Sharing the Gifts of Community
This period of Fall becoming Winter lends itself both to turning inward – as we reflect on the year – and to turning outward, as we gather for celebrations with family and friends.
The winter holidays bring to the surface a diversity of cultural narratives. They can call us to be more kind, generous, intentional, and grateful. They can also reinforce patterns of overconsumption rooted in competition and greed. I was thinking about this duality recently, as I listened to an interview on NPR (thank goodness for public media!) with Potawatomi biologist and writer, Robin Wall Kimmerer. Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
In the conversation, Dr. Kimmerer explores the “notion of enoughness as a radical act [that] really can put the brakes on [the] hyper-consumption that has us poised at the brink of climate catastrophe.” She goes on to say that embracing the gift economy is “a real act of healing for the land and for people… to say: I have enough. I don’t need to take any more. Which then liberates that abundance for others so that they can flourish too.”
All of our work at NCCJC is anchored in these values of reciprocity, care (for each other and for the Earth), and mutual flourishing. We want to lift up and celebrate the powerful mutual aid and circular economy work led by our friends and partners across the state.
Greensboro Mutual Aid runs two “Freedom Fridges,” which are free, public refrigerators and pantries to address the injustices of our food system.
They also run the Really Really Free Market, where community members bring lightly used or new things that they don’t need and take the things that they do need.
We are also very inspired by the work of Johnston County's People's Free Market, which offers free markets and skill-shares throughout eastern North Carolina.
In a similar spirit of community care, we are so excited and proud to share a small gift with you: our updated Inner Resilience Toolkit, re-created by a team of our artists in residence.
The world is so heavy these days. The exercises in this Toolkit are designed to help you feel steady, connected, and uplifted even when life is hard.
The Toolkit draws on practices from a variety of lineages to include Indigenous, Eastern and Western modalities such as Yoga Pranayam and Qi Gong practices.
Each section of the Toolkit – Find Your Center, Let’s Get Active!, Let’s Get Free!, and Cool It Down, corresponds to a set of emotions. We offered this Toolkit to all the participants at our recent Art of Us Roadshow, and got great feedback. We hope it will support you in learning – and regularly implementing –new ways to experience "enoughness": you are enough, you do enough, you have enough.
With gratitude,
Connie & the NCCJC Team
