I Am Very Hopeful
I have wanted to write to this list1 ever since the Care of the Environment Workshop in the Basque Country in February. Writing and publicly displaying my thoughts is a big step for me. If feels like I have to discharge for years to do so. But now I’ve decided to stretch myself and do it anyway. I won’t wait until my report is five years old, so here it is:
I loved every minute of Wytske Visser’s2 leading. She modelled being connected to herself, her feelings, and nature. In the village where I grew up, nobody had higher education, nor do I. Wytske’s down-to-earth, non-academic way of leading was a model and an inspiration to me.
I enjoyed how the ideas were given to us in an organic way. When we introduced ourselves, we were asked to tell about a smell we liked. After we had shared our favorite smells, from flowers to newly baked bread to horse manure, Wytske reminded us that smells are the result of complicated organic processes and that our noses are wonderful instruments to experience them with. Right at the heart of our topic, nature.
Even before we were born, our brains were tuned to the sounds surrounding us. What a marvel it must have been when we first discovered that spoken sounds were words that meant something! I loved the way Wytske insisted that using our first language makes us more connected to ourselves.
To be in the Basque Country, with its nature and Native people, was an experience in itself. The organizer of the workshop, Itziar Larraña, had sent out information in Basque, which was translated into English. The nearby cave with signs of our ancestors thousands of years back gave a significant perspective.
A panel of people of the global majority was important to me. I learned how oppressive forces react when people stand up for their land. It showed clearly what we all are up against.
Our new goal3 is brilliant, and I am very hopeful. I am looking forward to people working hard, shoulder to shoulder, to restore the environment, end war and oppression, and create good conditions for all life. I think people are becoming more aware that we have a choice: together we must change the living conditions on Earth into something like a garden of Eden, or life will be extinct.
Being together with such a wonderful gang of people, learning about their wide world projects, and discharging what has limited us made me excited that I am alive in exactly this period in history.
Anne Helgedagsrud
Raadal, Norway
1 The RC e-mail discussion list for leaders in the care of the environment
2 Wytske Visser is the International Commonality Reference Person for Care of the Environment and was the leader of the workshop.
3 A goal adopted by the 2013 World Conference of the Re-evaluation Counseling Communities:
That members of the RC Community work to become fully aware of the rapid and unceasing destruction of the living environment of the Earth. That we discharge on any distress that inhibits our becoming fully aware of this situation and taking all necessary actions to restore and preserve our environment.
Distresses have driven people to use oppression against each other and carry out destructive policies against all of the world. A full solution will require the ending of divisions between people and therefore the ending of all oppressions.
The restoration and preservation of the environment must take precedence over any group of humans having material advantage over others. We can and must recover from any distress that drives us to destroy the environment in our attempts to escape from never-ending feelings of needing more resource.