Category: #Rise

Water! The United Nations Water Conference 2023

By Suzanne Maxx

Water, Water, Water… Water! Can WE all be joyously singing those words?  Will we be able to celebrate Water & what we can all do together by 2030, or 2050?

The United Nations World Water Conference is happening now beginning today, World Water Day 2023, and going three days, March 22nd – 24th, 

 

You can join Virtually and Watch the LIVE UN Events Here: https://media.un.org/en/webtv/schedule

The UN Media Zone (An entertaining/educational talk show format of UN Events);
https://media.un.org/en/asset/k10/k10lcobd8g

United Nations Headquarter Photo Courtesy of Albert Boulanger

The Water Conference is co-hosted by the Governments of Tajikistan and the Netherlands with an overflowing schedule of events coming in with the rising tide for collective action. As the increase in water-related disasters, not just drought and flood continue make the case for urgent immediate action, by us all.  To learn, “Every $1 invested in making infrastructure disaster-resilient saves $4 in reconstruction. (UNDRR, 2021) “ was one of the many surprising facts and figures, or read the latest UN report.

Photo Courtesy of Suzanne Maxx

Water not just to place a greater value and understanding on Water (yes, intentionally capitalized), but also, to ensure all have equal access to Water.  Water and Air and the way they live through us changing states, solid, liquid and gas, not easily seen as a vapor, gas—yet like love, Water is more than a most precious resource; of ineffable value. To have love of the other, oneself, and the Divine within and throughout, love as a commodity that is immeasurable like the value of Water.  Now to prioritize Water given for all, being within and making up a large percentage of our bodies, and our common home, on planet earth, and raising consciousness.

Water is not only a resource, but also, a human right. International human rights law obliges States to work to achieve universal access to water and sanitation for all, without any discrimination, while prioritizing those who need water most.  If we can mind the Water gap working together across borders for our common home and not merely for profit, but for public benefit is that not a higher good for all?

There we many seeds planted, that bloomed with ideas brought forth to the collective World Water Day, the Biodiversity Treaty, Law of the Sea, that are now finally getting some movement after being introduced in 1992 during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. The UN Earth Summit/Global Forum, was where I came to better interact with the United Nations.

It’s a watershed moment today with World Water Day, UN Water Conference, Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) to “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” Goal #6 is one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals created officially inside the Paris Accord established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. Although we are way behind the Global Goals being achieved, Clean water and sanitation for all, may have a better chance to flow as a reality with coordinated watershed moments with the Decade of Water” 2018-2028, plus the Decade of the Ocean 2021-2030. Hopefully, this “Rip Tide” of trajectories with both Decades related to Water also overlapping, with World Water Day, will pull us out of this mess, and into the deeper Water of collective consciousness.

Albert Boulanger United Nations, New York Photo Courtesy of Brigid Tucker

We have a team registered at The United Nations Water Conference representing World Team Now at United Nations in New York.  World Team Now is being represented for this Water Conference at UN Headquarters by VP and Director of Technical Strategy, Albert Boulanger and Youth Leader Advocate, Brigid Tucker, in her junior year attending my Alma Mater,  Sarah Lawrence College. Her voice, regarding the Water Conference, is something we can all look forward to hearing with her first UN experience…Walter Andrews, WTN Director of Water, Energy and the Environment for WTN, along with others are grateful to have the choice to participate virtually.

Ha’ena where the fresh Water meets the Ocean’s salt Water-Photo Courtesy of Suzanne Maxx

I’m learning again and again, the clichéd, the change starts within– getting that glass water thermos, filling it with fresh water that came down from the mountains and up through lava. I haven’t been able to test the water yet, but legend Aunties, Elders, Nature, and Science say, it is as good as I may get in the USA, now.  I’m committed to kicking the plastic bottled water habit, when I’m not in Fiji, and can get Water from a reliable natural source.  “Be the change you want to see in the world” Mahatma Gandhi.

I have remained on the small Island where we have been working on resiliency with small scale systems solutions, and Ocean projects locally on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, (it’s still World Water Day here, HST). The projects we are working on are in a flood zone which often is cut off from power, with also unique Ocean conditions. The Sports and play aspect build on physical movement: that might better build collective MOVEMENT!  One by one, hearts are opened, minds are inspired to learn more, and bodies move in action!

World Team Now is organizing an educational approach to socialize and demonstrate cutting-edge solutions.  Our goals include advocating to meet Water challenges on a small local scale, on islands.  We are beginning with one section of an island community. We plan to address challenges related to drought, flooding Water as a resource related to policy, purification, mitigation, energy, catchment, and wastewater up-cycling and best practice of sustained use. The ineffable mysterious territory, the consciousness of Water, will be explored through World Team Now’s upcoming Open Ocean Educational Curricula. The Tide is coming in for transforming our future, and that means the chance for each of us to choose to prioritize rising!

Water, Water, Water… Water! Again, can WE all joyously sing those words?  Instead of the “mean green” lyrics of the song Money? “Money, Money, Money…  Money!” May we be singing; “Let them Come to the Water”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home in a Dolphin’s Breath

by Suzanne Maxx ©

The respect for nature grows with each breath on the World Team journey. I continue to learn from dolphins, even when self-isolating in this large home, on this small island off of Tarpon Springs, Florida, USA.

My writer’s retreat was meant to go into the early months of 2020.  This retreat, now hermitage, or imposed self-isolation, began when I couldn’t return to Fiji.  I wasn’t able to make the flight from California to Fiji because of my lung’s ability to heal— to take a deep breath from the smoke of fires in CA 2019. 

How surreal it is like the world, the collective consciousness, that is the WE, US, have joined together in having to go within, stay home, reprioritize, renew our life’s patterns and systems, and for many of us, take a deeper breath.  A breath to review and renew what is important.

Yes, I was incredibly challenged to breathe, for what seemed like an eternity, but was only about 30-40 hrs. All I focused on was conscious breathing and each moment striving to take a deeper breath.  I used every breathing technique I knew from over the years of taking on my pulmonary function and respiratory system, which had been in the past impaired.  I tried to recall what I learned from Nei Kung to Conscious Breathwork.  Each new breath, birthed an infinite light within, unattached to a presence in form, as I let go on the exhale.

The “Stay Home” mantra, began to challenge me coming into week four.  I remember in being human we are each unique, we each sometimes respond differently to the same thing based on our immune systems. But we do have our breath in common, and this home, as mentioned in World Team’s Universal Declaration

After all of the years of swimming with the dolphins in the wild in Malibu, Hawaii, Fiji, even New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island the dolphins continue to teach and enlighten.  One dolphin actually came to me, during this recovery time, when I couldn’t go into the water.  I had just begun to go outside to walk on the private property out on to the dock that extends from the home yard to the water for a “self-isolated” communion with nature.

Swimming with dolphins in the wild in different parts of the world for decades the name, “The Dolphin Lady” became an alias.  I feel most at home floating in the ocean, and often when I float the dolphins come, as if “called”.

Can you image the heartfelt joy I experienced during #StayHome with me, coming into this Holiday tide when a single dolphin (perhaps pregnant and about to give birth), swam underneath the dock as I walked above? I notice the dolphin’s breathing— the importance of the breath has a deeper meaning now, amidst this COVID19 Public Health Crisis, not only for me personally but perhaps for us all?

A learning and deep observation from the grace of bio-mimicry medicine offered out for all to consider from the dolphin’s breathing.

We can learn a lot from dolphins.  Dolphins stay underwater, and just when one wonders where they will rise— surprise! The dolphin breaks the surface from the depths, breaching up to move in new ways. 

Did you know dolphins breathing is conscious? For a dolphin, every single breath is an active choice. Breathing is not automatic for dolphins, unlike humans. In other words, dolphins can’t go into deep unconscious sleep and still breathe as far as we know. Dolphins float and reach a meditative state where they are not totally unconscious. Dolphins use one half of the brain to rest, remaining semiconscious. This cat-napping state is often referred to as “logging” as the dolphin will float horizontally or vertically like a log. A dolphin’s conscious breath heals and reminds us all how to consciously breathe deeper!

Nei Kung is the single most important element I do now related to breath.  Tai Chi offers this fundamental principle with exercises unlike any other form of movement from my experience, as it is conscious.  The importance of weights for the bones and muscular skeleton, Nei Kung is fundamental to understanding the energy of the body(Chi) with breath, (as is singing)! And how the Chi can be used for self-healing, which may be the highest form of self-defense, immunity!

Breath and conscious breathing are key for us all now, understanding the importance of each breath can be a matter of life or death. Coming to learn to move our brain to higher frequencies of consciousness through meditation and prayer. Or even floating may allow us also to turn part of our brain off and realize a higher consciousness through our breath.  Realizing the healing power of nature with respect may also be a matter of life or death for human beings, and our world as we live in this common home. Will we give nature time to breathe to recover from humanity’s priorities?

I wish we could just “Pass Over” and skip the global #Pandemic #COVID19 #CycloneHarold #Catagory5 aka #TCHarold #LocustsEastAfrica #GlobalCacophony #EconomicCollaspse #GeoPoliticalConflict #TradeWars #5GControversy #ConspiracyTheories and fast forward to collective systems’ transformation to the part where we all rise together?   What is the role of the UN, the SDGs the global goals? And US, the people around the world?

The present realities require us all to give our all— to collectively embrace the elephant in the room, related to what many call the #ClimateCrisis, but really it is a collective inquiry— how does humanity live in balance with nature, including our own human nature for the future we want, together with systems ready for transformation? 

These times of crisis can bring us true communion with nature, and our global diversity of humanity may indeed come together, perhaps a deeper realization of Pentecost this year?.  Will we have the arch of illumination, to awakening to that light of Buddha to birth with the spring flowers of Hana Matsuri Blossoming, birthing with Buddha’s Birthday celebrated by the sprinkling of water celebrating or the Takayama Spring Festival, in nature this year?

It’s a lifetime of learning in observing dolphins, their capacity to love, to breathe and to teach. May we each prioritize both personal and collective transformation until we can live in a better balance with nature and when it is time, ALL RISE!

#Dolphin, #Breathing, #Birthing, #Breaching, #Teaching, #CircleofLife, #WorldTeamConsciousness, #BeyondSpecies, #StayHome,  #WithMe,  #FlowerFestival,  #ShakyamuniBuddha,  #Passover,  #Easter,  #Rising,  #Christ,  #Pentecost, #Awareness, #Breath, #Conscious, #Dolphins, #Communion, #Nature, #Biomimicry, #Healing, #PulmonaryFunctions, #SOS_IS, #OceanLearning, #Meditation, #Light, #Sound, #Sonar, #Stillness + #Movement=#Balance

The Global Youth Climate Strike

By Suzanne Maxx ©

The social & environmental movement (“The Global Movement”) is gaining momentum from voices growing louder and right now it’s the Youth Movement’s time. As the youth around the world rise today March 15th, I am thankful for sixteen-year-old Swedish Greta Thunberg’s bold voice, courage and stand for our future– demanding action for the global climate crisis, and leading the next generation of activists.  Fridays for Future School Strike for Climate, became replicated by youth around the world, who agreed with the logic, why go to school and learn science, if the adults leading the government would not only just ignore science, but choose to deny the science applied to policy?  Youth are making the choice to protect their future and generations to come, by cutting classes for the day and instead they take part in demonstrating and demand action on climate change.  Hear it from their own voices in this article about their motivating story and more from Greta’s Ted Talk here. On the eve of the climate strike she tweeted; “Tomorrow we school strike for the climate in 1769 places in 112 countries around the world. And counting. Everyone is welcome. Everyone is needed. Let’s change history. And let’s never stop for as long as it takes. #fridaysforfuture #schoolstrike4climate #climatestrike

Global Youth Climate Strike at Columbus Circle

The Youth movement rising is naturally programmed with a generation that seems to prioritize the well-being of the planet, and they also come in wired to embrace technology,  science, biodiversity, and nature. With the inner ability to respond to the urgency, the youth are not just adding their voice to the conversation of nature and humanity’s perceived extinction crisis; the youth have built a movement that is gaining momentum.  The youth movement’s motivation is clear; it’s their future, and they want a planet to call home.

The big story is only beginning.  Greta Thunberg’s recent Noble Peace Prize nomination comes as no surprise, after all, it’s been centuries since a teen, would be positioned to make history leading a revolution, and she just may do that– with a little teamwork.

All are welcome to attend the Climate Strike, adults included; check out the website for more details here.  Find a location near you here. Follow on Twitter to see the ongoing movement through Greta’s eyes here

Meet the youth leaders,  who are organizing the USA national movement for the Youth Climate Strike School Strike for climate and are teaming up globally for this potentially historic event.

With the climate crisis, youth are confronted with a future that their generation may not get a chance to see, living here on planet earth, unless we all make different choices.

This is the moment not only for world leaders to adopt bold progressive climate policy, commit to 100% renewable energy, but to really hear and take into heart all children’s future.  It is a time not just for governments alone but for all sectors of life to get into action and do everything possible for rapid transformation for the next generation.  The burden lives within each and every one of us to grow this movement and act.

I’ve watched the Youth Movement over the years, but last Fall 2018 they started to grow and gain momentum in the organization. With the Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry and Meghan Markel as UN Youth Ambassadors, and the United Nations hosting a myriad of youth events  (more on that in an upcoming article) Certain celebrities, VIP, and leaders have contributed inside that framework. But what Greta did was organic and core and the very spark needed to ignite the movement lit up by her commitment.

The Youth, Women, Indigenous Peoples, The Asian/Pacific Islanders, and a multitude of people, are all voices that need to be heard. The global climate crisis is a reality which can no longer be ignored; it’s time for all people to find a role.

The Youth Movement began for me too, as a grade school student, and I have grown up inside the global social environmental movement with the journey to make the World Team project, and with the nonprofit World Team Now, I founded, along with many other NGO’s in the climate movement since 1989. In grade school, I wrote a letter to the President of the USA, because of my deep concern about the environment, and wanted to know what would happen when I grew up? I actually got a letter back which inspired me to believe that I too with one voice, could make a difference. More is written about the journey in World Team Now’s prior blogs, and in addition this is a differentblog here (and soon to be published in a book). That action was the beginning of many youth projects and events covered around the world.

Global Youth Climate Strike at Columbus Circle

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