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December ’s Theme is Abundance.

Abundance is a state of plenty. In an intensely competitive society, we often feel like we have the opposite. Capitalism breeds a mentality of scarcity — it’s hard to feel like we have enough when we’re constantly trying to accumulate more.

Gratitude magnifies our experience of abundance. When we marvel at the taste of ripe summer fruit, juice bursting from its skin. When we set a table, a seat for every person we cherish, and bathe in the radiance.

Generosity multiplies abundance. When we prioritize mutual flourishing over private stockpiling, plant ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer posits, “the practice for dealing with abundance is to give it away.” Once you stop hoarding what you fear to lose, you find that the more you share, the richer — in community, in wellbeing — you become. 

What would it take for us to feel like we have enough? What does it take for us to unclench our fists and share our overflowing bounty?

Our Santa Fe chapter chose this month’s exploration of Abundance, Neebinnaukzhik Southall illustrated the theme, and Mailchimp is presenting the theme.

Damien Dennis spoke to November’s theme TRUTH.

Hosted at the Green Room on Friday, November 18th.

Cheers to our local sponsors Estate Coffee Company & TEKsystems!

November ’s Theme is Truth.

Truth lies at the bottom of a well, winding from its source in the icepack of distant mountains. Truth tastes pristine, uncompromised by what would be profitable or convenient. Truth causes your body to hum like a tuning fork, resonating at the same frequency as the universe around you. “When you experience an undeniable truth,” writer and social worker Jessica Dore observes, “you will beg, borrow, and steal. You will rearrange your whole life, forsake everything, just to serve what is real.”

And yet the truth is fiercely contested when competing narratives collide. We forge our truth in a crucible, testing its strength through heat and hammering. Instead of smashing our convictions against one another like a particle accelerator, could we sort through the messy, contradicting facts from all around us, together? Can we wade through paradox, the dark tangle of it all, and make sense of the world?

Our Buenos Aires chapter chose this month’s exploration of Truth and Sol Cotti illustrated the theme.

Maria Williams spoke to October’s theme ETHOS.

Hosted at the Eye of the Beholder Art Gallery and Studio on Friday, October 28th.

Cheers to our local sponsors Estate Coffee Company & TEKsystems!

October ’s Theme is Ethos.

Ethos is that specific quality that defines a place, time, or group of people. When you step into a room, a busy downtown, or a community gathering, you intuit its spirit. A messy DIY space invites experimentation and mistakes, a lush city park promises tranquility to anyone who seeks it. Maybe you even know of a monthly event where everyone is welcome and everything is free of charge.

At its core is a paradox: despite the specificity of an ethos, it’s impossible to pinpoint or trace to a specific origin. What honed that distinctive sensibility is long gone, vanished into myth.

With our actions and words, we embody these values and beliefs beyond conscious knowing. In turn, we subtly shape the ethos that our descendants — of family, of place — will receive from us. Ethos is alchemic, ineffable, and infinitely ponderable across place and culture. What ways of moving through the world did you inherit?

Our Asheville chapter chose this month’s exploration of Ethos and Colin Sutherland illustrated the theme.

September’s Theme is Depth.

Depth is a measure of distance. Get a feel for it by traveling along a rock fissure that tunnels into the earth, stepping across the expanse between our galaxy and the next, or diving into the mysteries hidden within ourselves.

Depth is a space that denies easy ways of seeing or comprehending — when we shine a light into the deep blue of the ocean, we cannot see much further than the surface. In our age of instant answers, we bristle at this resistance. It’s often easier to reduce people, places, and ideas into flattened renderings, rather than grapple with the nuanced and contradictory truths found in their depths.

In what depths could you submerge yourself if you let curiosity guide you? Ask open-ended questions and listen for responses to arise. With patience, watch those questions transform and transmute as they travel further. Blink your eyes open in the abyss, lose your frame of reference, and discover something altogether new.

Our Columbus chapter chose this month’s exploration of Depth and Bryan Christopher Moss illustrated the theme.

Valeria Alderete spoke to August’s theme CRITICAL.

Hosted at The Dakota East Side Ice House on Friday, August 19th.

Cheers to our local sponsors Estate Coffee Company & TEKsystems!

August’s Theme is Critical.

To be critical means to be like a sieve, dividing and separating. Our critical abilities allows us to discern the insubstantial from the made-to-last, the credible from the untrustworthy, the sincere from the ego-driven. We do so by gathering more information, seeking nuance, and locating something in its specific context.

Critical feedback is essential for our growth. Poet Adrienne Rich advises, “Responsibility to yourself means seeking out criticism, recognizing that the most affirming thing anyone can do for your is demand that you push yourself further.”

But being needlessly critical — especially of ourselves — can stifle the creative impulse. Few are as harsh as our own internal critic. How can we hone our perception, spotting what needs to evolve, without becoming ruthless? How can we remain astute while not losing sight of all that is inherently good and whole? It’s critical.

Our Calgary chapter chose this month’s exploration of Critical, Maedeh Mosaverzadeh illustrated the theme, and Mailchimp is presenting the theme.

Ashley Bird spoke to July’s theme SPIRITUALITY.

Hosted at Artpace on Friday, July 29th.

Cheers to our local sponsors Estate Coffee Company & TEKsystems!!

July’s Theme is Spirituality.

Spirituality is the search for our deepest values and meanings, something that touches us all. It is our yearning to peel back the curtain on the world we can see. The word comes from the Latin spiritualis, meaning “of breath, wind, and air.” It comes so naturally it might as well be breathing.

Spirituality can be found in meditation, in science, in holy spaces, in music, in community. We locate the sacred in the stars that guide us home, our capacity to love both kin and stranger, the divine that gathers in the kitchen dustpans and the forest groves lit by fireflies.

Through spiritual practice — be it by prayer mat or paint brush, microscope or movement — we seek answers to the eternal questions: How should a person be? How might we find meaning in the mundane, and purpose through great pain? How can we repair the world?

Our Jeddah chapter chose this month’s exploration of Spirituality, and Bayan Yasien illustrated the theme.