“Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift. ”
For this special webinar, we bring together four panelists coming from different perspectives to share what is on their hearts and minds as we consider our world today and how we can help sow the seeds for a vibrant future. Your input is welcomed as together we rededicate ourselves to Earth and all her beings and renew our commitments to a thriving co-creative partnership with all life.
You might ask yourself:
How does my life shift when I live with an awareness of interbeing (state of connectedness and interdependence of all phenomena)?
What aspects of Nature are a part of my community (backyards, trees, rivers, deserts, wetlands, forests, gardens, etc) and how can I deepen my relationship with these aspects for our mutual healing and thriving?
How can my relationship with nature be focused not only internally but how can it also be outward looking and in service to family, neighbors and community (human and other-than-human)?
As we celebrate ONE’s anniversary, we come together in the present to tend to the future. We heed the occasion of our 10th anniversary as a call to action—join the conversation as we vision a living blueprint for the next ten years and beyond. Our panelists will identify what, from their perspectives, are critical areas that we are in a position to address, where the compost is ready for new seeds to grow, and how we can most effectively turn our vision—a future where people and nature are co-creative partners and all life has the right to thrive—into reality.
Panelists:
Pam Montgomery is an herbalist, author, international teacher, Earth elder and new-paradigm thinker who has passionately embraced her role as a spokesperson for the green beings and has been investigating plants and their intelligent spiritual nature for more than three decades. She is the author of two books, one of which is the highly acclaimed Plant Spirit Healing; A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness. Her latest and third book, Co-Creative Partnership with Nature will be published in 2024. She teaches internationally and virtually on plant spirit healing, spiritual ecology and co-creative partnership with Nature. She is a founding member of United Plant Savers and the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries, or ONE.
Larry Karsteadt’s life journey has been rich, rewarding and varied, with a long professional career as an Emergency Medical Services administrator in California, a Master’s degree in Biology from Cal-Poly Humboldt in northern California, extensive world travels, and a growing musical repertoire with his beloved guitar.
I’ve been blessed to participate in or guide natural history trips to many amazing wild places, often with my lovely wife Julie Caldwell. Drawn since childhood to animals in particular, living systems in general, I’ve enjoyed many memorable encounters with wildlife including walking with Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda, petting Gray Whales in Baja, holding Fairy Penguins in Australia, and co-leading several trips to the Galapagos Islands, the Amazon basin and elsewhere. Because of Julie and ONE, the depth of my spiritual awareness has expanded substantially to include an ever-increasing appreciation of the oneness of the World. I’ve been fortunate to travel with ONE to Damanhur, a fascinating ecovillage and spiritual community in Italy, to the Bioneers conference in northern California, and more recently, to Belize and Mount Shasta on life-enhancing adventures. Each of these experiences was a powerful reminder of and immersion in our genuine, co-creative partnership with the natural world. As a male, and especially as an Elder man, I’ve been fortunate to be in relationship with both divine feminine and divine masculine and it has been a special privilege to meet enlightened men connected to ONE, who understand the value of our partnership with Nature in all the glorious forms. Together we all make a wonderous team!!
“From wonder into wonder existence opens” (from my favorite translation of the Tao Te Ching).
Myra Jackson is an Earth Elder who has held careers in engineering, holographic organizational development and academia. She carries the title of Diplomat of the Biosphere with a primary focus on transforming our societal relationship with Nature through public policy approaches that recognize Nature's intrinsic rights to exist whole along with all Her lifeforms. She also serves as an expert on the platform of the U.N. Harmony with Nature Program. Her life’s work is anchored by her role as an Evocateur of the Sacred and those ideas whose time has come.
Myra participated in the Women Working for the Earth Summit hosted by ONE and has been a webinar guest sharing her highly popular topic,” Nature’s Embrace; The Way of True Reparations”. After being deeply impacted by an immersive plant initiation with Lady’s Mantle, Myra returns to O.N.E to celebrate in this 10th anniversary and share her many thoughts especially on how the power of plant intelligence can have a marked impact on our rapidly changing planet.
Lauren Valle is a community herbalist, gardener, artist and a mother of two young boys. In her herbal practice she supports clients by working with the plants as dynamic beings whose healing gifts, vast wisdom and generous allyship guide us in becoming whole. She is devoted to reawakening the memories we all carry in our blood of being joyfully woven into the web of life, and to dismantling the social constructs that lead us to believe that the body, mind and soul are separate from each other, that we are isolated on our individual journey, and that we are separate from Nature. Personal healing and transformation are linked to community resiliency—both are critical forces in the great turning of the tides that is unfolding toward a living future on planet Earth for all beings.
She gives thanks to the plants and Nature, to her teachers, and to the generations of herbalists and plant people before her. The ones who fiercely trail-blazed a path, tended seeds, wrote books, broke down cultural barriers and brought forth ancient and new knowledge, heart wisdom and ways of caring. Lauren is grateful for the visionary leadership that ONE brings in their work of education and advocacy for humanity to come back into relationship with Nature as our conscious partner and guide, whose survival and thriving is linked to our own. Lauren was a member of ONE’s Visioning Council from 2018-2020.