Building Community Resilience
Cascadia Day Portland 2025
This NASA Observatory image from space taken in 2015 still shows the land scars of the 1980 Mt. St. Helens volcanic eruption.
We recognize Cascadia Day as a day to celebrate resilience. In this 45 year anniversary, some of us are just now awakening to the idea that, in a changing climate, we need to start preparing ourselves for what is known as “the long dark” which is the time of climate adaptation—adapting to the changes to the planet, biodiversity systems, and life as we know it.
“We are living in an age of unprecedented change. Our most seemingly predictable systems–ecological, cultural, economic, political, and more–are breaking down.”
In LaUra Schmidt’s, How to Live in a Chaotic Climate (2023), the term used to express the myriad systems under threat is: “Great Unraveling” popularized by Joanna Macy (activist and scholar of Buddhism).
Francis Weller (psychotherapist, writer, soul activist) describes the period of unraveling which “plummets us through the Long Dark”, a time of liminality, a period that is recognizable to us, a rearrangement, a reorganization, where culture building can happen” (p. 10).
“As the Great Unraveling continues and we compost that which no longer serves us through the Long Dark, we can begin to envision pathways forward that prioritize life, ecosystems, and connection.”
Smoke and ash begin to billow, March 1980, Mt. St. Helens, Washington. Daniel Swanson, USGS
The Resilience Movement
CURSE WORDS WARNING: It's scary. WTF is even happening in our world where— (and this is my commentary) our basic life is in jeopardy, the “status quo” –but let me pull back a minute here, dear reader. Please do not be dismayed, this is not an opinion piece, it’s just an acknowledgement that we all are aware that shit has been getting stranger and more discomforting (NOW!!) year after year, and with climate change, each season brings another shocking headline about several places across the planet. No matter the size of your bank account, you see it too. Some of us have experienced firsthand more than others, but, my thought and offering to you my lovely reader, is that however, and in whatever measurement we ‘individually’ experience or witness it (on our screens included)-- we feel it in our souls. Our hearts get a little pang. And that little twinge of anxiety-adrenaline is happening more frequently and if we are paying attention, it’s happening at a shocking beat in 2025.
I will pause while you catch your breath. If you’ve read this far, then is on your radar that maybe you might enjoy a community to talk about some hope and to find encouragement and to discover what we are DOING— we are all doing SOMETHING. You are, you may be doing several different things….. Here’s my layman’s classification:
REGENERATIVE ACTION
Community energy solutions, food co-ops, time banks, tool libraries, community meal-making, mend & sew clinics, DIY workshops.
POLITICAL ACTION
Submitting digital or public discourse, helping to get bills passed or stopped, supporting local candidates, meeting with current representatives to talk about the issues, town halls.
FINANCIAL
The people behind the scenes of the above categories appreciate your support, thank you! Divesting investment strategies from the major sources of corporate greed which fuel the “superorganism” of extreme capitalism, etc. Seek transparent and non-greenwashed clean energy investments. Shop at locally owned small businesses and purchase from regional suppliers.
COMMUNICATING
Talking about it, sharing and posting about it, making art, writing letters, or otherwise communicating, going to protests, and last but not least: Listening to those that do not agree with you (because maybe there’s probably a way to still understand one another).
And, side note on the ‘financial’ category mentioned above. Let’s try not a wealth-bash as a movement. Wealthy people that we come into contact with are typically not billionaires. When it comes to building the Resilience Movement, I believe that the people with wealth should be treated the same as someone experiencing the impacts of climate change. If someone displaying their wealth shows uo to protest, or help with resilience projects, we should welcome them and treat them as equals. We are all good-hearted people that see climate change as a threat multiplier.
18 MAY 2025 in Portland, Oregon:
Cascadia Day Portland: The Resilience Movement. A micro-gathering for social connections, information sharing, and maybe even some kickball.
CASCADIA DAY PORTLAND 2025 is for you.
You may be cynical from time to time, we’ll call it discouraged, or disheartened when asking rhetorically
“How can I make a difference?” Before I throw in my response, let me tell you my experience. (BTW, you are totally rad for hanging on while I make this point. ) For me, I have a half a dozen reasons why I feel powerless.… but it all boils down to my little heart keeps me scared. It’s anxiety, exhaustion after working all day, it’s information overload.
How can I make a difference? The first step, I will argue, is to practice balancing self care. I get it, there’s a lot of responsibilities we have…. and there’s always dishes to do. And reflecting on all of those obligations and adulting really makes me understand how valuable that my time really is.
This is how I have come to understand how I can make a difference in the “Race to Resilience" effectively communicated as “The Long Dark”.
Self-Boundaries.
Knowing the boundaries and limits that my little pink heart and prismatic-diet-coke-infused and weathered soul can take before running on fumes. That my dear reader is how we can practice building resilience in the polycrisis.
And it is therefore my responsibility as an individual to practice personal resilience so that I can model this behavior for my community so that those that are already doing a few things from the above categories can continue– together in CLIMA-unity, we are threat multipliers, Self-boundaries and practicing personal resilience encourage myself and others to take on an attitude of “community of care” don’t laugh, it’s a real thing!!!
What is Cascadia Day Portland 2025 about?
At Alberta Park, NE Killingsworth St. Cascadia Day is about CELEBRATING the Resilience Movement in Portland. Join to hear something new, to share your story of resilience, and to feel better in community. Life doesn’t have to be a burned-CD (or mixed tape) of break-up songs or a Taylor Swift playlist. When you're in the Cascadia Resilience Movement, you are home. We are here. #feelbetter
If you cannot make it Sunday…
Cascadia Stack holds peer support CLIMA-unity Circles for Belonging and Resilience about three times every month. Subscribe to our Luma calendar to get notifications of dates/times, facilitator hosts, and format. If you’d like to take our Climate Circle Facilitator Training, click here.
