On Resilience

(Oak regenerating after fire.)

I am not a journalist. I am not a fast writer, not someone who can bang out an immediate, salient response to every latest event. Once in a while I can, but often other aspects of life get in the way. I’m not even a full time writer: I direct a nonprofit; I teach many courses online and in person; and then there’s those other aspects of life that intervene, like having to clean the house or go to the dentist. Right now, as I prepare for a knee replacement next week, the list of things I have to do and appointments I have to keep mount up.

Which is just to say that round about November 5th I started writing a happy, upbeat post about how important it is to celebrate our victories, and we did have great victories to celebrate in the last election: Democrats winning everywhere, Prop 50 passing in California by a landslide, Mamdani winning in New York City! But I somehow neglected to finish it.

I like to write something, let it sit, walk away, come back and look at it again. I don’t like to write and instantly put it up online without some mellowing time, or possibly fermenting time. The problem is, that while our victories were fermenting, some mold crept in. A few key Democrats decided to give in to Trump and end the shutdown without any meaningful concessions.

My first immediate response was basically selfish: “Damn, couldn’t they let me feel good for even a solid week?” But then just as I was starting to get used again to my usual feelings of political doom and depression, suddenly there are all these revelations coming out about the Epstein files, Trump and the MAGAts seem to be having multiple meltdowns, and everything changed again.

Which brings me around to the subject of resilience, something we desperately need in these times. Resilience: the ability to bounce back after a defeat, to heal after an injury, to recover after a blow. Permaculture is all about creating resilient landscapes that can handle disturbance and still thrive, that indeed often need disturbance in order to regenerate. And resilience is what we need now.

It’s an inner strength you find when things look glum, but you don’t give up. It’s the ability to pivot when something intervenes to upset all your plans. It’s the challenge to love again even after your heart has been broken.

None of us gets through life unscathed, and so resilience is a trait we all need. And now, to weather the dizzying day-by-day turnarounds of this political moment, we especially need resilience on steroids!

And it just so happens that on Friday, November 14, at 6 pm Pacific Time, Earth Activist Training, my permaculture teaching organization, is hosting an online celebration of resilience. I’ll talk with Charles Williams, co-director of our program, about the importance of diversity in generating resilience. Penny Livingston, who was my first permaculture teacher, will share some of the work she’s been doing, teaching impacted communities around the globe about how to plan for resilience in the face of fire, floods and other climate disasters. And we’ll also hear from one of our most inspiring students, Lakota McRoberts, who works with indigenous communities in Alaska to build food security, about the impact of the recent typhoon.

I’ll lead us in a ritual to find our inner well of resilience, and the whole event will benefit our Diversity Scholarships. Because while other organizations are backing away from Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, we know that those are the key qualities that help any organization, or any society, develop a broad intelligence, a stable prosperity, and a welcoming culture. So we’re doubling down on our efforts to bring the skills of regenerative design to the folks who are on the front lines of struggles for environmental and social justice.

You can join us on Zoom—it’s by donation, and it will be recorded for future viewing. ASL interpreted. 6-7:30 pm Pacific Time. More information and registration is here.

https://earthactivisttraining.org/webinar/#harvest

Come join us, for renewed energy and hope!

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