An Excerpt from the TTE October 2023 Newsletter

5th Birthday Haiku

Yes, cheerful birthday!

Touching the Earth Collective!

The mission has roots!

The message is that we are five, and we have roots.
We are at a tender age, and we are established in the soil and society of Shambhala.
And so we have reason to celebrate.

Birth

October 2018 was our birth month. Attentive to the news, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was soon to publish it’s alarming report and I wanted friends nearby to huddle with. Shambhala was entering its phase of deep reflection, and there was space to be creative, and at the very least, gather in a fresh way. I wrote a letter to 104 people in Shambhala who over the years had corresponded with me as they knew I was interested in protecting the planet…Forty people wrote back, and the Collective was born.

Survive

The first achievement was identifying and operating as a Collective, I asked four people to share the leadership with me, Richard Peisinger, Emily and David Takahashi, and Christopher Schonherr.

We were the first Steering Committee. Collective leadership allowed for a variety of opinions and continuity. It worked. David suggested we create a google group and that was and has remained one of our simple methods of being in a Collective, 40 people grew to over 200. Over the five years, others have been part of the Steering Committee, Mayela Manasjan, Sophie Leger, Gregory Webster, Sara Demetry, and Deborah Luscomb have helped lead and build.

Many many thanks to these dedicated friends who over these 5 years have met weekly. This ongoing commitment, passion, and sincere dedication are why we are able to celebrate.

Growth

Rather than list all that has been accomplished and is ongoing ,you may find it on our website https://touchingtheearthcollective.org/.

A few highlights…In 2019, having developed a Mission Vision and Values statement, https://touchingtheearthcollective.org/mission/, we were blessed with the generous offer by Sophie Leger, to set up a webpage for us on Shambhala Online. Outgrowing that, we now have our own site.

We received the largest Shambhala Community Grant in 2020, which paid for a half time position for a Collective Coordinator. This position has since become a permanent one in the Shambhala Mandala.

In 2021, Touching the Earth Collective was given a seat as a member of the Shambhala Global Executive Staff; making earth protection an integral voice in Shambhala’s future.

In 2022, David Takahashi became the first Ecodharma Doula, the Bess Family Foundation and Lenz Foundation provided generous funds to embark on the project, Landing Ecodharma in the Heart of Shambhala. This funding has allowed us to expand our reach with a new website, with a paid administrator, and specific funds for US Land Centers. experience of Warrior Assemblies this year. We are thrilled to have been asked to participate as leaders at the three Warrior Assemblies and as an outcome, requests have come for further teachings to be shared by Practice and Education in Shambhala…More to come later in October on that development. At the Sunday Gathering, October 22, we can provide more details as we share in the Online Birthday Celebration, broadcast from Karme Choling…https://shambhalaonline.org/calendar-details/?id=667430.

Onwards

We are hit almost daily with the startling climate events, brought on by human harm of the earth.

In the last days of September, New York City, near where I live has been flooded. I mention it not because it is any more important than any other catastrophe. So many much worse. The climate emergency is here, wherever we live…It touches all sentient beings, all that is sacred.

We are fortunate to have this precious birth, each of us. And we are fortunate to have this Collective to draw strength from and to build to be of benefit.

Join in Singing

Please join us in a collective singing of Cheerful Birthday, and let each of us take a moment to contemplate, wish, blow out the candles, have some cake, and get up and move onwards.

With great love and thanks for all my friends, and teachers, those who have joined the Collective, and those unseen, who have inspired and helped this Collective into existence,

Irene

Click here to read the full Touching the Earth Collective October 2023 Newsletter