sustainability and resilience

Writing this article for LA Yoga magazine and in preparation for a "sustainable health care" community brain storming session that our Transition Town Mar Vista/Venice put on, I realized that the subject requires a book. And that is the case even without addressing the issues of cost, or insurance, or access.

I chose to write about how our current system is unsustainable because of toxicity, its lack of focus on precaution and prevention, and its resource use, none of which issues are handled in the current efforts at reform. I looked at the sustainability of alternative healing modalities and at some of the basic things we can do to make ourselves healthier that depend on nothing other than our hands, minds and hearts, and our ability to connect to the earth.

But in writing this article, I had occasion to muse on what makes my own health sustainable. And what is the difference between sustainability and resilience.

For the decade of the 1970's I was a health care practitioner. I worked as a licensed practical nurse, and as a midwife. When women wanted to have their babies at home, I would help them do that.

I did prenatal care and home visits and childbirth classes and coaching and assisted in labor and birth and I went back for a post natal visits to check on mother and baby. I got licensed as a massage therapist, so I could provide that service to women willing to engage in childbirth without drugs. I became an advocate for the needs of mothers and infants in my community and struggled with the local medical establishment who disdained home birth and fought any changes in hospital policies. For a couple of years I was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I loved delivering babies, and being with pregnant women and new moms brought me so much joy. But what I was doing was personally unsustainable.

I didn't know how to practice in a way that was more balanced and healthy for me personally and eventually I became so physically and emotionally exhausted, I quit.

Over time I have learned what I need to do to keep my own self nurtured and cared for, but still I tend to overdo at times and neglect the amount of time I need - not just to sustain myself, but to build resilience and well-being.

Recently, at another community group meeting, I realized that I was feeling overwhelmed by everything I have to do, all the activities I engage in and feel are important. So were others at the meeting. We decided to stop having an agenda - for a couple of months we drank tea, we talked about ourselves and what interested us, we reconnected with our reason for coming together. After a while, we got fired up to get active again.

I think we in the activist community have a lot to learn about how to create resilience in our groups - how to nurture ourselves and each other while we do the hard work of creating alternatives.

Anneke On Visionary Activist Show

Speaking on the radio

Recently I talked on the Visionary Activist radio show (KPFA) about my book with Thomas Linzey, "Be The Change: How to Get What You Want in Your Community." It was the first time I got to be on a radio show.

Host Caroline Casey and I spoke about the ideas in the book, and how these communities decided to take back their power by writing laws that stripped corporations of their personhood rights. I talked about the people like Gail Darryl of Barnstead and Michael Vacca of Blaine Township and Cathy Miorelli of Tamaqua. It was fun and easy and I felt articulate. She asked me to read the Preamble of the Barnstead Ordinance banning corporate water withdrawal, and the very words moved and inspired me.

"We The People of the Town of Barnstead declare that water is essential for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness--both for people and for the ecological systems, which give life to all species. We the People of the Town of Barnstead declare that we have the duty to safeguard the water both on and beneath the Earth's surface, and in the process safeguard the rights of the ecosystems of which Barnstead is a part. We the people of Barnstead declare that all of our water is held in the public trust as a common resource to be used for the benefit of Barnstead residents and of the natural ecosystems of which they are a part."

I discussed the rights of communities and the rights of nature. We talked about the articles of the Ecuador constitution which recognize that nature has a right to exist, flourish and evolve. Caroline talked about democracy and how this means respect for each other and all life forms we share the planet with. So then she asked me to read a passage from Mary Poppins about the great chain of being dance and the Hamadryad teaching the children that we're all "made of the same stuff - man, stone, beast, bird, star." We linked this to the work of Thomas Linzey I describe in my book and the idea that the laws being crafted encode the idea that we are connected and all living things are deserving of respect.

The words PL Travers wrote also inspired and moved me.

I saw how words that are beautifully crafted and express truth, can alter mood and consciousness and create new possibilities and realities.

This makes me happy that I'm a writer.