Dear ones -

What is worth while without friendships?

Ram and I (pictured above) met 10 years ago, when I was working on climate change adaptation in India. I don't think either of us could have imagined then what a strong friendship would emerge, and the places our professional exchange of ideas and mutual learning would take us. To the Himalayas, to Germany, to Ecuador. Last week, to Niagra Falls, pictured above, just a few miles away from Kristine's home on the Tuscarora Nation. We hope that someday you will join us on one of our learning adventures.

Today, I am inviting you to join us in an online dialogue we are doing with some of our friends at the Regenerative School. Here: a bit more of an introduction to Ram.

Sometimes I refer to Ram as one of the most effective change-makers I know. Or that he's trained over 10,000 people in sustainable livelihoods in India and has co-founded more organizations and networks (many of which he gracefully bows out of as soon as they were off the ground) than I can count. Or that he's managed to help parts of his government in Tamil Nadu, India, make some real changes towards enabling regenerative systems.

He generally introduces himself in more simple terms: "I work with farmers." He went around the Parliament of World Religions (which we all enjoyed much more than I, at least, expected) saying that, though he could easily have put forward some impressive ethical/religious credentials - he has those too. His line was simpler. And it said something important: that farmers matter. That those people who work with their hands in the soil, who have the practical knowledge of growing and feeding people, of markets and families, are amongst the critical actors who sustain our collective cultures. That's a spiritual truth there that most religions know somewhere in their bones, whether or not they always say it explicitly. Afterall, the spiritual power of creation dwells in the seed. Not just the metaphorical seed. The actual seeds from which plants, and with plants our own lives, can grow. Did I mention he co-founded the largest seed-sharing festival in South India?

And even me telling you all this runs into a challenge: we venerate the "expert". Ram is the first to say that he didn't do any of these things all by himself. He is actively working for various forms of "de-expertising." Putting people on pedestals is unhelpful. The wisdom is in the collective, not the individual.

This time of in person connection is one I don't take for granted. Especially not after the Pandemic, back in those seemingly far away times when airplanes weren't flying, and a friend living on the other side of the world, or even just across town, became really far away. So I'm finding ways to share this time of him in the U.S. with some of you.

Here's a conversation where you can easily join us this week.

We are co-hosting this conversation with the Regenerative School. Ram's going to create a super short course for the ReSchool, which you will also have access to. This Wednesday's conversation is free.

We've got a broad title here, so I'm giving you some of the points/questions we hope to cover. You will notice that each 'topic' is really a multi-year, even multi-lifetime discussion. That's ok. It's all connected. Did you know I was going to say that? :-)

"On Community, Climate, and Connection"

With: Ramasubramanian Oruganti, Rev. Sara Jolena Walcott, and Ashlei Laing
When: Wednesday, August 30 12:00 – 1:00pm ET . On zoom.

Main Topics: 

1. Working across multiple sectors to create change, including: academia, education, government, small-scale enterprises and communities.

2. Micro-universities and their role in community building and climate action. 

3. Resilient, alternative community-based economies and how they connect to climate action. 

4. Indigenous women's knowledge and fundamental connection to climate regeneration. 

5. How to practice regenerative lifestyles at home and in communities? Why is it important?
 

6. How do inner landscapes relate to community development and climate action?

If you can join us, great. If not, and you still want to be part of our various conversations, let me know.

And, regardless of this particular event, I hope you are having moments to treasure your own friendships. To give them the time and energy they deserve. In the long game that is the substance of life, where cultures can be nourished and spirits encouraged and we can fall apart and re-member ourselves, it is in these deeper friendships that the soul can exhale, and dwell, and express freedom, and becoming, and turning, and stillness.

Blessings to your friendships, and the journeys that you might go on together.

Sara Jolena