Category Archives: Photos

Love-In-Action members, events, trainings, actions, and art photos to share.

August 8, 2014 · 4:03 am

Only Photos Can Capture Love-In-Action Taos’ Outrageously Active Six Months

Heroes 1 Group Shot

The Unsung Heroes: Whistleblowers, Activists, and Muckrakers Procession won “Most Patriotic” in the 4th of July Parade.

It’s hard to keep up with Love-In-Action Taos.  (This website certainly can’t!) Since forming in March 2014, this small town group has organized over forty actions and events, taking part in the Global Climate Convergence, March Against Monsanto, the local agriculture movement, three peace vigils for Palestine, Pax Christi’s Hiroshima Day Vigil at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and won “Most Patriotic” in the 4th of July Parade for their Unsung Heroes: Whistleblowers, Activists, and Muckrakers procession.

Here are just a few photos from the group’s wonderful activities. Enjoy!

Love-In-Action demonstrates in the rain, the sun, and even after dark … while war rages, Love-In-Action speaks up for peace and nonviolence!

Love-In-Action demonstrates in the rain, the sun, and even after dark … while war rages, Love-In-Action speaks up for peace and nonviolence!

Growing gardens, sharing food, swapping seeds, bringing loaves of fresh baked bread to gatherings … it's not just protests. Love-In-Action stands up for life in many ways!

Growing gardens, sharing food, swapping seeds, bringing loaves of fresh baked bread to gatherings … it’s not just protests. Love-In-Action stands up for life in many ways!

From porch gardens to one-acre fields, Love-In-Action Taos members love to grow food! We understand that local agriculture sits in the nexus of climate, water, poverty, and community resilience issues.

From porch gardens to one-acre fields, Love-In-Action Taos members love to grow food! We understand that local agriculture sits in the nexus of climate, water, poverty, and community resilience issues.

Love-In-Action Taos visits our City Councilors … this happens to be about a name-change for a local park.

Love-In-Action Taos visits our City Councilors … this happens to be about a name-change for a local park.

Love-In-Action Taos helped host the local Global Climate Convergence for People, Planet, Peace over Profits. This is an educational talk in the Historic Taos County Courthouse. Photo by David Cortez

Love-In-Action Taos helped host the local Global Climate Convergence for People, Planet, Peace over Profits. This is an educational talk in the Historic Taos County Courthouse. Photo by David Cortez

Planting a Cherry Tree during the Global Peace Walk.

Planting a Cherry Tree during the Global Peace Walk.

Schoolkids from Penasco joined the Community Parade during the Global Climate Convergence, bringing along the recycled plastic dragon they built!

Schoolkids from Penasco joined the Community Parade during the Global Climate Convergence, bringing along the recycled plastic dragon they built!

Love-In-Action Taos joins Pax Christi and John Dear for the Annual Sackcloth and Ashes Hirsoshima Day Peace Vigil at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Love-In-Action Taos joins Pax Christi and John Dear for the Annual Sackcloth and Ashes Hirsoshima Day Peace Vigil at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

We are the media! Love-In-Action Taos proclaims, holding up cameras for the camera. We are the news: both the subject and reporters!

We are the media! Love-In-Action Taos proclaims, holding up cameras for the camera. We are the news: both the subject and reporters!

Love-In-Action Taos painted nearly 100 banners of inspirational leaders for social justice, both living and passed on.

Love-In-Action Taos painted nearly 100 banners of inspirational leaders for social justice, both living and passed on.

Joining the Great March for Climate Action as the cross-country marchers arrive in Taos, NM.

Joining the Great March for Climate Action as the cross-country marchers arrive in Taos, NM.

"Gaza = Guernica" - a 7 x 15 ft adaptation of Picasso's famous painting being prepared for the Aug 9th demonstration for Palestine.

“Gaza = Guernica” – a 7 x 15 ft adaptation of Picasso’s famous painting being prepared for the Aug 9th demonstration for Palestine.

 

March Against Monsanto becomes a colorful celebration of life when Love-In-Action gets involved!

March Against Monsanto becomes a colorful celebration of life when Love-In-Action gets involved!

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May 7, 2014 · 9:27 pm

Love-In-Action Taos Potluck Picnic, Community Parade, and Global Climate Convergence Events.

Rivera Sun, left and Kimo Ward, right of Love-In-Action Taos lead the Community Parade down Bent St. in Taos, NM during the Global Climate Convergence.

Rivera Sun, left and Kimo Ward, right of Love-In-Action Taos lead the Community Parade down Bent St. in Taos, NM during the Global Climate Convergence.

This week of activities was incredible. It really warmed my heart to see our Love-In-Action group being exactly what it intends to be in the world: love in action. Ken, Rick, Carol, Dariel, Sigrid, and I walked in the Global Peace Walk and Cherry Tree Planting Ceremony. Sigrid, Josie, Dariel, Rick, Carol, Erich, Ken, Aisling, and a few others joined the good-sized group who listened to Kathy Kelly speak about drones and Afghanistan. Several of you made it to my reading (thank you!) and Kimo, Patricia, Sigrid, Dariel, Rick, Carol, and Ken were all hands on deck during the 30mph winds that made our Convergence Day potluck picnic an adventure!

This is what I dreamed of when I formed Love-In-Action Network: that by gathering regularly, sharing cookies and conversation, we would find ourselves in a community of nonviolent action that appeared again and again on the issues that touched our hearts.

Thank you so much for being the change we wish to see in the world. From puppets to banners to catching wind-blown fliers to corn on the cob and burritos to your quiet attentive presences to snapping photos, I saw you all being love in action in a thousand ways this week. I am honored by your friendship and companionship in these times of great change.

Brave New Burro (the brass band) and a windblown Earth Flag carrier during the Global Climate Convergence Community Parade in Taos, NM.

Brave New Burro (the brass band) and a windblown Earth Flag carrier during the Global Climate Convergence Community Parade in Taos, NM.

May 12th is the next Love-In-Action Taos gathering. We’ll be discussing the upcoming arrival of the Great March for Climate Action (May 24th) and the same day March Against Monsanto. By the way, some of the Love-In-Action members were at the Strategy Session at the end of the Convergence … a woman there spoke about the beekeeper who is helping local landowners keep their agricultural status by leasing bees to them.  Perhaps we could help spread the word around the county about this opportunity and how bees help our whole environment.

On May 12th (6:30pm Unity of Taos), we can also discuss the Democracy School that Dariel and I attended directly after the Convergence, the Community Rights Ordinances, the Right to Climate, and the Rights of Nature. It’s an amazing movement that is growing around the country and we have an opportunity to join it. Other topics for May 12th are planning educational events such as the weekend of nonviolent action education we spoke about at the last meeting.

Love-In-Action member, Rick Brown, dressing a volunteer in his hand built Earth Puppet head costume before the Community Parade during the Global Climate Convergence in Taos, NM

Love-In-Action member, Rick Brown, dressing a volunteer in his hand built Earth Puppet head costume before the Community Parade during the Global Climate Convergence in Taos, NM

So much to be excited about!

With love,

Rivera Sun

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March 4, 2014 · 9:39 pm

Taos Gathering Sings!

Greetings from Love-In-Action Taos! photo by Patricia Morningstar

Greetings from Love-In-Action Taos! photo by Patricia Morningstar

Dear Love-In-Action Network,

The Love-In-Action Network is a very humble and simple thing. We come together, we talk, we deepen through our gathering, and then we act together to help our world. There has been interest in this network from around the globe (Morocco, British Columbia, Mexico) and also many communities here in the United States. I want to encourage everyone to just do it! Start a local group. Invite your friends. Bake cookies. Talk.

Every Love-In-Action group develops from simple beginnings. Over time, they will have amazingly unique flavors. I want to share some reflections on our Taos, NM (USA) group. Hopefully, they will inspire you.

For our second Love-In-Action gathering, a young(er) woman and I asked to learn the old protest songs and spirituals. Little did we know the magic contained in these songs! At the risk of waxing poetic or sounding sentimental, I watched the room come alive through the songs. Pete Seeger believed that when we sing together, we have joined in spirit to sing. I felt that. I watched the “older” members of our group shine with the joy of sharing these songs. For me, asking to learn these songs was a way of honoring the generation of the 1960’s, and of tapping into what George Lakey calls “the accumulated revolutionary wisdom of the people”.

At this gathering, we also had a Christian and Muslim sitting next to each other, along with some Buddhist-Taoists (like myself) and other faiths, too. In these times of hate and war, I feel small moments of peace like this are worth mentioning and celebrating.

We spoke about our interests in Love-In-Action, our feelings of needing to find action in this time of great change, and our yearning for positive, constructive, and tangible efforts. One idea that caught the group’s interest was to pick up the litter that plagues our community, holding signs that say, “Please don’t litter” and “Love-In-Action Taos”. Many felt that a visible, humble, and practical contribution to our community was the perfect way to begin our efforts. We briefly explored the idea of how to use the litter picking up day as a meditation or an intentional focus of being Love in Action – which reminded me of Thich Nhat Hanh’s writings. Can we practice compassion while engaging in practical action? I think we can.

At the next gathering in two weeks, we will use the World Cafe discussion model to dive deeper into our ideas for group efforts on the local and larger problems we want work together to address.

Please do not be shy. Leave a reply and I will email you back. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for … and the time is now. Join us.

With love,
Rivera Sun

P.S. Find us all on Facebook, too! https://www.facebook.com/groups/685127711519818/

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March 2, 2014 · 2:52 am

Love-In-Action Coming to a Community Near You!

Quote from Rivera Sun. Meme by Brent Adams

Quote from Rivera Sun. Meme by Brent Adams

“We call into action those whose hearts cry out for justice, and those whose spirits know that the continued survival of our species depends on our concerted efforts now.”

So begin the opening statements the Love-In-Action Network’s Living Charter. I’ve spent years writing fictional novels about social movements and courageous action, but today, I am honored to be a part of the real-life movement for change. The Love-In-Action Network was founded to empower you and your community to participate in the epic struggle for humanity’s future that is sweeping the globe.

To borrow a potent and descriptive phrase from my novel, The Dandelion Insurrection, the Love-In-Action Network is “what happens when the heart breaks open with love and springs into action.”

It’s Occupy crossed with compassion, grounded in the lineage of committed nonviolent struggle. It’s a D.I.Y. study group and action team rolled into one . . . and it’s coming to a neighborhood near you.

All across America, ordinary people like you are yearning for coordinated action like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement or Gandhi and the Indian struggle for Self-Rule. We are ready for change – we know the time is now – but we’ve been looking for a charismatic leader to appear. You know what?

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!

The Love-In-Action Network exists to help you become one of the thousand points of light shining in this time of darkness. The Network offers community and solidarity. It empowers you and your friends to engage in trainings, readings, discussions, strategy sessions, and actions. Local groups can be as large as whole cities or as small as two friends. Pre-existing groups can join the Network under their own names, listing themselves as the Your Local Action Group, part of the Love-In-Action Network.

“No more looking for leaders! You are the change!” – Steam Drills by Rivera Sun

Local groups enjoy autonomy and solidarity, able to both create local strategies for action and join with others for regional and national campaigns. All you need is a commitment to nonviolence and a couple of friends.

The Love-In-Action Network has five focuses:

  • 1) Training in nonviolent struggle, philosophy, strategy, history and techniques.
  • 2) Crafting a vision of the future and creating a roadmap from here to there.
  • 3) Connecting inner work to outer action.
  • 4) Developing teams of people capable of high-level strategic analysis of current problems and of formulating strategic plans of nonviolent action.
  • 5) Strengthening the interconnections of one’s community in preparation for nonviolent struggle and readying local members for participation in national mobilizations.

With these, every member of the Network becomes prepared to engage with the challenges of our times. We are an empowered, self-governing organization that can respond flexibly and swiftly to crises, as well as prepare strategies for long-term campaigns. We work with organizations like the Metta Center for Nonviolence and Pace e Bene’s Campaign Nonviolence to provide excellent opportunities for training.

Out of all of this, the coordinated Network of trained individuals becomes a collective force capable of tackling the serious challenges that we face. In your community, church group, or town, let your heart pull you into action. Join a local group or create your own.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!

Learn more about the Love-In-Action Network, find a local group, or create your own by visiting our website www.loveinactionnet.com

Author/Actress Rivera Sun is a co-founder of the Love-In-Action Network, a co-host on Occupy Radio, and, in addition to her new novel, The Dandelion Insurrection, she is also the author of nine plays, a book of poetry, and her debut novel, Steam Drills, Treadmills, and Shooting Stars, which celebrates everyday heroes who meet the challenges of climate change with compassion, spirit, and strength. www.riverasun.com

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