Turning Season: Conversations with Changemakers in Our Adventure Toward a Life-Sustaining Society

It can be hard enough to find your "purpose" in the best of times - and it's a whole other level of challenging when you're reckoning with the prospect of ecological and societal breakdown. My interviewee for this Full Moon episode, Gwyneth Jones, describes herself as a "Deep Adaptation Coach," serving as a life coach for people who are aware of our collective predicament.

She's rising to her role in the Great Turning also as a writer, a gardener, a teacher of her native language, Welsh, and a connector, having one-on-one conversations with people around the world in her interview series, "The Story Anew."

Click Play to enjoy Gwyneth's company with me and hear us talk about:

• what "Deep Adaptation" is, and the 4 R's of Resilience, Relinquishment, Restoration, and Reconciliation
• the stories we tell about what's happening in our world right now 
• shifts in consciousness Gwyneth has noticed at home in Wales, and in conversations with people from the Philippines to the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• helping people tap into a feeling of calling, duty or mission (and how it's more than okay to have more than one, and have your work be hard to describe!)
• and teaching the Welsh language in connection with decolonization, as people reconnect with nature-loving ancestral cultures in the British Isles.

I read the "Deep Adaptation" paper myself for the first time early this year, and it's had a profound effect on me. Gwyneth is someone who has integrated these considerations into her personal and professional life, and she remains so full of vitality and love. I'm very happy to be connected with her as we all meet these times together. Enjoy the conversation.

Thanks for listening to Turning Season Podcast, your regular dose of Active Hope in the Great Turning, bringing you news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present, even in the face of an uncertain future. 

Hosted by Leilani Navar, a facilitator of the Work that Reconnects, an acupuncturist and dreamworker, and a believer in the power of conversation.

Show notes with links to connect with Gwyneth, hear the TED Talk she mentions, and learn more about Deep Adaptation and connect with community: turningseason.com/episode25

Healing Season: Practical Wisdom from Chinese Medicine and the Work that Reconnects

Listen in for today's dose of Active Hope, in the latest news episode of Turning Season Podcast, covering:

• words from one of the courageous Iranian women protesting in Iran, about seeing The Great Turning in process, and how the type of practices we do in the Work that Reconnects have impacted her
• indigenous fire stewardship returning to forests in Minnesota in a collaboration between the Fond du Lac Band (a Chippewa / Anishinaabe band) and the Cloquet Forestry Center
• and Robin Wall Kimmerer continuing to foster the shift in consciousness toward a renewed relationship of love and reciprocity with the living Earth

Turning Season Podcast is here to bring you news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present even in the face of an uncertain future.

Links to more info on all these stories: turningseason.com/episode24

When I heard from Bioneers about a new children's book about the story of Thanksgiving, written by Native authors, complete with curricula for elementary school students – I signed up for their presentation right away. Last week, I had the opportunity to speak with two of the authors, Alexis Bunten and Anthony Perry.

If you too have wanted to share a more accurate, more complete story of Thanksgiving with children - appropriate for their ages - you're going to love Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story. It's co-written by three Native authors, including Danielle Greendeer, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Citizen, Hawk Clan.

The story is told from the perspective of Corn (Weeâchumun), and emphasizes human relationship with the plants and animals who feed us, and the generosity and care we can show by feeding each other.

(And, my dreamers and dreamworkers will love this: Weeâchumun sends dreams to the First Peoples, urging them to help the hungry newcomers.)

To me, the Great Turning toward a life sustaining society requires us to take a deep look at our history. Especially for those of us without direct access to the wisdom of our indigenous ancestors, it requires learning from more life-sustaining societies, past and present. As a mother of elementary school aged children, I relate to the authors' perspective that the stories we tell young children shape their views of themselves and the world around them.

This means we can participate in the "shift in consciousness" dimension of the Great Turning by sharing books like Keepunumuk with our kids.

Click Play now to hear me, Alexis, and Tony explore:

• how the mainstream Thanksgiving story landed with Tony and Alexis when they were children
• ways we can decolonize and indigenize our own Thanksgiving celebrations
• the cultural shift toward recognizing and respecting the Indigenous peoples of North America
• the authors' choices about gently mentioning the history of colonization, pandemic and genocide among Native American people, before and after the first Thanksgiving
• contemporary food issues, including the challenges and the possibilities around reconnecting with what we eat
• and curriculum resources for children in elementary through high school

I loved hearing the care that both Alexis and Tony have for children and families of all backgrounds, as together we face the challenges of these times. I'm grateful they've written this book, and hopeful it will nurture a deeper understanding of our history, and our interconnection with the life that feeds us, and with one another.

Show notes with links to more resources, and to connect with Alexis and Tony: turningseason.com/episode23

Healing Season: leilaninavar.com/healingseason

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Turning Season Podcast brings you regular doses of Active Hope in The Great Turning, our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. Every Full Moon, we share a deep conversation with people playing their own unique part in this shift. On the New Moons, we share brief, heartening news stories. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present even in the face of an uncertain future.

Turning Season is hosted by Leilani Navar, a facilitator of the Work that Reconnects, an acupuncturist and dreamworker, and a believer in the power of conversation.

Music by East Forest.

turningseason.com

Listen in for your dose of Active Hope in today's news episode of Turning Season Podcast, here to bring you news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present even in the face of an uncertain future.

In today's quick episode:

• the movement to grant the "right to repair" our electronic devices, plus why we throw away and replace them so quickly
• introducing the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Western Mining Action Network, and the Climate Justice Alliance
• and sponge cities: what they are, why they matter, and a few examples of cities around the world shifting toward sponginess

Links to more info on all these stories: turningseason.com/episode22

Healing Season: Practical Wisdom from Chinese Medicine and the Work that Reconnects, with Leilani Navar: leilaninavar.com/healingseason

How much power do you think you have to affect rainfall, or to influence how vulnerable a landscape is to wildfire? Do we have any agency in our situation of "running out of water"? 

Until recently, I didn't think those things were in our hands at all. I've been excited to learn from water experts devoted to regenerative practices that together, people can powerfully impact all of these things.

For this month's Full Moon episode, I spoke with Charles Upton, a land restoration consultant with Oso Eco working to leverage natural systems to rehydrate watersheds, regenerate soil, and ensure the long term vitality of human communities. He became fascinated by water while climbing in the Middle East, and then spent years studying water in a master's degree program, and on the ground, learning the traditional water wisdom of indigenous desert peoples. He continues to put theory into action, in California, Colombia, and beyond.

Click Play now to hear us talk about:

• how working with water empowers you to do something good, right now, right where you are
• how we've dehydrated our landscapes, and how we can fix that (plus, how this impacts rainfall, and vulnerability to catastrophic fires)
• Charles' biggest takeaway from his time spent with local people in desert landscapes like Rajasthan, India and the Arabian Peninsula
• new ways to approach land management in California, in relationship with indigenous peoples and traditional ecological knowledge
• how cities in deserts, even with big populations, could be more self-sufficient with water
• some of the practical ways to regenerate soil, and to slow water flow, sink it into the ground, and spread it
• and the importance of human relationships, in cultivating a better relationship with water

This is truly an on-the-ground example of The Great Turning in action. To connect and learn more, find all the links through the show notes: turningseason.com/episode21

Ready to find balance in your personal health, how you relate to your pain for the world and your role in The Great Turning? Interested in Chinese Medicine's wisdom about how our emotions and physical health relate? Check out the 12-week small group journey I'm hosting, beginning in January: leilaninavar.com/healingseason

Click Play for your dose of Active Hope in today's news episode of Turning Season Podcast, here to bring you news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present even in the face of an uncertain future.

In today's quick episode:

• an agreement between indigenous organizations and the government of Ecuador for a moratorium on new oil extraction and mining
• the 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People initiative, bringing large-scale educational and financial support to regenerative landscape projects around the world
• and protecting Thacker Pass, an area of Northern Nevada, sacred to the Paiute and Shoshone people, from an open-pit lithium mine (plus the shift in consciousness this invites us to make about "green" technology)

Links to more info on all these stories: turningseason.com/episode20

Healing Season: Practical Wisdom from Chinese Medicine and the Work that Reconnects, with Leilani Navar: leilaninavar.com/healingseason

I know Sinéad Cullen is not alone in once feeling inadequate for not being a fists-in-the-air, protest-in-the-streets kind of activist. For not taking a bold stand in that dimension of The Great Turning we call "Holding Actions."

I also know she's not alone - and many of you listening will relate - in being deeply inspired by spontaneous creative expression, by powerful shifts in perspective, and by creative new design solutions. An architect, visual artist, and Movement Medicine teacher, Sinéad is deeply engaged in the other two dimensions of The Great Turning: "Seeing with New/Ancient Eyes," and "Shifts in Consciousness."

Click Play now to hear us talk about:

• shifting from a "linear economy" way of designing buildings toward structures (and art!) that are "designed for disassembly" 
• plus why sometimes people don't like that idea
• getting lost and coming home through creativity
• traveling the spiral of the Work that Reconnects through movement and visual art
• creative expression as the bridge between hopelessness and possibility
• solutions that emerge from slowing down, and valuing diverse perspectives

and Sinéad dreaming up a new chapter in her life that brings her back to architecture, integrating Movement Medicine, the Work that Reconnects, and her time spent in ecovillages and indigenous communities

Be sure to visit the show notes, where you can learn more about Sinéad, as well as find links to more info about the circular economy, a video of Jason McLennan's talk at Bioneers, the Living Building Challenge, and two poems that came up during our conversation: turningseason.com/episode19

Welcome to a news episode of Turning Season Podcast, your regular dose of Active Hope in the Great Turning, bringing you news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life-honoring present even in the face of an uncertain future.

In today's quick episode, 2 stories of Holding Actions (both works in progress), and 1 story that fits into the dimensions of both Life-Sustaining Systems and Shifts in Consciousness:

• Los Angeles bans new oil and gas drilling, and plans to phase out existing wells, thanks to activism in local frontline communities
• Resistance in Ghana, Nigeria, and Ivory Coast to land grabs by global agriculture firms
• and a forest that traveled through a Dutch city for 100 days this summer.

Find links to more info on all 3 of today's stories at turningseason.com/episode18.

Healing Season: Practical Wisdom from Chinese Medicine and the Work that Reconnects, with Leilani Navar: leilaninavar.com/healingseason

How do we live at a time like this? You are in for a treat in today's episode, hearing John Seed's answer to this question, and especially in hearing about how he's come to his answer. 

If you don't recognize his name, John Seed is a wise elder, activist and well-loved leader based in Australia, and a beautiful human being who's a lot of fun to talk with. He's made core contributions to Deep Ecology and the Work that Reconnects, and to the protection of life on Earth, for more than 40 years. I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to speak with him, and to share our conversation with you.

Click Play to hear us explore:

• how John found his calling in rainforest protection (part psychedelics, part being willing to help a neighbor, and part lucky accident)
• why he likes to attend a group Experiential Deep Ecology workshop about 10 times a year (like all of us, he still needs to remember to remember)
• one practice that you can easily do on your own
• the recent Rights of Nature win in Ecuador
• how he's able to relate to this ecologically "on the brink" time with passion, but without hysteria
• and a glimpse through his words of what it's like to expand your identity through time, through the cosmos, and through different life forms on Earth

This conversation has made a lasting and very welcome impact on my heart and mind. Listen in to receive John's insights for yourself, and please do share this with the people in your life whose hearts and minds would benefit from it too.

It's such a special opportunity to hear from John Seed, especially after his 6-year struggle with cancer, when he couldn't engage in leading workshops or activism like he had been. I feel blessed to have had this conversation, and I hope it's a blessing for many.

Visit the show notes at turningseason.com/episode17 for more about John Seed, useful links, and related recommended books. Thank you for being here, and for all the ways you play your part.

Turning Season Podcast is here to offer you up regular doses of Active Hope in the Great Turning, bringing you news and deep conversations about our adventure toward a life-honoring, life-sustaining way of being human on Earth. This show is for every one of you who's awake to our multiple crises, feels your love for life on Earth, and chooses to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in. 

This is the first "news" episode of Turning Season Podcast. I had the idea to do short episodes like this while listening to a 5-minute NPR podcast a few months ago. It was a very quick, back-to-back series of stories with the sense: "Here's what you should know." It included something like, updates on war in Ukraine, the stock market, NBA basketball, and a mass shooting in the U.S.

And yes, it is good for me to know about those things. To hear them, to breathe them through, to let them impact me and inform my life. But I also felt like it would be good for me - and for you - to know about other kinds of stories, stories of The Great Turning in action. To hear a quick, back-to-back series of stories about people caring for each other and the rest of the web of life.

So, to complement the longer conversations I'll continue to release on Full Moons, on the New Moons you'll now hear shorter episodes from me solo, each sharing about three news items.

As I was choosing which three things to include in this brief episode, I realized: Wow, I cannot keep up with all the ways, all the ideas, all the groups, enacting The Great Turning, and that is good news. 

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• The Casa de Mujeres Amazonicas (or Home of Amazonian Women) in Ecuador, where women fleeing violence directed at them as land defenders, and/or domestic violence, come to rest, recover, and reimagine,
• The agreement by the UN to begin writing an international treaty on addressing global plastic pollution,
• and the Earthfire Institute, a wildlife sanctuary and rehabilitation center helping people and animals reconnect, awakening a sense of love in people that leads them to make different choices.

Links to more info on each of these stories can be found in the show notes: turningseason.com/episode16