Dear Friend,

This week, Krissy and I have had the good fortune to accompany the Life That Comes From It Foundation on a journey into indigenous/sustainable agriculture, cultural revitalization, and indigenous peacekeeping in Hawaii prior to a conference on Justice Innovations at the University of Hawaii.

We started with a sunrise ceremony and circle sharing on the beach, visiting local indigenous farms and aquaculture, healing centers, and places where hundreds/thousands of local people have helped to revitalize traditional fish ponds.

I’m in awe of what I see happening here, far from the massive hotels and resorts. The more I learn the histories, the more I understand what I’m seeing. The more I’m humbled 

to witness the indigenous cultural and land-water revitalization. 

Again and again, conversations return to the themes of remembering, (what I call) re-enchanting, and crafting future institutions- institutions as if the future is one where people and places can thrive. Sometimes I’ve heard speakers refer to some of the exact themes that I keep saying: the importance of moving beyond linear time and moving back to cyclical time. The importance of remembering. The importance of addressing/liberating ourselves from continued colonization. The importance of revitalizing and creating song, dance,  and ritual. It’s been powerful to hear words I often say coming from others.

I could frame these as questions. 

How do people remember pre-colonial, deeply sustainable cultures?

How do we work with the system so that the system can work for the community/s?

How do we hear across differences, especially when those differences are shaped by colonial histories?

How do we stay in the field of gratitude?

How do we engage in the modern world (legal systems, etc) without losing the power of the essence of traditional teachings?

The questions are often asked in the form of circles and stories, in prayers and longing.

The gatherings emerge from a very different cosmovision/worldview than that of the Western default culture.

Sometimes the gap between the worldviews is so intense it feels impossible to Bridge.

That’s when the circle carries me. I remember: I don’t have to find all the answers alone. 

There are teachings. There are processes. ‘Technologies’. Tools. Support. Community. So, so many people also asking these questions, often doing so together. There are ways to heal the legacies of colonization. There are ways to remember other ways of being. 

All of which is part of why I keep teaching the remembering course.

It’s also why any one course is never ‘enough’. The remembering course is not everything. It is many things - powerful, transformative, grounding, supportive.

And it’s still just a line in a much bigger song.

Offering the ReMembering Course is always humbling. It’s always filled with paradox.

On the one hand, I’m saying, here, look, pay attention. Find a way to integrate this into your life as normal.  this is a really big thing. A significant investment. Fully worth doing.

On the other hand, it’s very small. It took us at least 500 years to get to this ecological crisis moment: 6 months of the remembering course is a super short time to re-weave together many parts of that time. 

Being here I’m also reminded of my own smallness. 

As one participant said: we each are just a drop of water in this big ocean of life…So let us fully live into that drop. Every drop matters. The entirety of a rainbow can be seen shining brightly in the morning dew.

The next informational session on our remembering course (which will itself start in March) will be next week, February 23, 2024 at 1 pm ET.

If the spiritual work of decolonizing, re-earthing, integrating, and re-membering calls to you… please do join us.

And wherever you are, may the circle carry you.

Best,

Sara Jolena