We have so much to learn

Equinox Greetings Friend,

As the light slowly decreases in the Arctic North, the plants and animals know that it will soon be winter. The Birch leaf color is a spectacular golden show in every direction. The air turns crisp – signaling to prepare for winter.  The vital chlorophyll has traveled from the leaves to the unseen areas in the trees.

It is the season of the rut for the reindeer. And a time to prepare for the move from mountains to low land, as the coming winter will make food increasingly hard to find.

The Sámi also prepare for the coming of winter, following the same rhythms of Nature that the plants and animals do. Various berry picking now complete, the focus turns to fishing and preparing to move their reindeer.

There are 8 seasons in the Sámi conception of time, each aligned with the cycles of Nature. Marking the year through deeply held connections over thousands of years. ~

We have so much to learn.

It has been a year now since I moved into a home in Sápmi, above the arctic circle in Sweden. In doing so, I fulfilled a long-time dream of re-creating roots in the lands where my Sámi Ancestors once lived--bringing us both back home.  It is a re-connection story that began in 1997, when I was first introduced to the notion of Ancestral Connectedness by my teachers at the time (Kimmy Johnson and Jürgen Kremer), and to the possibility of recovering my Indigenous mind. Through their invitation and guidance, I sat in the presence of wisdom carried by Indigenous teachers and Elders—Apela Colorado, Biret Máret Kallio, Malidoma Somé, and so many others--quietly listening and learning how to hold a place of reverence for Nature, Ancestors, and Ways of Knowing that live outside of traditional Western knowledge systems.
 

Since then, there have been countless experiences that have stitched me back together--closing gaps between my early years of feeling completely disconnected from the land, my body, and my lineage, to where I stand today. My on-going commitment to recovering my Indigenous mind comes with the understanding that I will never achieve it in my lifetime. I will never fully understand what it means to have my very identity woven into the fabric of landscape, myth, and original instructions.
 

Over time, the significance of this journey for me comes from how it has shaped the course of my life, my identity, my work, and my commitment to taking responsibility in our shared world.

The truth is, we white, Eurocentric, and western-world people, have so much to learn from Indigenous Peoples.  But there is a difference between learning from them and extracting their knowledge for our own benefit. The latter of which we have a long and varied history of.
 

The question to begin to ask ourselves is: How do we stand in right-relationship with our own family lineage as white Americans or Europeans who have benefited from the legacy of imperialism’s extractive practices? I don’t know the full answer, but I do know that we need to shift our relationship to power and privilege to find it—which means embracing uncertainty with humility.
 

Whether we are born to privilege by the color of our skin, or we have assimilated into its ascension, it is our commitment to dismantling the privileges we are afforded that will determine the outcome of the polycrisis we all now face—the collapse of ecosystems, economies and democracies, the spiritual disconnections and fragmentations of compassion, the greed that propels the mindless consumption for more.
 

The Regeneration Process Method was created as a framework to lead us through these crises toward co-creating systemic change—change that reconnects us, allows us to let go of the systems that bind us to the under-belly of capitalism’s extractive legacy, and ultimately liberates us all—inspiring a just and regenerative future for generations to come.