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EcoGathering: Attending

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Generative

Attend. Tend. Attention. Tendrils. Etymologically united by the root tendere – to stretch toward, give heed to – these words convey a process of extension. Stretching one thing towards another, be it a body towards a place, energy towards a recipient, mind towards an idea, or roots towards the unknown. Attending is how conscious human beings extend themselves to and arrive at the present moment. Modernity often frames attendance as a chore or a calendar task to be completed, but attendance is much simpler than this; in truth, we are constantly in attendance to one thing or another, stretching our minds and energy to whatever is unfolding before us. As we move towards an uncertain future -- one we cannot predict with any degree of certainty -- we must be ready to adapt the ways in which we show up in attendance to it.

After moving through the necessary sobering work of hospicing, processing, and grieving death and loss, we gather for the last meeting of this lunar cycle for a generative session on attending the birth of something new. Drawing on the framing language provided to us by Vanessa Andreotti and the work of midwifery, we will explore the skills required of us to attend to the birth of futures that are presently unimaginable. The future is forever fluid. We can never be prepared for what is to come, but by developing our practice of attending the present moment -- and offering care for that which is nascent and precious -- we may become better equipped to show up, extending ourselves in attendance to life as it is born before us.

Recommended resources for this EcoGathering:

  1. Emily Shaljian: UN-IM-DIS-DE

  2. Jenny Odell: Surviving Usefulness

  3. Erik Assadourian: Gaians as (Civilization’s) Death Doulas and Birth Midwives

  4. Good Birth for All Podcast: Interview with Amy Wright Glenn

  5. Ms. Lyric's Poetry Outlaws Podcast: AR Ammons Corson's Inlet

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October 19

EcoGathering: Grieving

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October 29

EcoGathering: The Commons