“What you really need to manifest your visions is confidence.”
Mama Visolela Namises, Namibian Elder
The Closing Gathering calls for the October-November 2020 edition of Now What?! take place on Friday, November 20th at 02:00 UTC, which is the evening of the19th in time zones for the Americas. Find your local time and the zoom link here.
About the first Closing Gathering Call
On November 12th, Indigenous People’s Day in the US, the Now What?! global gathering and gift economy opened with a transformative grief ceremony led by indigenous women. First, Lily-Rakia Chandler spoke the Haudenosaunee "words before all else," also know as the Thanksgiving Address, to honor all that sustains us on this sacred Earth. Then Mama Visolela, her daughter, and her grand-children sang, danced and chanted the transformational passage from agonizing grief over the loss of loved ones and species to the welcoming joy of new beginnings. At the end of that ceremony Mama’s face lit up and she said, “what you really need is confidence.” She looked us in the eye, hers wide with intention, and called us by name repeating, “What you really need is confidence.”
Weaving the thread of this message, the first Closing Gathering for Now What?! will speak to the way confidence relies on belonging. Reclaiming our connection to Earth, all her creatures, and to each other, we can be nourished from our roots to feel this confidence. Women in particular have had a hard time claiming their confidence. For this reason, those elder women who have awakened their confidence to move forward bear listening to at this juncture of stepping into the unknown. All our voices are needed right here, right now. Let these women inspire yours.
Join Stephanie Mines, Clare Hedin, Madeleine Charney, Michelle Wilcox, Susan Roberts and others from the Now What?! community for an initiation into confidence. Welcoming songs and inspirational sharing will be followed by an emergent collective process allowing all participants to be part of this ceremony bringing to closure the current iteration of Now What?! The end of one cycle is always the threshold to the next so this ceremony is a bridge into the subsequent iteration which, like the future of humanity and the world, remains unknown.
This call is a collaboration between Now What?! and Climate Change & Consciousness