Chapter 41: Future Forming

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?

“Our relationship with the earth involves something more than pragmatic use, academic understanding, or aesthetic appreciation. A truly human intimacy with the earth and with the entire natural world is needed. Our children should be properly introduced to the world in which they live.” (Thomas Berry, “Human Presence,” in The Dream of the Earth, 13).

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