Where is the collective transformation we are waiting for? Each day we see news about the suffering endured by people fleeing their homelands or we hear the latest climate reports, and we feel frustrated, angry, or sad. We also read about scientific breakthroughs – powerful telescopes and microscopes that reveal ‘new stories’ about our origins and even our consciousness. Yet, these marvels don’t feel connected to our daily lives.
But, what if the breakthroughs and the converging crises are the exact elements we need – a sacred fire that is opening our human hearts? If so, collective transformation is not disconnected from daily living. We are experiencing it right now.
(image) Thomas Berry in Assisi, Italy in 1991 (photo: Drew Dellinger)
In this newsletter, we share three stories that may seem, at first, unrelated. One is from ecologist and filmmaker John Liu and two are from the new edition of Kosmos Quarterly. In Change the Worldview, Change the World, Drew Dellinger writes about his relationship with cultural historian Thomas Berry, who believed new cosmological narratives can help us heal our disconnection from nature. In The Migrant Quilt, by Valarie Lee James, we learn about a project that weaves desperation and hope at the US border with Mexico, into tapestries of remembrance and love. And John Liu describes his vision for Ecosystem Restoration Camps, where bringing the soil back to life is a community vocation.
The connection between these three stories is our interconnection. Berry’s cosmology shows us a view of Earth from space that reveals our miraculous aliveness, dependent as much on the thin layer of atmosphere that protects us, as on the even thinner crust of living soil that sustains us. And if we are so completely dependent on the fragile, intricate web of life around us, how much more so do we need each other – our brothers and sisters everywhere, of all species – to work out our common future together?
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The Migrant Quilt, by Valarie Lee James
(image) “The 17 quilts in the project bear the names of people who have died each year crossing the desert in the Tucson Sector since 2000—the year the county medical examiner’s office began documenting the names of the dead, including unidentified remains). Patched together with denim, work shirts, embroidered cloth, and bandanas left behind on the desert floor, the quilts are scrappy in design and raw with truth.
Many of the bordados (embroidered cloths) stitched into the Migrant Quilts are inscribed with endearments. Contigo en la Distancia (With You Far Away) or Duerme Amor Mio (Sleep My Love) shock the viewer with familial intimacy. These personal embroideries, sometimes used as servilletas to carry food across the desert, are often blessed then sent along with a traveling family member. The embroideries have come a long way. Now they rest alongside the names of the deceased.” Read the complete essay here
In the Light | Kosmos Contributor, Drew Dellinger
(image) Drew Dellinger has been called a national treasure, by Joanna Macy, a deep and courageous poet, by Alice Walker and one of the most creative, courageous and prophetic voices of his generation, by Cornel West.
Drew Dellinger, Ph.D., is an internationally known speaker, writer, poet, and teacher whose keynotes and poetry performances—which address ecology, justice, cosmology, and interconnectedness—have inspired minds and hearts around the world.
He has presented at over 1400 events across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia—including Bioneers, the Green Festival, the Dream Reborn, TEDWomen, and the Parliament of the World’s Religions—as well as colleges and universities, poetry venues, protests, and places of worship.
Dellinger’s award-winning book of poems, love letter to the milky way, was selected by ForeWord Reviews magazine as a 2011 Book of the Year Award Finalist. Now in its sixth printing, love letter has devoted readers in dozens of countries on six continents. Dellinger’s work has appeared in films, books, anthologies, and publications such as The New York Times, Huffington Post, Mother Jones, YES!, Tikkun, Kosmos, and others. His work has been cited and quoted in venues ranging from prison workshops to climate change hearings before the US Congress. More…
