In Motherline’s earliest days we struggled to find words that would help people conceptualize what we are doing, and we gathered our fundamental mission as: dancing together as the origin point to fulfill a vision of Rural ReciProsperity. That vision sees a thriving and sustainable, planet-protective local economy that supports the reality that Robin Wall Kimmerer articulates when she says “All flourishing is mutual…” As one expression of mutual flourishing, we came up with our PATH(s), or Purposeful Actions To Heal. These would be the concrete ways we could take actions together, in community, to protect our watersheds and heal our planet. This past week we engaged in a PATH through “Tire Day!”
Together, community citizens removed 2,000 tires from our local forests. That’s 2000 tires and their chemicals NOT leaching into our watersheds. That’s cleaner water and soil for us all. Our Mother Root Council, students, parents and Illinois Valley citizens came together to make it happen, and this is a brilliant illustration of what we mean when we refer to our work as an organizing project, or a compass for how we create actions together. (READ MORE….)
Now, I reflect on the ways the Illinois Valley is creating its ‘present’ culture in real time. Even as we endeavor to understand our past through diverse lenses and perspectives, we are invested in creating our present reality. Sometimes it feels like the wounds of our past and our generational traumas hinder our ability to create new ways of being together in solidarity. But our experience is showing us the contrary: caring for our planet is the perfect ‘church’ style remedy to bring us together across our differences. A community container that transcends politics, because the planet doesn’t care what propaganda the people subscribe to. The planet only seeks a reciprocal and respectful relationship with its inhabitants. PATHs then, are a way to unite us around intention. Indeed it is the case that we cannot argue for our side, or persuade others about anything, if there is no planet left on which we may gather to communicate.
In our rural place, the Illinois Valley of Josephine County, we are creating place-based culture together in a return to more indigenous ways of being in relationship with nature. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer explains that becoming indigenous to a place means living there as though your and your children’s lives depend on it. That’s what the pioneering, homesteading women of the Illinois Valley are doing, and so part of this culture is the PATHs we take together. We are actively engaged in returning to a way of living and interacting with our place, as though our lives depend on it. As an affinity group of women (and our sons) who identify as “mothers,” we are shaping culture by realizing through action our own priorities, which have historically been omitted from real time trajectory. As motherliners, we are done accepting inaction where our planet is concerned.
Unfortunately, there are so many places where our economic reality, or corporate sized regulation for small family farms, or generational trauma, or other barriers, impose limitations and challenges to our journey. So, we will keep making little PATHs that will ultimately merge to create a road forged into a future where the recognition that the way we live with our planet informs any pursuit of a more just humanity. And we will continue to remind everyone that moving your body to a beat, swaying to a tune, skipping down a road, are among the earth friendliest things you can do, and heal and repair each of our physical, emotional, mental and generational pain. In taking PATHs for the planet, we are gently reminded to consider our own individual PATHs, and how they are helping our own journeys toward healing.