Cultivating Connections Recommends: Events for Metro Louisville - March 2016

Affirming Connections between Planet, People, Power and Possibilities

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Wednesday the 2nd * LSF presents: Institute for Healthy Air, Water and Soil

Monday the 7th * "Earth Talks" Book Club explores Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy

Wednesday the 9th * Compassionate Town Hall at Parkland Boys & Girls Club

Saturday the 12th * 350 Louisville: After KXL, What Now? Lunch and Celebration

Sunday the 13th * Attend the Louisville TimeBank Potluck Dinner

Monday the 14th * Integral Theory Book Club: MEMEnomics: The Next Generation Economic System

Tuesday the 15th * Greater Louisville Sierra Club: Hiking the Beartooth Mountains

Saturday the 19th * Don't Miss the Outdoor Spring Equinox Sacred Celebration

Monday the 21st * Social Change Book Club: Leading with Cultural Intelligence

Saturday the 26th * Phenology: Being Mindful of Nature at Louisville Nature Center

Earth Talks in April * Julia Butterfly Hill's Legacy of Luna - Video Links

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Wednesday, March 2, 12 - 1:30 pm

The Louisville Sustainability Forum

Note special location details below

Featured Presentation

Who Owns the Air? A new force for collaboration

Veronica Combs, Director of Community Engagement

Institute for Healthy Air, Water and Soil

Veronica Combs, the director of community engagement for the Institute, will discuss the group's top priorities for 2016, which include: AIR Louisville - a data driven community asthma project; Partners for Places and Green Heart - a study of how trees and green space affect human health at the neighborhood level; The Circle of Harmony and Health - a 360-degree view of human health and what influences it; Local Air Alerts and Louisville Air Map - a new way to understand air in your neighborhood; and Health in All Policies - a decision-making process that always considers human health

She will explain how these projects forge new collaborations and new perspectives on improving air quality and explain how you can get involved.

Shorter Presentations

Black-footed Ferret Conservation,

Guy Graves, Louisville Zoo, Conservation Center Keeper

Raptor Rehabilitation of Kentucky, Inc.

Eileen Wicker

The March meeting will be held in "The Cave," located down an outside stairway between the Passionist Sacred Heart Retreat entrance, and St. Agnes Church, 1924 Newburg Road. Parking is available in the Sacred Heart Retreat parking lot, just south of the Passionist Retreat House, or in the St. Agnes parking lot, north of the church.

If someone needs elevator assistance, call Phyllis Fitzgerald at 533-4803 to make arrangements for parking and entrance at the rear of the building.

The Passionist Retreat House is on the #21 TARC line.

Now in its seventh year, the purposes of the Louisville Sustainability Forum are:

1. We hold and promote the intention of sustainability for Louisville.

2. We establish and nourish relationships that strengthen

community and create change.

3. We create a space for discussion that inspires, motivates and deepens

our ability to catalyze social change.

Monday, March 7, 6:30 pm

the "Earth Talks" Book Club exploring

Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy

The Loft, 107 Crescent Ave, 40206

"The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe."

"The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world; we've actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves and each other."

"Earth Talks" will offer a safe place to nurture the Earth-centric aspects of our nature. Utilizing the books and essays of some of today's greatest wisdom teachers, we will gather as a mutually supporting circle learning from both these important texts and one another. Through discussion, reflection and process we will expand our sense of connection and the reach of our compassion to deeper inclusion of the natural world.

On Monday, March 7th, at 6:30 pm, we will explore the work of Buddhist scholar and deep ecologist Joanna Macy. Participants our encouraged to read her book Coming Back to Life, her essays and/or watch some of her online videos (links below).

Sessions will be hosted and facilitated by Mark Steiner,
co-founder and director of Cultivating Connections.

Joanna is featured on PBS' Natural Heroes this month.
Watch it here. http://naturalheroes.org/videos/joanna-macy-and-the-great-turning/

Sessions will be hosted and facilitated by Mark Steiner,
co-founder and director of Cultivating Connections.

$5 - 10 is the suggested donation for participating though no one will be turned away.

Wednesday, March 9th, Noon

Join us for the

Compassionate Louisville Town Hall Meeting

Parkland Boys and Girls Club, 3200 Greenwood Avenue, 40211

Experience compassion in action! Each month we invite you on a pilgrimage to discover the city's often hidden compassion gems. Once at the site, we will share the mission of the host organization, celebrate the newest organizations to have adopted a compassion resolution, share how Compassionate Louisville is encouraging compassionate action, and provide a forum for you and others to share their compassionate actions.

The Parkland Boys and Girls Club is part of Boys & Girls Clubs of Kentuckiana (BGCK) an out-of-school time provider, offering a safe haven for youth who need them. They open their doors and arms to kids ages 6-18, in a safe, positive environment. Come learn more about their services and how they serve Louisville's vision for a compassionate community.

Everyone is invited! Bring a Friend!

Questions: Contact Mary Sullivan, (502)292-6154 or mary.sullivan@metrounitedway.org

Saturday, March 12,12 pm - 3 pm

350 Louisville: After KXL, What Now?

Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church, 4936 Brownsboro Rd, 40222

350 Louisville, a climate awareness affinity group that has been supporting citizen action on global warming and environmental justice since 2010, invites you to join us for this community gathering and celebration. We will begin the afternoon with an always delicious potluck meal, followed by a belated celebration of the defeat of the Keystone XL pipeline (recounting the roles many of us played in that defeat). To wrap up, everyone is invited to help us chart our path forward.

Please RSVP here.

Sunday, March 13, 5 - 7pm

Louisville Time Bank Potluck Dinner

Highlands Community Campus 1228 E Breckinridge 40204

Potlucks are a big part of the TimeBank community. We come together to share food, fun and build community all at the same time. Members get to know each other, and people who are not members can learn a bit about timebanking from chatting with our members at the potluck. Many exchanges get set up at our potlucks too!

We always encourage members to bring guests, and all community members are welcome too!

Please bring a dish that serves 12 and your own table service to make clean up easier (if you forget, there is plenty to borrow from the kitchen).

The Parking lot is behind the building, with the entrance to the parking off of Barrett Avenue. The entrance to the building is also in the back of the building.

Monday, March 14th, 6:30 pm

Integral Theory and Practice Book Club

MEMEnomics: The Next Generation Economic System
By Said Elias Dawlabani

The Loft, 107 Crescent Ave, 40206

Integral philosophy, theory, and practice is providing a framework for the emergence of a new cosmology and way to making meaning out of pre-modern, modern, and post-modern world views. This book study offered on the second Monday of the month is designed to support the growing number of integrative practitioners in our community with educational resources and a community of practice. Hosted by Jud Hendrix.

Tuesday, March 15, 7 pm
Greater Louisville Sierra Club presents

Kenny Karem on the "Beartooth Mountain Range"

Clifton Center, 2117 Payne Street, 40206

Please join us Tuesday, March 15, at The Clifton Center as we welcome Kenny Karem. Kenny will share slides and experiences of his Sierra Club backpack trip to the Beartooth Mountain Range in south-central Montana. The Beartooth range is a spectacular alpine mountain range that sits northeast of Yellowstone National Park. The region is also one of the few areas left with sizable populations of grizzly bears outside of Alaska and Canada. Black bears, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, elk, moose, wolverine, mountain lion and lynx are also found here.

Kenny is a Sierra Club National Outings leader, Cumberland Chapter Outings leader, Earth Day Award recipient from the Kentucky Department of Education, National Conservation Sierra Club Award recipient, as well as teacher, writer, and environmental educator. Kenny is an experienced, informed, and engaging presenter on the outdoors. You don't want to miss this unique program!

Greater Louisville Sierra Club's programs are always
free and open to the public.

Please join us.

Saturday March 19, 7 pm
Spring Equinox Sacred Celebration
Cherokee Park, Hogan's Fountain Shelter

Join us for this outdoor celebration of Spring's promise hosted by Mark Steiner, kRi Martin and Holly Clark. Our Earth-centric program celebrating the wonders that emerge with Spring will include story, poetry, ceremony, song and dance. The young and young at heart are invited to show up as fairies, sprites and other forest friends!

Cultivating Connections' Sacred Celebrations are designed to offer an opportunity to strengthen our awareness of the sacredness of creation and to nurture our connections to each other and the natural world. Sacred Celebrations are a cooperative effort by artists, spiritual leaders, and activists to share relevant and nurturing experiential celebrations with the broader community.

This program is offered without a fee though donations are very much appreciated.

Email cultivatingconnections@twc.com to reserve your place.

Monday, March 21, 6:30 pm

The Social Change Book Club presents

Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success
by David Livermore

The Loft, 107 Crescent Ave, 40206

Some leaders are able to create trust and negotiate contracts with Chinese, Latin Americans, and Germans all in the same day, while others are barely able to manage the diversity in their own offices? The difference lies in their cultural intelligence, or CQ.

CQ is a leader's "capability to function effectively across national, ethnic and organizational cultures." Livermore explains that developing CQ does not require a leader to "master all of the norms of the various cultures encountered." Instead, it requires a leader to develop a better perspective on his or her job and people while building the capabilities that increase cross-cultural leadership. Practical and insightful, this indispensable guide shows leaders how to connect across any cultural divide, including national, ethnic, and organizational cultures.

The Social Change Book Club is now in its ninth year of monthly meetings. It is open to everyone who is interested in understanding, participating, leading, or supporting social change. Each month we select a book and get together to discuss. Selections rotate among three themes: social changes, how we work with others to make change happen, and the inner qualities needed to bring change into the world.

Hosted by Howard Mason
HowardMason@NewPossibilitiesAssociates.com
www.NewPossibilitiesAssociates.com

Saturday, March 26, 1 pm - 3 pm

Phenology: Being Mindful of Nature

A Nature's Works and Quirks Program

Louisville Nature Center, 3745 Illinois Ave, 40213

Join LNC educator Tracy Slone and learn more about natures's calendar and how it marks time by observing the natural world through seasonal changes. Tracy will focus primarily on what phenology is and how to track/log what you see. Phenology helps us record the past and make predictions about our future. We will hike so please dress appropriately. Suggested for ages 10 and up.

Please call and let us know that you will join us. Free to LNC members and volunteers. Non-members $4 per person. Families of 4 or more $15. Limited to 16 participants. 502-458-1328 www.LouisvilleNatureCenter.org

Monday, April 4, 6:30 pm

Earth Talks explores

The Legacy of Luna by Julia Butterfly Hill

The loft, 107 Crescent Avenue, 40206

For April we will explore the Julia Butterfly Hill's autobiographical Legacy of Luna. It's an inspiring story and a great read.

On December 18, 1999, Julia Butterfly Hill's feet touched the ground for the first time in over two years, as she descended from "Luna," a thousand year-old redwood in Humboldt County, California.

Hill had climbed 180 feet up into the tree high on a mountain on December 10, 1997, for what she thought would be a two- to three-week-long "tree-sit." The action was intended to stop Pacific Lumber, a division of the Maxxam Corporation, from the environmentally destructive process of clear-cutting the ancient redwood and the trees around it. The area immediately next to Luna had already been stripped, and because, as many believed, nothing was left to hold the soil to the mountain, a huge part of the hill had slid into the town of Stafford, wiping out many homes.

Over the course of what turned into an historic civil action, Hill endured El Nino storms, helicopter harassment, a ten-day siege by company security guards, and the tremendous sorrow brought about by an old-growth forest's destruction. This story--written while she lived on a tiny platform eighteen stories off the ground--is one that only she can tell.

Watch related videos on line including