Climate Cafe - Ocean Grove
Come along and join an small group (max. 12) in a safe space to share our feelings over the unfolding climate crisis. Mel and Laura will be your facilitations for the session, no experience in attending climate cafes is necessary, just an open heart. Nothing to fix or solve in this session, just a space to be and be heard.
The session will start at 2pm and go for roughly 1.5hrs, you are welcome to stay and have a cuppa with the group after the session but also welcome to leave at 3.30pm if needed.
Read below to understand a little bit more about Climate Cafes and why this might be a space you want to connect with.
Why A Climate Cafe?
In white western cultures, we often have an unhealthy relationship with our emotions. We are taught that emotion distracts and deflects. Yet, in most cultures, when someone dies, people have ceremonies and rituals to mourn their passing. People hold each other in their grief. Our Earth is dying on a daily basis. Where are the spaces to cry and grieve together?
Perhaps we are scared that if we express our emotions, they will overwhelm us? However, expressing emotion actually takes the intensity out of it. Shame loves silence. Fear prefers not to be spoken about. When we feel our feelings, we feel better and that helps us to be better agents for social change.
So What is a Climate Cafe?
'A Climate Cafe accommodates both the need for silence and the voicing of the diversity of participants' lived experiences, which is a gifted opportunity to listen to a different view from your own. Listening and sharing is a starting place for us to find our way back to each other from where patriarchy, capitalism and colonisation has forced us apart in the cruellest of ways. By preventing sacred nature based wisdoms to guide us as a global community. Climate Cafes are a rare space for people to express their feelings in the unfolding polycrisis, to take the time to slow down and connect with what is most important to them and to feel less alone.
Climate Cafes are a quiet steady political movement; what is more potent than an increasing undertow of people gathering in small groups worldwide to talk about how they feel about the places, people, and things they love the most being threatened, harmed and driven to extinction? When we are together, listened to, validated and feel a sense of belonging we start to heal. Healing gives us more capacity to take action. Action can take many forms, a climate cafe is an action.
Essentially, at the core, we come to a Climate cafe out of love, love we are searching for in ourselves, the love that we hold for family, friends, community, the love we have for other beings and ultimately if we allow ourselves to feel it, it's because we are driven by love to protect life.'' Bronwyn Gresham - Psychology for A Safe Climate
WHEN
July 21, 2024 at 2:00pm - 4pmTimezone: Melbourne
WHERE
Bellarine Community & Training Hub1 John Dory Dr
Ocean Grove, VIC 3226
Australia
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