The Meat Myth (June 3) | OCCA changes

Hi everyone,

Next Saturday, June 3, 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., Plant Powered OC will offer yet another free workshop at Whole Foods in Brea, “The Meat Myth & Plant-Based Meat Sampling”. With so much evidence that plant-based foods are the best approach in support of human and environmental health, global food supply, biodiversity, and compassion for other species, (i.e. “friends not food”), why not come join us and get some new ideas to keep your taste buds happy? Register here.

Also, the three-year-old alliance known as Orange County for Climate Action will dissolve at the end of this month. Instead, OCCA will continue as a “grassroots network of activists” and begin sending its own public announcements (i.e. effective June 1, no longer appearing on this list sent by Living Ubuntu).
***To keep up with future OCCA meetings, actions and events: Subscribe to OCCA newsletter here.***

In the spirit of Ubuntu,
Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook) | plant powered oc (facebook)
occlimateaction.org | facebook
(949) 891-2005

[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

::: UPCOMING EVENTS :::

The Meat Myth & Plant-Based Sampling (PPOC)
Saturday, June 3, 9:30am – 11:30am
Brea

Orange County for Climate Action Meeting (OCCA)
Tuesday, June 6, 6:30pm – 8:00pm
Newport Beach

Climate Action Plan & Community Choice Energy: Advocacy Training with Nicole Capretz (OCCA)
Sunday, June 11, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Irvine

Upcoming Events – 7 items in March (2017) – come join us!

Hi everyone,

I have seven things to tell you about, all taking place in March. Ready? Here we go! Below please find our Upcoming Events for the remainder of the month. Hope to see you often.

Orange County for Climate Action Meeting
Tuesday, March 7, 6:30p – 8:00p – tonight!

Carl Wilkens at Soka University (Ikeda Reading Room), 1 University Dr, Aliso Viejo CA 92656 (Read More About Carl)
Monday, March 13, 6:00pm – 8:00pm

TRE Group Shake
Thursday, March 16, 4:00pm – 5:00pm

Legacy of Learning – Establishing Equity in the Aftermath of Trauma, Part 3: A Screening of “In Utero” plus featured guest, Rebecca Amis, co-founder of MUSE School
Thursday, March 16, 6:30pm – 9:30pm

32nd Annual Great American Write-In (visit the Living Ubuntu & OCCA table)
Saturday, March 18, 9:30am – 1:30pm

Intro to Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE)
Wednesday, March 22, 7:00pm – 9:00pm

A Screening of Before the Flood
Friday, March 24, 7:00pm – 9:30pm

In the spirit of Ubuntu,

Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook) | plant powered oc (facebook)
occlimateaction.org | facebook
(949) 891-2005
[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

 

Living Ubuntu in 2016 | Please include us in your year-end giving (3 more days)

Hi everyone,

Living Ubuntu has had a very active, productive, exciting, fulfilling and interesting year in 2016. Many of our public events can be viewed here: 2016 Living Ubuntu Events.

• We successfully launched a new project, Living Vegan, “…supporting, educating and advocating compassion and health for people, animals and the planet.” We hosted and collaborated on many events throughout the year, e.g. educational screenings, speakers, social get-togethers, and plant-based workshops and cooking, all in addition to our advocacy efforts.

• To raise awareness and bring compassionate change to schools where students raise animals for slaughter, we started filming a feature length documentary, still in process, to be released in 2017, “So Give Me An F” (trailer).

• Results of the research project, “Trauma Recovery for East African Refugees in San Diego” were finalized, affirming Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE®) as a very beneficial practice. (Video).

• We offered workshops teaching TRE® to the local community, both at the introductory level, and certification training for those wanting to become providers (including giving scholarships for the training to members of the East African refugee community in San Diego). As support for those who learned TRE®, we held a twice a month “Group Shake” (ongoing). What is TRE®?

• Orange County for Climate Action held many public events and we began working with Nicole Capretz, author of San Diego’s groundbreaking Climate Action Plan. The work will continue in 2017 as we seek for cities in Orange County to emulate San Diego’s accomplishment. And we are asking CalPERS and CalSTRS to divest from animal agriculture. This campaign is ongoing, have you signed yet?
  

Please include us in your year-end giving. Consider becoming a monthly supporter. And as an all-volunteer-run organization, more volunteers are always invited, welcome, needed and appreciated.

DONATE HERE.

There is a lot to be done in 2017. Thank you for your generous, ongoing support of our efforts.

Events in November — coming together for the common good

Hi everyone,

I know this is a big week with big events that have big consequences that many of you are paying attention to big time. Yet, once Tuesday has come and gone, finding ways to come together in support of the common good will be more important than ever. I wanted to bring your attention to a few opportunities this month to gather together in support of goodness, compassion, health, sustainability and community.

• This coming Saturday, November 12, 10:30am – 12:00pm, please join us for a FREE event at Tanaka Farms in Irvine, “How to Cook Vegan for the Holidays”. The cooking demo will use vegetables grown at Tanaka using organic farming practices, non-GMO seeds and no animal manure.
• Wednesday, November 16, 6:30pm – 8:00pm, Orange County for Climate Action will meet and discuss next steps for better climate action plans in the cities of Orange County. (BTW: Did you sign our petition yet? Tell the world’s 6th largest economy to divest from animal agriculture.)
• Sunday, November 20, 4:00pm – 7:00pm, don’t miss the amazing program we have put together for An Evening of Compassion and Being Together – (Tickets). Andy Shrader will be speaking (“Radically Alive Planet”) plus great music, film preview, socially conscious silent auction, raffle prizes, interactive entertainment and super-yummy food, all based on a theme of Interconnection.

For more upcoming events, scroll to the bottom of this email.

Intl Day of Peace events on Sep 21 | OCCA meeting Sep 20

“We are in the midst of a global crisis of perspective. We have forgotten the undeniable truth that every living thing is connected. PLANETARY is a provocative and breathtaking wakeup call – a cross continental, cinematic journey, that explores our cosmic origins and our future as a species. It is a poetic and humbling reminder that now is the time to shift our perspective. PLANETARY asks us to rethink who we really are, to reconsider our relationship with ourselves, each other and the world around us – to remember that we are PLANETARY.”
(weareplanetary.com)

Hi everyone,

I am pleased to tell you about an opportunity to come together this week. Wednesday, September 21 is the International Day of Peace. At Golden West College, please join us for a vegan, zero waste, bring-your-own PICNIC FOR PEACE: An Evening Screening of Planetary (RSVP & trailer).

GWC is also hosting day time events and we will be tabling there from 11:00am to 1:00pm on Wednesday. For more details, see Upcoming Events at the bottom of this email.

For those of you who came to Bringing Clean Energy to Orange County, a conversation with Nicole Capretz, you know how great her talks were. Here is the follow up. Come join us in discussing next steps at the Orange County for Climate Action meeting tomorrow night, Tuesday, September 20. We are meeting one night sooner than typical in order to participate in GWC Intl Day of Peace on Wednesday. Details are below.

Nicole Capretz on Clean Energy, Sep 10 & 15 (plus PlantPure Pod tonight!)

Hi everyone,

I remember feeling super-excited, and inspired when back on December 15, 2015 I saw the article entitled, San Diego Vows to Move Entirely to Renewable Energy in 20 Years. On December 16 I posted it in the Orange County for Climate Action Facebook group along with this question: “How do we do this in OC?”

At the time, I wasn’t sure anything would come of it, yet, after a visit with Nicole Capretz in May, here we are in September, about to feature two opportunities in Orange County to hear the lead author of San Diego’s groundbreaking Climate Action Plan speak. Not only will she talk about how they got it done in San Diego, but also, she will answer the December 16 question: How do we do this in OC?

Okay, now, seriously, this is a huge opportunity for us that live locally. Nicole is genuinely, absolutely amazing and I want to strongly, strongly encourage you to come hear her. The fact that she has agreed to advise us in Orange County and that she has agreed to come up here not once, but twice, to help us get this moving, speaks to not only her commitment to these issues, but also her extreme generosity.

Climate change is rapidly and destructively revealing itself. It forces us to look at many things we would otherwise ignore. Within much that is scary and sounds bleak, we need to increase our focus on fast, effective, progressive action that brings us together. While the big picture can feel overwhelming, local action is do-able and can build momentum.

Saturday, September 10 at Irvine United Congregational Church and /or Thursday, September 15 in the Irvine City Hall Chambers, please join us for Bringing Clean Energy to Orange County, a conversation with Nicole Capretz – (RSVP). Both events are 11a-1p.

BTW: don’t forget TONIGHT at 7:30p is the very first PlantPure Pod at Au Lac in Fountain Valley, Thriving on a Plant Based Diet.

Thank you for staying engaged,

Break Free, Catching the Sun, and Living Vegan “Social”

You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer.
– Thich Nhat Hahn

Hi everyone,

Have you been following the extremely tragic wildfires in Canada? A CNN opinion piece is titled, The fire in Canada looks a lot like climate change — and that should scare you. The reality is that climate change is advancing rapidly and by no means are we doing all we could to slow it or adapt to that which is inevitable. As the 350.org campaign this week makes the case to Break Free from fossil fuels, actions are taking place all over the world in support of fast, dramatic, effective change.

(Also see: May 14 – 350.org L.A. March. I will be in Los Angeles that weekend, and I recognize the irony that I will be unable to attend the event as I am taking the Somatic Experiencing – Foundations of Disaster Response that weekend, to learn more about how to increase trauma recovery in these critical situations.)

For those of you who live near to Orange County, please come join us Tuesday, May 10, 7:30p, for the one night only screening of Catching the Sun at the Frida Cinema, scheduled to take place during the 350.org Break Free campaign. (Advance tickets.)

If Canadian wildfires aren’t a vivid enough reminder of what is at stake, last month Newsweek published, We’re Running Out of Water, and Consequences Could be Dire. Changing what we eat is the additional essential part of the equation to reduce water use and greenhouse gas emissions. For anyone interested in having a great vegan meal today, come join us today at 5:30p in Laguna Beach. Here are the details of the Living Vegan “Social”. We will walk to the beach, so come prepared for that.

Let’s do all we can to pull together on this. Too much is at stake not to. Here is one example of what can be done: San Diego Republican mayor pushes plan to run on 100% renewable energy.

We need empathy to come back to life | Pre-registration for Earth Day events through Wed Apr 20

Hi everyone,

International Trauma Expert Dr. David Berceli wasn’t able to accept the invitation to speak at the 10^th Annual Golden West College Peace Conference on Friday, April 22. Instead, he create a video. We felt it was a very important message about how the inner process facilitates outer paradigm shifts, so we have chosen to circulate it in advance of the conference rather than within it. You can view it here.

Since our defense mechanisms are designed to help us cope and feel less pain, we can be grateful that they work so well when we need them – and – sometimes their effectiveness works against us, especially when we get stuck in defensive patterns needlessly. In a defended state we lose the sense of being part of the whole, and too often harm our self and surroundings without perceiving the consequences of our actions. We lose sight that living life while numb isn’t really living life. Many of today’s problems can be attributed to this pervasive disconnect. It is really getting us into trouble.

When we have unplugged from our own inner state, we lose access to self-reflection and no longer experience our rhythmic, pulsating existence as part of the alive natural world we live within. We lose the perception of this earth as a self-regulating living organism that we are part of. We fail to experience that our planet cannot self-regulate well enough to compensate for how extensively we have interfered with its natural rhythm causing it to head toward a state of organismic chaos instead of life-supporting coherence. Within the disconnect, we lose some of the ability to step into someone else’s shoes, and that empathy, in a healthy state, has application regardless of species.

We need empathy to come back to life. We need empathy to reveal compassionate living. And we need each other to do what needs to be done in this life. We need to come together. There is too much at stake to ignore the crisis and the urgent need to change the paradigm for how we live life on this planet.

Please make time to join us for the Earth Day events listed below. I know you are busy, that is part of what is keeping us traumatized in this society. We are all too busy. We live with chronic overwhelm. Yet, this is an opportunity to participate in bringing about critical changes in this world. So, I am asking you to please make time to be there. It is important.

Online registration for both events ends Wednesday evening, April 20.

• Friday April 22 8:30am – 5pm
  Golden West College 10^th Annual Peace Conference – register here.
• Saturday April 23 9:30am – 11:45am (optional vegan picnic lunch: 12p)
  Earth Day at Soka University with Gene Baur: Eating in harmony with our values –register here.

Also, Nicole Jafari has generously offered her beautiful Anaheim Hills home for a Fundraiser Brunch and Silent Auction for Farm Sanctuary (with Gene Baur) on Sunday, April 24, 11am – 2pm. For complete details, send me an email: info @livingubuntu.org. I hope you will come join us that day also and offer your support to the remarkable work Farm Sanctuary is doing.

… a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the Earth. (April events)

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.
There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the Earth.
– Rumi

Hi everyone,

April will be here soon. Did you know that April is Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month – and — Earth Month?

Have you ever thought about how incredibly inter-connected those issues are?

Please join us this April for three very important events. (Registration is strongly recommended, even for the free events.)

Thursday April 14 – Pre-conference event: A Screening of Racing Extinction (register here)
This film is remarkably well-done. Scientists say the sixth mass extinction is taking place on our planet. It’s also the first caused by a single species: Us. This free pre-conference event takes place at Orange Coast College the week before the Golden West College climate-themed peace conference noted below.

Friday April 22 – 10^th Annual Golden West College Peace Conference (register here)
For only $25.00, this conference offers an entire day of incredibly well-informed, inspirational speakers taking on the tough topics, compassionately. The fee includes vegan breakfast and lunch. This zero-waste, climate-themed peace conference is not to be missed! Please consider contributing as a sponsor at the above link to help support free admission for the students.

Saturday April 23 – Earth Day at Soka University with Gene Baur (register here)
On the beautiful grounds of Soka University, Gene Baur will have the spotlight for an in depth talk on “Eating in Harmony with Our Values”. Celebrating their 30th year, Gene is the Co-founder and President of Farm Sanctuary, the largest farm sanctuary in North America.  The talk is free, but we hope you will stay for lunch afterward. Pre-order your $10.00 vegan, picnic lunch at the above link and gather with us on the lawn after his Black Box Theater talk is finished.

Plus – April 1 is the last day for the Early Registration Discount for:

Friday April 29 – Sunday May 1 – TRE® Module I Certification Training (register here)

Solar Energy Toward a Sustainable Orange County – Feb 28

“Much of the carbon we are putting in the air from burning fossil fuels will stay there for thousands of years — and some of it will be there for more than 100,000 years,” said Peter Clark, an Oregon State University paleoclimatologist and lead author on the article.
“People need to understand that the effects of climate change on the planet won’t go away, at least not for thousands of generations.”
— Window to reduce carbon emissions is small, scientists say

Hi everyone,

The age of fossil fuel must end soon – it is killing us.

On Sunday, February 28, Orange County for Climate Action will host, Solar Energy Toward a Sustainable Orange County. Conversations about positive developments in Orange County led to the idea to help increase awareness of where we are making progress locally. Additionally, we need to be as well-informed as possible about where the obstacles and gaps remain.

In case you missed it back in December, San Diego Vows to Move Entirely to Renewable Energy in 20 Years. While other cities have made a similar pledge, San Diego is the first to make the pledge legally binding. That inspired us to learn more about the steps we would need to take to accomplish something similar in Orange County.