About the Presentation

Waking up Together: Social Transformation and Feminine Values
Our civilization is cracking. People everywhere feel disoriented, uncertain, anxious or discouraged. The old patriarchal paradigm, with its androcentric values and actions has resulted in a life-destroying, mechanistic, aggressive civilization which seems unable to guide us into the future without self-destructing. Fortunately in our life time, a “New Story” is emerging through the co-incidence of Western Science and Eastern Spiritual teachings. This “new way of seeing” is finding its way into almost every culture and country around the world. It offers a fresh understanding about what it means to be human, what kind of world we live in, what counts for power and what is the meaning of “Spirit”.

This New Paradigm clearly demonstrates the harm that has been caused in both human development and planetary health through the historically overwhelming dismissal, not only of women and girls, but of feminine values in general. And it makes clear the necessity of integrating feminine consciousness, capacities and experiences at every decision point as we work to navigate this global transformation.

Part 2: AfterThoughts Conversation Hour
2012: The Year I didn’t Die

I have spent 56 years seeking relief from chronic pain caused by the interplay of multiple illnesses: childhood polio when I was 3; A subsequent 16 year history of chronic fatigue syndrome starting when I was 39 and then a series of fevers, deseases and parasites contracted during 26 years of international peace and justice work. By 2011, despite a careful regime of medication, my nervous system could no longer cope with the intensity and constancy of the pain. In early September, I made the decision to end this pain and my life through “self assisted suicide”. I had read the books. And joined the Hemlock society years earlier. I always knew this time would come — a time when the pain “became more than I could bear”. I would use the helium, tubes, white bag and speical nightgown and do what I had to do without the need to involve anyone else.

This presentation and conversation is that story: the decision, the clarity and confusion, then the certainty and relief. How that choice affected my family, my doctors and the few friends I asked for support. How the decision affected me and what has become of me.

About the Presenter

Elizabeth Rabia Roberts, Ed.D. is an international citizen activist and educator who has worked for more than 50 years on issues related to women, peace, and environmental health in the U.S., Central America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and most recently Pakistan and Afghanistan. She was founding faculty for The M.A. in Environmental leadership at Naropa University. She co-founded The Boulder Institute for Nature and Human Spirit and directs its two current programs:Women’s Wisdom and Global Transformationand the International Path of the Friend program (www.pathofthefriend.org). She received her Ed.D. from Harvard University and co-edited the popular Earth Prayers. She is currently working, with her husband, on their joint memoir, Loves and Dust: On the Road from Selma to Kabul.

Additional Resources

WakingUpTogether.org