Legacy of Carol P. Christ: The Ninth Touchstone: Repair the Web

fabiennesmorgana

4 months ago

https://feminismandreligion.com/2023/05/01/legacy-of-carol-p-christ-the-ninth-touchstone-repair-the-web/

Nurture life.

Walk in love and beauty.

Trust the knowledge that comes through the body.

Speak the truth about conflict, pain, and suffering.

Take only what you need.

Think about the consequences of your actions for seven generations.

Approach the taking of life with great restraint.

Practice great generosity.

Repair the web

This resonated deeply with me.

I particularly liked the fact that when expanding upon those Nine Touchstones, the idea of Nurture Life is has a wider scope than having children.

“To nurture life is to protect the weak and the vulnerable and to create the conditions in which human beings and all beings can experience the joy of living.”

I also found the ‘Approach the taking of life with great restraint’ – it’s not forbidden, allowing for the eating of meat, abortion, assisted dying… but it also captures the simple compassion of capturing and releasing – be that spiders or feral cats (trap, neuter, release), avoiding things like rodent poisons etc.

“To speak the truth about conflict, pain, and suffering is to recognize that everything is not love and light in the modern world: to speak the truth about that which is broken is the path to healing.”

I mean, this is essentially exactly what my goal was when I repurposed my blog to discuss my cancer experience and to work through my anniversaries. It’s so important to break taboos around health in particular. If one person goes and gets checked because of me sharing my experience, or one person goes into a surgical experience feeling more prepared; then it absolutely has been worth it!

These cancer journals were my ongoing strategy of keeping people up to date without having to share the same information again and again. I would write, and then I would get specific friends to act as beta readers, and that was helpful. Then I would post to Facebook, send the same message by email, What’s App, SMS, etc. It saved a lot of emotional energy for me, and that was becoming vital.

🌹 Be kind, Gentle Creatures, tend your gardens, take time to eat the roses, and walk your boundaries.

❗ Check your breasts, check your testicles.

SELF CHECKS

Ensure that you are vigilant around your self-examination. Train yourself to check your breasts/testicles routinely, and monitor your bowel habits and your urine output. These are our body’s early warning signs, and we don’t have a lot of awareness of them.