ReMembering. ReGeneration. What might they have in common?
First: our hearts go out to everyone who has been impacted directly or indirectly by Hurricane Irene. As we write this, over 200 people are reported dead, many still missing, and over a million people are without power.
This is, as you know, not a random freak "natural" weather event.
In one rapid attribution statement, a trio of scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory said the rainfall and subsequent dangerous flooding over the 24 hours Helene moved through was made" up to 20 times more likely in these areas because of global warming."
Such statements are powerful reminders that while storms are normal, and hurricanes can and do happen, we are living in an era beyond the "normal." We are living in an era that is shape-shifting. Neither the heat in the summer nor the hurricanes in the Fall are what they used to be. I've appreciated the language around "unnatural disasters."
Into this mix, we ask this question: what does it mean to re-build?
What does it mean to regenerate?
This is a huge question, especially in the face of disaster.
First, one has to survive.
And to recognize that survival and healing from these kinds of unnatural disasters goes hand in hand with surviving and healing from the root causes of the disasters - the legacies of colonization, and a fundamentally problematic separation of people from place that leads to nations continuing to prioritize a few people's greed and warped notions of so-called "security" over our collective safety.
Fortunately, there are organizations around the world, including in the south, that have been addressing these issues for decades, leading to on-the-ground responses that are more community-centered and climate-justice-centered than just about finding further profit for big corporations. These include:
The North Carolina Climate Justice Collective, which includes an assortment of resilience groups across the state that have been preparing and thinking about how to respond to the threats of climate change. They are in the thick of the on-the-ground responses right now, with groups such as Hood Huggers International, based in Asheville, actively doing everything they can - and no, things are not always on their website, because they don't always have time/capacity to update it! (As you may know, portable water is the biggest need at the moment).
Another is SURJ - standing up for racial justice - which has been offering suggestions for the south east (framed in the context of the current election). These include places to donate and find other ways of supporting - these groups are all trying to center vulnerable communities:
Make care calls into Western North Carolina to check in folks affected by the storm, connect them to resources, and talk about the election
We very much appreciate your ongoing care and the multiple ways we know you are offering support.
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What follows is a consideration about regenerating and remembering - two intertwining dynamics that are super important for today's world.
So - let's look at the basics of this question - what do we mean by regeneration?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, definitions of regenerate/ regeneration include:
The renewal or restoration of a bodily part, or a biological system (such as a forest) after injury or as a normal process
Spiritual renewal/revival
formed/created again; restored to a better, higher state.
Within that set of definitions, we see something really powerful and meaningful, at the heart of life itself: systems that have been broken do not have to stay broken.
Bodies - forests, and humans - can heal. Systems can come back to life. The tissues and the mycelium networks can reach out across that which has been torn and can come together again.
And in that particular set, we also see that what is true for the physical body is true for the spiritual/more-than-physical body as well.
Our spirits can also go through processes of renewal.
Oh, we need to know this. We need to remember it again and again.
Because there is so much that is broken and so much that has been torn asunder. In the past. In the present!
If you have ever experienced the healing of a broken bone, or taken part in a forest coming back to life after it has been cut down, you have experienced the wonder of regeneration. Healing is as much a part of what we - as humans, as earthlings - are capable of as is great harm.
And how do we engage in various processes of regeneration?
Time - time to be quiet, time to just rest, time to stop interfering and just observe what happens - that is very important.
Stopping the harm that is ongoing is huge. In agricultural systems, that includes stopping pumping the ground with pesticides. In human bodies, that includes stopping incessant negative self-talk that is so often an underlying reason for multiple forms of dis-ease.
Engaging with the harms that have occurred - understanding where they come from, and beginning to untangle from them - is a crucial part of regenerating.
That is a big part of what the ReMembering Course, created through Sara Jolena Wolcott's own personal and professional journey of inquiring into how to create regenerative living systems, can be supportive.
To be clear - we don't think this course - or any course - is a be-all, end-all. It sure as heck won't get someone out of a flooding street. We know that. But it just might contribute towards shifting the patterns of consciousness that have created climate change in the first place.
One of the co-founders of Rē, Ashlei Liang, writes of her thoughts about the intersections of ReMembering and Regeneration -
In order to regenerate it is helpful to understand the resources/elements and their cycles in each system. And which ones need to be healed and restored in relationship to one another to begin to cycle again. To be able to give and take in abundance, understanding that the cycle yields forward and thus cycle/circles back. Respective resources /elements will be supported in ongoing generation as one gives to the next and the next gives back.
As you peel back the layers, you become deeply woven into the history and the impact that it has on our current moment in time. This is where the muse of regeneration and regenerative cycles connects.
This insight draws from some of the ideas of permaculture - paying attention to the different cycles in each system, and finding ways to give and take in abundance.
ReMembering is a really important part of co-creating regenerative systems with life itself.
Much of the substance of the ReMembering Course engages with the histories of colonization. These are critically relevant to regeneration because understanding these histories helps us understand ourselves. As humans, to partake in the inherent human-earth connection, it helps to understand the ways the patterns of disconnection. This enables us to engage in a different approach to human-earth connectivity. As we do so, our receptors can shift, enabling parts of ourselves, often tender and even reluctant to be fully seen, to come together again.
In Ashlei's experience of taking the ReMembering Course, she writes:
ReMembering is a journey, for me, it was a deep dive into the interconnections between very complex questions created from a life closely connected to nature and seeing and studying about its changes.
The ReMembering Course calls you to lean into many origin stories including your own personal one. That holds space for you while you mutter and mumble and question and stumble over what you realize in the connections that the process and information unveils.
This course embodies this in content, teaching practice/container and as well as community connection. In relation to Rē, as we look toward regeneration as the next steps beyond sustainability, it would be meaningful to understand the social, political, natural, economic, religious, cultural system at play in order to look for the spaces to be healed into regeneration. This course is a magnificent way to engage and embody this.
If you are interested in engaging deeper with history as part of your own learning journey to partake in the collective work of regeneration, then we here would like to invite you to the upcoming ReMembering Course Informational Webinar on Tuesday, Oct 15.
And we would love to hear of the ways you are finding to engage in the work of ReMembering and re-generation!
ReMembering Course Info Webinar
The ReMembering Course is a powerful set of rare teachings on the art of ReMembering - focusing on how one can interpret and re-member the origins of contemporary collective suffering (climate change, racism, the histories of institutions that continue to inflame harm).
Info Webinar: October 15, 1 pm ET
Course starts on October 25, from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm ET
Upcoming Workshop
Participatory Action Research for Epistemic Rebels Introductory Workshop
Sponsored by the Regenerative School, in partnership with the Highlander Research and Education Center, this 4-day workshop will provide an intensive grounding in the theory and practice of participatory action research.
October 30th to November 3rd, 2024