Readers Respond | How Are You Walking in a World on Fire?

May 30, 2017 Newsletter

We asked you, our readers, about your personal journeys Walking in a World On Fire, and you responded by sharing your stories of courage, art and activism. We have selected a few here.

NIKKI COFFELT, PhD

Unapologetically Savage | Painting: Acrylic on Canvas.

“I know how it is when chasing the high becomes a lifestyle..until everything and everyone is reduced to a grey scale. I know what it is like to want to die. How it feels to be caged. The sheer passion it takes to claw one’s way back from the brink of death like a savage animal :: determined :: to live. I know that freedom is no destination. And that the universe is, somehow, always keeping score. So we don’t have to. I know damn well how very precious and miraculous every minute of every. human. life. truly. is. And I know just how :: far :: a person will go to find a god :: worth :: believing in.

Art is the only way I know to deeply connect with a world too wild and rapturous and tragic and illogical to be contained or make any sense. It is how I channel dynamic beauty and ineffable magic. It is how I can make the invisible visible.

James Baldwin once said, “It seems to me that the artist’s struggle for [their] integrity must be considered a kind of metaphor for the struggle– which is universal and daily– of :: all :: human beings on the face of this globe to get to :: become :: human.” I believe that art is our way back to each other… back to the Truth.

My work reflects my life, as only I can tell it. Art has :: literally :: saved me. Having walked :: through :: so much fire to get here, I can tell you this for certain. They may hurt our bodies. They may try to rob us of our human rights. They may batter our hearts, damage our sense of worth, try to extract that which we hold most dear. But some things can be neither bought nor sold. Some things can :: never :: be captured for too long. Some things are freedom-bound, no matter how long it takes. The soul is indestructible. It can :: never :: be killed. And, like the Phoenix, it regenerates and unfolds of it’s own accord. I assure you, beloveds, we :: are :: infinite.”

What we do not claim remains invisible.” -Marianne Williamson

We. Are. Infinite. {Shades of Grey} | Painting: Acrylic on Canvas.: About the Artist

Nikki Coffelt PhD currently lives in Oakland, CA where she divides her time equally between her consulting practice, art studio, and time with beloveds. She is passionate about inspiring personal and collective empowerment, illuminating the dark and transmuting primordial suffering into life-sustaining, creative fuel. To learn more about her art, visit emboldenedexpressions.com and/or follow her on Instagram @emboldenedexpressions Also: www.riseDOWN.com (Facebook:: @time2risedown/ LinkedIn:: linkedin.com/in/sfpsychologistnlcoffeltphd).

DEE KYNE

“The One Love One Step walkers will join up with local communities, schools and organisations to draw attention to the devastating challenges that are now facing Jamaica’s beautiful beaches, rivers, mangroves and coral reefs.

Jamaica’s beaches are among the most important natural resources with which this island has been blessed. The beaches are central to the well-being of both the Jamaican people and economy. A small island with enormous biodiversity and breathtaking landscapes and seascapes, Jamaica has many endemic species and rich soils and once abundant seas which grow plants and provide food for communities. This needs recognition, consideration, stewardship and protection by Jamaicans. The coastline is threatened by the increasing volume of plastic pollution and an alarming increase in beach erosion. The removal of vegetation, destruction of living reefs, overfishing, and the development of building structures in the active beach zone have destroyed large areas of natural coastline. Without the reefs to protect the shorelines from tropical storms and erosion coupled with rising sea levels; Jamaica’s beaches are exposed to irreversible destruction.

To compound these problems, swirls of plastic are washed up by the North Atlantic Gyre; a vortex of plastic debris now creating havoc and gathering a vast amount of discarded plastic waste in the Oceans We believe to maintain biodiversity and the health of future generations we must redefine well-being and prosperity for all life under the limits and in recognition of the ‘rights of nature’. This requires an international legal framework to protect those rights from greed and exploitation. We work in collaboration to bring in a Law to End Ecocide, to help legally stop the extensive destruction or damage of ecosystems.”

For more information on Ecocide Law: www.eradicatingecocide.com

The Walk

MEGAN HOLLINGSWORTH from an interview by Lise Weil

“I feel that my compulsion to speak for world peace is greater because I have a child in the world. If humans keep fighting each other, we’re done, finished, because it draws attention away from the regenerative work that urgently needs to happen. I could spend every day with Elias and love him up and down and it wouldn’t change the fact that without world peace and an immediate response to mass species extinction and subsequent global warming there is no conceivable future for him and other children alive today. An overwhelming regenerative response is not happening yet, though the solutions are known. So, I am extremely restless.

Grieving is not bleak, grieving is beautiful. Grief in response to genocide and mass species extinction is healthy and belongs to everyone. The grief and the loss are communal. A lot of people look at the loss and say it’s too depressing. But, really, what’s depressing is not facing the loss once we’ve seen it. Grieving past, present, and anticipated loss clears the weight from the person and clarifies truly humbled, helpful action. Basically, what I am saying with this project is I want to hold your hand. That’s the invitation with Extinction Witness, let’s be together in this because we are together in this.”

Grieving Giants | Still Overlay from Wildfire: a love story, copyright 2015 Extinction Witness, https://vimeo.com/72798959

About the Artist:

Megan Hollingsworth is writer and creative director at Extinction Witness, a peacekeeping project engaged in creative witness to loss and pain toward suffering’s end. She offers THE WHALE MEMORIAL DANCE, a tribute to cetaceans, in support of collective healing. She can be contacted via her portfolio website.

STEVE BLACKMER

“Water is central to life, and living, flowing rivers have played a integral role in ecological, social, economic and spiritual practice worldwide since time immemorial. The Connecticut River is a prime example of a river carrying the lifeblood of a region.

A core group of “river pilgrims” will journey the full length of the river, being joined by “daily pilgrims” as they traverse individual stretches/communities, and by “pilgrims in prayer” for those who aren’t able to paddle along or join in events but want to participate in the 40-day spiritual practices that correspond with the Pilgrimage dates.

Locally organized, shore-based, events will draw attention to the beauty and challenges — ecological, social, economic, and spiritual — along the waterway. People of all faiths, beliefs, and paths are welcome for any/all of the Pilgrimage.

The River of Life pilgrimage is sponsored by the Episcopal Dioceses of New Hampshire, Vermont, Western Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine, in partnership with Province I of the Episcopal Church, the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Kairos Earth.”

For a one-page bulletin with Pilgrimage information, please click here.