By Susan Eirich
Kosmos Journal, FALL | WINTER 2016

We can’t be reminded enough of how much beauty there is all around us—we who are so often too rushed or numbed or worried to see it and to feel the ease that it brings. In Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, John O’Donohue wrote, “Beauty is made to seem naïve and romantic (but) much of the stress and emptiness that haunts us can be traced back to our lack of attention to beauty. The Beautiful offers us an invitation to order, coherence and unity… we feel most alive in it’s presence for it meets the needs of our soul.”

Excerpted from an interview by Dahr Jamail, in Truthout

Jamail | What is called of us now, from the planet? What are we being called to do at this time?

Macy | To wake up together. That is actually the name of the movement in Sri Lanka that I went over to do field work with. Sarvodaya. Taking the Gandhian term, but using it in a slightly different way, but the same Sanskrit, which is “everybody wakes up together.”

by Jim Nollman, via Interpecies.com

This is an excerpt from a chapter of the book, The Charged Border: Where Whales and Humans Meet

“Animals are wise beyond the systems of language we impose upon them, intelligent beyond our training regimens, creative beyond the behavioral tricks we watch them perform. The most conscious forms of communication–Koko’s fib, for instance–are circular and transparent. While it is happening, both parties simply feel it and are thus able to respond intelligibly. Sentience can not be properly measured any more than creativity can be measured. Or love.”

By Inge Kuijper, via Waking Times

Upcoming Plant Consciousness Conference | September 23/24, 2107 | London

This is Ms. Kuijper’s report from a previous conference.

When I decided to join the Plant Consciousness event in London, I was still enjoying the traveling life in Peru. As I had slowed down to become more sensitive to the subtle life of nature, I was excited about these topics of consciousness, quantum physics, the amazing intelligence of the plant world and teacher plants such as Iboga and Ayahuasca.

By Dave Neale, via AnimalsAsia.org

To answer the question as to whether or not zoos serve a purpose is very difficult. Every zoo is different. For instance, in many cases visiting a zoo in countries such as China and Vietnam can be a very negative educational experience, where the conditions in which the animals are being kept are unacceptable. I know that the majority of the visitors do not understand that those conditions cause animals to suffer, but all they learn from their visit is that it is acceptable to keep animals in such deplorable conditions.

feature photo | Michael Woodall
A conversation by Dr. Maia Kincaid and Dr. Lisinka Ulatowska.

“I have been associated with the UN since 1969 and had been intensively involved in the discussions leading to the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (or SDGs). Once these had been agreed and before they were actually adopted, it became clear that of the three pillars, the environment, or Nature, was least understood. This threatened to become a serious obstacle to the implementation of the SDGs. For Nature, with the economy and society are the three pillars on which all of them rest. And of the three, Nature is primary.” – Lisinka Ulatowska