Mountains and Waters Alliance

At Mountains and Waters Alliance, we're acting on the core challenge of our time: to heal human civilization from its tragic separation from the community of life. That separation is destroying us, through climate collapse, war, and pollution. It's an impossible task, yet we are part of a great movement around the world, remembering the real human place in the community of life. We name our intention like this: to heal the deep cause of the climate emergency, in the rift between the dominant human culture and the whole of life on earth.

In a world where people are giving up on climate, pollution, and human nature, we refuse the common thought that selfishness and brutality are the natural human state, and the mindless assumption that we are alone in the world. We take our place among thousands of years of ancestors who lived in harmony with their surroundings, we join indigenous peoples leading the way.

Our particular contribution is simple: As members of the family of life, relatives of rivers, forests, mountains, soils, microbes, ants, sparrows, eagles - we naturally can ask help from our family. It's a matter of being willing to belong.

The long vision is worldwide. The beginning is here on our small farm in southern Minnesota. The intention is to begin the practice of belonging, and allow habits of consumerism and colonization to simply drop away as we heal.

It's a daunting task. There is much to do, and MWA has been all-volunteer. Our budget is modest. We have some gracious and steady donors who allow us to cover bare-bones expenses. We haven't quite recovered financially from closing down retreats during the pandemic.

Here are our hopes for this fundraiser:

• A stipend for Shodo to replace half of her outside earned income (currently 15-20 hours a week) and give her 4-5 days per week for MWA teaching, writing, speaking, and administration, $12,000

• Our own Zoom channel, so we can have recording of classes and closed captions, $75/year with nonprofit discount

• Five more meditation cushions, $250

• Increase investment in study and networking (classes, books, retreats, conferences, etc.), $1,200

• Support for residential work-study students, $600

• Pay for office help, $875

Financial information is available on request.

If you prefer, you can mail a check to Mountains and Waters Alliance, P.O. Box 485, Northfield, MN 55057.