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Margo Berdeshevsky's avatar

Just a tiny side note re "Pu'uhonua" from Hawaiian cultural understanding: Pu'uhonua: Unlike the lands outside of it, Pu'uhonua were not governed by the Ali'i (high class in the sense of hereditary nobility, or rulers...) but by the Gods they revered. One translation of Pu'uhonua is "rising/elevated lands" and alludes to the function a Heiau (temple) of this type served. (In a "Pu'uhonua...a temple of some kind was created to pray and mark place... often made of stones...) In a modern sense, it is interesting to ponder what kind of a place of prayer we/one could build in places of sanctuary...maybe it is only in the individual heart.! but culturally, it denoted a literal location.) I think about this, as i lived for many years in the hawaiian isles. xxx, margo

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Mary Fillmore's avatar

A related idea is that of refugia, small environments where it is possible for plants and animals which are extinct elsewhere to survive. I learned about this through the study of the metasequoia, a tree that was thought to be extinct but was re-discovered after millennia in a small valley in China, then brought back to life and spread around temperate gardens everywhere. You have created such spaces within so many of us both individually and collectively. We must use them to center ourselves, to keep ourselves sane, and to create actions that will be effective and meaningful, not just assuage our consciences that we are "doing something." Thank you.

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