findhorn is located, emerged a successful Eco-village, surrounding the Findhorn Foundation. Most of the eco-village residents belong to New Findhorn Association (NFA) – numbering about 500 members living, working, relating and recreating on a daily basis. Within the Eco-village (sign posted as Findhorn The Park) many social enterprises and community utilities function and generally thrive. The 4 Voices of the Integral City interact in the whole community on a regular basis (Citizens, Civic Managers, Business/Innovators, 3rd Sector), particularly coordinated through engagement in the Collaboration Circle, Title Holders Association, the Findhorn Hive social enterprise hub,  Children and Youth Circle and Community Care Circle.

However, the pandemic’s impact on the economics of Findhorn Foundation have deprived it of 80% of its revenues in 2020 (from visitors and students), forcing a recalibration of staff, expenses, capital and relationships. The community as a whole is learning what it means when the Mystery School and Learning Centre move into hibernation so that they can preserve core resources that will allow them to re-set and reframe when the pandemic abates. Complying with the Scottish Lockdown restrictions has also meant the closure of all our public buildings – including the beloved Community Centre (CC) and thereby shared meals, tea breaks and celebrations.

But the influence of the Intentional Community provides a strong platform for survival. Alignment is being tested – but strengthened –  around the Findhorn Founders’ 3 Principles and the NFA’s Common Ground Guidelines along with the statement of Whole Community Purpose.   We are discovering the value of attuning to these values (informally and regularly through Whole Community Meditations) that have underpinned and manifested most of our community structures and infrastructures.

We are committed to supporting the infrastructures of our Wind Park/Wind Turbines, bio-fuel generator, living machine waste water management, Cullerne, Original and Park Gardens, Phoenix Shop and Café.

And we hope to test the (limited) re-opening of the Universal Hall and Community Centre and Nature Sanctuary (pictured above) under lockdown restrictions of physical distancing.

While our B&B hosts have lost the guests who normally attended FF programs, they are now offering options for visitors when local (rather than international) travel is allowed. And surprisingly the Caravan Park has had a booming business from visitors from across the UK, generating much needed income through caravan rentals and purchases in the shop and café.

New structures have emerged through the creation of the Coronavirus Action Group, a dozen people who have Zoomed weekly since lockdown was implemented at the beginning of March 2020. This group of dedicated representatives (from all 4 Voices) have monitored, recommended and drafted policy for the Collaboration Circle to endorse and act on. Sub-Groups have emerged in the form of Volunteer Action Group, and special Care Groups for individuals with health challenges. The NFA has sponsored Zoom Witnessing Circles, moved its monthly meetings online and continued the weekly publication of the Rainbow Bridge.

Findhorn Community actively partners and nurtures our relationship with Nature and alliances with the Subtle Realms. Nature’s strength and presence in The Park is the direct result of co-creating with the intelligences of Nature and offers not only resources of food, energy, shelter and health – but constantly embraces our community with offerings of Earth’s generosity and wisdom manifested in her structures of beauty, truth and goodness. Nature’s ambassadors amongst us are visible in forests, gardens, birds, bees and elements and invisible in her subtle seasonal energies and cycles.

All these structures and infrastructures have enabled the whole community to recalibrate connections as we are continuously learning how to maintain wellbeing of body, mind, heart and soul. And they have all depended on a small core of staff and a swelling group of volunteers to continue create the web of interconnections that co-creates whole community wellbeing. (For stories about our community culture read this blog.)

This web that enables the functioning of Findhorn community structures and infrastructures has resulted in no occurrences of covid in Findhorn The Park – and we are intending to keep it that way. We reinforce our strengths with the practice of Gratitude for the partnerships we have developed with Nature and the Subtle Realms (what I might call Findhorn’s version of the Master Code of Care).

This blog series explores calming practices and resources from the four quadrants of reality used in the Findhorn Community during the pandemic months of 2020. They include:

All Quadrants – Finding a Road to Calm Through the Quadrants in Findhorn
Upper Left Intentional – Islands of Calm – a Findhorn Meditation for VUCA Times
Upper Right Behavioral – The Flash of the Phoenix Tail – Responses to Findhorn Lockdown Policies
Lower Left Cultural – Phoenix Rising as Findhorn Community Spirit When Life Conditions Challenge Life
Lower Right Systems/Structures – Findhorn’s Web of Structures and Infrastructures of Care

Phoenix Rising as Findhorn Community Spirit When Life Conditions Challenge Life

How do you survive when life seems in peril?

How has the ecovillage/spiritual community of Findhorn maintained its community connections during covid lockdowns that undermine its very economy?

Coming from Canada, I have witnessed in my lifetime communities be challenged by the closing of the cod fishery (in Newfoundland); the closing of mines (from asbestos, to coal, to aluminum); the devastation of forest fires (BC); the evacuation of whole cities (Ft. McMurray). Those are just a few examples of many communities that have been devastated by the loss of their main economy.

And like them, Findhorn has found the spark of its community spirit keeps alive the hopes and intentions to survive what seems like a dark night of the soul.

Community spirit flashes alive every day through random acts of kindness (reported in our Rainbow Bridge weekly) – where vegetables might be delivered (anonymously) to someone in need or music played to someone who is depressed.

Community spirit can organize the artists into an “artist hunt” – where artists locate themselves around the whole village and Findhorn residents use a treasure map to enjoy micro performances of recitation, singing, painting, acting, pottery, storytelling.

Community spirit called forth all the singles who used to enjoy Sunday brunch together in the Community Centre to an online Zoom brunch – now affectionately called Zrunch. Over coffee and after check-ins, topics of conversation have covered everything from our favourite meals, to a hilarious discussion of what music we would like played at our Celebration of Life; to which Americans we admire (on the eve of the election); to the remembrance of Penny, a Zruncher known for her community service, who passed away suddenly between two recent Sundays.

Community spirt sings forth Taizé every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday mornings – organized by David Robinson and guest hosted by regular participants – inspired by Eileen’s guidance, Sarah Perricone’s violin and Barbara Swetina (who introduced Taizé to Findhorn) connecting in from Hawaii. Attendance regularly exceeds 50 people from around the globe – Japan, USA, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, UK (and to celebrate Penny more than 100 came).

Community spirit steps out into the 12 neighbourhoods of Findhorn through the messages of the Town Criers – organized by Laura Pasetti, Annie Crawford and Roy Miles. Twice a week from March to September 1, they toured on bicycles around the eco-village announcing changes to lockdown regulations, new items in the Phoenix shop, plus a song and a dance to cheer us up. They were news and entertainment with an enlivening touch. (Their appearance sponsored the Barrel’s Friday night Happy Hour – physically distanced on the Barrel House commons.)

Finally, community spirit spawned a grand artistic project in the form of the Phoenix mosaic – created by Lesley Downie and manifested by a host of community spirits who laboured for six+ months to create the symbol of Community Rising from the ashes. (More on this story in a follwing blog.)

While the life conditions are no less intense at time of writing, the ineffable Spirit of Findhorn is alive and well and warming the embers of the hearts and hearth of community for renewal, reinvention and transformation in the year(s) to come.

This blog series explores calming practices and resources from the four quadrants of reality. They include:

Introduction to ALL Quadrants
Upper Left Intentional
Upper Right Behavioral
Lower Left Cultural
Lower Right Systems/Structures

Islands of Calm – a Findhorn Meditation for VUCA Times

“If you can find the calm centre of yourself, you may be able to impact 1000 other people.” That was a proposition I heard David Spangler offer in mid-summer this year and became the inspiration for our Findhorn Islands of Calm meditation.

It seemed perfect timing to answer a question we had asked in our Findhorn Covid Action Group – “How can we integrate Subtle Activism into our strategy for strengthening our community immune system in these VUCA times (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous)?”

Our Findhorn Subtle Activism Guide, Mary Inglis offered instruction for a Subtle Activism meditation. And so, we started to gather on Zoom at 9:30 on Saturday mornings.

Our gathering is a form of sharing circle as well as meditation. We start by noticing the Calm and/or turbulence that has touched our lives in the last week. Then follows the meditation that guides us to find the Centre of Calm in ourselves. We offer the inner qualities we seek or yearn for in the outer world – Peace, Comfort, Joy, Compassion, Strength, Clarity. We are guided to invite in Subtle Allies from the Angelic Realms, Nature, the Four Directions, Sidhe – any help from the invisible realms who support and comfort us.

We might notice anxiety from the changes to the community through NFA or Findhorn Foundation. We have remarked on uncertainties about implementing government lockdown regulations, re-opening the Sanctuary, attracting attendance to the Whole Community Meditation, failing health of relatives, progress on the Phoenix mosaic, job losses/changes, Brexit-Visa impacts, etc.

But we have also shared after the meditation the sense of Oneness, Grace, Love, Peace, Trust, Gratitude, Joy, Respect, Cooperation, Playfulness, Clarity and Expansiveness, that arises from our practice.

Our Islands of Calm meditation is a strengthening practice for ourselves and all the lives we touch directly and indirectly. I am deeply grateful for all who have made it a regular Saturday Event to start the weekend (listed on Weekly Events at the end of RB).  All our welcome.

This blog series explores calming practices and resources from the four quadrants of reality used in the Findhorn Community during the pandemic months of 2020. They include:

All Quadrants – Finding a Road to Calm Through the Quadrants in Findhorn
Upper Left Intentional – Islands of Calm – a Findhorn Meditation for VUCA Times
Upper Right Behavioral – The Flash of the Phoenix Tail – Responses to Findhorn Lockdown Policies
Lower Left Cultural – Phoenix Rising as Findhorn Community Spirit When Life Conditions Challenge Life
Lower Right Systems/Structures – Findhorn’s Web of Structures and Infrastructures of Care

Islands of Calm – a Meditation for VUCA Times

“If you can find the calm centre of yourself, you may be able to impact 1000 other people.” That was a proposition I heard David Spangler offer in mid-summer this year and became the inspiration for our Findhorn Islands of Calm meditation.

It seemed perfect timing to answer a question we had asked in our Findhorn Covid Action Group – “How can we integrate Subtle Activism into our strategy for strengthening our community immune system in these VUCA times (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous)?”

Our Findhorn Subtle Activism Guide, Mary Inglis offered instruction for a Subtle Activism meditation. And so, we started to gather on Zoom at 9:30 on Saturday mornings.

Our gathering is a form of sharing circle as well as meditation. We start by noticing the Calm and/or turbulence that has touched our lives in the last week. Then follows the meditation that guides us to find the Centre of Calm in ourselves. We offer the inner qualities we seek or yearn for in the outer world – Peace, Comfort, Joy, Compassion, Strength, Clarity. We are guided to invite in Subtle Allies from the Angelic Realms, Nature, the Four Directions, Sidhe – any help from the invisible realms who support and comfort us.

We might notice anxiety from the changes to the community through NFA or Findhorn Foundation. We have remarked on uncertainties about implementing government lockdown regulations, re-opening the Sanctuary, attracting attendance to the Whole Community Meditation, failing health of relatives, progress on the Phoenix mosaic, job losses/changes, Brexit-Visa impacts, etc.

But we have also shared after the meditation the sense of Oneness, Grace, Love, Peace, Trust, Gratitude, Joy, Respect, Cooperation, Playfulness, Clarity and Expansiveness, that arises from our practice.

Our Islands of Calm meditation is a strengthening practice for ourselves and all the lives we touch directly and indirectly. I am deeply grateful for all who have made it a regular Saturday Event to start the weekend (listed on Weekly Events at the end of RB).  All our welcome.

This blog series explores calming practices and resources from the four quadrants of reality. They include:

Introduction to ALL Quadrants
Upper Left Intentional
Upper Right Behavioral
Lower Left Cultural
Lower Right Systems/Structures

Finding a Road to Calm Through the Quadrants in Findhorn

This is a short series of blogs sharing what has emerged while living in Findhorn as a 4 Quadrant Practice to find calm in the midst of a very VUCA world.

It is part of our occasional series of householder dharma-talks.

As 2020 has progressed, the sources of our stressors have emerged from multiple spheres and directions – even in the relatively remote Findhorn community. To the grand global sweep of Climate Change (which we explored in our 2019 Conference), we added Covid19 as another global experience which no one could avoid. Then the scales of social justice were tipped with violence erupting elsewhere in the world but rippling back here through disrupted travel, withdrawn visas and uncertain futures as dissension broke out between races, genders, generations and cultures that spread like wildfire around the planet. Wildfire itself burned to the ground the sanctity of home and neighbourhood of former residents or families and friends from the US Westcoast. Now in this last season of the year, we are suffering from the mediated anger of political clashes with the situations of Brexit in the UK and the elections in the US.

Is it possible to find inner calm amongst the seemingly unceasing outer threats to our existence?  I will explore some possibilities through the perspectives that four-quadrant sensing can bring.

This blog series explores calming practices and resources from the four quadrants of reality. They include:

Introduction to ALL Quadrants
Upper Left Intentional
Upper Right Behavioral
Lower Left Cultural
Lower Right Systems/Structures

I AM CARE : AMERICA

As much sacred energy is holding America at this time of opportunities, challenges and changes, we are grateful to Sue Cooper who has shared this Global Prayer with Integral City. Sue is the Founder of Moments of Mass Mindfulness (MOMM). This poem seems so aligned with our Master Code of Care that we are happy to convey Sue’s request that you share it with others and hold America in CARE.

A global prayer for America

 

 

AMERICA: I AM CARE

I am care: America, “We the people”, may I truly know it

May I feel the I AM vibration of my soul’s creation

I AM CARE

Through the life force and rhythm of my heart beat with nature

I AM CARE

May I remember that care is at the heart of the founding of America

I AM CARE

Built on the values of freedom, of liberty, of equality and unity

I AM CARE

Radiating peace, deep inner peace and harmony into the world

I AM CARE

Co-creating compassionate and caring communities

I AM CARE

Loving, sharing, caring

May I AM be the mantra

CARE my prayer

AMERICA

Sue Cooper writes further ” I am a creation of my hearts sensation.” She reads the prayer on YouTube here:
 

https://youtu.be/JffqyZvFwJ0

To fully activate and amplify the essence of this prayer, feel the hearts sensation as the values embedded by the forefathers of America resonate.
Know that you are the creator of your world and this prayer activates deep within so that we all can create peace and love in a world that has care and compassion at its heart.

Meet this prayer half way by embedding the words and essence within and radiating care and compassion in your home, your community, our world.

Master Code Multiplies More Antibodies of Care in the Pandemic City

In the Pandemic City we all have the opportunity to multiply the antibodies that can strengthen our immune systems against the Covid19 virus.

The secret is to practise the Karma Yoga of the Master Code of Care.

At the beginning of each day we can ask ourselves: “How do I/we intend to Care for Self? Care for Others? Care for our Place(s)? Care for the Planet?”

And at the end of the day we can ask ourselves: “How did I/we Care for Self? Care for Others? Care for our Place(s)? Care for the Planet?”

This simple practice can be manifested in a multitude of ways, reflecting cultural influences, personal preferences and local convenience. Here are just a few suggestions for pratising the Master Code of Care for Self, Others, Place, Planet.

How to Care for Self

Bio:Strengthen your behavioural/bio immune system by eating well, sleeping fully, exercising daily.

Psycho: Meditate, pray, journal. Find joy in beauty. Make object what is subject through art making/creative activity.  (Re)Discover pesonal purpose. At the end each day ask: “What has made you happy? Given comfort? Inspired you?”

Cultural: Tell stories. Re-story yourself through the Integral Spiral. Read sacred texts; tell, share, learn, practise faith.  Become an Island of Calm amid sea of chaos (through guided meditation). Dance. Sing Taize online with others.

Social/Structural:  Be grateful for simple abundance.  Practise the basics of life – survive, connect with environment, regenerate – through a minimalist lifestyle.

How to Care for Others

Serve and/or care for at least one otherperson every day.  Commit a random act of kindness.Stay connected with others. Belong to a group and find some way to contribute. Expand circles of care and Compassion. Read and learn together with another person or group.

How to Care for Place

Walk outside. Seek out your favourite part of Nature. Experience beauty in Nature, Art, Architecture, Water.  From the smallest to largest scale – from the clover in your grass to the tallest tree, love your place, pray for it.  Garden and care for your “patch” – whether it is your garden, someone elses or a brown field or allotment by: cleaning, re-organizing, planting, pruning, harvesting.  Connect with others in different places (as local regulations allow). Reduce/reuse/recycle – learn about and practise sustainability in your household.

How to Care for Planet

Look up at the night sky. Watch a sunrise or sunset. Float across the lake or down the river. Look at the phase of the moon and the stars. Sense your connection to something larger than all of us. Experience Earth as Mother.  Do one action every day to care for our planet (it may be through caring for Place – but if we all do something for place, together we will be caring our our planet and we know it all adds up). Reduce and/or stop using plastic. Monitor your water use and learn how to use less. Monitor your power use and learn how to use less. Watch David Attenborough documentaries. Say thanks every day to the planet that has birthed us all.

—

When you have ended your day, be grateful to yourself for practising this Karma Yoga of Caring for Self, Others, Place and Planet. Know that you matter more than you think. And that the simple, positive acts of care are significant boosters to your andour immune systems.

I am grateful to you for just reading this far and considering how simple just one practice at each scale can be. Namaste.

This blog series explores how Integral City frameworks can strengthen our immune systems as the best biomimicry defence against the pandemic.

The series includes:

Breakdown Deepens, Divine Remix Stalls in the City
Movers/Shakers/Makers/Carers Who are Making Our Intelligences Visible to Us
4 + 1 Voices  Generate Antibodies of Care in the Pandemic City
Master Code Multiplies More Antibodies of Care in the Pandemic City

4 + 1 Voices Generate Antibodies of Care in the Pandemic City

Every Voice of the city has a role to play in the city as we all experience the pandemic.

Each Voice is experiencing a different challenge, but each Voice can respond in positive, life-giving ways.

As we respond in positive ways, we generate antibodies of Care which are the real strength behind the effectiveness of viral antibodies.

Citizens – we are the ones locked down and deprived of each others company.

We can cope by making every effort to stay connected via Zoom, email, FB, WA, post.

Remember simple pleasures like celebrating birthdays.

Be grateful every meal, every day, everywhere

Business/Innovators – we are the ones whose businesses are being closed because of lack of trade.

We are the diversity generators and we transact from in-person to online.

Transform from the office to distributed workforces.

Transmute from organizations with profit priorities to organizations with purpose and service priorities.

Civic Managers – we are the ones who are trying to balance health of people with the health of the economy.

We are the Resource Allocators and charged with making difficult trade-off decisions.

We have chosen to support workers in the first stage of cov19 … in following stages we are trying to figure out how the vast changes to our flow of revenues (taxes) and expenses (programs) can be reallocated so all can survive.

3rd Sector/Civil Society – we are the ones who are trying to support all the afflicted, marginalized, separated, destabilized.

We are the Integrators, trying to call all Voices to the table so that we can respond to the changes together.

We have lost positive cashflows, but we are the organizers of the volunteer capacities of our neighbourhoods, communities and cities – we can re-focus our capacities to organize this immense force for good (the millions of organizations explored in Paul Hawken’s “Blessed Unrest”).

+1 Voice – we are the communities and cities who are experiencing the same challenges as other communities/cities, but in our own unique circumstances – we are struggling to figure out how our own challenges have uniquely manifested in our own places and how to learn from other places.

If we work together with the communities and cities in our eco-region, we will multiply the opportunities for us to use resources and strategies effectively together.

—

How do we bring our 4 +1 Voices of the City together? Each Voice has the power to invite the other Voices to be in their Circle(s) of Care – at the table as we tackle the pandemic challenges. The best way for us to amplify and generate more antibodies of Care is to always to ask, “who else should be here – from any and all of the 4+1 Voices of the City?”

This blog series explores how Integral City frameworks can strengthen our immune systems as the best biomimicry defence against the pandemic.

The series includes:

Breakdown Deepens, Divine Remix Stalls in the City
Movers/Shakers/Makers/Carers Who are Making Our Intelligences Visible to Us
4 + 1 Voices  Generate Antibodies of Care in the Pandemic City
Master Code Multiplies More Antibodies of Care in the Pandemic City