Turning Toward: Council for Community as Practice

Without community, you cannot be yourself. Community is where we draw the strength needed to effect changes inside of us. What one acknowledges in the formation of community is the possibility of doing together what is impossible to be done alone. - Malidoma Somé

In the wake of January's wildfires and sweeping executive orders in our federal government, we are present to the real and felt impacts on our neighbors and communities. Amidst these forces of fracture and loss, stories of care have emerged all around us. As we hold our grief, we are also asking, "What does it look like to lean into community － in our city, in our times?"

Council offers us a path in response: believing that in the act of coming together to share our stories — listening generously, and speaking from the heart — we can practice community into being.

As always, we will start with tea and settle into the space together. We will begin with an activity, and open our Council circle － honoring what has been lost, and sharing stories of the healing that has been and is to come. We will close by exchanging our 'offers and needs' － strengthening our muscles for an alternative economy, resourced by giving and receiving from one another. With these tools, we practice co-creating another way forward － supported by the threads between and among us.

To aid in the accessibility of this offering, tickets are available on a sliding scale at three levels of support. Please consider 'paying it forward' to help us reduce barriers to access for all.

Led by Olivia Loucks

------------------------------------------------------

This gathering is informed by the Ojai Foundation lineage, one that calls forth the spirit of Council from the earth-cherishing traditions in all of our ancestries; if we stop and listen long enough, we can feel it in our very bones.

In particular, the ways of Council have been integral to the governance and circle-of-life teachings of Native/Indigenous and First Nations peoples of Turtle Island across time. We extend our reverence to these nations who have nurtured and protected these ways through centuries of land dispossession and cultural genocide. It is thanks in large part to their resilience that we can re-member this technology as medicine for our collective today.

------------------------------------------------------

Please note: While Council may have therapeutic benefit, this is not a group therapy space. The facilitators will participate as members of the circle － one among many. While they are experienced space-holders and will support emotion that may arise to the best of their capacity － they are not equipped to facilitate trauma processing. We ask that participants exercise their discretion and self-sovereignty, honoring the limits of their own capacities at this time.

This is not to say that group therapy is not needed in the wake of these collective traumas. If you are finding yourself in need of deeper support, please reach out to olivia@teaatshiloh.com, and we will do our best to connect you with available resources in our community. Thank you.