You really thought through the question posed! Your uncle would be proud, or overwhelmed, with your answer! THe question of worthiness is most intriguing to me. Seems that religion and politics lead the discussion and complicate the answer. I like your daughter's the best!
I would love to have an answer to the question. It would make so many lives better, not least my own. I think our attitudes about worthiness come from a place of wounding that is related to religion, politics, and even more. And yes, my oldest is a very wise and intuitive child.
Oh, gosh I love that book. Count me in! I too have wondered how to heal the health care system. It is a many headed hydra with the heart of a Wendigo (also known as 'hungry ghost' in many Asian cultures). I still have no idea but I like the story of Cinderbiter. I just wish that people like you had enough time to daydream by the fire!!!
Martin Shaw has a book based on the story of Cinderbiter that's really great. And oh man, I do get some really great ideas plucked in my head when I sit by the fire, but with a big problem like that I think I would be striving hard to solve it in a way that would get in the way of creativity.
Hi Amy count me in too! I have read this book several times and would love to revisit in the company of others. And thank you for this post so rich in stories that matter
Wonderful and thank you! I'm going to try to choose things that have seasonal application (like asters and goldenrod next month), hopefully that doesn't throw off you southern hemisphere folks :)
Thank you for a thoughtful read. I identify strongly with these themes and do my best to elucidate in my own way how we can create our own stories by noticing nature around us.
I’d love to participate in a conversation on Braiding Sweetgrass.
Glad it resonated. Thanks for checking it out! I love how tending to nature is something anyone can do and how it is mutually beneficial. I think we've reached critical mass to try the Braiding Sweetgrass group.
You raise good questions, Amy. I wonder if it is possible to actually transform the existing healthcare system (which to me seems inaccurately labeled "healthcare", since the practice of modern medicine is rarely the caretaking of existing health but instead a response to injured or non-existent health). The story of the Windigo reminds me of Hayao Miyazaki's No-Face from his film Spirited Away, a being who enters the tale as a timid creature and ends up becoming an insatiable all-consuming devourer through the experience of need. I hear many people's frustration with the current medical system, and I feel those frustrations myself, and yet I also question if the abstract system (in part insurance companies, in part market-driven hospital protocols) is the only devourer here.
I have great respect for the gifts of emergency medicine as we know it today. I also think we as a culture largely ask the wrong things of doctors; it seems we often ask for multi-layered physio-psycho-spiritual healing from practitioners who have been schooled in disembodiment and compartmentalization and burdened tremendously with the weight of physical stress, crushing financial debt, & massive malpractice insurance premiums. And because of that, I'm not sure any shifts in our national approach to healthcare will happen until individuals both inside and outside the medical profession begin to take deep personal and collective responsibility for lifelong wellbeing, apart from any of the technologies offered specifically through medical care.
Love the idea of a Lectio Divina with Braiding Sweetgrass. That practice of the Catholic church is a beautiful one.
Thank you Jan. I agree that it really is more disease-care. When I drew that spaghetti monster diagram, the things that are influencing health like rest, stress, money, emotions, and much more are influenced by things well outside of the doctor's office, like self-worth, belonging, capitalism, holding space for emotions and so much more. True healing is going to be difficult, deep work whether we engage in it individually or more collectively.
Thank you for this post Amy, it has refreshed my pondering on connected and natural alternatives to the healthcare system, particularly in relation to mental health and well-being. There are some initiatives that are trying to offer community support locally here in SW Ireland , but funding comes and then goes as systems tighten...and holistic support is expensive, so not widely available.
Yes, you're definitely capturing the challenge when money is priority number one. Then anything even very useful, important, beneficial things will never win if they cost more than something else. And community led/community support things can't really survive booms and busts because it's not just opening your doors again, it's rebuilding a whole network of relationships.
Another wonderful piece of writing from you, Amy! I'd be interested in the discussion group too (well, provided I managed to do it because of my two little children). Would that be in form of a Zoom meeting or something like that?
Also, I really loved the references to Richard Powers and the Emerald podcast here 🌱
I'm hoping it will be a pretty minimal commitment. Each passage I'm selecting will be 2-3 paragraphs, but will require attentive reading 3-4 times through. I've seen some really lovely discussions just in comment sections in some substacks. I hope we have enough folks to make it lively, rather than adding more zoom to our lives. And yes, both Richard Powers and Joshua Michael Schrei have definitely added some richness to my life.
Amy, thanks so much for all the thought you put into all of your posts, but especially this one. Lots of food for thought here. I, for one, would be interested in the monthly discussion.
Thank you Morgan! It’s fun to see where my mind wanders to sometimes. I think we’re pretty close to having enough folks to go ahead with the Lectio Sweetgrass :)
Amy, this is incredible!! So much here speaks to me and for me. To your list of questions about how to change health care, I’d add: What if all health care were initiated, managed, and delivered locally, by discrete multi disciplinary teams serving specific local communities.
Thank you Peg! If I may ask, what resonated with your experience? I think what you are saying is kind of what I’m starting to imagine, sort of a pseudo-anarchist approach with local autonomy for healthcare providers within communities. The challenges I see with that are that it’s hard already to get healthcare workers (especially specialist doctors) to leave academic centers and urban areas and that with those small local teams you really are subject to whatever quality of team you get without much recourse if they suck. That said most people don’t have that much recourse if their team sucks now, except second opinions.
Loved "Braiding Sweetgrass"and recommend it often. I offered up a response to your good topic on NOTES, hope you see it there. Thanks for sharing these insights and perspectives, much appreciated.
May a world of connection and honor of ourselves, one another and Source within all emerge organically and sanely with compassionate grace, wisdom, laughter and joyful appreciation of our unique contributions to the oneness that expresses uniquely as each of us! <3
You really thought through the question posed! Your uncle would be proud, or overwhelmed, with your answer! THe question of worthiness is most intriguing to me. Seems that religion and politics lead the discussion and complicate the answer. I like your daughter's the best!
I would love to have an answer to the question. It would make so many lives better, not least my own. I think our attitudes about worthiness come from a place of wounding that is related to religion, politics, and even more. And yes, my oldest is a very wise and intuitive child.
Oh, gosh I love that book. Count me in! I too have wondered how to heal the health care system. It is a many headed hydra with the heart of a Wendigo (also known as 'hungry ghost' in many Asian cultures). I still have no idea but I like the story of Cinderbiter. I just wish that people like you had enough time to daydream by the fire!!!
Martin Shaw has a book based on the story of Cinderbiter that's really great. And oh man, I do get some really great ideas plucked in my head when I sit by the fire, but with a big problem like that I think I would be striving hard to solve it in a way that would get in the way of creativity.
Hi Amy count me in too! I have read this book several times and would love to revisit in the company of others. And thank you for this post so rich in stories that matter
Wonderful and thank you! I'm going to try to choose things that have seasonal application (like asters and goldenrod next month), hopefully that doesn't throw off you southern hemisphere folks :)
We are well used to translating NH seasons to SH and applying wisdom to what’s on the ground here.💚
Yes I’m interested!
Thank you for a thoughtful read. I identify strongly with these themes and do my best to elucidate in my own way how we can create our own stories by noticing nature around us.
I’d love to participate in a conversation on Braiding Sweetgrass.
Glad it resonated. Thanks for checking it out! I love how tending to nature is something anyone can do and how it is mutually beneficial. I think we've reached critical mass to try the Braiding Sweetgrass group.
I would be interested.
You raise good questions, Amy. I wonder if it is possible to actually transform the existing healthcare system (which to me seems inaccurately labeled "healthcare", since the practice of modern medicine is rarely the caretaking of existing health but instead a response to injured or non-existent health). The story of the Windigo reminds me of Hayao Miyazaki's No-Face from his film Spirited Away, a being who enters the tale as a timid creature and ends up becoming an insatiable all-consuming devourer through the experience of need. I hear many people's frustration with the current medical system, and I feel those frustrations myself, and yet I also question if the abstract system (in part insurance companies, in part market-driven hospital protocols) is the only devourer here.
I have great respect for the gifts of emergency medicine as we know it today. I also think we as a culture largely ask the wrong things of doctors; it seems we often ask for multi-layered physio-psycho-spiritual healing from practitioners who have been schooled in disembodiment and compartmentalization and burdened tremendously with the weight of physical stress, crushing financial debt, & massive malpractice insurance premiums. And because of that, I'm not sure any shifts in our national approach to healthcare will happen until individuals both inside and outside the medical profession begin to take deep personal and collective responsibility for lifelong wellbeing, apart from any of the technologies offered specifically through medical care.
Love the idea of a Lectio Divina with Braiding Sweetgrass. That practice of the Catholic church is a beautiful one.
Thank you Jan. I agree that it really is more disease-care. When I drew that spaghetti monster diagram, the things that are influencing health like rest, stress, money, emotions, and much more are influenced by things well outside of the doctor's office, like self-worth, belonging, capitalism, holding space for emotions and so much more. True healing is going to be difficult, deep work whether we engage in it individually or more collectively.
Thank you for this post Amy, it has refreshed my pondering on connected and natural alternatives to the healthcare system, particularly in relation to mental health and well-being. There are some initiatives that are trying to offer community support locally here in SW Ireland , but funding comes and then goes as systems tighten...and holistic support is expensive, so not widely available.
I'd also be interested in the BSG discussion 🌱
Yes, you're definitely capturing the challenge when money is priority number one. Then anything even very useful, important, beneficial things will never win if they cost more than something else. And community led/community support things can't really survive booms and busts because it's not just opening your doors again, it's rebuilding a whole network of relationships.
Another wonderful piece of writing from you, Amy! I'd be interested in the discussion group too (well, provided I managed to do it because of my two little children). Would that be in form of a Zoom meeting or something like that?
Also, I really loved the references to Richard Powers and the Emerald podcast here 🌱
I'm hoping it will be a pretty minimal commitment. Each passage I'm selecting will be 2-3 paragraphs, but will require attentive reading 3-4 times through. I've seen some really lovely discussions just in comment sections in some substacks. I hope we have enough folks to make it lively, rather than adding more zoom to our lives. And yes, both Richard Powers and Joshua Michael Schrei have definitely added some richness to my life.
interested in having a monthly Lectio Divina group to discuss a passage from Braiding Sweetgrass.
Diane
Wonderful, hopefully some other folks will be too. I think it would be great fun.
Amy, thanks so much for all the thought you put into all of your posts, but especially this one. Lots of food for thought here. I, for one, would be interested in the monthly discussion.
Thank you Morgan! It’s fun to see where my mind wanders to sometimes. I think we’re pretty close to having enough folks to go ahead with the Lectio Sweetgrass :)
Amy, this is incredible!! So much here speaks to me and for me. To your list of questions about how to change health care, I’d add: What if all health care were initiated, managed, and delivered locally, by discrete multi disciplinary teams serving specific local communities.
Thank you Peg! If I may ask, what resonated with your experience? I think what you are saying is kind of what I’m starting to imagine, sort of a pseudo-anarchist approach with local autonomy for healthcare providers within communities. The challenges I see with that are that it’s hard already to get healthcare workers (especially specialist doctors) to leave academic centers and urban areas and that with those small local teams you really are subject to whatever quality of team you get without much recourse if they suck. That said most people don’t have that much recourse if their team sucks now, except second opinions.
Loved "Braiding Sweetgrass"and recommend it often. I offered up a response to your good topic on NOTES, hope you see it there. Thanks for sharing these insights and perspectives, much appreciated.
Thanks Gary, that book is a delight. I read it when I was pregnant with my oldest, and it was probably the best parenting book I ever read :)
This is extraordinary and beautiful and full of tending, mending medicine. Love and peace and all blessings!
Thank you so much Alicia! Blessings to you!
Blessings and Love!!!!!!!!!
May a world of connection and honor of ourselves, one another and Source within all emerge organically and sanely with compassionate grace, wisdom, laughter and joyful appreciation of our unique contributions to the oneness that expresses uniquely as each of us! <3