Happy New Year climate curious book club/community/friends,
I hope everyone has had a restorative holiday season and those vibes are continuing with you into the new year.
My heart has been aching a bit with this green, warm, wet week in January we are experiencing in the Blue Mountains - when the trails should be loaded with snow at this time of year, we have mud. It doesn't feel right...mother nature reminding us we have work to do perhaps? How about you? How are you feeling?
There should be snow in these hills!
To help support us all in our climate and justice work, I'm thrilled to have some offerings to share over the next months:
Save the Date for Self Care for Climate Care Retreat - Spring 2023 Edition!!
March 31- April 2nd, 2023 at Sugar Ridge Retreat Centre near Midland, Ontario. Join us for some deep self care, restoration and connection so we can continue to show up for the work we are each being called to do with ease, joy and energy. QiGong, song, time for connecting and movement in nature will be included in this special retreat . Details to come shortly. Yay!
What we created at the Imagination Studio in June 2022 at our first retreat.
Winter 2023 Self Care for Climate Care playlist - a collection of songs on Spotify I have been loving in the dark mornings and evenings of the season - enjoy!
Listening/Podcast options:
A Matter of Degrees podcast: New Years Reflections, Resolutions and Inspiration from Sherri Mitchell (how perfect is that!)
The Red Nation Podcast: Rehearsals for Living with Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
The Emergent Strategy Podcast: Slowness, Ease and Intention with Latham Thomas
Plugged In episode with our fave Kim Nicholas I released in December: Ringing the alarm bell on the climate crisis with Kim Nicholas
Winter Reading & Gathering Options - Gather on zoom Wed February 1st, March 8th & April 5th at 8pm ET.
You are invited to choose one of the following 3 books to read this winter/spring (or all!). Each selected to encourage deep reflection into our personal work, leadership and connection for the planet and climate justice. Thank you to those who have recommended these books.
1. Rehearsals for Living : by Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson:
A revolutionary collaboration about the world we're living in now, between two of our most important contemporary thinkers, writers and activists.
2. A New Republic of the Heart: An Ethos of Revolutionaries - A guide to Inner Work for Holistic Change by Terry Patten
In the midst of today’s many global crises, many of us recognize the need for change, both in ourselves and in our social and political institutions, in order to build a truly sustainable future. In A New Republic of the Heart: An Ethos for Revolutionaries, Terry Patten sheds new light on this issue, providing a practical approach to “being the change” that the world needs now more than ever.
3. Emergent Strategy by adrienne marie brown
Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live. Change is constant. The world is in a continual state of flux. It is a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, this book invites us to feel, map, assess, and learn from the swirling patterns around us in order to better understand and influence them as they happen. This is a resolutely materialist “spirituality” based equally on science and science fiction, a visionary incantation to transform that which ultimately transforms us.
Hope these offerings feel good and we have a chance to connect soon. Let me know what you think!
What we read in 2022!
Talk soon and take care,
Megan
ps. I'll be recording a live Plugged In podcast episode at the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP) national conference in New Orleans on the topic of Feeling our Climate Emotions on March 1st, 4-5pm. Let me know if you will be there!
