By Joe Brewer

The 21st Century is a time of great converging challenges—we need to think, feel and act systemically like never before in our history. In reality the threats are all connected, yet we continue to deal with them separately in a piecemeal fashion. This simply will not be good enough.

Climate change cannot be addressed in isolation from the wealth-hoarding of capitalism that has made the world so unequal that a mere 62 individuals have the same aggregate wealth as 3.7 billion. Terrorism cannot be tackled in the absence of deep inquiries about what happens when money is treated as more sacred than life or spiritual tradition. Political corruption cannot be wrangled in without taking account of the commercialization of elections that treats each candidate like yet-another-product to be bought and sold in the marketplace of ideas.

By Erik Faust, via his blog
featured artwork | Design Turnpike

In most of the democratic world, choice is valued as an integral part of democracy. This does not only hold true for choosing a product on a free market. Political choice – the choice to vote for a party that especially represents ones’ own point of view – is the bedrock for political systems from Portugal to Japan, from Australia to Denmark.

Voting in Germany, I may not agree with every policy proposed by my favourite candidate. However, the sheer number of electable candidates, from an array of serious political parties (5-6), will ensure that I can choose one whose strategy is actually to my liking. Even if just two parties are realistically contending for the presidency, the concept of a coalition allows minor parties to contribute their ideas and policies to the leadership.

“Sharing some gems of wisdom I have learned along the way is always a pleasure for me. So when Dr. Julie Krull invited me to be a guest on “All Things Connected” I immediately responded in the affirmative. The interview gave me a chance to offer one of the greatest lessons I learned from my life experience that offers authentic hope. Hope that emerges from passing through life’s challenging tests and coming out the other side.” – Kosmos Journal Editor, Nancy Roof

In the Current Edition of Kosmos Journal
featured image | Gandhiji’s Tolstoy Farm near Johannesburg, via afzalmoolla.wordpress.com

by Ela Gandhi

From my experience in communities I realized that there is a need to develop a holistic approach to community work. A holistic approach takes into account the total wellbeing of individuals, groups, and societies at all levels and in all aspects. There are no divisions or boundaries between differing methodologies, individual problems, and problems of housing and food security or education, etc. They are all interlinked and interconnected so that housing is not an individual problem but everybody’s problem. In this way, one shares responsibility and begins to look at the total picture rather than through the lens of an individual one-by-one issue, which really will not solve the problem.

In line with this holistic approach, issues such as conservation of natural resources, the earth, water supply, food, and animals become of importance as part of the community programme. Here is what Gandhiji wrote about his experiments at Tolstoy Farm.

In the Current Edition of Kosmos Journal

by Eve Konstantine

“The question becomes, how do we take these higher visions and live into them in the small, daily, incremental gestures of our lives? How do we, collectively and individually, move the dial— one degree at a time—so that, like a steamship far out at sea, we make a minor course adjustment and end up at a far different point on the horizon?

We do it by making discreet, conscious choices at the most granular of levels that set a new pattern into motion. On an energetic level, these new choices have long-term, lasting impact. They are as significant as the great, sweeping acts that have come down through time.”

by Rhonda Fabian

The response to Engaged Ecology: Seven Practices to Restore Our Harmony with Nature, in the current edition of Kosmos Journal, has been truly heartening. These basic, nourishing daily practices are derived and synthesized from several key sources: The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing, Janine Benyus’ Nine Basic Principles of Biomimicry, the Deep Ecology Principles of Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss, and other respected teachings. Kosmos has received numerous requests to share just the seven principles and practices, and here they are.