October Events Recap

​"The whole getup makes me grateful for living somewhere with a culture that resists efficiency, that has a human scale, where people make the most of what they have...(We) trade efficiency for relationship, for an innate sense of reciprocity with land, animals, and people." - Helen Whybrow, The Salt Stones

By: Luke Foley, Education and Outreach Manager
 
These past couple of months have made it pretty easy to feel overwhelmed. The world, with all of its crises and challenges, can create a lot of distress. It can sometimes feel like we don't even know where to begin in addressing all of the maladies of the world around us. This month, Friends has hosted a number of events focused on addressing these feelings. We've partnered with activist athletes, local authors, and eco-therapists with the intention of unlocking the ways in which we can all be more personally resilient. In turn, each of our own resiliencies adds to a greater community resilience. We've learned to slow down, connect with our neighbors, and live in reciprocity with this wonderful landscape that we call home.

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Climb It For Climate participants enjoyed a lovely fall hike up Lincoln Peak, and then were treated to an incredible talk by POW ambassador, Carolina Rubio MacWright. 
All photos by Luke Foley

On Sunday, October 12, we co-hosted our third Climb It For Climate event in partnership with the Mad River Backcountry Coalition (MRVBC), and with sponsorship from Sugarbush and Protect Our Winters (POW). Following a lovely hike and talk up Lincoln Peak, we invited POW ambassador Carolina Rubio MacWright to speak about how we can pair our personal passions with our activist ideals.

Carolina is an immigrant, a lawyer, a non-profit founder, and an ultrarunner. She shared stories of the intersectionality of her many identities, and how she leverages her skills and interests to address social justice issues in our world. Whether providing critical supplies to refugees at the US-Mexico border, teaching new Americans their rights with ice cream, or using pottery to help foster community, there is a common thread of creativity and positive energy. Most recently, Carolina has been using her love of running to connect immigrants and refugees with running club mentors in New York City. Her program, "Touching Land", helps them to navigate not only the challenges of training for a 5k or half marathon, but also the realities of living in a society that has grown increasingly unaccepting of people from different places and different races.

Carolina challenged us to look into our hearts, and to think differently about the scale of where change actually happens. In a great big world, it's easy to feel small. However, if each one of us does our part to make our community a better place- a more welcoming and climate-friendly place- we all move the needle on a global scale.

We had a full house for the Climate and Ecology book discussion of The Salt Stones, by Helen Whybrow. 
Photo Courtesy of Beth Schoellkopf.
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Our next event brought us into conversation with author Helen Whybrow, co-founder of Knoll Farm along with her husband, Peter Forbes. Many participants had read her book, The Salt Stones, and came prepared with passages and prompts that had us all reflecting and conversing about living a life close to the land. The riveting conversation led us down many paths, asking us what it means to be present in place, and to truly feel a sense of belonging.

The talk with Helen not only gave the audience a chance to share their favorite parts of the book, but also to hear Helen's reflections on some of the key themes and patterns from her stories. Her book is an invitation to slow down, to pay close attention, and to recognize the joyous beauty each and every day. She calls upon us to feel our fingers in the dirt, to walk barefoot in the grass, or to take a dip in icy waters. 

The Salt Stones is a beautiful collection of stories centered around a pastoral life of raising sheep, working the land, and growing community. It is a tribute to life, and death, as it explores the seasons of life, and how we can learn from the process of saying goodbye to those that we love. The book calls upon us to cultivate a compassion for the natural world, for the people who grow our food, for the communities that make us whole, and for the interconnectedness that is found in nature.

Maia Kiley, licensed psychotherapist and member of the Climate Psychologist Alliance, led a wonderful discussion on climate distress and how we can build more personal and community resilience.

Next, we were so fortunate to host Maya Kylie, a licensed eco-therapist with a focus on climate distress. This event was co-hosted with the Mad River Valley Libraries, following the Vermont Reads novel choice of The Light Pirate, by Lily Brooks-Dalton. In discussing the book with the local librarians, we recognized the heaviness of the book, and how its themes might be triggering for some community members. As a result, we decided that an event that provides us with an opportunity to learn about climate distress, while also connecting with other community members who share similar concerns, would provide a wonderful opportunity for us all to connect and emote.

In our time together, Maia challenged us to think about the ways in which these heavy emotions serve us, and what it says about our empathy and compassion that we feel them.  We also learned how they can hamper us, especially if these emotions become a burden that we carry as individuals and struggle to meaningfully share with others. We were invited to think about how we might be more proactive in finding a community that allows us to grieve, to hold space for one another, and to hear one another's stories.

Maya helped us to understand how we can take action, simply by listening and sharing with one another. In doing so, we can create a deeper understanding of ourselves and others. We were challenged to work towards building compassion for others, but also for ourselves, so that we can all collectively unite in a process of trying to make meaning of the world that we live in, and to find purpose in the actions that we take.

If there is one thing that all of these events have in common, it's the recognition of the value of community and of living in reciprocity. There is a necessity for each and every one of us to find and feel connection to humans, to other beings, to place, to values, and to causes. We must see ourselves in the work that we do, in order to bring meaning to each day. So, whether you find yourself lacing up running shoes to hit the trails, working with animals or the land, or leading conversations around the emotions that burden us all, the imperative piece is that you take action. It is these actions that require us to use our bodies, our minds, our hearts, and our souls in ways that bring us all closer together and closer to ourselves.