Things I am 100% certain about
#2 We belong here.
A cartoon
A thought
Humanity is astonishingly amazing, extraordinarily loving, brutally cruel and greedy. We have lost our way. We are of this world, all of us native to this earth. Somewhere along the way, we forgot that “we are creatures among creatures”1. Mammals driven by the wants and needs of our soft, warm bodies. Separated from the earth, from each other and from ourselves by over-thinking, by power games and by a reductionist scientific worldview.
In the depths of time, each of us has a lineage of ancestors who knew our connection to be true; sometimes, we are recently brutally dislocated, and other times, we are dislocated by countless generations.
I believe we have the capacity to heal and repair ourselves and our world. We are the first generation to have all the information before us - now is the time to envision a future where we all contribute to the planet in a net positive way. This is a paradigm shift from harm minimisation to positive contribution. We have to be kind and gentle on this journey - we live in a deeply imperfect system and are complicit in so many harms. We need to forgive each other our imperfections. Each of us can start this work in tiny ways in our day-to-day lives. Use the vision of a harmonious, healthy world as a candle flame in the dark to carry possibility.
I feel somewhat scared writing this. How did it become terrifying to hope for better? The audacity! I will be judged as naive, a dreamer, and unrealistic. I am not naive enough to think this will happen quickly, but I do believe that those of us who are able, should carry a flame for possibility.
Tiny action
Allow yourself to dream for a few minutes. What would utopia feel like to you? Safety in your body? Healthy food? Vibrant life outside your door? Love and connection? Does that not feel glorious? How would we approach our actions and activisim differently if we were rooted in possibility instead of doom and fear? To be pulled by a beautiful vision of the future rather than fear of dissolution of the past.
Glimmers and sparks*
My glimmers for today are:
I saw my son handle a very tricky situation (an online final uni exam that reloaded 3 hours into the 4-hour test, causing him to lose everything 😭). He showed maturity and an impressive level of adaptability.
Watching Blown Away with my family - I’m sure that has been a glimmer for me before but I really do love that show!
Hot apple crumble for dessert.
Li’l bean is your reminder to pause and ask: What are your glimmers for today?
From your friend and your small, steadfast companion,
*Drawing Li’l Bean helped me navigate out of a period of depression in 2023. A good friend 13, 595km away, helped, too, through a ritual of swapping daily glimmers via text.
A glimmer is a tiny spark of hope, enthusiasm or joy that lifts your heart. By helping me find three glimmers each day, she gently helped me see the joy and beauty already around me.
I’d like to share this practice with you and invite you to reflect on your glimmers for the day when you read this. Think of Li’l Bean as a reminder to notice the glimmers and sparks in your life. We’d love it if you would like to share your glimmers in the comments.
I heard
Tippett say this in a recent interview on Outrage and Optimism:https://www.outrageandoptimism.org/episodes/krista-tippett-her-story-of-nature
Love this illustration and these thoughts!
My glimmers for yesterday were:
– As I was walking along the beach at sunrise yesterday morning, I received a text message from one of my closest friends that his Mum had just passed away. She was a beautiful woman and one of my favourite people on the planet, so I was heartbroken, but as I continued on my walk, I could feel her presence and through my tears, I asked her to send me a sign that she was still here. A few minutes later, I saw a little baby turtle hatchling crawling out from its eggs in the sand dunes towards the rising sun and the glistening ocean - it was such a magical moment.
– After hearing the news of my friend's Mum's passing and with other stresses weighing on me at the moment, I decided to continue walking – originally intending to just do the 11km coastal trail that weaves around Noosa National Park (an absolutely stunning trail!), but ended up walking for 25km through bushland and palm groves and back along the beach. It was just what I needed.
– As we've been travelling full-time for the past three years, my youngest son has never been to a physical school and we decided to let him learn to read at his own pace - following the Steiner model and the model of countries like Finland that don't teach reading until after the age of 7. After his 7th birthday at the end of 2022 though, I started panicking about the fact that he still couldn't read, so we kept reading to him and hoping for the best, and then one day, he picked up quite a detailed picture book and read it out loud from cover to cover and has been reading non-stop ever since. This week, at 8, he's read the first few chapters of the first Harry Potter book to himself, and it was so lovely to see him curl up in bed last night with his book, excited to continue.
So those were yesterday's glimmers. :) Hoping for some more today!
Thank you for this reminder ' We need to forgive each other our imperfections.' I often feel so frustrated by other humans, but we are all stuck in the system.
Utopia - I dream of clean oceans and waterways full of an abundance of kinds of life, thriving forests and native creatures, ecosystems restored, a human footprint that is just that, literally a foot print and nothing else.
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