Resilience Wayfinding
Co-taught by Anna O'Malley, MD and James Stark
We are facing into uncertain times. Climate change and related disasters, economic insecurity, social injustice, as well as pandemic viral illness on top of epidemic chronic disease are just some of the challenges to human life in our current society.
As COVID and catastrophic wildfire has made abundantly clear, every one of us will be faced with accelerating challenges and with coming to terms with change and the unknown. In the face of such powerful forces of nature, the fragility of our human lives becomes ever-more apparent, as does the urgent need for humans to live and work in harmony with nature.
How do we personally prepare ourselves for such a future?
This five-part course offers both a big picture orientation to the many-layered challenges facing humanity at this planetary moment, and a systematic roadmap for gaining many of the skills, inner and outer, for navigation with resilience.
We will be courageously looking at these challenges to form a clear-eyed assessment of our personal reality. We will be supporting each other in making specific plans for preparedness, meeting ourselves exactly where we are.
This program is designed to open our eyes to the unfolding reality and awaken us to the skills we will need to transition to a regenerative, resilient future.
Covered topics include:
The big picture: an orientation to present and coming challenges, including:
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Climate change and ecological collapse
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An unsustainable growth-based global economy
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Our dependence on fossil fuels, and the need to transition to renewable energy
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Maintaining health and wellbeing in the face of mounting chronic and infectious disease, within an unhealthy consumerist society served by a fractured healthcare system
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Pervasive, systemic inequality and disparity
“Site assessment”:
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How am I positioned to navigate challenges?
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What skills do I need to acquire?
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What are my patterns of thinking and behavior that challenge my ability to navigate with resilience? What upgrades would serve me?
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What resources do I have? What important resources could be cultivated?
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What constraints do I face?
Ecological, interpersonal and permacultural principles:
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Regenerative systems, living in balance with nature
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Population overshoot, resource consumption and the reality of "die off"
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Resilience, interdependence, reciprocity and kinship
Surviving versus Thriving:
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Water: collection, purification, scarcity and abundance
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Shelter: considerations on a changing planet with increasingly mobile populations
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Food: hyper local food systems, meeting individual and community nutritional needs with local production.
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Medicine: prevention, natural healing, engagement with the healthcare system, appropriate use of technology
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Economics: Alternative local economies, exploring the edge where restraint in consumption benefits personal finances and health of ecosystem
Designing for resilience:
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How do we each put this all together in a way that prepares us for our individual and collective future?
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What vision for our future are we living into?
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What are the steps in the immediate and long term that will get us there?
We will gather each week to explore these themes through prepared material, facilitated dialogue, and partnered work. Between-course readings and engagement included.
**Check out this brief informative video about the course made by our friends and collaborators at West Marin Climate Action:
Course fee is on a sliding scale, from $120 to $300 for the entire five-part series. Please commit to attending each of the sessions, as sessions will build on previous delivered content, and partnered work is an important aspect of the program.
We have limited spaces for those unable to afford the course fee; please reach out to us to apply at info@naturainstitute.org.
Winter-Spring 2023 dates:
January 26, February 2, February 9, February 16, March 2
*Please note, we will be holding this as a series of five Thursday evening sessions, from 6 pm to 8 pm, on Zoom. Please do commit to attend all five sessions.
