Sarah, thank you. There are not enough words to express my gratitude for your writing & bringing this community along with you on the journey.
I see, feel and acknowledge collapse happening in my everyday life- globally and locally. It feels relieving to know that all the knowing I’ve felt& understood between 8 and 25 is felt & understood, too, by others who are collapse-aware. The alienation I would have otherwise directed at myself over my rebellious non-conformity lessens. I dig my heels in deeper now and take a stand for human rights, human and environmental health and safety as my superiors at work turn ‘cowboy’. Because I now know I’m the only one in that room who is brave enough and aware enough to do it. I’ve recently just helped my local region get a potential project included in our emissions reduction strategy for an energy efficiency and back-up power upgrade to a local library/ civic centre. Because no one else in the room thought enough to propose it but me. No one. So maybe the islands of sanity we have the power to create are 1 in 11,000- I dunno. But I believe in that power to ripple positive impact beyond my self. That collective force serving Gaia/Earth is and has always been my calling.
My intentions and actions for collective good has been strengthened by this book serialisation experience.
Just read a quote-
“The way you alchemise a soulless world into a sacred world is by treating everyone as if they are sacred until the sacred in them remembers”.
I did a Google search and apparently it is by “Sarah Durham Wilson” who is also a book author. I am kinda weirded out by the algorithm atm. Questioning how “smart” my smartphone is as this wouldn’t be the first time I’ve taken a photo or something and then something related or the same pops into my feed somewhere. I listened to Nate Hagen’s recent podcast ep on AI and that was scary
Yes- apparently. That’s why I was a bit freaked at my Pinterest algorithm/phone for a sec. I was reading your second last chapter and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho the same day.
Would love to hear more about your library/civic centre project.
I read this conversation today (below) and it reminded me of a Tyson Yunkaporta interview from 2020, where he mentioned storytelling as the most important thing to get us through the bottleneck of the 21st century. Perhaps our libraries will take on new importance again? https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-collapse-is-coming-will-humanity-adapt/
I should add, this link was shared by someone in a comment on a different Substack, one not related to collapse at all. Indeed collapse awareness is growing.
It was an interesting article. Thanks Hamersley. The point on the ability of humanity to change our behaviour (collectively, systemically)- it sounded like the article author also thought this may be possible in post-collapse. Not in the ‘now to collapse’ interim.
The project is a Qld State gov funding to help local governments decarbonise. Contractors complete an emissions inventory and emissions reduction strategy for Councils. I had the opportunity to put the energy efficiency upgrade in our plan and the contractor does analytics on the model options for us. Basically, the contractor agreed my proposal/idea was a good one & all-in-all the funded project helps me sidestep having to deal with a lot of narrow-minded politics if I had to do the same without the funding project.
Civic centre already has solar panels so my proposal was a load shifting low-cost tech and a battery for back-up power. So our town has a refuge with back-up power in the case of a disaster + Council customer service team can still operate during power outages for longer, etc.
Yes, that’s what I googled too. And I went to post another response to let Lesley know, but I think I was out of service. Just went on a snorkelling tour in Byron Bay 🦈
Yep, Sarah Durham Wilson is the author of the quote, but not too wild. Wondering how much of my phone is an algorithm these days. Listened to Nate Hagen’s recent podcast episode on AI and that was quite frightening. He raised a good point about how everyone’s personalised algorithm on their tech is going to keep that confirmation bias flowing and segregate people more by keeping us in our bubbles. So my Pinterest algorithm somehow picked up my book reading habits- The Alchemist and this book serialisation here on Substack. 🤦🏼♀️
I listened to Nate's Frankly on AI today! We just don't know where AI will end up just like we didn't know how we would use PCs and the internet. It's scary where it might lead us. I am so thinking of the Terminator series of movies and Nate even mentioned Skynet!
Hi Lesley, I am not sure actually. It just popped up on my Pinterest algorithm. I am reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho at the moment, but I don’t think it is in that book.
Just wanted to comment on this strange paradox I'm experiencing: it was such a relief to read something that was so *difficult* to read. Thank you Sarah for writing your book, and for creating this space for us to be here in grief and in truth with each other. This is all a refuge for me.
It has been ( and I hope can continue to be) the very essence of an island of sanity. And truth, grief, vulnerability, kindness, support and humanity. Thank you x
Paradoxically, that’s the reason Trump and these other muppets are in power. They appear to speak about the “problem”, and everyone is aware that the system is broken at both ends of the spectrum.
In the end it is the calm voice , the mother or father energy that actually works. People do respond to it, very quickly, it is just unfamiliar.
“Sitting with you here now, I can see the unholy terror you have faced and how much you’ve had to enlarge.”
This cracked me open and I began to weep. Imagining someone saying it to me felt like the relief of being seen for the first time. Imagining saying it to someone else felt so generous and loving and helped me connect to the humanity I want (but sometimes/oftentimes struggle) to bring.
I am starting a “forum” locally called The Resilience Book Circle. I am thinking of doing a free one online and Sarah your book would be top of the list when published .
As I read that beautiful line it felt like one of the important landing points. Sitting and looking into anyone's eyes, with or without words, making thàt human connection, hiding nothing of ourselves.
This is both the parlour trick of the self help world , and its benefit. Put people together, soften them up, and give them games to play which open their heart and reveal their humanity.
Now if you want more of that here’s the book, the course and the supplements 😆
Or we can just face it on the day to day and realise that we are not alone and that 95% of those around us are good people and are going through the exact same shit as us.
That we are all busting at the seams to say FAAAARK!!!! 😆
it should not be the privilege of the rich , nor exploited for gain , but we need to relearn this or create new forums for it in our day to day , it can and is happening
I have made several attempts at commenting and then kept erasing. So many big feelings and no real way to articulate them just now!
I feel so much gratitude for your work Sarah and for being a part of this journey from the beginning. I have learned so much and have been introduced to many new people through your writing and your podcast: Meg Wheatley, Nate Hagens, Jonathan Rowson, Jem Bendell, Olivia Lazard and Kate Raworth to name just a few. And of course the wonderful community here. It's been comforting not to have to grapple with this alone, as we all know, this can be a very lonely journey.
Following along here has changed me and opened my eyes and I'm so thankful. And that question "who do I want to be?" has lead me to make some major changes in my life.
And having behind the scenes access to your writing process has been so helpful for my own writing.
You have achieved something very special with this book and this community, it's like nothing I have ever been a part of online. With so much gratitude, thank you Sarah.
I hope you get to have some time to recharge and relax soon xx
so weird and challenging trying to put these big feelings into words.
there doesn't seem to be the right ones invented yet.
I concur with so much of your comment Karola; especially for the introduction to peoples in this 'space'; the gnarly beautiful souled community and Sarah's pivotal and gifted work.
Yes I feel the right words haven't been invented yet! I also feel like getting the feelings out is like getting the air out of a balloon....lots of air to come out of a restricted exit point. If that makes sense?! I love that we "get" each other in this space x
Have been deliberately laying low on the book comments.
I think I’ve done a 180 and stepped back into the fear.
So much of this now feels like existential chat when then there’s the literal burning reality.
We can be kind, sure, say all the right things, hug, chant positivity.
But that broken big old protection layer in the sky can’t keep us from sizzling to a crisp.
Our houses can’t protect us from an ocean in the street.
Love can’t protect us from Nazi salutes and an orange headed man (having way less intelligence than an orangutan) swinging a black sharpie pen with gusto.
Perhaps I’m on the down side of the wave but I’m having trouble seeing the next swell.
Next is Peter Dutton with his anti-woke policies gathering momentum.
The tide is swinging and everyone is trying to align themselves to where they see their best option.
My Dide (Croatian Grandfather) was born in 1900 and died in 1988 so indeed did live through everything listed in that meme.
I wish I could talk to him now to help me understand how he kept moving forward.
Dearest Ruby, I , too, ride those waves and swells.
I guess we have to find ways that work in the impossibility of things. We have to bear it. My great grandmother was born 1900, died 1997. She saw Haley's comet twice. She delighted and cackled. She worked into her 80s. I think this is what human's just do. We bear. We bear. Wonderfully, we find ways to bear that inspire better.
It makes sense to me...because all that stuff we were told and that you resisted made no sense...and it's hard to now do the cognitive flip. The next chapter, which I'll post in a few hours, details how confused I get.
I think we're all experiencing big awkward feelings Ruby and thank you for sharing yours so honestly. My comment was meant more as one of solidarity with you. It's really difficult at times and Sarah leads the way by sharing how she struggles too 🥰
So.Much.Sense Ruby! I feel overwhelmed with life’s shoulds and respond by - freezing in utter confusion over what to do next. You’ve put this so perfectly xx
All is not lost, it never is. May I suggest connecting with a community, even just a local community garden. Those little things that bring us the smallest of joys now seem the most important.
Ah I feel your frustrations there! Watching the ‘capitalist’/growth system and all of its ‘plans’ (investing/super/property/money) ignoring the fact it will fall over eventually- is probably one of the most frustrating and scary things I’ve experienced! I mean what if we are wrong (we aren’t) but yeah it’s hard to accept. I still don’t think I’ve fully come to terms with it all.
I felt this comment so deeply Ruby as I checked out from this space for a couple of months just recently. I was consumed by fear, grief and rage. I love Sarah's word "pulsing" as it very describes what I go through.
I completely understand that instinct to hide in the shadows Ruby.
What I love about this community so much is that it's all welcome and I don't ever feel there is a "vibe" to pull down. So many fellow subscribers are grappling with similar waves of despair and grief. These are really tough times we're living through.
I have been in other online spaces filled with toxic positivity and spiritual bypassing and they have been really unhealthy spaces for me and my mental health.
I loved the honesty in your comment and it touched me deeply x
I totally feel you Ruby - I sometimes feel like a deer in the headlights. How do I show up in all of this? What is my next move? What I keep pulsing back to is a sense of powerlessness, which brings me back to beauty and love. Even in a state of powerlessness of overwhelm, I can still appreciate and be moved by the beauty of nature. Find the joy in squishing my toes in the sand, taking coastal walks, hugs with loved ones. Maybe that's what I need to focus on to keep me going in these times.
Karola, I love reading your words too and would love to hear about how you have processed and worked through the question of how you want to show up? X
Ruby, I see you and am sending love. I am also back to fearfulness. Reading your comment, I had a big release of tears. I have two very young children and mostly try to live without all the external noise of the media and mainstream anything, really. I think I do an ok job mostly.
However, I am currently feeling breathtakingly frightened of what’s ahead. The past few weeks’ worth of news that HAS managed to infiltrate my little island of sanity, I’m constantly left wondering—just as the title of Sarah’s post—how did it get THIS bad, THIS fast? It’s moving so much faster than I am prepared for.
Yes! I so understand. I’m continuously warmed by this community; it’s unlike any I’ve experienced. Am so grateful we can gather in this little corner of the internet to share in the experience 😊
I read this chapter while also gazing at the Alberta rockies, which are beyond words: silent, timeless, glorious, powerful.
I have to remember that the spirit that dwells in them, the animating force, dwells in me too. I am just so, so thankful for my life and the opportunities I’ve had to love and be loved, to learn, to connect, to create.
I love the paradoxes you articulate in this chapter. I want to meditate on them, to work them in to my prayers and practices and blessings. They are spiritually true in this time when acknowledging truth is at once a welcome home hug and a scalpel.
I hope in a good way…I worry sometimes if I’m bringing people around down. I’ve been digging into life so much lately but there are times when I am hit with the prospect of m kids’ lives and annihilation and I choke.
My children have lived a blessed life (unlike many others) and to think it will become something unlike I ever imagined for them is breathtakingly scary. But we are in it, so all I can try to do is be there and be as brave as I can (at this stage I try to cry in private or with my husband so they don't see)
Yeah. I’ve had a few good cries, too. I try and remind myself that they are going to encounter opportunities to dig in to their humanity in ways that I never did. Maybe they will learn to be far more resourceful and self determined than I ever was. Maybe they will learn about love in a really satisfying way. Maybe we will all get to know one another in deeply connecting ways that provide a way to experience real, transformative, wholly present love. That’s my hope.
May that part of you that feels like it can’t breathe be held in deep peace. May the anxieties that are holding you in that place of breathlessness disintegrate so that you can feel and stretch into the truth of love’s presence around you.
Madeleine may I too express my appreciation for the power of your thoughts so ably expressed here. I've been trying to find a way to say something difficult and your words here have inspired e to give it a go. I hear/see people lamenting, expressing despair and fear. I would like to gently remind people, as Sarah has done with her meme and her summary, that we are in fact here because of our strengths, our adaptability, our courage, our spirituality and our intelligence. Change is the only constant, as is death, but neither are acknowledged very openly in society. Many of us spend much of our lives trying to direct change in our various 'worlds' for good (for me in education), for student enrichment, for decent class sizes for amazing arts programs. We don't 'NOT' do this because it wont last forever. Implicit in our lives, as mentioned by Sarah, is that nothing lasts forever. We can strive to make changes for the present (often because we are charged with passion) but always with the understanding that it may not last long. I would have to say, as a baby boomer, that it took me a while to see this though. What does last is what is often unexpressed, within us... as expressed so beautifully by Madeleine here. I live on the coast and experience a similar gratitude inspired by the spirit of nature. The power and constant surge of the surf and the tides and the smell of the seaweed are also animating forces, that dwell in us coastal folk, that brings us together a thousand times over to celebrate life and love. But I don't have to look far to be reminded of the ever present constant of change ..... the rocks the sand dunes constantly transforming {for example}.... perhaps always in a liminal space. My thanks too, Sarah, for your bounty, your willingness to share so vulnerably as you journey forward in understanding what the hell is going on! I think we have this if we open our hearts and really listen and respond and resist the forces that encourage discord and judgement. We can be better than this!
Thank you for your words from the heart ❤️. So glad you stepped into vulnerability and wrote what you feel and shared your wisdom. You have a beautiful teacher’s heart — principled and open as you study the landscape you inhabit and receive its wisdoms.
After going through this amazing journey with you all I simultaneously feel like I am falling but I have also landed. There are still so many questions and confusion but I have landed at something important. I feel more solid and grounded in my morals and values than I ever have before. I feel capable of drawing a line in the sand and knowing I wont cross it. Thank you for going deep Sarah, this has been a transformative experience.
It reminds me of the feeling of waiting for a medical procedure. I want to get it over and done with, I want to be on the other side of it but I'm also shit scared to go through it.
I have this phrase in my head in such moments - This is Serious Mum! (from the 90s band). I describe it my last book as the feeling of learning to ride a bike and my grandad takes the hand off the seat behind me...and I'm on my own...
Beautiful chapter, Sarah. You are landing it. It's happening head spinning-ly fast, eh? It's been surreal watching a criminal oligarchy elevated and running it all over the span of a couple of weeks. They are making quick work of it. And as you have alluded to and history tells us, it usually isn't too long after that. I've been dissociated and numb lately trying to get centred with it. Being collapse aware is one thing, coming to terms that it will likely be years and not decades is another. I very much relate to the "groundless circling" you mention so eloquently here. I need to land and I will. Reading your words and the comments here really helps. Thank you so much for your work. I'm listening to AOC as well on her live as I type this. I want to hear Women's voices going forward now.
Me too re women's voices. The pushback from men on this is real. Even blokes here who "get it" are really struggling to accept this...to be in the position we've been in for years...secondary. It's very new to even read or listen to women's voices. To view our art. The adjustment will be real
Before reading your book Sarah and joining this community, i found Patriarchy and Capitalism so oppressive and infuriating!
Now I find I'm standing firmly at a line I've drawn, living more by my principles and that i am not as concerned about awakening those next to me (for their own good of course) as i once was.
I am understanding that others are not operating from where I am. I feel more compassion and patience and am spending less internal time in fear, anger and comparison. Standing firm to /for myself is the springboard that quietly allows my softskills to flow.
I think this compassion comes from the journey that you Sarah have led us on and from knowing that you, here, reading this, are my tribe and that knowledge has become enough for me,
THANK YOU ALL. 😊 We are here holding each other.❤️
Jocelyn, you worded this so well and I have a very similar experience. I am also finding myself standing more firmly but I have maintained a loving softness. I am saying no to oppression and fear and staying small but I am doing it without anger. At first I wondered if I came to this due to being a woman in my mid 40's but quite a few people here have mentioned a similar experience. I now believe it is due to Sarah and the journey here with you all and I feel very lucky. Thank you Jocelyn xx
just imagine how different this world would be if, at minimum, men just listened to women's voices. Curious, Sarah, if you have the breakdown of men to women who subscribe here?
same here, relating to the groundless circling ... and YES, for me the Women's voices are so so so grounding and I am ever ever thankful for the courage, insight and perservence of these gracious Women. they inspire me to lean heavier into my big brave.
Ok, let’s just cosmically come together for a *group hug*.
‘Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggg’
Oh that feels better.
Wowsers, I just finished Gina Chicks book and Juice, and both resonate through this so much. Perhaps collapse is the gift we need, like it was that Blaise was to be set free. And you can survive in an 8 degree increase and it will be shit, but is being alive and trying to survive with an open heart the gift? Can we all become the ‘Service’ and go out and take down the gazillionaires raping the great mother?
Thank you Sarah, you have given me so much insight, I feel like you are a friend and you have befriended me Nate and Margaret, and Jem and Joanna and all the rest. The pain is still real, the grief for the loss of our mother is like a heavy cloud, then the birdsong awakens the desire to live and see the beauty. How lucky are we to be here and now and witness to this amazing History. I think about planting a forest as a tribute to my being, knowing it will probably survive me in Tasmania and be the song of my history. Perhaps a communal forest can be planted, see there’s hope in that.
Anyway, love you, thank you so much, come for a glass of wine one day please xx
Beautifull! Agree! Agree! Agree! Also just near the end of TW's Juice so def hear you. 'Covid' certainly made us all look within and reconnect with community.. stopped the mad rushing!! so perhaps it was the beginning of survival with an open heart and a re evaluation of the hierarchy of 'worth'. And we learnt to sit and be...........
Oh Sarah, thank you, this book has been a life line in the dark and a shoulder shaking moment of “it’s time”. I’m so grateful for your podcast too, listening to you talk to those thought leaders was my island hopping in the archipelago of sanity. I’m currently cocooned in bed with Martha Beck’s new book, nodding along and gratefully using her exercises with much success.
That’s my revolution, the only way forward as I see it. Staying right brained, keeping my heart online and, as hopelessly woowoo as it sounds, acting from a place of love. We just need to find a new way to “find bananas with friends”.
I’ve laughed and cried along with this book, and shared gems with similarly minded friends. I’m slowly talking to clients about it when it feels right, some who lost everything in LA recently or have returned to dust filled apartments in Beirut.
That meme you shared was eye opening AND in today’s world, and our nervous systems by association, we have lived through a number of wars televised into our homes and now to our handheld devices. That paradox of living peace and prosperity but feeling the fear of all at once, were beyond the evolutionary edge of our beautifully, slowly crafted human design. Speed kills, and so our society continues to put the pedal to the metal.
You asked what else has shocked us - it’s the obvious slide back into gender inequality as the broligarchy rises, and taking so many women willingly with it. As Grace Tame showed just last week, women speaking up against inequality is to be applauded until it’s uncomfortable for the systems of power, and then they’re shamed for it. I’m grateful to women like Grace who keep showing us how to speak truth to bullshit (as Brene Brown put it).
I am also slowly chewing on a book “The Fall: The Insanity of the Ego in Human History and the Dawning of a New Era” by Steve Taylor. Its premise is that approx 6,000 years ago something shifted in human evolution that made us more left brained, creating war, hierarchical societies, wealth accumulation and slavery. Before that humans lived with social, gender and resource equality and any fighting or war was ritualised to minimise death. Archaeological evidence shows we were civilised while also living in grateful harmony with the planet. Perhaps that’s where we’ll end up again? That’s my dream for us all.
When I ask where this universal human experiment will end up, I just remind myself that all I need to do is be the best possibility for the human race. It’s not easy, and it’s a fight against the tide, but one that is worth fighting in so many ways. And you, Sarah, are doing that in spades, so thank you x
It’s good isn’t it, and wish I could take credit for “broligarchy” but its a term I think I heard Sarah or a guest use in a podcast episode, and others in the media also using liberally right now. And bless Grace Tame, she’s so inspiring
That is the perfect wrap up AND set up Sarah. I can’t imagine how hard it is to tie up so…*much*…into something so succinct; something that had my internal voice saying ‘yes!’ and ‘nailed it!’ on repeat. The examples you gave were a gut punch and, I think, calibrated right. Yet. Yet. I still read hope for what’s next. Closing this part of the ride will be sad, but I am pumped for the Mother Energy!
What a strange and beautiful thing to read a book as it is written, and regarding a subject that's unfolding day by day around us. I don't know how you wrap this up, honestly. It seems that every day more needs to be said! I have loved being a part of this journey, and you're so right; The community is truly the best part. Sarah, you've held our hand to educate us, and in the process to form a community so at odds with the climate surrounding us all. Thank you for that. I hope we can continue to discuss all of this together!
I love your paradoxical truths -death is apon us and this makes me love life more than ever before! Yes this is the gift isn't it, truely seeing all the beauty around us
Thanks so much Sarah. This last chapter feels like a fitting end to a difficult, scary idea. You seem to have untangled that skein of wool and made sense of all the threads!
Moloch and that we are all implicated, had me imaging I was spinning in one spot with my finger pointed trying to find the one to blame, only to realise I have to point my finger at myself. I keep thinking how far do we have to go back to live sustainably, like the rest of nature. I guess the Aboriginal people in my country Australia were able to do it before white people arrived, but they had a small population and sophisticated rules that seemed to allow them to avoid the excesses of Moloch and a well-looked after ecosystem.
I'm sad for our big complicated brains and where they've led us. I can feel sad for the tech bros "who have abandoned their decency and humanity". It is illuminating to see how close to the scared 2 yrs old toddler they are, as they capitulate to the bully father Trump. If only we could exile them until they agree to stop causing so much devastation with their excessive consumption, until they agree to act for life and help us clean up. Tantrum energy is an accurate description.
And realising that we are "fighting for something that needs to die", is maybe the start of the change that needs to happen. What's the point of so much - Super, stock markets, social media, sport stadiums, fashion etc. I ask myself this all the time. It's a liberating thought.
I love your final sentence "There is no longer hope and there is something else going on. " Makes me look forward to what that could be.
As a bit of a side note, I’m intrigued to see that Esther Perel is hosting a conference in April called “Mating in the Metacrisis - Connection, Polarisation and Eroticism in a world on edge”.
In her words: “In a rapidly shifting world, how we connect with others matters more than ever.”
Sounds fascinating and more evidence that collapse is becoming more and more widely discussed.
Sarah, thank you. There are not enough words to express my gratitude for your writing & bringing this community along with you on the journey.
I see, feel and acknowledge collapse happening in my everyday life- globally and locally. It feels relieving to know that all the knowing I’ve felt& understood between 8 and 25 is felt & understood, too, by others who are collapse-aware. The alienation I would have otherwise directed at myself over my rebellious non-conformity lessens. I dig my heels in deeper now and take a stand for human rights, human and environmental health and safety as my superiors at work turn ‘cowboy’. Because I now know I’m the only one in that room who is brave enough and aware enough to do it. I’ve recently just helped my local region get a potential project included in our emissions reduction strategy for an energy efficiency and back-up power upgrade to a local library/ civic centre. Because no one else in the room thought enough to propose it but me. No one. So maybe the islands of sanity we have the power to create are 1 in 11,000- I dunno. But I believe in that power to ripple positive impact beyond my self. That collective force serving Gaia/Earth is and has always been my calling.
My intentions and actions for collective good has been strengthened by this book serialisation experience.
Just read a quote-
“The way you alchemise a soulless world into a sacred world is by treating everyone as if they are sacred until the sacred in them remembers”.
I’m going to go work on that now.
😊
Oh bloody hell. That quote lands me.
I believe so strongly in the power of ripples. Your bravery is important and incredibly brave. Well done on your project x
I did a Google search and apparently it is by “Sarah Durham Wilson” who is also a book author. I am kinda weirded out by the algorithm atm. Questioning how “smart” my smartphone is as this wouldn’t be the first time I’ve taken a photo or something and then something related or the same pops into my feed somewhere. I listened to Nate Hagen’s recent podcast ep on AI and that was scary
Are you serious, that quote comes from another Sarah Wilson?
Hi Sarah,
Yes- apparently. That’s why I was a bit freaked at my Pinterest algorithm/phone for a sec. I was reading your second last chapter and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho the same day.
Just popping in to say Sarah Durham Wilson seems really great! I follow her on IG. @sarahofmagdalene
Thanks Kristy:)
love this comment, thanks Emma.
for me also, I time travel back to the small me 50 years ago and validate her understanding and also reflect on her (sacred) journey til now ...
yes, time to work on that 'sacred treatment' of all, including ourselves.
sending love
Would love to hear more about your library/civic centre project.
I read this conversation today (below) and it reminded me of a Tyson Yunkaporta interview from 2020, where he mentioned storytelling as the most important thing to get us through the bottleneck of the 21st century. Perhaps our libraries will take on new importance again? https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-collapse-is-coming-will-humanity-adapt/
I should add, this link was shared by someone in a comment on a different Substack, one not related to collapse at all. Indeed collapse awareness is growing.
Yunkaporta is someone I have been listening to so much lately. His wisdom is deep and has much to teach us at the moment.
It was an interesting article. Thanks Hamersley. The point on the ability of humanity to change our behaviour (collectively, systemically)- it sounded like the article author also thought this may be possible in post-collapse. Not in the ‘now to collapse’ interim.
The project is a Qld State gov funding to help local governments decarbonise. Contractors complete an emissions inventory and emissions reduction strategy for Councils. I had the opportunity to put the energy efficiency upgrade in our plan and the contractor does analytics on the model options for us. Basically, the contractor agreed my proposal/idea was a good one & all-in-all the funded project helps me sidestep having to deal with a lot of narrow-minded politics if I had to do the same without the funding project.
Civic centre already has solar panels so my proposal was a load shifting low-cost tech and a battery for back-up power. So our town has a refuge with back-up power in the case of a disaster + Council customer service team can still operate during power outages for longer, etc.
Such a beautiful quote. One to grab for the road ahead.
Beautiful quote!!
Absolutely stunning quote Emma ❤️
Yes to remembering the sacred 💜
That’s an inspiring quote , thanks Emma
Emma, thanks for this. Do you know who the author of that quote is?
How about this for serendipity -
I only found two instances of the quote that credited to anyone. Both attributions were the same -
Sarah Durham Wilson
Not “our” Sarah Wilson, but another.
How WILD is that?!? 😂😊❤️❤️🙏
Yes, that’s what I googled too. And I went to post another response to let Lesley know, but I think I was out of service. Just went on a snorkelling tour in Byron Bay 🦈
Yep, Sarah Durham Wilson is the author of the quote, but not too wild. Wondering how much of my phone is an algorithm these days. Listened to Nate Hagen’s recent podcast episode on AI and that was quite frightening. He raised a good point about how everyone’s personalised algorithm on their tech is going to keep that confirmation bias flowing and segregate people more by keeping us in our bubbles. So my Pinterest algorithm somehow picked up my book reading habits- The Alchemist and this book serialisation here on Substack. 🤦🏼♀️
Did he discuss the fact AI will burn through too much energy to keep going?
I listened to Nate's Frankly on AI today! We just don't know where AI will end up just like we didn't know how we would use PCs and the internet. It's scary where it might lead us. I am so thinking of the Terminator series of movies and Nate even mentioned Skynet!
Yes I know... I haven’t seen those movies yet, but I did feel icky about AI before I watched The Matrix and Foe.
Hi Lesley, I am not sure actually. It just popped up on my Pinterest algorithm. I am reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho at the moment, but I don’t think it is in that book.
Just wanted to comment on this strange paradox I'm experiencing: it was such a relief to read something that was so *difficult* to read. Thank you Sarah for writing your book, and for creating this space for us to be here in grief and in truth with each other. This is all a refuge for me.
A refuge for me too
It has been ( and I hope can continue to be) the very essence of an island of sanity. And truth, grief, vulnerability, kindness, support and humanity. Thank you x
I feel that the human soul survives and thrives knowing challenge and truth 😊
Beautifully put Steve C,I believe that too
Having somewhere, anywhere, to go to and find solace in like minds is such a comfort.
I feel much the same Patrice ❤
yes exactly, Patrice. Thank you, Sarah.
Paradoxically, that’s the reason Trump and these other muppets are in power. They appear to speak about the “problem”, and everyone is aware that the system is broken at both ends of the spectrum.
In the end it is the calm voice , the mother or father energy that actually works. People do respond to it, very quickly, it is just unfamiliar.
“Sitting with you here now, I can see the unholy terror you have faced and how much you’ve had to enlarge.”
This cracked me open and I began to weep. Imagining someone saying it to me felt like the relief of being seen for the first time. Imagining saying it to someone else felt so generous and loving and helped me connect to the humanity I want (but sometimes/oftentimes struggle) to bring.
Beautiful chapter Sarah ❤️
We need more forums for turning to a neighbour and saying such things!
I am starting a “forum” locally called The Resilience Book Circle. I am thinking of doing a free one online and Sarah your book would be top of the list when published .
Anyone interested , drop me a line , 💝
I’d be interested too Susan
thats great, Emma
I'd be interested Susan!
Thanks Ali, for your interest. I will let you know what transpires 💗
As I read that beautiful line it felt like one of the important landing points. Sitting and looking into anyone's eyes, with or without words, making thàt human connection, hiding nothing of ourselves.
This is both the parlour trick of the self help world , and its benefit. Put people together, soften them up, and give them games to play which open their heart and reveal their humanity.
Now if you want more of that here’s the book, the course and the supplements 😆
Or we can just face it on the day to day and realise that we are not alone and that 95% of those around us are good people and are going through the exact same shit as us.
That we are all busting at the seams to say FAAAARK!!!! 😆
To speak the truth and find a way back to sanity
per my comment above
it should not be the privilege of the rich , nor exploited for gain , but we need to relearn this or create new forums for it in our day to day , it can and is happening
I feel this too Sarah. No one has put this experience into words so clearly. Such unholy terror, such depth 💔. I see you 💜.
thank you for seeing me.
I have made several attempts at commenting and then kept erasing. So many big feelings and no real way to articulate them just now!
I feel so much gratitude for your work Sarah and for being a part of this journey from the beginning. I have learned so much and have been introduced to many new people through your writing and your podcast: Meg Wheatley, Nate Hagens, Jonathan Rowson, Jem Bendell, Olivia Lazard and Kate Raworth to name just a few. And of course the wonderful community here. It's been comforting not to have to grapple with this alone, as we all know, this can be a very lonely journey.
Following along here has changed me and opened my eyes and I'm so thankful. And that question "who do I want to be?" has lead me to make some major changes in my life.
And having behind the scenes access to your writing process has been so helpful for my own writing.
You have achieved something very special with this book and this community, it's like nothing I have ever been a part of online. With so much gratitude, thank you Sarah.
I hope you get to have some time to recharge and relax soon xx
You are wonderful Karola. thank you thank you
Thank you Sarah! Big (perfume free) hugs xx
so weird and challenging trying to put these big feelings into words.
there doesn't seem to be the right ones invented yet.
I concur with so much of your comment Karola; especially for the introduction to peoples in this 'space'; the gnarly beautiful souled community and Sarah's pivotal and gifted work.
Yes I feel the right words haven't been invented yet! I also feel like getting the feelings out is like getting the air out of a balloon....lots of air to come out of a restricted exit point. If that makes sense?! I love that we "get" each other in this space x
Beautiful comment, beautiful profile pic xx
Thanks Kristy I was inspired by the beautiful pics of you and Nat to finally upload one myself xx
This profile pic revolution is making my day!
I'm glad!
Yay xx
I’m flummoxed Sarah.
Have been deliberately laying low on the book comments.
I think I’ve done a 180 and stepped back into the fear.
So much of this now feels like existential chat when then there’s the literal burning reality.
We can be kind, sure, say all the right things, hug, chant positivity.
But that broken big old protection layer in the sky can’t keep us from sizzling to a crisp.
Our houses can’t protect us from an ocean in the street.
Love can’t protect us from Nazi salutes and an orange headed man (having way less intelligence than an orangutan) swinging a black sharpie pen with gusto.
Perhaps I’m on the down side of the wave but I’m having trouble seeing the next swell.
Next is Peter Dutton with his anti-woke policies gathering momentum.
The tide is swinging and everyone is trying to align themselves to where they see their best option.
My Dide (Croatian Grandfather) was born in 1900 and died in 1988 so indeed did live through everything listed in that meme.
I wish I could talk to him now to help me understand how he kept moving forward.
What advice would he give me?
Dearest Ruby, I , too, ride those waves and swells.
I guess we have to find ways that work in the impossibility of things. We have to bear it. My great grandmother was born 1900, died 1997. She saw Haley's comet twice. She delighted and cackled. She worked into her 80s. I think this is what human's just do. We bear. We bear. Wonderfully, we find ways to bear that inspire better.
We get such mixed messages about preparing for our future, superannuation, saving for retirement, paying off mortgages.
Saving for a rainy day, waiting until you’re older to do those things you’ve always wanted to.
But then we hear collapse is imminent.
Since my Dad died young I’ve not adhered to those ‘future’ policies so much, as his death really taught me to live for now.
But I’m confused and don’t know how to be now that I’m in my fifties.
It’s a minefield of shoulds that I’ve mostly tried to avoid.
I’m so lost now that I don’t even know what I feel.
It feels completely out of my hands unless I choose my own way of exit.
Does that make sense?
It makes sense to me...because all that stuff we were told and that you resisted made no sense...and it's hard to now do the cognitive flip. The next chapter, which I'll post in a few hours, details how confused I get.
I saw a lovely quote today that hit home for me "if you're going through hell, keep walking. You don't want to stay there."
Sending you hugs Ruby 🥰
Thank you Ellen.
This is why I didn’t want to voice my disdain as I knew people would think I’m in an unsafe place.
I understand but I’m just going to be honest here and not hide the feelings.
It’s an uncomfortable spot for everyone I can feel
❤️
I think we're all experiencing big awkward feelings Ruby and thank you for sharing yours so honestly. My comment was meant more as one of solidarity with you. It's really difficult at times and Sarah leads the way by sharing how she struggles too 🥰
This is very relatable and makes sense to me.
Makes sense to me sister. I’ve been the same. I don’t feel lost though. I try to keep it in the day.
Ruby! I feel all of what you’ve said. Thank you for voicing it because I too have struggled with it all.
Oh Ruby, I feel all this too.
My dad also died too young, and my sister. Huge reframe for me in terms of waiting to do things.
AND life is also a minefield of shoulda and duties and responsibilities that don't always allow for as much living in the now as one would like.
I feel your lostness, and you make complete sense. Solidarity Ruby, and sending love to you.
Oh Ali, thank you for telling me your story too.
I’m so sorry for your losses, pieces of your heart that never re-form. ❤️
They teach us so much. So maybe we are the lucky ones. We got the heart wrenching lesson that really made us live.
It’s a very blunt/sharp? double edged sword.
Sending big love ❤️
So.Much.Sense Ruby! I feel overwhelmed with life’s shoulds and respond by - freezing in utter confusion over what to do next. You’ve put this so perfectly xx
Kristy, thank you for understanding and I feel you ❤️
This beautiful song sums it up for me lately
Karen O - Worried Shoes
https://youtu.be/Z_OKv6iNe1k?si=I0VQIeeOqSDmMG1b
One of my favourite songs...it's on my "worry" playlist
Ooooof! That song is perfection-thank you for the gift. Truly. What a re-frame that is! Will return to that.
Worry is just worry - it has never changed anything. Kick off the worry shoes.
All is not lost, it never is. May I suggest connecting with a community, even just a local community garden. Those little things that bring us the smallest of joys now seem the most important.
Thanks Tori, please understand I’m not in the depths, I’m just voicing discontent with mixed messaging in general ❤️
Ah I feel your frustrations there! Watching the ‘capitalist’/growth system and all of its ‘plans’ (investing/super/property/money) ignoring the fact it will fall over eventually- is probably one of the most frustrating and scary things I’ve experienced! I mean what if we are wrong (we aren’t) but yeah it’s hard to accept. I still don’t think I’ve fully come to terms with it all.
Me neither Tori. X
I just wrote a post about it too.
Worried shoes
I felt this comment so deeply Ruby as I checked out from this space for a couple of months just recently. I was consumed by fear, grief and rage. I love Sarah's word "pulsing" as it very describes what I go through.
Thanks so much Karola for bravely saying.
I think I’ve just been hiding in the shadows saying nothing as I’ve had nothing positive to offer.
Honesty in all our thoughts is so valuable but I get scared that I don’t want to pull down the vibe.
I completely understand that instinct to hide in the shadows Ruby.
What I love about this community so much is that it's all welcome and I don't ever feel there is a "vibe" to pull down. So many fellow subscribers are grappling with similar waves of despair and grief. These are really tough times we're living through.
I have been in other online spaces filled with toxic positivity and spiritual bypassing and they have been really unhealthy spaces for me and my mental health.
I loved the honesty in your comment and it touched me deeply x
Thank you Karola. That means so much 🙏❤️
I totally feel you Ruby - I sometimes feel like a deer in the headlights. How do I show up in all of this? What is my next move? What I keep pulsing back to is a sense of powerlessness, which brings me back to beauty and love. Even in a state of powerlessness of overwhelm, I can still appreciate and be moved by the beauty of nature. Find the joy in squishing my toes in the sand, taking coastal walks, hugs with loved ones. Maybe that's what I need to focus on to keep me going in these times.
Karola, I love reading your words too and would love to hear about how you have processed and worked through the question of how you want to show up? X
Ruby, I see you and am sending love. I am also back to fearfulness. Reading your comment, I had a big release of tears. I have two very young children and mostly try to live without all the external noise of the media and mainstream anything, really. I think I do an ok job mostly.
However, I am currently feeling breathtakingly frightened of what’s ahead. The past few weeks’ worth of news that HAS managed to infiltrate my little island of sanity, I’m constantly left wondering—just as the title of Sarah’s post—how did it get THIS bad, THIS fast? It’s moving so much faster than I am prepared for.
Sending love right back to you Emelie and feel your fear 🙏
Even just voicing it and having that release of internal struggle is cathartic and positive.
We’re not alone and that’s wonderful. But even at nearly 55, I want some kind of parental guidance that says, you will be fine, it will be okay.
❤️
Yes! I so understand. I’m continuously warmed by this community; it’s unlike any I’ve experienced. Am so grateful we can gather in this little corner of the internet to share in the experience 😊
I read this chapter while also gazing at the Alberta rockies, which are beyond words: silent, timeless, glorious, powerful.
I have to remember that the spirit that dwells in them, the animating force, dwells in me too. I am just so, so thankful for my life and the opportunities I’ve had to love and be loved, to learn, to connect, to create.
I love the paradoxes you articulate in this chapter. I want to meditate on them, to work them in to my prayers and practices and blessings. They are spiritually true in this time when acknowledging truth is at once a welcome home hug and a scalpel.
The best thing to do with paradoxes is to meditate on them....let them swirl and be, comically.
Your writing is so evocative. A hug and a scalpel. Wow Madeleine, I think I stopped breathing for a sec when I read that.
I hope in a good way…I worry sometimes if I’m bringing people around down. I’ve been digging into life so much lately but there are times when I am hit with the prospect of m kids’ lives and annihilation and I choke.
Thanks for saying that about your kids. Mine are no longer kids but grief and anxiety for them sits in my heart like a boulder.
yes me too. The faces of the young ones - 💔
My children have lived a blessed life (unlike many others) and to think it will become something unlike I ever imagined for them is breathtakingly scary. But we are in it, so all I can try to do is be there and be as brave as I can (at this stage I try to cry in private or with my husband so they don't see)
Yeah. I’ve had a few good cries, too. I try and remind myself that they are going to encounter opportunities to dig in to their humanity in ways that I never did. Maybe they will learn to be far more resourceful and self determined than I ever was. Maybe they will learn about love in a really satisfying way. Maybe we will all get to know one another in deeply connecting ways that provide a way to experience real, transformative, wholly present love. That’s my hope.
Yes in a good way, definitely in a good way. Your writing is powerful and beautiful. x
My daughter is in the States right now on holiday. Some part of me cannot breath.
May that part of you that feels like it can’t breathe be held in deep peace. May the anxieties that are holding you in that place of breathlessness disintegrate so that you can feel and stretch into the truth of love’s presence around you.
Madeleine may I too express my appreciation for the power of your thoughts so ably expressed here. I've been trying to find a way to say something difficult and your words here have inspired e to give it a go. I hear/see people lamenting, expressing despair and fear. I would like to gently remind people, as Sarah has done with her meme and her summary, that we are in fact here because of our strengths, our adaptability, our courage, our spirituality and our intelligence. Change is the only constant, as is death, but neither are acknowledged very openly in society. Many of us spend much of our lives trying to direct change in our various 'worlds' for good (for me in education), for student enrichment, for decent class sizes for amazing arts programs. We don't 'NOT' do this because it wont last forever. Implicit in our lives, as mentioned by Sarah, is that nothing lasts forever. We can strive to make changes for the present (often because we are charged with passion) but always with the understanding that it may not last long. I would have to say, as a baby boomer, that it took me a while to see this though. What does last is what is often unexpressed, within us... as expressed so beautifully by Madeleine here. I live on the coast and experience a similar gratitude inspired by the spirit of nature. The power and constant surge of the surf and the tides and the smell of the seaweed are also animating forces, that dwell in us coastal folk, that brings us together a thousand times over to celebrate life and love. But I don't have to look far to be reminded of the ever present constant of change ..... the rocks the sand dunes constantly transforming {for example}.... perhaps always in a liminal space. My thanks too, Sarah, for your bounty, your willingness to share so vulnerably as you journey forward in understanding what the hell is going on! I think we have this if we open our hearts and really listen and respond and resist the forces that encourage discord and judgement. We can be better than this!
Beautifully put. Yes, we are here precisely because we rose, generation after generation.
Thank you for your words from the heart ❤️. So glad you stepped into vulnerability and wrote what you feel and shared your wisdom. You have a beautiful teacher’s heart — principled and open as you study the landscape you inhabit and receive its wisdoms.
After going through this amazing journey with you all I simultaneously feel like I am falling but I have also landed. There are still so many questions and confusion but I have landed at something important. I feel more solid and grounded in my morals and values than I ever have before. I feel capable of drawing a line in the sand and knowing I wont cross it. Thank you for going deep Sarah, this has been a transformative experience.
It reminds me of the feeling of waiting for a medical procedure. I want to get it over and done with, I want to be on the other side of it but I'm also shit scared to go through it.
I have this phrase in my head in such moments - This is Serious Mum! (from the 90s band). I describe it my last book as the feeling of learning to ride a bike and my grandad takes the hand off the seat behind me...and I'm on my own...
Actually - I just realised I DIDN'T include that anecdote and may do in part 2 of chapter 25!
Ha TISM. I remember them
I got to see them live! They were awesome!
Falling and landed. This is so perfect.
Also - excellent analogy to finish. I feel exactly the same. Anticipatory...but not anxiety. Anticipatory acceptance.
yup there is a weightlessness in the huge huge weight
so strange and strange
I'm loving all the new profile pics. Hello Cracklepoint Nat x
👋
So true!!!
This is exactly how I feel also Kristy, well written. 👏
Feeling more solid in your values and morals! I love that and would say that I am experiencing the same x
Yes - falling and landing simultaneously. Surreal and very real!
Beautiful chapter, Sarah. You are landing it. It's happening head spinning-ly fast, eh? It's been surreal watching a criminal oligarchy elevated and running it all over the span of a couple of weeks. They are making quick work of it. And as you have alluded to and history tells us, it usually isn't too long after that. I've been dissociated and numb lately trying to get centred with it. Being collapse aware is one thing, coming to terms that it will likely be years and not decades is another. I very much relate to the "groundless circling" you mention so eloquently here. I need to land and I will. Reading your words and the comments here really helps. Thank you so much for your work. I'm listening to AOC as well on her live as I type this. I want to hear Women's voices going forward now.
Me too re women's voices. The pushback from men on this is real. Even blokes here who "get it" are really struggling to accept this...to be in the position we've been in for years...secondary. It's very new to even read or listen to women's voices. To view our art. The adjustment will be real
Women's voices - YES!
Before reading your book Sarah and joining this community, i found Patriarchy and Capitalism so oppressive and infuriating!
Now I find I'm standing firmly at a line I've drawn, living more by my principles and that i am not as concerned about awakening those next to me (for their own good of course) as i once was.
I am understanding that others are not operating from where I am. I feel more compassion and patience and am spending less internal time in fear, anger and comparison. Standing firm to /for myself is the springboard that quietly allows my softskills to flow.
I think this compassion comes from the journey that you Sarah have led us on and from knowing that you, here, reading this, are my tribe and that knowledge has become enough for me,
THANK YOU ALL. 😊 We are here holding each other.❤️
Jocelyn, you worded this so well and I have a very similar experience. I am also finding myself standing more firmly but I have maintained a loving softness. I am saying no to oppression and fear and staying small but I am doing it without anger. At first I wondered if I came to this due to being a woman in my mid 40's but quite a few people here have mentioned a similar experience. I now believe it is due to Sarah and the journey here with you all and I feel very lucky. Thank you Jocelyn xx
Thank you Kristy, Sarah and all,
I am strengthened by you too. X
just imagine how different this world would be if, at minimum, men just listened to women's voices. Curious, Sarah, if you have the breakdown of men to women who subscribe here?
same here, relating to the groundless circling ... and YES, for me the Women's voices are so so so grounding and I am ever ever thankful for the courage, insight and perservence of these gracious Women. they inspire me to lean heavier into my big brave.
Ok, let’s just cosmically come together for a *group hug*.
‘Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggg’
Oh that feels better.
Wowsers, I just finished Gina Chicks book and Juice, and both resonate through this so much. Perhaps collapse is the gift we need, like it was that Blaise was to be set free. And you can survive in an 8 degree increase and it will be shit, but is being alive and trying to survive with an open heart the gift? Can we all become the ‘Service’ and go out and take down the gazillionaires raping the great mother?
Thank you Sarah, you have given me so much insight, I feel like you are a friend and you have befriended me Nate and Margaret, and Jem and Joanna and all the rest. The pain is still real, the grief for the loss of our mother is like a heavy cloud, then the birdsong awakens the desire to live and see the beauty. How lucky are we to be here and now and witness to this amazing History. I think about planting a forest as a tribute to my being, knowing it will probably survive me in Tasmania and be the song of my history. Perhaps a communal forest can be planted, see there’s hope in that.
Anyway, love you, thank you so much, come for a glass of wine one day please xx
Hugs back at ya. I like the idea of planting a communal forest xxx
Beautifull! Agree! Agree! Agree! Also just near the end of TW's Juice so def hear you. 'Covid' certainly made us all look within and reconnect with community.. stopped the mad rushing!! so perhaps it was the beginning of survival with an open heart and a re evaluation of the hierarchy of 'worth'. And we learnt to sit and be...........
Oh Sarah, thank you, this book has been a life line in the dark and a shoulder shaking moment of “it’s time”. I’m so grateful for your podcast too, listening to you talk to those thought leaders was my island hopping in the archipelago of sanity. I’m currently cocooned in bed with Martha Beck’s new book, nodding along and gratefully using her exercises with much success.
That’s my revolution, the only way forward as I see it. Staying right brained, keeping my heart online and, as hopelessly woowoo as it sounds, acting from a place of love. We just need to find a new way to “find bananas with friends”.
I’ve laughed and cried along with this book, and shared gems with similarly minded friends. I’m slowly talking to clients about it when it feels right, some who lost everything in LA recently or have returned to dust filled apartments in Beirut.
That meme you shared was eye opening AND in today’s world, and our nervous systems by association, we have lived through a number of wars televised into our homes and now to our handheld devices. That paradox of living peace and prosperity but feeling the fear of all at once, were beyond the evolutionary edge of our beautifully, slowly crafted human design. Speed kills, and so our society continues to put the pedal to the metal.
You asked what else has shocked us - it’s the obvious slide back into gender inequality as the broligarchy rises, and taking so many women willingly with it. As Grace Tame showed just last week, women speaking up against inequality is to be applauded until it’s uncomfortable for the systems of power, and then they’re shamed for it. I’m grateful to women like Grace who keep showing us how to speak truth to bullshit (as Brene Brown put it).
I am also slowly chewing on a book “The Fall: The Insanity of the Ego in Human History and the Dawning of a New Era” by Steve Taylor. Its premise is that approx 6,000 years ago something shifted in human evolution that made us more left brained, creating war, hierarchical societies, wealth accumulation and slavery. Before that humans lived with social, gender and resource equality and any fighting or war was ritualised to minimise death. Archaeological evidence shows we were civilised while also living in grateful harmony with the planet. Perhaps that’s where we’ll end up again? That’s my dream for us all.
When I ask where this universal human experiment will end up, I just remind myself that all I need to do is be the best possibility for the human race. It’s not easy, and it’s a fight against the tide, but one that is worth fighting in so many ways. And you, Sarah, are doing that in spades, so thank you x
I enjoyed this comment thoroughly. And the gender element - yes! Thank you. I'll feed this back in.
Agree, Alicia. It's the regression (and how quickly it's sliding) in gender equality that scares me the most.
Yup agree
I totally agree with all you've mentioned here Alicia. Love your term "broligarchy" 😆
And yes, Grace Tame is one of the most brave and tenacious young voices who is an oasis of (inconvenient) truth in this desert of lies.
It’s good isn’t it, and wish I could take credit for “broligarchy” but its a term I think I heard Sarah or a guest use in a podcast episode, and others in the media also using liberally right now. And bless Grace Tame, she’s so inspiring
That is the perfect wrap up AND set up Sarah. I can’t imagine how hard it is to tie up so…*much*…into something so succinct; something that had my internal voice saying ‘yes!’ and ‘nailed it!’ on repeat. The examples you gave were a gut punch and, I think, calibrated right. Yet. Yet. I still read hope for what’s next. Closing this part of the ride will be sad, but I am pumped for the Mother Energy!
Thanks for saying that. Yeah, it's done my head and heart in...
Big hugs dear human xx
I get the feeling that 3 years is the timeline also
You have three narcissistic sociopaths leading the three biggest armies on the planet
The other leaders are some kind of soft boiled Manchurian candidate craving attention and a sense of power and authority
No one is calling a spade a spade , so eventually someone is going to pick one up and hit someone over the head with it
... deft metaphor work Steve
♠️♠️♠️🤦🏻♂️
The world does not have time for metaphors 😆✌🏼😅
always time for metaphors my dear friend. always.
you know its a FAAARKING shovel yeh?
😆👌🏼👍🏼
🤗
What a strange and beautiful thing to read a book as it is written, and regarding a subject that's unfolding day by day around us. I don't know how you wrap this up, honestly. It seems that every day more needs to be said! I have loved being a part of this journey, and you're so right; The community is truly the best part. Sarah, you've held our hand to educate us, and in the process to form a community so at odds with the climate surrounding us all. Thank you for that. I hope we can continue to discuss all of this together!
When I put the final fullstop on it tonight...it will only be the beginning
I love your paradoxical truths -death is apon us and this makes me love life more than ever before! Yes this is the gift isn't it, truely seeing all the beauty around us
We delight in paradoxes, when we let them be!
Thanks so much Sarah. This last chapter feels like a fitting end to a difficult, scary idea. You seem to have untangled that skein of wool and made sense of all the threads!
Moloch and that we are all implicated, had me imaging I was spinning in one spot with my finger pointed trying to find the one to blame, only to realise I have to point my finger at myself. I keep thinking how far do we have to go back to live sustainably, like the rest of nature. I guess the Aboriginal people in my country Australia were able to do it before white people arrived, but they had a small population and sophisticated rules that seemed to allow them to avoid the excesses of Moloch and a well-looked after ecosystem.
I'm sad for our big complicated brains and where they've led us. I can feel sad for the tech bros "who have abandoned their decency and humanity". It is illuminating to see how close to the scared 2 yrs old toddler they are, as they capitulate to the bully father Trump. If only we could exile them until they agree to stop causing so much devastation with their excessive consumption, until they agree to act for life and help us clean up. Tantrum energy is an accurate description.
And realising that we are "fighting for something that needs to die", is maybe the start of the change that needs to happen. What's the point of so much - Super, stock markets, social media, sport stadiums, fashion etc. I ask myself this all the time. It's a liberating thought.
I love your final sentence "There is no longer hope and there is something else going on. " Makes me look forward to what that could be.
Stay tuned...
Although...I'm having to read all these comments to really know what it's going to be - currently in the trenches with it
As a bit of a side note, I’m intrigued to see that Esther Perel is hosting a conference in April called “Mating in the Metacrisis - Connection, Polarisation and Eroticism in a world on edge”.
In her words: “In a rapidly shifting world, how we connect with others matters more than ever.”
Sounds fascinating and more evidence that collapse is becoming more and more widely discussed.
That sounds epic. I'm going to look into it