The new year is fully upon us! And today we wrap up 2024 and look towards the new year ahead of us.
Last year our blog theme was Syntropy. We played around a bit with this broad underlying concept and its six principles and were able to see a few concrete examples in areas such as relatively untouched ecosystems; microbes; and Syntropic agriculture and agroforestry. Robin Wall Kimmerer's latest volume, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World is a beautiful fully fleshed out example of the mutually flourishing “pay it forward” energy that drives organically arising Syntropy (see Sam Mickey's review in the most recent episode of Spotlights). But admittedly, the examples in action within a human context were far harder to locate. But we firmly believe that Ecological Civilization is the framework that has the best hope for sparking Syntropy in human ecosystems, so we will continue to track the progress of the implementation of this concept in China and beyond. Check back, as our Ecological Civilization section is updated regularly and all of Mary Evelyn Tucker's writing and speaking on this topic will be posted there.
Our theme for 2025 is Beacons of Light. I admit, it's taken me a few weeks to be able to write this post–to find some light again. I suddenly and unexpectedly lost someone very special to me on January 3–the individual who brought the sunshine each day, in spite of the weather. The one who made me keep believing in the goodness of the world, even when the world was showing me anything but. Every Forum task I've performed for the last 14 years happened with her head in my lap, her smile beaming up at me. I was eager for this theme as December wound down–eager to lift up some of the sparks of light that will sustain us all through any darkness to come. But by a few days into the new year, all the light in my personal world had gone out.
As I stood by her grave this morning, the -6F cold slashed through me, the sharp pain of bitter icy subzero winds. Yet, I couldn't make myself leave. It was just all too beautiful. Sunlight silently exploding through the quiet Vermont woods, setting the whole world asparkle as the snow and ice crystals responded in kind by glittering back. I could stand in the face of the biting pain–both the icy cold and the bitter loss–because there was unexpected beauty existing simultaneously to the pain, all around me.
And of course that's the whole point, isn't it. This dichotomy is where we need to find a way to live and thrive–we're not given any choice but to exist in a place of constant contradiction and duality, yes, as part of the essential human condition, but intensified even more by the challenges of today's world. Grief is a contradiction: the beauty, in spite of the pain–the beauty within the pain. And as we must keep turning toward the beauty, so we must not give up on the light. We must seek the light that still exists in spite of the darkness and and the light that can be found even within the darkest nights.
This dichotomy of grief and loss of course directly relates to our current polycrisis, and given that Monday was Inauguration Day, the US political climate is at the forefront of my mind. It certainly wasn't the outcome that many in the environmental world and beyond were hoping for, and we know there will be increased challenges ahead as a result. But the dichotomy–the contradiction–is that the contrast created by this time will likely spark lights that will shine for the first time or be reignited and shine brighter than ever before. Those who have never spoken out, written, protested, created art that inspires, may suddenly be moved to do so for the first time, or to finally widely share their work and the voice they've thus far kept silent. These are the stories, projects, people, and events that we want to lift up this year. We'll be producing some of our own content that we hope will serve as a beacon, as well as highlighting the work of others, in our own backyard and around the globe.
We're certainly not asking anyone to put on blinders and ignore what is going on around us–we simply cannot. But actively looking for and lifting up gems of Hope and inspiration within the context of the world situation is necessary self-care and essential for the survival of the spirit. Environmental, justice-based, human rights-related, and political strife and challenge is our reality. But the beauty and light is our reality, as well.