Conscious Human(ity), No. 56
Rituals, finding common ground, recovering a sense of possibility, free ebooks, a history of tea, solarpunk, and more...
Welcome to this week’s edition of Conscious Human(ity) — it’s so good to see you here!
Below are seven things that have made my week better (one for each day of the week). They’re formatted so you can scan through and skip over things that aren’t interesting to you, and dive deeper into those that are.
I hope at least one thing brightens your day, prompts an ‘aha’ moment, or inspires you to take action on something close to your heart.
Ritual
A friend recommended this podcast from the Soul Collective while we were walking through the botanic gardens last weekend and I listened to it on the way to work on Wednesday. It features Emily Ghosh interviewing Day Schildkret who teaches people how to bring ritual into their daily lives. Day explained that in many cultures, ritual and ceremony was (and for some, still is) part of life, but it has been lost in many modern cultures.
Ritual is about creating meaning in our daily lives, processing grief, and marking small moments. Day says that Ritual is like maintenance for the soul and nourishment for the heart. Years ago, he developed a practice of going into nature, collecting various natural elements and arranging them in altars (see below) to honour his dad who had recently died. This practice of creating something of impermanence with natural elements helped Day to process his grief and years later, he now helps people become teachers of the practice of morning altars.
As simple as altars are, rituals can be even more simple, and brief. For example, Day said that at night, he washes his hands three times and each time, he lets go of one thought or event from the day. In the morning, he takes three sips of water and with each sip, he acknowledges one thought or intention for the coming day. So, rituals don’t require huge amounts of time or set-up; they’re about marking moments, and tapping into natural rhythms, and our inherent creativity.
I’ve been thinking about rituals a lot since Wednesday and I think they could provide many of us with the connection (with ourselves, each other, and nature) that we’re craving. They offer relief from the over-scheduled material focus of our lives, and their beauty lies in the process, rather than being a means of getting from ‘point A’ to ‘point B’.
Day details his process for Morning Altars in this Instagram post and you can read more about his work at morningaltars.com.
Finding Common Ground
From personal rituals to navigating online conversations now, and I accidentally ‘got lost in the comments’ on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram a few times this week! I was newly horrified by some people’s apparent lack of empathy and need to cause an argument. Luckily, I also came across some nuanced conversations and articles which acted as a salve for this, including Sarah Wilson’s chat with journalist and author Helen Lewis which unpacked several recent online eruptions. Ultimately, Sarah and Helen are campaigning for discerning dialogue instead of heated debates that pressure audience/s to ‘pick a side’.
Along similar lines, Craig Foster shared this post on LinkedIn (connected to his article in The Guardian) urging Australians not to see multiculturalism as a threat to Australia in the context of rising Neo-Nazi idealism.
The ultimate wisdom came from Jane Goodall, interviewed in British Vogue for her 90th birthday:
“If you’re talking to somebody who disagrees – I’m thinking of people like climate change deniers – don’t argue with them. You’ve got to get a feeling for who they are; try to find something that you share. Maybe you both love dogs, or books. Then find a story because you’ve got to reach the heart; it’s no good arguing with the head because they won’t listen.”
Finding common ground seems like a completely logical and empathetic approach to me! What do you think?
Recovering a Sense of Possibility
If you’ve had enough of finding common ground with others, maybe it’s time to turn inwards to your creative self again? ArtsHub’s journey through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way is up to Week 5 now and ‘recovering a sense of possibility’ is all about recognising and resisting self-limiting beliefs, and not looking to others for validation of your creative work (or creative time).
One particular observation about ‘the virtue trap’ from the feature article’s author, Rochelle Siemienowicz struck a chord with me:
“Are you too nice? Is your niceness a form of faux spirituality, grounded in appearing good rather than being authentic? Cameron talks about how the need to appear unselfish can actually be self-destructive – a form of creative self-murder. Instead of claiming the necessary solitude and other resources we may require, we choose to show up for others and bear the martyr’s cross, which is the ultimate good excuse for never fulfilling your potential.”
Oof. The ultimate good excuse for never fulfilling your potential!?
If that hits a nerve for you (as it did for me), maybe you need to claim that time and those resources, and show up for your creativity!
From ‘Ugly Hill’ to Paradise
Moving from creativity to collective conservation efforts now. This ABC story caught my attention earlier this week because it runs counter to the dominant short-term, profit-driven, extractive narratives we seem to live by. In 2001, eight friends pooled $19,000 and went looking for ‘the most degraded, clapped-out piece of farmland they could find’ to transform it back into bushland. The ‘ugly hill’ they found was 134 aces near Moonambel in central Victoria, on Dja Dja Warrung country, and it had only four trees on it, and lots of erosion. Fast forward 20-years and after a lot of hard work and collaboration with traditional owners, there is a thriving, diverse ecosystem on the land. (Side note: I can’t believe it’s 20 years since 2001, but, hey!)
One of the group members, Phil Meldrum said:
"[Land] has been degraded, exploited and used economically, we just wanted to explore a different kind of relationship to country.”
That group of friends is now a community association called Resource RICA, an acronym for Rehabilitation, Indigenous, Community, Access.
I love hearing stories like this, and especially when they’re on Australian soil. It reinspires me to keep chasing my dream of buying and rewilding a bush block one day!
Free EBooks, and a History of Tea
And now, to something completely different, and somehow also connected! This is a ‘full nerd’ thing, but if you like books + free things, it could be for you! The first item in Austin Kleon’s latest newsletter was Standard Ebooks, a website that hosts a whole range of free ebooks that are lovingly formatted by volunteers. The books are all out of Copyright in the United States and I found some non-fiction gems after only a few minutes of browsing, including some of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s collections of essays, which includes one of his most famous pieces, called Nature, which riffs on the healing power of connection with nature.
I also found The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzō, which is a very short history of how ‘tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage.’ It details how tea moved from China in the eighth century to Japan in the fifteenth century and eventually, to the West. The author suggests that despite previous misunderstandings between the East and the West, tea is a means to unite humanity, where we can meet in mutual consolation (or, going back to our earlier point, where we can find common ground).
The author said this of tea,
“It has not the arrogance of wine, the self-consciousness of coffee, nor the simpering innocence of cocoa.”
In 1711, The Spectator (a newspaper) is even said to have suggested a morning ritual of setting aside an hour for tea, bread and butter, served up with the paper, of course.
I just love the way these random topic threads on the internet can intersect with each other! You can read the ebooks in a standard web browser, or on any ebook reader, including Kindle.
Solarpunk
Back to creativity (or, design) and sustainability for a moment now. I came across this article which explains ‘solarpunk’, a word I had heard before but never really knew what it meant.
According to the author,
“Solarpunk is a futurist movement that began in speculative fiction and sci-fi films and has since spread to architecture and design. Practitioners envision a clean and green future built on principles of sustainability, social justice, and collective action.
The name spells it out. "Solar" signals optimism and a strong association with renewable energy, while "punk" reflects a DIY ethos and an anti-capitalist philosophy.”
Despite its sci-fi origins and futuristic sound, solarpunk design can be super low-tech and very simple. It’s all about people using everyday objects to make their homes and communities more sustainable, from putting basins in your garden for collecting rainwater, making biochar (a form of charcoal) or keeping chickens.
I decided to do some extra research and found the Solar Punk Society, and I like their definition even better:
“Solarpunk is a philosophy for the future, blending technology and nature in harmony. It's about creating a sustainable, equitable world powered by renewable resources, fostering a society that values community, grassroots action, and self-sufficiency.”
…and this explainer video from Andrewism on YouTube:
I think this vision of a hopeful future is something I’ll explore further, so keep an eye out for more solarpunk features!
A Final Giggle
The caption makes this extra good: ‘toddlers are just little drunk people.’
Finally, maybe if your dog’s not listening, you just need to put on an Aussie accent! 😆
And that’s it for this week! Thanks so much for being here. 🙏🏻
As always, I hope something here has brightened your day, prompted an ‘aha’ moment, or inspired you to take action on something close to your heart.
P.S. ICYMI last week, the Heart of Nature Summit is a free online event running from the 16th to the 22nd of April. Over seven days, the summit will examine how ‘integrating the wisdom of nature into your life can heal both you and the planet.’ It features an impressive panel of 38 speakers including environmental engineers, mindfulness practitioners, philosophers, activists, healers, authors, lawyers, social workers, and more. From Jane Fonda and Bayo Akomolafe to Paul Hawken and Tara Brach. When you register for free, you have 48-hours to watch the sessions that you’re most interested in. More details, here.