Being Change - Women and the Great Turning

World Water Day 2023

By phebeallen On March 13, 2023 · Add Comment

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2023 is World Water Day. The theme this year is “Accelerating Change,” which speaks to the urgency of honoring, protecting and healing this sacred element. The web offers many ways to get involved as individuals and as communities. Take a look and learn, share, act!

If you wish to do ceremony with water near you, here are a couple of beautiful resources I intend to use at a gathering with some friends by our neighborhood pond.

An Intimate Discourse With Visionaries of the Great Turning

By phebeallen On October 6, 2022 · Add Comment

Here is a beautiful deep dive into the essence of the Great Turning. Imagine sitting in circle with these amazing visionaries while they tell their stories of living in this planet-time. Visit the Great Turning web site and meet Maddie Porte, its creator. Lots more good stuff there too.

An Intimate Discourse with Visionaries of The Great Turning

Diverse Women For Diversity’s “Statement of Concern”

By phebeallen On April 7, 2022 · Add Comment

I came across this powerful statement when I was recently visiting Vandana Shiva’s web site. Vandana is one of Being Change’s eco-spiritual mentors and I love her dearly for her championing for our Earth. Learn more about Diverse Women For Diversity here.

“We women, in all our vibrant and fabulous diversity, have witnessed the increasing aggression against the human spirit, human mind and human body and the continued invasion of an assault upon the Earth and all her diverse species. And we are enraged.

We demand of governments, international organisations, transnational corporations and individual men who share our rage, that they address the crisis that has been caused by the creation of monocultures and the reduction, enclosure, and extinction of biological and cultural diversity.

We insist that those who would address the crisis listen to and take leadership from women, indigenous peoples, farmers, and all who have raised these concerns at the local level. We ask them to heed those whose wisdom, stewardship, knowledge and commitment has already been demonstrated by the preservation of the diversity we celebrate today.”

Listen, listen, listen…

By phebeallen On January 13, 2022 · Add Comment

Now I feel like all there is left for me to do is sing and pray directly to Her.
Build altars and sit with Her as much as possible.
Listen. Listen. Listen.
Alixa Garcia

I’m finding that as I go deeper and deeper into my spiritual journey, the above quote pretty much says it all. I’m far beyond wanting to put any energy into the madness of the status quo beyond what I feel is being responsibly aware.

I feel such a deep grief concerning what’s happening in our world yet, of course, there’s so much I don’t know. I’m beginning to understand what it means to be in the unknowing, undoing. It’s difficult, truly, to be in this surreal world of “anything’s possible” on the one hand, to “we’re screwed” on the other, and everything in between.

The messages I’ve been receiving from many sources have been about profoundly letting go of all the egoistic control and contraction while opening up to “the bigger picture:” the imaginal realms, the body/soul, the indigenous wisdom, the cosmic consciousness, the messages from the Earth and from the ancestors.…

If there is any wisdom running through my life now,
in my walking on this earth,
it comes from listening in the Great Silence
to the stones, trees, space, the wild animals,
to the pulse of all life as my heartbeat.
Vijali Hamilton

Recently, as I was walking in the woods, I wondered: What does the Earth ask of us?” This I received: Reciprocity, gratitude, ceremony and wakefulness. Of course, we must follow through with “right action” however that is defined according to our unique callings.

I’d like to share this beautiful short video “Reconnecting to Nature, the Earth, and Each Other”:

You Are the Medicine

By phebeallen On November 7, 2021 · Add Comment

Beautiful words from María Sabina (b. 1894 – d. 1985), a Mazatec sabia (“one who knows”) or curandera (medicine woman), who lived in Huautla de Jiménez in southern Mexico.

Cure yourself with the light of the sun and the rays of the moon.
With the sound of the river and the waterfall.
With the swaying of the sea and the fluttering of birds.

Heal yourself with mint, with neem and eucalyptus.

Sweeten yourself with lavender, rosemary, and chamomile.

Hug yourself with the cocoa bean and a touch of cinnamon.

Put love in tea instead of sugar, and take it looking at the stars.

Heal yourself with the kisses that the wind gives you and the hugs of the rain.

Get strong with bare feet on the ground and with everything that is born from it.

Get smarter every day by listening to your intuition, looking at the world with the eye of your forehead.

Jump, dance, sing, so that you live happier.

Heal yourself, with beautiful love, and always remember: you are the medicine.

Five Vows

By phebeallen On June 1, 2021 · Add Comment

These five vows were created by my beloved mentor Joanna Macy. They are so “simple” yet so profound that I’m still trying to imagine what it would be like if we could truly embody them in our lives. The beauty of these words moves me greatly and they could be a powerful spiritual practice in themselves. See how they resonate with you:

I vow to myself and to each of you to commit myself daily to the healing of our world and the welfare of all beings.
I vow to myself and to each of you to live on Earth more lightly and less violently in the food, products, and energy I consume.
I vow to myself and to each of you to draw strength and guidance from the living Earth, the ancestors, the future beings, and our siblings of all species.
I vow to myself and to each of you to support you in your work for the world, and to ask for help when I need it.
I vow to myself and to each of you to pursue a daily spiritual practice that clarifies my mind, strengthens my heart, and supports me in observing these vows.

Welcome to 2021

By phebeallen On January 26, 2021 · Add Comment

As most people, I’m trying to wrap my head around all that’s gone on in the world of late. Not to mention the years previous! It’s so easy to get sucked into the quagmire and become blind to a bigger picture. I want to keep dedicating Being Change to focusing on the possible and how women can be positive change-makers on behalf of life. This little clip featuring Clare Dubois, founder of Treesisters, gives a quick pep talk, jump start, reminder of the importance of saying NO to what is no longer “acceptable” or “normal.” While the new administration in the US is making the world more hopeful, it’s still well within the old paradigm and business as usual. Clare tells it as she sees it and she is truly one of the feminine avatars of our time.

A Message From the Future

By phebeallen On October 2, 2020 · Add Comment

This short film is so inspiring that it needs no further comment from me. Let’s do everything we can to bring forth this vision.

“Do we have a right to be hopeful? With political and ecological fires raging all around, is it irresponsible to imagine a future world radically better than our own? A world without prisons? Of beautiful, green public housing? Of buried border walls? Of healed ecosystems? A world where governments fear the people instead of the other way around? “A Message From the Future II: The Years of Repair” is an animated short film that dares to dream of a future in which 2020 is a historic turning point, where the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic and global uprisings against racism drive us to build back a better society in which no one is sacrificed and everyone is essential.“

Humanity Rising

By phebeallen On May 25, 2020 · Add Comment

I’m taking part in an extraordinary summit called Humanity Rising which “represents a global movement of people and organizations coming together to take counsel on how to start shaping the world beyond the pandemic. It’s creating an ongoing global dialogue and coalition of activists and organizations which will consider ideas and take action on proposals to create a world that is more socially equitable and ecologically regenerative. It also has designed a platform as a global commons for all speakers and participants to come together to share blogs, videos, generate discussions and engage in all sorts of collaborative activities together.”

The Summit will continue for as long as the pandemic lasts and beyond.

The opening of this summit was two and a half hours long and it felt like being home, being with my family, my tribe. Present were people such as Jane Goodall, Vandana Shiva, Osprey Orielle Lake, Lynn Twist and many other powerful speakers – and participants – from all over the world. Please visit the web site, sign on and listen to the recordings/join future summits.

Of all the take-aways from this gathering, the one I most want to share is this:

Jim Garrison, of Ubiquity University and who hosts this summit, told this story. He asked himself what would he choose if he could pick and manifest the most powerful action on behalf of the future he could imagine. First he thought it would be the ending of all fossil fuel extraction and use. Or the ceasing of deforestation…. But what he decided was the most powerful action he could imagine was that every government, every corporation, every institution, all executive leadership

be transitioned to women.

And then he proceeded to dedicate the first ten days of the summit exclusively to women’s voices.

Imagine!

Cultivating Aliveness

By phebeallen On May 2, 2020 · Add Comment

We are experiencing a global pandemic called COVID-19. This is not a surprise but a logical consequence of our behaviors, as are extinctions, climate change, societal collapse and on and on. The future (as always) is unknown. This much I know.

I don’t like to expend too much energy anymore on speculating on how, or whether, humans will, or won’t, respond to these crises/opportunities…

(It’s possible that we can learn, it’s possible that we can change, it’s possible that we can rise.)

… I want to focus on this question: what world do I want to dream into being? And then be that. Then do that.

Geneen Marie Haugen, in an essay for Animas Institute, asked a similar question: How can (we) cultivate aliveness now? For all beings.

I’ve been studying people’s deep reflections on these questions and there are common themes that are emerging that I would like to explore in our sanctuary. These themes have been very much embedded in the Being Change process all along, I’m finding, and now it’s time to revisit this process in the context of our present reality. It’s time to revisit and live the intentions because, I believe, they’re more relevant and necessary than ever.

Being Change has been all about hospicing what is dying and midwifing what is wanting to be born. During one powerful summit I participated in recently, an indigenous elder said there’s not much point any more in trying to change the minds of those who simply will not “let go of the shore.” While there still may be some point, I want to put all my heart and soul into creating whatever audaciously beautiful future I can imagine. And embody it in the present. No matter what. Are “we the one’s we’ve been waiting for?” I guess we’re going to find out!