Engaging in autoethnographic practices activates transformational processes. My experience took me on a pathway from a life-o-gram to a transformagram. Beautifying the story mandala allowed Sophia or wisdom to flow through me, guiding me towards narrative concrescence. My life history has been transformed, but even more, I discovered transformational pedagogies that I now use in my teaching. Ira Progoff’s Intensive Journal Methods have offered a proven framework for incorporating journaling into coursework.
Liminal space can be understood as the in-between or entre nous. In this space we can create wiggle room, transitional space that can provide a matrix of relational potentialities. As we enter our journaling sanctuaries with the intention to find our way forward, we can activate the homing in mechanism. Writing to transform our relations brings us to new landscapes of meaning where we can trace new flyways of becomingness. In this liminal space, transformation is engendered. Questing enkindles the pilgrim’s intentions to move beyond Self in search of narrative truths.
 
Jim Harrison a famous American author wrote two adoption stories taking place in Nebraska- Dalva and The Road Home. He describes not only the beauty of the landscapes and wildlife but tells intergenerational stories of families who have lived on the Great Plains of Western Nebraska.
 
Just as the natural environment shapes lifeforms, words are meaning containers that allow us to recollect and transform our narrative truths. Dr. Emoto’s photographs of water crystals show us how words shape water crystals. As our bodies are around 70% water, we can only imagine how words and music fashion and configure our bodily forms.
 
We are all experiencing an acceleration in connectivity. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote about the Noosphere that is an emerging form of planetary consciousness. Here is an article that allows us to better understand this period of great acceleration that we are experiencing as the paradigms of Anthropocene and Noosphere play out in yet another liminal space, acting upon our planetary becomingness.

​From Anthropocene to Noosphere: The Great Acceleration

​Dr. Emoto’s Water Crystals that show how words and music influence form:

Here is a PBS news presentation of American author Jim Harrison who wrote Dalva, an adoption story in Nebraska:

​Here is an article about the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola that presents transformational processes including Progoff’s Intensive Journal Methods:

Future forming methods invite us to shape our becomingness. They include engaging in a culture of care, caring for our families, as well as the Earth and all of Creation. Future forming involves choosing our actions carefully, understanding that our choices and actions will configure our life trajectories and those of future generations. The Native American tradition refers to our actions affecting seven generations.
Epigenetics refers to how our environment and perceptions influence our genetic expression. Important influences that influence the unfolding of life include our families and caregiving practices, our political systems and the equal or unequal distribution of wealth and resources, as well as our energy consumption and environmental footprint. 
While searching for explanatory models and unifying theories that might explain the genetic connection of adoptees and birth parents, I discovered the importance of synchronicity. The interconnectedness that I have found has taught me to recognize patterns and distinguish schemas of interrelatedness. While searching for my birth family I was guided by synchronicities that allowed me to ultimately home in. Activating the homing in compass is essential for us as a species, so that we can home in to a bright and hopeful future.
As we are storied beings, Thomas Berry invites us to rediscover the Dream of the Earth, while actively writing New Stories that have the potential of transforming Earth-human relationships. Through the storying process we can transform not just how we relate and care for each other in our families, in new forms of kinship, but also how we relate with and care for the Earth. Reflecting on our human kinship and planetary Earthship can transport us to new ways of living in/on Earthship. Celebrating all life on Earth is part of the process.
With the arrival of our second grandchild, Liana, on July 8, 2021, I was again presented with the wonderful unfolding of life within my own family lineage. While my daughter Katrina was at the hospital, Angelo and I took our grandson, Nevin, to the Marécottes Zoo in Valais to see the lynx, bears, deer, boars, fox, and wolves. What do you see when you look at the face of the Earth?

A link to the Marécottes Zoo: https://www.valleedutrient.ch/fr/zoo-piscine-marecottes

A link to an interview with medical anthropologist Margaret Locke:
https://anthropologyandgerontology.com/aage-interview-with-anthropologist-margaret-lock

Here is a link to a conference about Thomas Berry’s work at Georgetown University:
https://thomasberry.org/life-and-thought/georgetown-conference/

Here is the link to Laudato Si’:
Down the file HERE