This particular time in our culture, history, and season, is one in which we are being stretched by both deep grief and gratitude. We are all facing so much, and on top of the collective trauma, climate catastrophes, and blatantly violent, fascist tactics that are occurring, many of us are coping with unexpected, personal challenges and grief, too.

In the age of artificial intelligence stealing our imagination and abusing this Earth’s resources, let us remember that a truer AI, ancestral intelligence, is found in ritual. Ritual space is not only about recognizing the many difficult circumstances we are moving through. It is a remembering of our interdependence. It is a remembering of our gifts and medicine that we have to offer. It gives us a new vision to dream of our future while deeply rooted in our values.

Francis Weller refers to this time as the Long Dark, and Joanna Macy refers to us as humanity as moving through one of three phases: Business as Usual, the Great Unraveling, or the Great Turning. In choosing the latter of the three, we are consciously shifting our practices to be more reciprocal, life-sustaining, hopeful, adventurous, and just. We are all being invited to take risks, be courageous, and make good trouble.

May we feel more strength and confidence in doing this together. Let our sanctuary be a space in which the pain of the world is both processed and moved. Help us remember how much we need one another. Allow us to be vulnerable, knowing it encourages others to open their hearts as well. Keep us connected and remind us that embodying resilience happens through communing with our grief, leaning into interdependence, imagining the world we wish for, and making small steps toward that reality.