Dear Marin
This book was completed in Spring 2023 as the closing project for Systems Thinking Marin.
Visit the Systems Thinking Marin website to learn more and to download a free chapter.
Or, purchase from the Lulu bookstore now.
“Lift Up to Drawdown”
Chavez, Felicia I. “Lift Up to Drawdown: Empowering Women and Girls to Systemically Reverse Climate Change, and Relevance to Religious Communities.” In Religion and Sustainability: Interreligious Resources, Interdisciplinary Responses: Intersection of Sustainability Studies and Religion, Theology, Philosophy, edited by Rita DasGupta Sherma, Purusottama Bilimoria, and Pravina P. Rodrigues, 237–44. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2022.
Blogs
Original Acrylic by Cassandra Bagley-Schorn. With permissions.
Sustainability & Spirituality
Common Threads and Common Threats
Oneness. Living simply. Purity. Care and heart. These principles arise from spiritual grounding. Awakening. Preservation of life. Awe and wonder. All seven are found, in abundance, across cultures and across time. Their most ecstatic, soul-moving expression is found in the living writings of mystics: mystics whose voices reach across cultures, language, and time, and touch our hearts and move us to compassionate action, even in our heavily distracted, technological age.
What does it take to move the human species into a sustainable mode of existence on planet Earth? This book suggests that the answers lie within the realm of spirituality and religion. Further, the author hypothesizes that without overt—not just covert—spirituality, sustainability is not sustainable; that is, without spirituality, the human project is doomed to failure, and there is evidence to back this up. Some individuals within the realms of sustainable business, ecological science, and activism may not think of themselves as religious, or even spiritual people. The sustainability movement, however, is itself underpinned by the core principles above; principles that arise from spirituality.