Cultivating Connections Recommends: Events for Metro Louisville - September 2016

Affirming Connections between Planet, People, Power and Possibilities

September Table of Contents - Click to Jump to the Details
Thursday the 1st * Volunteer with Olmsted Parks Conservancy in Cherokee Park
Friday the 2nd * A Community-Wide Conversation on Becoming a More Welcoming City
Saturday the 3rd - Saturday the 10th * Kentucky Drive Electric Week
Sunday the 4th * Red Tent Louisville presents "Things We Don't Talk About" Healing Circle
Wednesday the 7th * Louisville Sustainability Forum
Thursday the 8th * PosSOUPbility's Social Innovation Contest and Dinner
Sunday the 11th * Louisville TimeBank Potluck Dinner at Highlands Community Campus
Friday the 16th * KFTC's 3rd Annual Smoketown GetDown for Democracy!
Sunday the 18th * Longing for Wild Earth with Rebecca Wildbear and Doug Van Houten
Tuesday the 20th * Greater Louisville Sierra Club presents Victoria Prescott
Friday the 23rd * Autumn Equinox Sacred Celebration at Thomas Jefferson Unitarian
Saturday the 24th * Nature Hike: A Focus on Fauna at Louisville Nature Center
Tuesday, the 27th * Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light: Hope in Action Awards
***Videos and Updates on Building a Nature-Rich Louisville***
Check Out Latest Edition of the Natural Living Journal

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Thursday, September 1, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Olmsted Parks Conservancy Invites You to
Help with Volunteer Projects in Cherokee Park

Bring a friend to volunteer with you, or come on your own and make some new friends! Gloves, tools, and guidance provided by Olmsted Parks Conservancy.

After the project, plan to join us for some FREE pizza and munchies while supplies last,
courtesy of Mellow Mushroom.

Register here. For more information phone 456-8125 or visit olmstedparks.org/events. 
 
 



Friday, September 2, 1 to 4pm
A Community-Wide Conversation on
Becoming a More Welcoming Louisville
Global Village Tent on Waterfront Belvedere

Join us for a community-wide conversation, utilizing open space technologies to cultivate good ideas and collaborative projects across cultural and organizational boundaries.

Together we can envision and embody a more welcoming and empowering community.  Collaborative projects that emerge from the open space process will be posted on the Idea Wall, where WorldFest participants can sign up to be involved in the projects for which they have interest.  The projects will also be eligible for the PosSOUPbility Social Innovation Prize described below.  If you or your community has a new project idea, bring it to the community-wide conversation.

Bring your experience, your ideas, your passion,
and a desire to connect and collaborate with others.

 Register Here



Kentucky Drive Electric Week 
September 3 - 10 
Brought to you by Evolve KY - Kentucky's Electric Vehicle Group 
www.evolveky.org

Kentucky Drive Electric Preview event Sept. 3 & 4 at the Flea off Market
 
11 a.m. - 5 p.m. both days.  1007 E. Jefferson Street.  Rain Date: The following weekend.
  

Come to the Flea off Market and test drive the future.  Evolve KY, Kentucky's electric car club, will be partnering with the Flea to showcase many of the most exciting electric and plug-in electric cars on the market today.  Come ask questions, take a test drive or ride along and see first hand what makes electric cars cleaner, more cost effective and more fun to drive than their gasoline counterparts.  

Middletown's Family Fun Festival Parade Sept. 10 on Old Main Street in Middletown 
11:45am - 1:00pm  Get there early to get a good seat!

Come see how Evolve KY members roll at this family-friendly event.  "We're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue and then we'll take it higher!"  Everyone loves a parade!   
 
Lexington Ride and Drive Sept. 10 Holiday Inn Express East:  10:30am - 6:00pm
 
See the future of green transportation first hand!  The UK solar car team will be displaying their fully solar powered vehicle the Gato Del Sol V.  You can also see a variety of electric and plug in hybrid vehicles, ask questions and even ride along to experience the features and benefits of going electric.

EV Movie Night and Ride and Drive -- Saturday Sept. 17th,
Ride and Drive: 5:30 - 7:15pm  Movie: 7:30pm

Bring your family and friends to our second annual EV Movie Night hosted by Sullivan University.  Start with viewing a variety of electric vehicles in the Sullivan University parking lot (near the new Tesla Superchargers) and even experience first hand how fun these cars are to ride in.  Then, see the classic documentary Who Killed the Electric Car on the big screen while enjoying popcorn and drinks.  Event is free.  Sullivan University, Louisville Campus, 3101 Bardstown Road.  Enter through main entrance and follow signs.  Movie shown in campus cafeteria.
 
* Events dates, times and details are subject to change and there may be last minute changes/additions.  Please check our website at:  www.evolveky.org for the latest information.  
 

Sunday, September 4, 2 to 5pm
Red Tent Louisville presents 
"Things We Don't Talk About" Healing Circle: Miscarriage
Red Tent Temple at Full Circle Holistic Women's Health-Care
2110-B Bardstown Road, Louisville

If you are a woman who has experienced miscarriage, you are invited to join us at Red Tent Temple Louisville for the first in our "Things We Don't Talk About" Healing Circle + Ceremony series.

The loss of pregnancy - at any stage of gestation - is a devastating experience shared by millions of women each year. It is estimated that 30% of pregnancies will end in miscarriage, meaning that one in three women will endure this heart-breaking loss in her lifetime.

And yet . . . we don't talk about it. Unlike the death of a child, we have no ritual or ceremony in our culture to mark the passing of the precious life that left our womb too soon. Left to process our grief alone and in silence, many women find it difficult to heal and move forward after miscarriage.

It is time to reclaim the sacred space to honor our loss, to grieve together, and move forward in healing. Together we will share our stories, participate in sacred ceremony, and support each other in our emotional journey.  When women heal, the world heals.

Cost is $15. Registration is limited to 10 women.  Prepayment is required.
Visit the website for the PayPal to reserve your space: www.redtentlouisville.com/shop

This event is lovingly offered by Amy Bammel Wilding, creator and facilitator of Louisville's Red Tent Temple. Amy has herself experienced the loss of pregnancy, and is a trained and experienced facilitator of ceremonies centered on grief and loss. Amy is honored to hold space for her sisters who have shared the experience of miscarriage.


 

 
Wednesday, September 7, 12 - 1:30 pm
The Louisville Sustainability Forum
Earth and Spirit Center Barn, 1924 Newburg Road 40205
located behind St. Agnes Church & Passionist Monastery

Featured Presentation
Rebecca Barnes, PC USA on Climate Change
 
What are personal, congregational, and faith community efforts around environmental justice, climate change, and sustainability? Rebecca will share examples of church actions in worship, education, facilities and community outreach as well as personal lifestyle changes and broader movements of environmental justice, sustainable food systems, and public policy advocacy campaigns. 
 
Rebecca Barnes is the Associate for Environmental Ministries, Presbyterian Church (USA) and is author of "50 Ways to Help Save the Earth: How You and Your Church Can Make a Difference." She is a member of the Earth Care Team at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church and lives in Jeffersonville IN with her two children.
 

Shorter Presentations
June Sandercock, Ladybug Lane Landscaping

and

Bert Stocker on the battle against Covington by the Park subdivision 
in southeastern Jefferson County (stopping suburban sprawl).
 
 
Now in its ninth 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.
 
Thursday, September 8, 6:30 to 8:30pm
PosSOUPbility's Social Innovation Contest
The Clifton Center, 2117 Payne Street, 40206

PosSOUPbility: Changing the World One Bowl of Soup at a Time

PosSOUPbility joins Becoming WelcomeVille to highlight and support emerging initiatives that focus on creating a more welcoming and empowering community.

PosSOUPbility believes in the power of the people to make change happen.  It exists to unite citizens in democratically-supporting projects that celebrate and/or benefit the people, places, and things that make the Louisville metro area SOUPer great.  

How does it work?
1.  We host a meal event featuring delicious soup.
2.  You pay a $10 minimum ($15 suggested) cash donation to eat the soup.
3.  You listen while three to five good-hearted folks pitch the ideas and initiatives that have emerged during Becoming WelcomeVille.
4.  You cast your vote for your favorite initiative.
5.  Winner or winners of the vote wins a micro-grant generated from all the cash donated at the door and prize money.

Winners take the funds and implement their projects under the help and guidance of an established organization. Winners are asked to return to a future event to present their project's outcome and how they used the funds.

Register here to attend.

Co-Sponsored By The Clifton Center
 
 
  Sunday, September 11 6 - 8pm
Louisville TimeBank Potluck
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 community members to join us.
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).  Parking and best access is behind the building.
 
 
  Friday, September 16, 4 - 10pm
3rd Annual Smoketown GetDown for Democracy!
735 Lampton Street, the corner of Shelby and Lampton Streets

Jefferson County Chapter of KFTC presents the 3rd Annual Smoketown GetDown for Democracy a FREE block party powered by the people and open to the public with live entertainment, local food, and beer from West Sixth Brewing. The GetDown is an official Louisville Craft Beer Week event.

Featuring voter registration, Smoketown organizations, family-friendly activities, food trucks, a beer garden, and free photos by Magnolia Photo Booth Co. Smoketown GetDown is hosted by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, Kertis Creative, and West Sixth Brewing.

GetDown Line-up:
4:00 PM DJ Yared Sound
5:00 PM Official Welcome
5:15 PM Fierce Dancing Tigerettes
5:40 PM The Sheryl Rouse Band
6:50 PM Louisville River City Drum Corp
7:30 PM Safiyyah Dance
8:10 PM Smoketown artists Junior J, Piff the Dragon, & S.O.O.N. Tonio
9:00 PM GetDown Dance Party with Yared Sound
 


Sunday, September, 18 9am - 5pm
Longing for Wild Earth
with Guides Rebecca Wildbear and Doug Van Houten
Rice House, Goshen, Kentucky

Young children allow themselves to be enchanted by the flutter of a butterfly, the colors of a rainbow, or the sounds of thunder after the morning birdsong.  Instinctually, they know they are a part of something greater. Does the beauty and power of nature still captivate your attention?  Can you sense how the natural world also longs for your attention?

Come gather with other earth lovers and open to a larger, wilder consciousness in conversation and communion with hawk, tree, pond and mystery. When we address the beings of the world as if all are alive and intelligent, we dip into a profound richness and depth. Beings in nature offer us the chance to remember our deeper belonging in the animate natural world.

In bringing our hearts, bodies and deep imaginations into the company of the wild beings in this way - a veil of separateness lifts between us and wild nature, and we remember our child-like sense of wonder in the presence of nature's magic and never ending allurements. We enter the deeper stream of our lives and discover the larger story we are meant to live - the soulful, mythopoetic story that flows outside our common everyday consciousness.

We'll gather the numinous threads of our story while being present to our emotions, images, dreams, and symbols.  We'll cultivate a deeper relationship with nature and soul and allow ourselves to be ushered toward life-altering transformations which mature our everyday egoic personality. We'll aim to become a vessel in service to our most creative and soul-rooted gifts; our world is hungry for these gifts.

Guides Rebecca and Doug will help you to identity and track themes, gifts, shadows selves, fragmented parts, numinous encounters, as well as opportunities for wholing and self-healing, and then offer you tantalizing and sometimes challenging invitations to deepen your conversation with these wild others with whom we share this Earth.

Fee: $85 - 125 (a sliding scale to fit your financial needs. Your generosity allows others to participate.)
A $50 non-refundable deposit required to hold your space. Must register in advance.
 

 
  Tuesday, September 20, 7:00 pm
Greater Louisville Sierra Club presents
Victoria Prescott, UofL Dept. of Biology
Clifton Center, 2117 Payne Street

Victoria Prescott's unique presentation will focus on the effects of urban development on dragonfly communities, dragonflies being "bio-indicators" of ecosystem health.

Urbanization is a leading cause of habitat degradation and loss throughout the world.  As habitat quality is diminished, species often are unable to persist and sometimes are drastically reduced or become extinct.  Victoria has researched how urban development affects dragonflies in both pond and stream habitats within and around Louisville.  She has found that urban development does reduce the number of species found at any aquatic habitat. Her presentation will focus on this research and her findings.

Victoria is a PhD student in the Department of Biology at the University of Louisville. Her dissertation examines the impact of urban development on wolf spiders and dragonflies. Victoria has a great passion for protecting the environment and seeks to inspire others as well.  

Greater Louisville Sierra Club's programs are always
free and open to the public.
 
 
 
Friday, September 23, 7pm
Autumn Equinox Sacred Celebration
Invoking the Elements 
Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church, 4936 Brownsboro Road

Join us for this participatory celebration of the elements! Featuring story, poetry, song and ceremony. Please bring an object representing your relationship or resonance with one of the four elements (Earth, Air, Water or Fire) to our community altar.  Your altar item should be something that you are willing to release.

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.


Saturday, September  24, 10 am
Nature Hike: A Focus on Fauna
Louisville Nature Center, 3745 Illinois Ave 40213

Join Chris Bidwell and Susan Wilson for a fauna-focused hike in the Bear Grass Creek State Nature Preserve.  Chris and Susan are the photographers of the book, The Olmsted Parks of Louisville: A Botanical Field Guide and members of the Kentucky Society of Natural History. They really knows their stuff!

Limited to 20 participants. Registration required: 502-458-1328 or eblock@louisvillenaturecenter.org. Members and LNC volunteers free, non members $4.
 
Tuesday, September 27, 6pm
Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light's
Hope in Action Awards
St Matthew's Episcopal Church, 330 N. Hubbards Lane 40207

Celebrate with usas we once again recognize faith communities doing good works in creation care with the Hope in Action Awards. The creation care movement has grown immensely in 2016 as we saw congregations continue to mobilize creation care teams, engage in energy conservation education, reduce their energy use through efficiency projects and add renewable energy through solar installations.

This year's recipients for the Hope in Action Awards are:
    •     Sisters of Charity of Nazareth
    •     Lexington Friends
    •     Union Church of Berea
We will be joined by the host of Kentucky Homefront, John Gage, who will be sharing the gift of song with us as we open the event. Tickets for the Hope in Action Awards are $35 and include delicious food, live music and the opportunity to celebrate the growing movement of creation care.  All proceeds from the event go directly to supporting the work and mission of Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light.

Tickets available here.

Since 2007 Kentucky IPL has been working to mobilize a religious response to global warming through education, advocacy, energy conservation and renewable energy. We support houses of worship and their members with energy audits, both workshops and presentations, sustainability information resources and opportunities for direct action. 
  

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Building a Nature-Rich Louisville

Click to watch Richard_s Challenge


During both of his presentations on July 16, 2016, author Richard Louv (Last Child in the Woods: Protecting Our Children from Nature Deficient Disorder) issued a challenge for Louisville to become the most nature-rich city.  He encouraged us to set some goals, track our progress, celebrate our successes and then to be so bold as to declare ourselves "The Most Nature-Rich City."  He went so far as to say that should another city make the same claim we could engage in some mutually encouraging friendly competition.  We are accepting the challenge.

Our next steps will include:
    * Sharing videos from the July 16th event including one featuring the invitation to, and reports from, each individual breakout session.  Already posted is kRi Magesty's poem In Times Like These (https://vimeo.com/175297510)

In Times Like These
In Times Like These

    * Providing ongoing support to each of the breakout session projects presented at the event.
    * Hosting a series of community conversations designed to move the work forward by exploring important questions, supporting ongoing projects and identifying mutually enhancing synergies.
   * Facilitating continued communication and collaboration across the various community sectors engaged in this movement including government, educators, heathcare providers, outdoor and nature recreation centers, etc.



The Children and Nature Breakout Sessions are:

* Children at Play Initiative - Hosted by Claude Stephens (Bernheim)
* Connecting Children with Nature through Wildlife - Hosted by Bridgette Williams (Founder of Second Chances Wildlife Center)
* ECO Engaging Children Outdoors - Hosted by Rebecca Minnick (Jefferson Memorial Forest)
* Family Nature Clubs - Hosted by Alan Goldstein (Interpretive Naturalist at Falls of the Ohio State Park)
* Finding the Sacred in Nature Along with Music and Healing in Nature - Hosted by Jim McGee (Kilgore Samaritan Counseling Center)
* Hands on Learning in Nature - Hosted by Elizabeth Keenan & CEO Jackie Ford (Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana)
* How to Influence the Schools with Their Knowledge and Experience of Connecting Children with Nature - Hosted by Stephen Bartlett (SAL: Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville)
* iChooseWellToo Program - Hosted by Marcos Morales (iChooseWellToo)
* Tools, Information & Education for Taking Groups Out to Fish - Hosted by Chad Miles (Host of Kentucky Afield TV)

Together, we will become "The Most Nature-Rich City"!



Nature-Rich Louisville is a collaborative effort inviting the participation of non-profits, individuals and professionals interested in cultivating a nature-rich community. Participants include: Compassionate Louisville (Healthcare and Earth Constellations), Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, ChooseWell Communities, Cultivating Connections, Metro Parks and Recreation and Wilderness Louisville.

To get involved write cultivatingconnections@twc.com and/or join our Nature-Rich Louisville Facebook group.

 

Natural Living Journal, a Locally-spun Publication

Natural Living Journal encourages people to live in harmony with the wholeness of their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being.  We encourage all to live in harmony with each other, with our precious planet and all aspects of nature, and with the Divine. This Journal is independent of any organization and is not affiliated with nor advocates any specific religion or political ideation.   We support natural holistic health care practices, and we seek to work in harmony with the medical field.  Our deep purpose is to foster wisdom, peace, joy, creativity, co-operation, love, ecology and sustainability, inclusiveness, wholesome  adventure, stewardship, community service, natural abundance, and the arts.

It features articles about: Stress-free Living, Natural Wellness, Emotional Well-being, Organic Gardening, Natural Foods, Local Outdoor Adventure, Living in Harmony with Mother Earth and Spiritual Upliftment

Natural Living Journal is published every other month.  In its printed form it is distributed free at Rainbow Blossom Stores on Bardstown Road and on Lexington Rd., at Whole Foods Market, and other places.  You can also find it on-line at www.natural-living-journal.com.  

For more information contact: Joyce Gerrish, M.A. 502-572-4871
Natural Living Journal  natural.living.journal@gmail.com
 


This information brought to you by
Cultivating Connections
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cultivatingconnections@twc.com
502-897-2721
Louisville, Kentucky

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