issue 9: Embrace for Impact

“Embrace for Impact” implies both the seriousness of the situation we’re currently in as a humanity and the solution that can save us. “Brace for impact” is the instruction given at the final moment before impending catastrophe. Just as a skillful flight attendant will calmly explain the reality of the situation at hand to those in her care and provide instructions and assistance for best chances of survival, so too are wise women elders and traditional wisdom keepers readying us for best outcomes in the unavoidable situations we now face.

Embrace for Impact is Grandmother Wisdom for turbulent times. It is about facing reality with courage, dignity and open-heartedness. It is about extending peace, support and confidence to others as we work together in collaborative and inclusive rather than competitive and exclusive ways.

Embrace means to hold (someone) closely in one's arms, especially as a sign of affection; to accept (a belief, theory, or change) willingly and enthusiastically; to include or contain (something) as a constituent part.

Impact is a marked effect or influence.

What exactly must we embrace? Change, challenges, diverse styles and contributions, uncomfortable truths, new approaches and ideas, and one another other in the spirit of collaboration.

And to what effect? For evolution, revolution, innovation, greater balance, peace and harmony, and to have more fun while fostering a more sustainable culture based on a service-to-the-whole over service-to-self mindset.

Why is it so necessary for our current time? We are witnessing a pronounced degree of manufactured divisiveness in our world, of socially and politically sanctioned abuses directed not just at other people groups but at individuals within our own communities. The wars we tend to hear about are violent and overtly destructive though there are also plenty of social wars waged against innocent people that are covert in their tactics of subtle faction-forming and manipulation of minds through social propaganda.

All war—whether overt or covert—is fueled by a scarcity and competition-based world-view that is unsustainable and ultimately destructive. This discord-by-design and strategic targeting of select persons will not cease until we call them out for what they are and consciously choose to abide by higher values starting with our small communities. The choice is ours. If we are willing to course correct, we may avert greater destruction. If we are unwilling to course correct, the impending impact will be devastating.

No matter what we’re confronted with, if we are willing to embody the spirit and mindset of embracing—as opposed to pushing away, stuffing down, cutting down or fighting against—we’ll naturally attune ourselves to the opportunities inherent within every challenge. This does not mean we don’t call a thing what it is, it means that we choose to relate to it differently so it no longer represents a problem or threat. In this way, enemies become secret allies, obstacles become hidden opportunities and frustrations become whispered invitations into a new way of seeing and being.

May we embrace it all as conscious co-creators of a more ecologically and socially sustainable world.

In Truth, Beauty and Goodness,

B. Monique

Find the full issue 9: Embrace for Impact newsletter here.

issue 8: Mní wičhóni, Water is Life

She is mysterious and magical, powerful and paradoxical, she defies our understanding of what is possible, she has the power to heal and to harm, sustain and destroy life, smooth over jagged boulders or split them apart, raze or raise up whole communities and civilizations…

Water, in all she is capable of and in all she represents, is the very essence of life.

I refer to Water in the feminine because this is how I know her. To regard and relate to Water in this way acknowledges her beingness and expresses the qualities of her feminine essence which flows through all biological life regardless of gender. She is our first home, protector and sustainer of life throughout the term of our gestation. In this way, she is Mother to all. She is the lifeblood of Mother Earth and courses through all our Earthborn bodies in much the same way which makes her the Great Unifier among all humans along with a vastly diverse array of life forms we may refer to as “relatives” because of our common Mother.

From her integral role in all biological processes to her ability to heal (I personally experienced a miraculous healing in the sacred Taos Blue Lake “Ba Whyea” waters), communicate, “remember” and store information (Dr. Rustum Roy calls water “the world's most malleable computer”), Water seems to embody something far more mysterious and transcendent than we may ever know through our sciences alone. There is so much about Water that mystifies the logical mind and even challenges the laws of physics it would seem that Water, by her very nature, is much like the White Rabbit archetype inviting us to follow her into the Great Mystery beyond. As curious minds and open hearts dive deeper into the Great Mystery of Water and her role as the essence of Life itself, profound insights into the fuller nature of the phenomenal world we live in and ourselves as biological, emotional and spiritual beings are offered up from the abyss.

Mní wičhóni is a Lakota Sioux expression which literally translates to “Water is Life”. The phrase along with the fundamental ideas, principles and values behind it had become a unifying rally cry for a diverse community of water protectors and water rights defenders across tribal, national, political and cultural lines in the Standing Rock movement. While the fight over Water can divide, the fight for Water and those who depend upon her can be a most unifying force for community empowerment.

The Standing Rock* movement represents not only a coming together of fundamental values and concerns among a diverse peoples, it served also as a powerful demonstration of unification against a common threat. Many emboldened people across this continent and beyond chose to make the journey, put their lives on hold and even on the line to stand up to a fundamental threat to the fundamental rights of a people most had no personal ties to though felt bound to as fellow humans and called to defend.

What exactly is this common threat the people of Standing Rock peacefully though not passively faced down? This threat represents an all-too-long-enduring mentality in our world that has led to the destruction and degradation of many lands, communities, traditional cultures and human values everywhere. The insatiable monster that primarily serves the wants and agendas of the self and a few entitled individuals over the wellbeing of the collective is not just an isolated threat, of course. The very spirit of this threat is timeless and ever-looming, it relies on our passive complicity, our complacency, compassion fatigue and general ignorance—innocent or willful—to allow and support its aims. What the people of Standing Rock and what we all must join and stand firm in resisting is not just an isolated threat nor singular issue, but one that affects us all as the children of Water and will continue to do so until we say with our words and actions No more.

In this week’s issue I intend not only to convey the essence of Water—her intelligence, nurturing and healing capacities, her power to unite and transform…—I wish also to highlight the essence of the Standing Rock movement—what it stood for and against, how it was organized and executed, how it embraced diversity and confronted prejudice, how they navigated legalities and organized strategically…—as examples to appreciate, educate and emulate ourselves. By viewing both as teachers and receiving what both have to show us from a place of openness and respect, their wisdom may inform and support us here with our efforts in the Greater World in our defense of water rights and honoring of agreements.

On behalf of myself and Water, I hope you will accept the invitation to dive deep, discover the essence of what you most value and feel yourself emboldened to rise up in unification with others to defend and preserve that which we cherish and rely upon for life.

In Truth, Beauty and Goodness,

B. Monique

*Standing Rock is both the name of the movement and the name of the Lakota Sioux reservation. The lives and future lives of the people of Standing Rock were under threat and they, along with thousands more, responded by rising strong, firm and unified like a standing rock. Because I so appreciate the genius of Creator, I find this coincidence to be no accident. Along the same lines, I wonder often what the name of our own “Greater World” community is inviting us into here and in what ways we might rise to the occasion together?

Find the full issue 8: Mní wičhóni, Water is Life newsletter here.

issue 7: Neurodiversity is our Superpower 🌈

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Orange. Orange Hue? Noooo, Orange you glad we’re not all the same? 🤓

I couldn’t resist a bit of goofy neurodivergent humor to introduce this week’s topic of exploration. Neurodivergent humor expresses a particular style that reflects how the brain processes information and thus how the mind experiences and interprets the world. Appreciating our diverse humor styles can provide an entry point to better understanding the minds of those who may seem so different from the norm as to be undervalued and misunderstood. Most importantly, sharing a good laugh together can bring levity to any situation and humor is among the best medicines for easing the pain of simply being hue-man, whatever your cognitive color of the rainbow.

In addition to humor, there are many diverse forms of creative expression we (those of the “neurodivergent” ilk) use to bridge the chasms between the neurotypical and neurodivergent worlds while transmuting our very real struggles and challenges into gifts for all. While our ways of viewing and relating to the world may often seem ‘weird’, ‘off’, ‘intense’ or ‘crazy’ to the neurotypical way or perceiving, our different though equally valid perceptions and experiences of the world can serve to shake up the rigidity of a consensus reality which, sorry to break it to you, seems pretty darn crazy to us.

Part of what informs our unique perceptions is the tendency of the neurodivergent mind to occupy a liminal space between worlds. The capacity to act as a bridge of sorts can serve as an asset to communities and to the world at large. Just as traditional shaman would receive wisdom, knowledge and foresight through visions, dreams and “spiritual sight'“, many great minds in various fields of art, music, science, medicine and mathematics do the much the same. These abilities transcend the limits of the normal human sensory perception while indicating what any human mind is potentially capable of. In this way, the liminal mind brings not only gifts of special insight but helps to expand the awareness of those who’ve known only the confines of consensus reality.

In the exploration to follow I touch on various aspects and expressions of neurodivergence such as ADHD, autism, Tourette’s and schizophrenia. I’ve also scattered easter eggs about to demonstrate how a neurodivergent mind like my own makes seemingly disparate connections to tell a bigger and more interrelated story. See where you pick up on the interwoven connections for yourself!

This is the first of a series of posts I’m calling “All our Hue-man Colors” intended to express and invite appreciation for our diversity as well as honor the often marginalized and misjudged among us who are veritable treasure troves of insight, wisdom and creativity just waiting to be tapped. When a community actively fosters the unique contributions of a neurodiverse population—and our hue-man diversity in general—a great boon is assured, like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

In Truth, Beauty and Goodness,

B. Monique

P.S. This weeks newsletter is quite rich, a lot to take in, I know, though please don’t miss the neighbor interview at the end! Enjoy.

Find the full issue 7: Neurodiversity is our Superpower newsletter here.

issue 6: We Are Made of Earth

We are made of Earth. At least, this is what every creation story of every religious and philosophical tradition would suggest. Could it be so? It certainly compels many in the creative acts we carry forth as those beings “made in the image of god”.

Earth, deified as Mother Nature, is the physical embodiment of a feminine Creative Source we call “matter”. In Sanskrit (the oldest continuous language tradition that still survives), Mother Earth is represented as माता प्रकृति or mata prakruti. Again, the we find root form of “matter” in “mata”.

Or is it, we were made in earth? That is equally plausible and valid as researchers are now finding the conditions and minerals specific to clay play a crucial role in facilitating the formation of RNA which is foundational to the formation and maintenance of all biological life.

According to a short post in The Harvard Gazette, researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital showed that the presence of clay aids naturally occurring reactions that result in the formation of fatty sacks called vesicles, similar to what scientists expect the first living cells to have looked like. Further, the clay helps RNA form. The RNA can stick to the clay and move with it into the vesicles. This provides a method for RNA’s critical genetic information to move inside a primitive cell.

By all evidence, it would seem we really are made of and in Earth. Wow! Could it be that our ancient myths are just encrypted wisdom after all?

My exploration this week delves into the mythical, magical and miraculous relationship we have with our Earth as a source of life itself. Specifically, how does utilizing earth with water producing clay allow us to create as visionaries, inspire others through these works and also heal? I hope you enjoy this journey as much as I have!

In Truth, Beauty and Goodness,

B. Monique

P.S. Don’t miss the New Neighbor introduction at the end!

Find the full issue 6: We are made of Earth newsletter here.

issue 5: Revolution and Rebellion

In the spirit of our recent Independence Day celebration, I was inspired to highlight some stories of purposeful rebellion and revolution brought on by a minority few. These are stories about …

• the challenges of unifying different if not also combatting tribes or people of vastly diverse backgrounds against a common oppressor.

• common people assuming the mantle of warrior (often alongside their day jobs) to preserve their basic human right to freedom—for themselves, their communities and for those yet to come.

• the complexity of revolution and those who lead such acts of defiance.

• the very real torment (by their oppressors) and often abandonment (by their own people whom they’re trying to help) the few who do stand firmly in defiance against tyrants are likely to endure.

• embracing cultural traditions and the best of what came before within a community while also acting in defiance of outmoded and repressive ways to forge a much needed, healthy and lasting change moving forward.

• using music as medicine to mend the soul and give voice to the horrors witnessed by battle weary soldiers.

These are not just stories of bygone times and peoples far removed from us, these themes are equally present for us here and now. The issues of oppression and tyranny—though more often subtle and covert—are right at our doorstep. If we are willing to sincerely reflect on the stories of others triumphing over tyranny and oppression in such a way that we can see our own stories reflected back, we stand to learn a great deal about ourselves and how the roles we choose to play, especially at this very opportune time, will shape the future realities we and others to come will experience.

When we think of rebellion, resistance, defiance and what it means to be a warrior, these terms are often conflated with acts of aggression though that need not be and so rarely is the case. Our very community and the homes we live in were built on creative acts of rebellion, resistance, defiance and “earth warrior(ship)” in some form or another. Rather than rail against the failures of an established and inflexible system, Michael Reynolds chose to just do his own thing in accordance with his vision as it compelled him. What he created was eventually embraced by the very system that initially tried to thwart it. A legitimate value, practicality and beauty was eventually seen in Reynolds’s nutty vision of turning garbage into homes.

This is an apt reminder to us that we can do the same and particularly in situation in which we find ourselves not just personally compelled but morally obliged to respond. When any system proves to be corrupt or oppressive, fails to serve our needs for safety and autonomy, fails to act with integrity or fails to respect our basic human sovereignty, we are called to respond in creatively defiant ways as warriors not for our own personal agendas but for the highest values Truth, Beauty and Goodness. When I close my letters this way, it is not mere fluff but a warrior’s declaration of commitment.

And with that…

In Truth, Beauty and Goodness,

B. Monique

Find the full issue 5: Revolution and Rebellion newsletter here.

issue 4: Kinship with Nature

In this issue we explore just a few ways humans can and are working with Nature in creative, collaborative and mutually beneficial ways.

To more fully comprehend the impact we have on each other’s lives, we must first acknowledge the profound intelligence inherent within all of Creation. With that great and creative intelligence comes a deep interest and care for all children of Creation, particularly calling to us “Younger Brother" prodigal sons who’ve strayed.

And what does that look like exactly? A call can be a nagging issue, a subtle tugging or a persistent dream or vision that occupies our attention; a cry can be far bigger to get our attention, like a devastating natural disaster; while offerings of gifts and guidance are most often so quiet and subtle as to be overlooked if we’re not paying attention. The communication is both magical and mundane. Perhaps you’ve noticed a sudden sprouting up of a certain plant around your home. Isn’t it curious, you might wonder, how my yard should suddenly be filled with Milk Thistle never intentionally seeded while all surrounding properties are not. That is Nature acting as physician and pharmacist, offering medicine you probably didn’t even know you needed. But how would the plants know? Our modern western science has now satisfactorily shown that plants possess and utilize not only our basic 5 senses, but 15 more! Just think of the implications of this next time you hug a tree or hack at your garden. Plants feel us, perceive us and can read us more deeply than we do them, or our fellow humans for that matter!

Also recently ‘discovered’ in the world of science is the astounding level of interconnectedness within the plant world among itself. For example, trees across tremendous swathes of land are dialed in to their own “Wood Wide Web” of communication facilitated by vast underground networks of mycelium. They use this “web” of communication to warn relatives miles away of incoming danger and also provide them with chemical codes they’ve developed in response, special VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) formulations their kin can replicate and emit to help avert damage or attract other organisms that are antagonistic to their invaders. What sort of intelligence has the ability to work with others to develop such a technology, and so far in advance of our own equivalent? If this new understanding is not a bit humbling, I’m not sure what is.

While mycelium may represent the ethernet connection among trees, we also have access to a kind of global wi-fi connection via the Schumann resonances or “heartbeat of the Earth” which connects all beings via the electromagnetic portal of the heart. We can practice this connection in deeper states of meditation and in connection with Nature. I find that if I ask a sincere question to a body of water, the great open sky or the natural world at large while focused from my heart center, I am consistently shown a metaphorical demonstration or confirmation of the answer I’m seeking. If not immediately and directly in front of me, I find that my attention will be inexplicably drawn to notice something very specific at just the right moment which I receive on a feeling level as a clear response. This is not just e-mail, this is em (electromagnetic)-mail.

Nature subtly communicates with us in metaphorical and archetypal ways, but also in some profoundly obvious ways as demonstrated by a group of wild South African rescue elephants that traveled 12 hours from various parts of a large sanctuary when their rescuer and dear friend suddenly died of a heart-attack. They had not been to that particular compound nor visited their friend at all since he’d moved there though they somehow found their way from separate locations and remained at the residence with his family for a two-day vigil before parting ways. All this makes me wonder just how expansive and interpenetrating this capacity for awareness and communication between us really is. The only way to truly know is to tap in and try it for ourselves.

Our kinship with the natural world goes beyond communication and collaboration with animals and plants. We can also work in collaboration with the elements Earth, Wind, Fire and Water (not the band, but… what ever happened to their water BTW?). As we are now in fire season, and the issues of massively destructive super fires increasingly affect our western region and beyond, it is very much worth considering how indigenous peoples can assist with this ever-growing destruction pattern (which leads to other problems such as mass displacement, loss of life, habitat destruction, land erosion and flooding not to mention the economical toll). By utilizing their preserved (though long suppressed) traditional wisdom acquired through their close relationship with the nature world around them, indigenous Fire Lighters can not only mitigate larger fires through managing their fuel source, they help to foster conditions in which a greater diversity of plant and animal species can flourish. Working with the elements is a fundamental part of every earth-based culture though few have been able to preserve wisdom specific to their particular land region which is key to its greatest effectiveness as more localized solutions. That said, we must all pay respect to and draw from the wisdom that has been passed down while working to reconnect in order to reacquire the knowledge and wisdom Nature has to offer us.

The examples I point to here are just a small few. I hope you’ll follow these threads to discover many more examples of our kinship with nature on your own, and try for yourself even simple acts of connecting with the natural world in more meaningful ways with the assumption of a sentient intelligence that pervades all of Creation.

If you’re old enough to have experienced a world pre-internet, you know the difference between our world prior to global human connectedness and after. For better and for worse, it’s about greater interconnectedness, accessibility to more ideas and information and to like minds for greater facilitation of shared aims. We must rise to a higher level of maturity as a humanity to utilize our more expanded connectedness for better. Now, imagine a world of total global connectedness with all intelligences, fostering creative collaborations with so many more beings of our natural world—what an experience of expanded possibilities that will be!

In Truth, Beauty and Goodness,

B. Monique

Find the full issue 4: Kinship with Nature newsletter here.

issue 3: Facing the Storm

We, as a humanity and planet, are currently experiencing quite a unique time in our collective story—one that is both frightening as it is hopeful. Joanna Macy and others have been calling this now very present shift The Great Turning.

I liken this time to a powerful maelstrom that sucks all within reach into its wide open spinning vortex. With nearly the entire world experiencing the effects of war, environmental, social, governmental and economic collapse… few if any of us are left untouched in some way. It may seem bleak from our limited vantage point, but what if that vortex we’re being pulled into, in a metaphorical sense, is a portal into a new future? It’s scary as hell feeling ourselves drawn into the wide gaping mouth of the unknown, though could there exist not a terrible fate but a truly wonderful world on the other side? A world in which all of our collective hopes, dreams and ideals along with hibernating technologies and great wisdom teachings of our past, like treasures buried long ago awaiting rediscovery, being held for us, quietly awaiting our much anticipated arrival.

In this issue, I want to acknowledge the very real changes and dangers at our doorstep while offering some traditional wisdom to help us navigate the maelstrom with a level head and some confidence that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, a tranquil fresh calm and a luminous rainbow awaiting us in the wake of the storm and we do possess the wisdom and support of others to see our way through.

We might regard this wild time as a birthing process, the necessary squeezing and pressure we must experience as we enter the frightening and often painful journey through the birth canal. The water has broken, the old world we were accustomed to can no longer be sustained as it was and so now we must bravely enter the new world as a new kind of human.

Embracing this time of uncertainty as a great birthing process in which we are both being reborn and midwifing our rebirth together is most hopeful and inspiring to me. It’s with a curious mind, a courageous heart and adventurous spirit that I choose to proceed since I know and deeply feel what is at our doorstep as a humanity is an invitation into something far greater. It is an invitation to the collective and to each one of us as individuals, a cryptic mystery for us to unravel, a great treasure hunt calling us into the wild unknown, one more bold step into the greatest of all mysteries, the vast and all-encompassing Great Mystery—how exciting!

In Truth, Beauty and Goodness,

B. Monique

Find the full issue 3: Facing the Storm newsletter here.

issue 2: Wander, Wonderment and (re)Wilding

How do you refresh, replenish and reconnect with nature and your own true nature? For myself, I must have my early morning walk and talk with Spirit to feel myself on firm footing through the day. I hike a trail in the canyon or mountains nearby and have a soak in the living waters of the river or stream which have been immensely healing and renewing for me. This is my sacred daily medicine.

This morning while at the river I asked what Spirit would like to share with us all today in this week’s Community Garden offering. In immediate response, up popped a juvenile river otter, swirling, twirling and sort of bark/chirping right before me. The message was pretty clear that we could use his good medicine of uninhibited playfulness. He seemed to be inviting me into it with his beckoning barks. Otters are extremely intelligent, exceptionally curious, amazingly inventive, endlessly playful, highly adaptive and deeply community-oriented. They love to share and play with one another; there is no sense of competition between them; they hold hands when sleeping on the water to keep from drifting away; they navigate obstacles with a deft ease; they use sticks and stones as tools for hunting prey hiding amidst rocks and tools of grasses and shaped stones for their grooming; their sleek hybrid bodies with strong legs and webbed feet make them agile on both land and in water—a creature of two worlds.

So today, guided by Otter’s wisdom and good medicine, I offer a few pieces on self-care, therapeutic wandering, nature’s demonstrations of reciprocity as a model for us to follow and the power of rewilding both ourselves and our animal kin.

I invite us all to seek and make time for our own good medicine, whatever it is. We are humbly and magnificently human—a bit flawed, a bit complicate and worthy of adoration for simply being as we are. Acceptance comes from realigning with Nature, with our own true nature and reminding ourselves that we are creatures of this Great Earth. Our bodies, minds and spirits will always find healing, nurturing, renewal and good company with the Great Mother when we seek it.

In Truth, Beauty and Goodness,

B. Monique

Find the full issue 2: Wander, Wonderment and (re)Wilding newsletter here.

issue 1: Harmony

Welcome to the first issue of The Community Garden newsletter! The general theme for this week’s assortment is “Harmony”.

We experience musical harmony when different instruments play or different voices sing different notes simultaneously, but in a way that sounds both pleasing and integrated.

As a group of distinct individuals emitting different frequencies through our unique beingness, we can experience a kind of ‘pleasing integration of different notes’ or harmony in community. What we inevitably produce together, when relating to one another in harmonic resonance, is not only pleasing but powerful as we together become far greater than the sum of each part.

Harmony is based in unity and connectedness and is life-supporting in nature. In contrast, discord is destructive, corrosive and generally antithetical to life. Wherever we experience harmony and balance among a diverse array of elements—whether in nature, art or music—we experience an uplifting feeling from the quality of life infused within. Conversely, discordant sounds have a generally aggravating and life-depleting effect. In this way, we can sense how very connected we all are and how responsive we are—even if unconsciously—to the influences around us. There is no part of the whole that does not suffer for the suffering in the world or benefit from the goodness being offered.

We must remember that we are co-creators and collaborators in this magnificent Earth orchestra. If we are passive in our role, our vibration will adjust in sympathetic resonance to match the dominant vibration of any situation. When the dominant vibration of a situation is sliding more and more into the realm of discord and chaos, it is imperative that we consciously and actively resist the decline by engaging our ability to uplift and raise the frequency in ways that are true to our most authentic selves.

This is why I encourage all who are a part of our great community to make a contribution to the whole by offering your own unique piece, playing your own distinct and valuable part in the Greater World Harmonic. We, as the aptly named Greater World community, represent a microcosm of the greater world at large and, as such, I suspect whatever we do here to elevate our experience of connectedness is particularly felt in the world beyond our bubble. What we offer need not be demonstrative to be felt. Simply being and living from a higher frequency makes a valuable contribution to anchoring the light.

This newsletter is an invitation to actively engage in a positive, productive and collaborative way as you feel inspired. The intention behind this weekly ‘love letter to the community’ is to do my small part in raising the frequency of our Greater World Harmonic by infusing the culture of our community with a bit of inspiring and uplifting content for consideration, a sort of weekly recalibration or mindful fine tuning as it were.

May you feel uplifted and inspired today by the exquisite orchestra of sounds, breathtaking beauty and dance of diversity all around us, playing together in harmonic resonance.

In Truth, Beauty and Goodness,

B. Monique

Find the full issue 1: Harmony newsletter here.