Chapter 5: Expanding care
One theme in our series exploring care and systems change, that stood out for me was expansion.
When we sat with our guest, Miigam’agan, who is a Wabanaki/Mi’kmaw grandmother of the Fish Clan, I felt a strong sense of expansion.
In preparation for her session, she spoke about the ways in which her language is multi-dimensional, encompasses the essence of spirit, instructs caring, and resonates in a holistic way.
Her teachings were creating new space and possibilities. This moment resonated with Tibetan Buddhist teachings and the words our guest Lopon Charlotte Rotterdam spoke in Session 3,
“Expansion includes everything, nothing is excluded.”
Maybe by meeting together, by sharing the ways we walk into care, we are creating and expanding a collective understanding.
How do we move forward to shift from harm to care? How do we do this on multiple levels including in our homes, and systems and culture?
The path becomes clearer when I expand through learning from other perspectives.
This is a spiritual practice, and for me it requires sitting on my mat and meditating. As my Tibetan Buddhist teachers say, we practise to generate our Buddha nature, assuming this naturally arises in all of us. This practice requires expanding through my presence, presence of heart, spirit and body together.
And from here, I may see new possibilities for this conundrum of care.
