Tag: #SOS_IS

World Ocean Day Eternally ©

June 7, 2021 / Suzanne Maxx / 3 Comments

“World Ocean Day” could be every day-but it is today now, June 8th, 2021. With the leadership from the youth, along with each one of us altogether, we might begin to attribute every breath in gratitude for the ocean’s ability to clean the air and all it does and provides for as a home, beyond time. To Ocean Day, eternally.

While many are called to explore the ultimate mystery of the ocean, becoming intimate with the ocean can be a gift like love. A love that lives within us all, nurtured through growing greater respect by being in the ocean and learning through both science and experiential education from its constant change.

This year begins the “Ocean Decade” with a priority collectively to transform humans’ relationship with the ocean, globally by the year 2030 (ideally sooner) through the United Nations Global Goals or (SDGs). World Team Now teamed up with others and set ambitious global goals in 2017 joining through the UN Ocean Conference Sustainable Development Goal #14 in our voluntary commitment with the SOS-IS partnership to demonstrate solutions of systems on islands. Although we have been delayed we continue to forge forward and completed a campaign with Biodiversity; Sea Turtles and Cetacean Experiential Research. From planting Mangrove seeds to seeing what the ocean surprises us with on this island, we grow our capacity to be lifelong learners in action.

We were able to join in communication with some of the global communities we’ve been part of around the world in these past decades journeying for the World Team project, virtually from Samoa, Fiji, Singapore, Monaco, Spain, France, Africa, and Japan. Seeing the Starlink Satellites launch regularly inspired the gifts of innovative technology, which has brought us collectively opportunities to learn and grow from our connectivity.

This past year living on an island locally, we were fortunate to remain connected with our coastal communities around the USA; in Hawaii, off California, Massachusetts, and Florida. We discovered more natural-based solutions which led to the development of World Team Now’s Ocean Curriculum. Floating in the ocean, with wild dolphins who chose to join almost daily, inspired us through a year with a myriad of collective crises in 2020.

Being with the ocean and going out to float afforded an opportunity to learn directly from the ocean itself. With the remarkable nexus of the ocean-atmosphere and all species, we heard and witnessed the challenges and begun to discover more opportunities where we might apply solutions. We are looking forward to the chance to share more through this decade together.

Responsibility to the ocean to clean-up and transform ocean plastics, to become more resilient on developing alternative systems on islands –that live with the ocean is just the beginning. From cleaning up the shipping industry, supporting artisanal fishing, cutting farm fishing subsidies, and tackling global agreements with biodiversity and law of the sea- all are needed. There is a myriad of challenges to discover more solutions and for collective action. Here are some of the many events happening now; From WTN’s Pioneer for the Planet Award recipient, Fabien Cousteau, watch the OLC’s channel, or the Explorer’s Club, or the United Nations’ High-Level Debate on the Ocean, read about Boris Herrmann’s Malizia Mangrove Park project with 350.000 mangroves planted and World Ocean Day.

With this year’s theme for World Oceans Day, “The Ocean: Lives and Livelihood,” we are focused on our bi-coastal communities and what we can do for future generations to empower all to gain greater respect for the ocean. It is the youths’ future we have borrowed from, and it is their lives, livelihood, and future that is innocently at stake, as they have inherited the state of the planet. Here are some ocean youth lovers in WTN’s home state, who are from Santa Barbara California. Let’s hear it in their words after their Float.

June 7th, 2021 Isabel Johanson ©

June 8th, World Ocean Day, is an opportunity to remind ourselves of the critical role our oceans play in the grand scheme of global health. The sea occupies over 70% of our planet and equips every organism with the tools they need for survival. World Ocean Day is a symbol of civilization’s responsibility to unite and protect not only the ocean, but ourselves. We are only as healthy as our world’s seas. We must remind ourselves of the principles this global holiday represents year-long, to gain the momentum we need to accomplish our goals. Humanity has the responsibility to rise to the occasion in order to develop and implement equitable and sustainable solutions in a timely manner.

I was raised in Santa Barbara, CA and Kauai, HI. My proximity to the ocean ingrained in me the need to appreciate and give back to our Mother Earth. I have witnessed the precariousness of nature. Through fire, flood, ground trembling beneath my feet, and nature in all her furry crying out for help, I realized the true urgency of the climate crisis. My childhood heart-centered empathy toward nature turned into planetary activism.

World Team Now’s commitment to global and personal transformation and unity encourages everyone to take meaningful action. Since Environmental Studies is such a multifaceted topic, it is essential to apply the concepts to as many dimensions of life as possible. In the words of Suzanne Maxx, Founder and President/Chair of Word Team Now, “We play to transform our world.” Even simple steps, like floating at sea, fuels a connectivity between one’s self and nature, prompting a long-term commitment to change. The accumulation of small actions practiced by an array of citizens has the power to heal our world.

In the spirit of World Ocean Day, a group of loved ones, Atticus Shorr, Ally Drevo, Nicolas Johanson, Charlie Vasquez, Niko Klopp, and myself, Isabel Johanson, decided to head to Hope Ranch Beach and soak in the Pacific Ocean’s primal energy. As we lay floating on our backs, with our hands intertwined, a sense of harmony became present. Each of us felt connected by our dedication to the water. It was as if we entered a meditative state of heightened consciousness. In reflection, I was able to correlate this to World Team Now’s goal of creating a consciousness that allows the World’s inhabitants to work towards a greater good. A feeling of refuge and safety overcame the six of us while at sea. It is only fair that we reciprocate these emotions and celebrate the ocean’s divinity. In honor of June 8th, I have asked each participant to write a short analysis of what the ocean and our floating experience meant to them.

Hope Ranch Beach, CA June 2021
Photo by Ally Drevo

“It’s nearly impossible to understand how much the ocean has impacted our world. I find the vastness of the ocean to be spiritual and bewildering. It can be harsh and miraculous at the same time, similar to humans. Knowing this makes me believe we are capable of behavioral change in order to remedy our missteps. Yesterday my friends and I floated in the ocean for hours. Not only was it a healing experience to float with the tides, it was heightening and completely lifted my spirits.” Atticus Shorr, 24

“Dedication to the ocean is a beautiful and universal effort which I’m elated to be a part of. Throughout the years, I’ve worked with Heal the Ocean and lobbied our city council for plastic ban efforts in the hope of restoring and preserving a beautiful and complex home of sea life and resources. Yesterday’s project with World Team Now was one moment out of many where we got to celebrate the ocean in our idyllic seaside hometown. I have endless gratitude and respect for marine life preservation and hope to experience more collaborative visions.” Ally Drevo, 22

“All life begins in the sea, so as a human being I feel intrinsically connected to the ocean. After years of aquatic sports, surf instruction, and being an avid beach-goer, the beauty of the sea and sand will forever hold a special place in my heart. However it’s truly heartbreaking to see the growing amount of waste, plastic, and unnatural debris covering our world’s beaches and diluting our oceans. It seems to me that we have become predators to one of our most precious ecosystems. That being said, it brings me hope and pride to be part of the movement to remedy the issues we have brought upon ourselves.” Nicolas Johanson, 20

“My first connection to the ocean was when I moved from Indiana to Santa Barbara. Coming from a land-locked state it was a powerful change. Whenever I feel stressed, the beach is the first place I think of to calm my nerves. It’s ironic to think the place I go to relieve anxiety is in high stress from the harmful and selfish actions of humankind. I will always do my part and attempt to inspire others to keep our local beaches clean and to help out with the ever-growing environmental problems we are facing.” Charlie Vasquez, 21

“Ever since I was young, I have loved the ocean. Not only does it provide endless opportunities for adventure, fun, and relaxation, it is also a livelihood for so many. My brother is a fisherman and that has taught me to not take more than the ocean can replenish. I have also learned of society’s inescapable dependence on the ocean’s fragile ecosystem. I recognize World Ocean Day as a Day to be thankful for everything the ocean has to offer and reflect on how we can help preserve and heal our ocean.” Niko Klopp, 17

Home in a Dolphin’s Breath

April 16, 2020 / Suzanne Maxx / 3 Comments

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

Our Mangrove Day ©

July 26, 2018 / Suzanne Maxx / 2 Comments

By Suzanne Maxx ©

Do you know what [wiki title=”Mangrove”]Mangroves[/wiki] are? The 26th of July 2018 is what some call the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem. You are probably thinking what, mangroves? Our Sustainable Solutions Ocean Opportunities on Small Island States (SOS_IS) joins the UN Ocean Conference Community of Ocean Action on Mangroves today in celebration.

Our approach to mangroves is not to just design an optimal preservation, but to also explore the best way to better educate ourselves and others about the experiential value of mangroves with their role in all that is rapidly changing.

We’ve also done some replanting with youth in Fiji, along the way for conservation.

We’ve educated tourists about the importance of mangroves, not only for the preservation of islands but also as a nursery for most aquatic life’s early years sheltering a host of marine organisms. We’ve witnessed mangroves to be a safe nursery for baby dolphins and other cetaceans to play and grow. We intend to show how mangroves are a breeding ground for baby sharks and other fish.

We are examining other regions in different parts of the world’s mangrove parks and preserves for design, and how they made use of mangrove trees, with gazeboes, providing canopies for this natural arboretum.

The mangroves root system’s water purification has much we plan to look at more closely for bio-mimicry, design, and observation of nature’s critical ecosystem for public education.

We have updated our SOS-IS‘s website here: http://sos-is.org

Here is a recent relevant blog post on our World Team Now Blog: https://worldteamnow.org/blog/2018/06/21/for-the-love-of-the-ocean/

For the Love of the Ocean

June 21, 2018 / Suzanne Maxx / 2 Comments

Ocean/consciousness

By Suzanne Maxx ©World Team Now

June 21, 2018, Summer Solstice Malibu, California, USA

I know I’m not alone when I say I love the ocean! I think there is value in organizing people to focus around the action in a day like “World Oceans Day,” (which was June 8^th) or “Earth Day” or even one’s “Birthday”!

The love for the ocean is something most of us have in common. It’s when summer comes, (or when we go to another part of the world), that is when most people begin to build ocean consciousness. Ocean consciousness is usually around going to the beach. So how do we show appreciation, and celebrate the way the ocean gives to the planet, and interacts with life beyond country, all over the world?

Last year we celebrated by participation in the United Nations Ocean Conference and registered our multi-stakeholder partnership Sustainable Solutions Ocean Opportunities on Small Island States (SOS-IS) inside the United Nations platform for the Sustainable Development Goals. We also launched the website SOS-IS.org.

World Team Now’s June 2017 Newsletter

World Team Now gave the “Pioneer for the Planet” Award to Aquanaut and Ocean Explorer Fabien Cousteau and had a World Team Now Gala around the ocean events with a celebration at the Grand Banks Boat/Restaurant.

It was an honor to participate in the United Nations Solutions Panel as a speaker. Also, I covered the conference as a journalist. With a death in the family simultaneous at the events’ climax, I learned that it was too many roles to play at the same time. Here are some past tweets, a Facebook post, and a newsletter to give you the feel of the diversity of experiences:

Suzanne met with and interviewed Peter Thomson, Fijian diplomat and President of the General Assembly of the United…

Posted by World Team Now on Wednesday, June 7, 2017

2017 UN Ocean Conference – Curated tweets

This year, Oceans Day was celebrated at the ocean itself: being with the ocean and holding conversations locally at the beach with people about the ocean’s meaning and importance related to islands and a myriad of solutions to plastics and individual choices. Most people at the ocean had no idea about World Oceans Day or the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal #SDG14, so this work took on a different value, and tone.

This experience brought up the question: Is the love we carry for our common home, nature, and the ocean prioritized in our daily lives now, even if we don’t live near the ocean? I thought I had prioritized the ocean until I lived on the ocean in Fiji, literally for a total of six months working on our World Team project. I lived in a villa actually out on the ocean.

From the back porch of the villa, I could dive into the ocean. From my bedroom, I looked out on its vast, ever-changing horizon mirroring some of the most beautiful sunrises ever. From the opposite side of the bedroom, each sunset was better than the last. The living room was actually a “living room,” with large glass circles as the floor, a window to watch the wildlife in the ocean: colorful fish swimming below my feet at high tides, and the pink and aqua blue neon florescent crabs in the sand at low tide.

I realized the ocean breathes too –inhaling and exhaling, as waves go in and out and with the high and low tides – breathing a way to organize life in and around Oceania. The two category 3 hurricanes that came through while I was there caused a great loss for people and island life. It is significant that when we consider the big picture, in the past few years, the extreme weather and tropical storms have increased globally. Do we all realize that the choices we make here in the developed region of the world dramatically affect what happens in other parts of the world with Climate Change?

Yet the stewardship of the ocean in the Pacific Island region’s culture is considerable, and there is a lot for the developed world to learn from how the native islanders interact with the ocean. Passed on from generation to generation are ways to not just look to the stars for navigation, but to the ocean for understanding life.

“Chimneys” Photo Courtesy of “Dive 4 Life” Fiji

Prominent is the biodiversity of species and preservation; fish as a considerable food source, and coral reefs as life-sustaining. The ocean is central in the Pacific Island Region of Oceania, and people have learned to listen and watch the ocean and its tides and species for how life can be better organized and prioritized. By nature, the respect and love of the ocean is core to the culture and village communities I spent time within Fiji.

Next to the villa along the shore of Koro Sun Resort in Savusavu was “Dive 4 Life” where they teach and lead ocean journeys scuba diving (PADI Certification & Instruction), snorkeling, and fishing adventures. We will share more about Dive 4 Life coming up. Nearly every day in Fiji, one can experience a way to become more intimate with the ocean.

I wonder how it can be that when I arrived on one of the most pristine, untouched outer islands left in the world, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with virgin sand from human footprints- there was plastic garbage from other regions of the world washing up on shore. Plastic waste, the shipping industry, nuclear hazardous and toxic wastes, ocean acidification, climate change, overfishing have all challenged the ocean we love. We all now have heard that if we keep going at this rate with plastics, by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. On the outer Fiji island, where our nonprofit, World Team Now, has been working, local villagers reported recently that right where sea turtles usually come up on the beach to lay their eggs, instead, there was a giant sea turtle strangled by plastic. Time for action: Here are 20 ways to plastic proof your routine.

So many of us enjoy what the ocean gives us: seafood to eat, waves to wide, sunsets to reflect upon – we think about the ocean related to fishing, surfing, swimming, sailing/boating, snorkeling, wave energy, and tidal energy – what we can get out of the ocean. I wonder how many people are truly aware that not only is the ocean beautiful, and evokes wonder, but that it actually helps us breathe and is critical for the balance of earth systems. Oceans actually breathe in for us by the plankton absorbing carbon dioxide, as much as 50% of what we humans are polluting into the air since the beginning of the industrial age. The challenge is that the change in the temperature of the ocean influences the ability of plankton to ingest the carbon dioxide. Plankton forms the base of the food web on the ocean. The temperature of the ocean and the atmosphere are coupled as a cause and effect; mirroring. Thus we face a dire positive feedback condition of warming, causing more CO2 to remain in the atmosphere. It’s time to think about how to give back to the ocean. Our World Team project is so eager to begin to show some of these solutions in real time, on an island and we are gearing up for action now. We plan to have many of you join us at least virtually next year.

Just the same way we created this mess with plastic and other wastes, we can altogether work to clean it up. There are innovative solutions now. In Fiji, I learned how to re-plant the ever important mangroves. We can replant coral. We can repopulate and protect fish. We can create monitoring systems to address illegal fishing and protect endangered species, we can choose alternative renewable forms of transportation, and all of these systems are indeed connected.

Every morning I awoke to the sound of the ocean breathing in and out its waves as water splashes up against the villa and nearby shore. To be put to bed by the soothing sound of the oceans gentle waves is a grace to grow living with the ocean.

Do you wonder what the world would look like if we focused our attention, to giving respect and appreciation of the ocean in each breath? Let’s consider organizing our effort by each breath, thought, word and action. Maybe then we could make Oceans Day, Surf Day, and Earth Day be every day. What if their principles and elements at the core of these singular days happen every day? Are you willing to consider the power of choice to aggregate the collective consciousness to take action for the ocean every day? Could we make a world of difference?

Here is an excerpt of the lyrics of World Team’s rap song first performed at the United Nations Earth Summit/Global Forum 1992.

What’s the solution for the pollution of our ocean?

Education, information, cultivation, preservation, restoration, conservation,

It’s time to make a change and rearrange

A shift of power, now’s the hour

For peace, a big release,

World Team, it’s a dream and for finality,

Let it be reality.

May we remember the ocean is all of the time, ever-changing, yet consistent in gifts? On this day of Summer Solstice in the Western Hemisphere, may we see the light of perspective for oceans value; every day.

Fiji Pacific Island Region, Oceania Photo by Suzanne Maxx

November 14, 2017 / Suzanne Maxx / 0 Comments

By Suzanne Maxx

While Fiji is leading the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) @COP23 in Bonn, Germany, World Team Now has our feet in the sand on an outer island in Fiji.

This island is a strong candidate to begin our World Team pilot project. We are creating life systems that renew an island, build a resilient village that will be a small-scale experiment of an idealistic utopian island, putting the interconnected global goals into action. This island will be designed to organically be a place that optimizes systems of life that show what is best for human innovation and includes an eco-resort that will do more than using tidal energy.

For those who want to dive into the knowledge of ocean energy, The International Tidal Energy Summit is happening in London tomorrow.

With the USA being the only country to withdraw from the global Paris Agreement, and as the rest of the world comes together, our non-profit World Team Now decided it is best to start and be in action on an island, to “be the change you wish to see in the world,” as Gandhi exclaimed. We are pleased that our two home states California and New York were represented by true leaders in action, with Governor Jerry Brown, Michael Bloomberg, Arnold Schwartzenegger and a team of others in Germany at COP23.

This is the first time Fiji, a small island nation (Republic) leads the UNFCCC, and we hope with the innovation on entrepreneurial mechanisms Fiji will lead not just the UN, but actually the people of the world for a more balanced future. We at World Team Now are starting small hereon an island in Fiji, now.

Here is a little video of our journey to meet with the villagers, made by Ramanu, from Koro Sun Resort.

Tag: #SOS_IS

World Ocean Day Eternally ©

Home in a Dolphin’s Breath

Our Mangrove Day ©

For the Love of the Ocean

Feet in the Sand, to Transform Life on an Island in Fiji ©

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