Dear John,

Join us Wednesday, September 11th at 5:00 PT/8:00 ET for our next Local Peace Economy Community Call!

Our time together during these calls has been so enriching for us, as we learn to embody peace, explore our edges, and expand into a more beautiful future. Next week, as we look toward the change of seasons, we'll connect with the natural world together and gather practices to deepen our relationship with the earth in our everyday lives.

If you weren't able to be with us during our last meeting, we hope you'll join us this week. You can catch up on our last call about pivoting from limitation to imagination here.

Listening to Indigenous Women as We (Re)connect With the Land

When we talk about returning to our Home Sweet Home in the peace economy, we're talking about returning to the earth. We have been cut off from our relationship with the land by capitalism, colonialism—all systems of domination. Cultivating our local peace economy and cultivating a relationship with the earth go hand-in-hand.

Indigenous peoples have maintained living, reciprocal relationships with the land in the face of these violent systems. Those of us who are not indigenous to the land we live on can turn to indigenous people, with humility, respect, and a commitment to solidarity, for embodied leadership for how to be in right relationship with the land.

This week, we've been learning from indigenous women as they share about their relationship with Mother Earth.

The Wisdom of Water

In this video, Pat McCabe, a Diné (Navajo) mother, grandmother, artist, and activist, shares about her relationship with the element of water—what it's teaching her, what it's asking of her, how she's tending to it, how it unites us across space and time. As we sit with her story, we can ask ourselves: What is our relationship with water? How can we honor water and all its gifts in our days?

"There's so much magic and mystery if we have the eyes to see it and we have a way of listening for that teaching and that instruction." -Pat McCabe

Seeing the World as Gift

Robin Wall Kimmerer, an author, scientist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, shares in this essay what the Serviceberry teaches her about how to structure an economy—one that is built on gratitude, abundance, and reciprocity. The gift economy she writes about is the economy we are returning to when we cultivate our local peace economy. As we grow the peace economy in our communities, what might the natural world want us to know? What lessons do a native herb, a nearby tree, a local berry have to offer us?

“In a gift economy, wealth is understood as having enough to share, and the practice for dealing with abundance is to give it away … The currency in a gift economy is relationship, which is expressed as gratitude, as interdependence and the ongoing cycles of reciprocity. A gift economy nurtures the community bonds that enhance mutual well-being; the economic unit is ‘we’ rather than ‘I,’ as all flourishing is mutual.” -Robin Wall Kimmerer

Remaining Rooted in the Face of Violence

The genocide in Palestine is yet another colonialist attempt to rip indigenous people away from their land. Palestine is a peace economy, and the Palestinian people are rooted in a reciprocal relationship with the earth. This Palestinian woman holding onto an olive tree in the midst of Zionist violence reminds us that as we return to right relationship with the land, we are called to protect it. 

This Wednesday, we will reflect on how we can deepen our relationships with the earth as we grow our local peace economy during our community call. We hope you'll join us!

Sit Spots: A Practice for Connecting With Place

One way to cultivate or deepen our relationship with the earth is to find a "sit spot." A sit spot is a place in nature that you return to regularly. The practice is simple: choose a spot that is accessible to you, sit down (or stand, lay, dance...), and open your senses to the natural world around you. What do you see, smell, hear, feel? What sensations are arising in your body? Perhaps you want to bring a journal and draw or write about your observations. Part of the beauty of this practice is that we get to witness a place over time. As autumn arrives, what does your sit spot teach you about change, death, letting go, grief?

If you don't have access to an outdoor space that feels "natural," remember that the earth is always present. You can connect with a weed growing through concrete, a houseplant, the ground beneath you, or even your own body. Remember, you are nature, so you can never be separate from it.

For more support with beginning a sit spot practice, click here.

Inspiration from the Ecosystem: Sogorea Te' Land Trust

Sogorea Te' Land Trust is "an urban Indigenous women-led land trust based in the San Francisco Bay Area that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people." They work to heal legacies of violence through rematriation, cultural revitalization, and land restoration.

You can learn more about the creation of this land trust in this interview. What do you find inspiring about this work? What do you find challenging? Do you know of any similar efforts to rematriate the land near you? If you are not sure whose native land you reside on, click here. 

Find more peace economy groups like this one in the peace economy ecosystem.

Additional Resources

You can always find more resources for your local peace economy journey on the peace economy website. Here are some helpful links:

• Lean into supported reflection by downloading or purchasing The Local Peace Economy Workbook
• Tend to yourself with The Cycle of (Re)connection
• Find a community of practice with The Local Peace Economy Ecosystem
• Get inspired by The Local Peace Economy Wiki
• Listen to CODEPINK Radio's episodes all about local peace economies - Ep. 242 and Ep. 256
• Read why the local peace economy is an antidote to the weaponized confusion of war

Don't forget to follow us on social media!

Local Peace Economy Community Calls take place every other Wednesday at 5:00 PT/8:00 ET. Newcomers are always welcome. Stay up to date on all of CODEPINK’s events here.

Please email Emily at [email protected] with any questions. We look forward to being with you on Wednesday, September 11th!

With care, 

Jodie and Emily

PS: Spread the word about local peace economies in your community—buy CODEPINK's new Local Peace Economy t-shirts and totes!