MJ Zimmerman (psychotherapist) Albuquerque, NM (US):
Working on environmental or social justice issues, I meet people anxious about the future of our society and of Earth. When I share that we are part of a vast emerging universe, full of immense energy and creativity, and that our desires for justice and for a healthy Earth are the universe acting in us, it frees them to do their work with more hopefulness. Many people are drawn to transforming how we relate to each other and the Earth community. Through them, the universe will inspire solutions we cannot yet imagine.
As a Montessori teacher I like to bring the concept of the universal power of allurement to my students. What draws us toward the life we are meant to live? What choices and paths should we pursue toward that fulfillment? With deep listening and discernment, the answers are diverse, profound, and often emotional. Allurement is our guide to and connection between our interiority and the creativity of the Cosmos.
After a Deeptime Network course, I co-developed a two-day online forum called “Deep Roots of Hope: Regenerative Maps for our Time,” designed to confront and move past the hurdles preventing social movement leaders from collaborating on their shared goals. We reflect on new paths forward — gathered from the unifying perspectives of the new cosmology — that can reenergize our roles as change-makers and culture-bearers in the work of transformation. www.mediatorsnetwork.org
The Sisters of the Earth Community, co-founded with the late Thomas Berry and Bernadette Bostwick, is engaged in the Deep Time impulse taking place within Christianity and other world religions. This moment of grace is significant because these long standing spiritual traditions offer gravitas and stability in this time of chaos and confusion. They also provide deep foundational tools for the transformation of consciousness as Christianity and humanity as a whole enter a Cosmological Phase. http://www.greenmountainmonastery.org
Living in deep time leads me to sense what’s emerging and to answer that call. Thus, feeling more alive and in love with life at 68 than 35, I started a meditation studio as others retired. To me Deeptime is living life ever more fully, being in Life as Universe, as Infinity, as Evolution. www.montereybaymeditation.com and www.mariannerowe.net
When I teach children at the farm how to relate to place, a deeptime perspective helps them to see that they live not only on Long Island but in the Milky Way galaxy and the universe. I invite them to spend time alone listening and talking to the wind, the trees, the birds and to go inside and listen to themselves. They learn to be in communion with all of life. A deeptime perspective has made me into a different kind of teacher. https://homecomingearth.org
“You know,” a parishioner confided in me, “I’m not religious in a conventional way.” I think she meant that the traditional biblical narratives and devotions did not touch her as they do others. “But,” she added, “I really feel at home in this parish because everything we do is grounded in the story of everything. It’s great to learn that God’s primary way of revelation is through creation.” A perfect affirmation of a Deeptime approach. https://cellsilang.weebly.com
I share with my students the insight that we don’t live in the universe but that we are the universe in human form. There is a palpable shift in the room, almost like a collective gasp. An opening to a wider world of possibilities takes place. Teaching from a Deeptime perspective expands my role as a guide to the tools and resources to help students step into a larger vision of themselves and their deeper role in our shared cosmic journey.
Deeptime Network’s explorations of the universe’s profound interrelatedness bring depth to my writings on nature. Thus an essay about grief becomes the story of rain. Rain takes me back to the arrival of water on earth, which takes me further back to the bonding of hydrogen and oxygen, and further to their formation at the beginning of the universe. A rainy day becomes a portal to the soul of the cosmos. That’s where the Deeptime Network leads me. https://thesouloftheearth.com
After showing a video about the New Cosmology, one of my students stood up and yelled, “I get it now, God could be the Big Bang. That changes everything.” That began a deep conversation with him and the other students, some as passionate as he was. A year later, I ran into him at a store. He stopped me and introduced me to his mother as one of the best teachers he ever had, and how I had changed his life. Pretty cool!
Deeptime is enabling me to build a new context around my interfaith work with high school youth. For several years now, I have been leading a program where students share their belief systems with each other, learning to appreciate the commonalities while taking responsibility as change agents for society. Using the Deeptime framework, the Universe story becomes the common foundation and care for the planet the collective responsibility we all share. http://www.gardenstatemosaic.org
Creating music from a DeepTime perspective introduces ideas new to my listeners. Learning the New Story is as transforming for them as it was for me! The rich creative work done by those in the Deep Time Network energize me to keep creating and growing. As we weave concepts of DeepTime into varied works of music and art, our brains-on-music may perceive a way to live in greater communion with other life on our only planet Earth! https://earthmama.org
When my patients are provided an expanded Deeptime perspective, they take a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh, as if they’re releasing something they’ve been holding and carrying for a long time. Something in them settles, and healing takes place before we even get into the content of their work. Good therapy begins with an expanded view of our personal cosmic context and what’s possible. This is just what the Deeptime perspective offers.
The Deeptime Story has been a revelation of the Mystery of the unfolding Universe. Realizing how we humans, gifted with love, and compassion, with memory, creativity, and imagination are deeply interrelated and interdependent with all created realities. In my art I feel invited to respond to the Divine Creator with a renewed sense of the sacredness and dignity of all forms of life. May we heal the wounds we are inflicting to one another to the earth and all living creatures. http://francoisebosteels.blogspot.com
From the Deep Time story, I gained evolutionary eyes. Before I was Canadian, Christian, or human, I was Earthling, a cosmic being! Lifework shifted from pulpit to Gaia-centered retreats, salvation to sustainability, divinity to Evolutionary Dance. An evolutionary elder, I write, speak, and craft evolutionary rituals. Readers — out, in, and on the Church’s fringe — say my story of humanity, religion, and God evolving helps ground their faith and action in this crisis-driven evolutionary moment. www.carolkilby.com
Telling young people the Universe Story and expressing it through art and creative embodiment brings them to a deeper consciousness of the interconnectedness,
The children under seven I teach light up with wonder and gratitude as daily we discuss the connection to plants, animals and other humans that they already sense via earth, air, water and fire. They see, for example that Earth’s gravity is “our home holding everything that lives here”. A Deeptime perspective also profoundly touches the adults I join with in various forms of activism, collaborative study and prayer practice.
A Deeptime approach offers profound optimism and meaning for my psychotherapy clients. They love it because it speaks to their own Universal potential for healing and empowerment. It provides a unifying framework for authentic and intimate living, with immediate application for pursuing one’s goals and dreams. It helps make sense of suffering while illuminating a way forward. Plus, it’s just plain fun! I’ve always said therapy is evolution in action. Now I know that’s because we are all Cosmic Beings.
My Art Sparks holistic creativity program—which facilitates individual creativity and affirms self-worth—is deepened by connecting students with the Cosmos. At the end of the 12-week course, students commented that they had learned that “We live in space,” and “I’m part of something bigger.” One child transformed dramatically from a shy awkward loner to a warm relaxed child with increased social and learning skills. His teacher attributes his transformation directly to Art Sparks. www.imogenedrummond.com, www.divinesparks.com
DeepTime Network renewed my motivation when my commitment to renewable energy flagged. I started working with local faculty to establish photovoltaic installer programs throughout California. Now I work with other non-profits considering solar installations, including connecting them with financing sources. The DeepTime courses provide both a refreshing reminder of what motivates me and a connection to individuals committed to making change. It reminds me that I’m part of a larger, cosmic reality in a worldwide community, each contributing to our common journey.
The Deeptime perspective gave me a better appreciation for the Law. The phrase “Majesty of the Law”, often used in the context of human law, is a testament to the Cosmos’ greatness and all-encompassing nature. An embodiment of the transcendence of the Divine. The Law has been there from the Beginning, in everything created in beauty and order. Every species follows the law in their very being. Our regard for human law reflects the honor we bring to the Law of the Universe.
The Deeptime Network has continued the insight of Carl Sagan’s The Pale Blue Dot, his poetic description of Earth’s fragility as a tiny speck in the cosmic ocean. He challenged us to see and feel our oneness regardless of our origins. I have tried to live up to that challenge. For several years friends and I have stood faithfully on busy street corners with large banners “IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES WELCOME”. Such is our way of proclaiming our oneness as children of Mother Earth.
UniVerse is truly touching ~ in education ~ art ~ and in everyday politics AS (the) WELL. The same SOURCE of macrocosm is feeding the microcosm of our little South Bohemian town. It’s not important, about how big scales we’re thinking ~ listening to crickets, planting tree, repairing bench, urban planning, interspecies relations, global warming, shaking Milky Way, dark matter … all the levels MATTER, resonate and are interrelated ~ in a DEEP way.
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