The past month, members of the service circles of the Ecoversities Alliance meet for two days, March 23 and March 24, for the fifth Ecoversities Assembly: Dancing the Waterfall of Abundance, Dancing the Rain.
It was beautiful to coincide on these two days of assembly. About 20 – 25 people who are part of service circles or who have been around the network accompanied us each day. We danced, laughed, flirted, grieved, celebrated together the long road, celebrated our friendship, and recognized the abundance that flows vigorously through the alliance, a million waterfalls flowing, joining its waters, a weaving of aliveness, hearts, and territories… This is a memory and reminder of what happened…
- From the values in the front page – decolonization, emergence, emplacement, experiential learning, inter(transcultural) dialogue – we are evolving, engaging a bigger awareness of ongoing collective learnings that connects us, some examples highlighted during the assembly were: 1) How do we relate from our diversities?, 2) Unspoken Conflicts & Underlying Tensions, 3) Initiating New Members, 4) Translation/Language Justice, 5) Whatsapp Politics, 6) Inquiry into Solidarity, 7) Unlearning Grind Culture, 8) Money/Gift Economy, 9) Horizontality, 10) Learning with the Earth.
- Service Circle Learnings, what practices are we experimenting with? how can we learn from each other? being involved in a service circle is also an opportunity to deepen our bonds. New circles have emerged since then, which go beyond the grant administration into community care and an invitation to create memory, and connection with our territories. These service circles are Conflict Composters, Sensemaking and Care, and the More-than-human Spiral. The big stone spheres along the forest are inspired by the stone spheres of Costa Rica, which nobody knows where they came from and are veiled in mystery.
- Celebrations – what hasn’t been celebrated cannot be integrated – at the waterfall base a few celebrations can be noticed: the Language Justice Workshop – an invitation to create an ecology of interpreters and translators in our zoom calls; Conflict Composters Deep Listening Sessions – a compassionate tool or technology of the heart to arrive into a place of understanding; Creation of the Regional Weavers Circle – to give more power to our territories; Subgroups – to diversify, care and attend our necessities and availability; Relationality/Ritual/Co-creating New Culture – we have been pioneering deeper relationships with our ancestors and developing an strength or intelligence of the heart with more awareness to our bodies and territories; Solidarity Page on Website – a response of how to be in solidarity with our friends in Gaza, Palestine and envision novel ways of support; the More-than-human spiral – born from weaving myth and storytelling into the inner workings of the alliance; and the Newsletter Workshop – to invite people into creating their own garden from their relationships.
- Love Initiatives / Practices in Ecoversities – what new experiments are we engaging within the alliance? – for example, the Ecoversities Communication Service Circle has put forward a Website Makeover to respond to the current needs and careful observations of the alliance members; Offers and Needs Form a way of connecting individuals who have a particular offering in mind with those who have a need of support in another way – strengthening the possibility of collaboration and self-organizing; Community Corkboard – a space within the inner ecoversities whatsapp community to posts offerings and events in a non-spammy way; the Conflict Composters service circle is exploring the possibility of offering Deep Listening Workshops as well as other sessions around various other topics that provide tools for engaging conflict with curiosity, care and as an opportunity for learning otherwise; and Grant Proposal Reports a draft has to be prepared by June 15th.
- New Proposals! this is the top of the waterfall, this means at some point, some of them may become Love Initiatives / Practices within the service circles, and eventually flow into the base of the waterfall, polished as beautiful stones, to be celebrated by the community. Some of the proposals offered in the assembly included: All Chats Ecoversities Group, Opening and Closing Rituals proposed by Wangüi and Chevanni; Unlearning Event/Fundraiser for Palestine proposed by Juan Jose, Andre, Sierra; Relational Map by Marco and Naryan; Online Jam Party by Ana; Composters Workshops proposed by Maura; Welcoming New Members for Facillitation of the Assembly proposed by Albert, Andre, Marco, Sierra; Waterversities proposed by Asato; Regional Welcome Calls proposed by Albert and Yeyo; Partnership with Enlivened Cooperative – Donation Button proposed by Yeyo and Sierra
Collective Poem - The Waterfall of Abundance
by Ecoversities Asamblea March 2024
I want to celebrate the fact that we are together on this Earth at this very moment
I want to bless the miracle of encountering each other
A constellation of sisters and brothers
a matrix of acompañamiento that allows us to share this space of dreaming,
grieving
in front of this waterfall,
an opportunity to expand our sensibilities
I celebrate the joy that this service brings us, the one we offer and the one we receive
Celebro el tiempo invertido juntes
para navegar los retos
de la vida diaria
I feel the waterfall bringing the water back to the ocean
Celebro aquí como la magía de tejiendo de otras maneras,
se refleja mucho la abundancia de volver,
hay mucho amor,
a pesar de que haya mucho dolor.
this beauty of holding the paradox,
not being the one or the other,
just holding the aliveness of being together,
and trying to bring this old binary wall down
and just holding everything that is.
I want to celebrate the waterfall, contemplating the beauty, and all the stones that the waters have connected, all the stories that have been collected from so many beings –
our capacity for hosting our little glimmers and shadows
our curiosity for learning beyond these, into the depths of our beings!
I celebrate remembering
learning basics forgotten, through doing
I bless the water that flows through all living beings and the Earth,
connecting us, sustaining us, and providing us with insights
across generations and epochs.
I celebrate the Life that flows within us and weaves us together in love and mutual-care! 🤗
I also want to celebrate water, because water connects all of us with ours,
and creatures, with our bodies, could be our spirit, our relationship, so we really celebrate water.
Invitations + What to do next?
- If you are a Service Circle Member please fill the Ecoversities Playground Miro Board Waterfall with your reflections and learnings from your service circle!
- Website Form “This form is designed to collect your valuable opinions and suggestions on how we can improve our website, making it a better resource and representation for our ecoversity community.” https://forms.gle/
ttNRMsAHBqLYkwJx6 - Offerings & Needs Form “What are you missing in your toolkit that would you like to learn? What are the topics that are calling to you right now? What help are you needing right now that can be offered on an online space? What do you have in abundance of knowledge and practice that you want to share? What spaces do you want to open for others? Open to any member of the alliance!” https://forms.gle/
a9s9c58Rd2o2tNB68 - If you want to be part of the volunteer team to organize the next Assembly, please contact Andrea.
- Join the Ecoversities Alliance Google Calendar of Offerings and add your events there!
Important Dates Timeline + Ecoversities Gatherings
- May 14 FCF Concept Note for Next Year Grant Proposal
- May 11 – 15 3rd Asian Ecoversities Regional Gathering
- June 15 Full proposal and final report draft (allocation of funds has to be done)
- July 19 – 23 1st Turtle Island Ecoversities Regional Gathering in Cascadia
- August 17 – 22 Ecoversities Global Gathering 2024 in Brazil
- September 14 & 15 Next Ecoversities Assembly SAVE THE DATE!
- October 10 FCF Final Report Due
- October TBD REC 4.0
- November TBD Abya Yala Ecoversities Regional Gathering, Mexico
Closing Remarks
Thank you for accompanying us for this assembly! our next one will be held until September, let’s continue to aim for the best and care for each other in these few months ahead. May our words and actions be aligned, may we call the rain of abundance with our prayers, may forests full of birds and waterfalls full of fishes manifest from our imaginations. Until next time!
With love,
Andrea, Sierra, Marco and Albert
