Issue 7, August 2020

Dear friends,

We are living in extraordinary times- of crisis and also of hope for renewal. As we collectively undergo this great global and cultural “fever,” we bring you a few carefully selected articles, lectures, and activities, including meditation, to inspire and support you to meet these challenges, both in the world and in yourself. Some of the topics covered include: reflections from a psychotherapist on the pandemic, learning how to love the world through agriculture, and love as a theraputic force. We also include some links on biodynamic food, gardening for social change, preparing children to meet global crisis, the first online eurythmy workshop (thank you Cynthia!), and Cornel West’s moving lecture “What it means to be human”.

Each of us has the power to be a creative force for good. Our public health initiative to “Create Health” includes all forms of health: social, environmental, economic, educational, medical, etc. To quote Ben Cherry from his article titled The medicine of love (within the pandemic of fear), there is one thing we know for sure: “Our future humanity will be what we create it to be.” Let us create something beautiful together!

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From FHC founder, Dr. Steven Johnson, on The Healing Power of a Meditative Verse:

All over the world at this very moment an incredible social contradiction is taking place. On the one hand, the diverse impulse for Black Lives Matter and a worldwide call for social equality for all people striving on our sacred earth, and on the other, the pandemic, with social distancing, wearing masks and the prohibition of human encounter in groups. Could anyone write a more convoluted drama? This experience will imprint deeply and change the character of almost every soul alive today.

We are all looking for answers, inspiring words and enduring truths to grasp hold of. And yet no matter how profound the speeches, essays, words or ideas we receive are, each day we wake up to face the same challenges, pain and contradictions anew.

The power of the meditative verse can truly help us to meet this daily challenge. The transformative power of verse in meditation fills our souls and works on us through the day and night, revealing new inspirations and developing will forces through the stream of time. The rhythmic, contemplative repetition and selfless listening gives way to ideals and impulses in our thoughts and behaviors that transform us.

In the end, only the individual has the power to bring about real change, for only by changing ourselves can we meaningfully change our world. Outer work alone is not grounding or self-sustaining. In the outer world, we meet and learn about ourselves, but, paradoxically, it is primarily in our inner work, in the honesty and understanding of our own soul, that we meet and learn about the true nature of the other- the world and the people around us.

We hope many of you are inspired to take up this verse by Rudolf Steiner and share it with others as a powerful impulse for social change. Then, one individual at a time, these impulses for social justice and renewal may themselves become contagious, spreading out and transforming our communities. In this way, we may begin to see the beauty and power that lives in each one of us and in the living, breathing earth with all its creatures. Through this daily activity, we may be made whole.

The healthy social life is found

When in the mirror of each human soul

The whole community finds its reflection,

And when in the community

The virtue of each one is living.

Rudolf Steiner

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of FHC.

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Inspiring Features to Expand Your Interest and Discuss with Friends!

• World’s best restaurant serves food in phase with the moon 
• A Garden Becomes a Protest, originally published in Orion Magazine
• On Preparing Children for the Future, an article by William Crain, originally published by Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, Vol. 20, No. 3, Summer 2007 
• Build Your Own Personal Eurythmy Practice with Cynthia Hoven: Offering healing exercises to help you ground yourself, build forces of immunity, overcome stress and strengthen your spiritual practice
• What It Means to be Human, a talk given by Cornel West, Professor Emeritus at the Harvard Divinity School