Thanksgiving Day--Day to give thanks for the abundance of our land and for our food, clothes, shelter, and health. More information about Thanksgiving

Fast for an Abundant World Harvest--Day to fast and commit to action to help prevent deaths from malnourishment world-wide. For more information, see Oxfam America website.

Day the world's nations agreed to protect the oceans and their creatures from pollution and over-harvest (1994);

Day to mourn continuing pollution and over-harvest. U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea: signed/adopted 12/10/1982; entered into force 11/16/1994.] [Text of Convention] For more information on the Convention, see U.N. Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea website. See also Wikipedia article on U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea Citizens for Global Solutions website. For information on ocean pollution and fisheries conservation, see Greenpeace website; EarthJustice website; Natural Resources Defense Counsel (N.R.D.C.) website. Fish stocks have collapsed in almost one-third of all ocean fisheries. The rate of decline is accelerating and total loss of fisheries could occur by mid-century. Fishery decline is caused by over-fishing the stock, the loss of marine biodiversity associated with the stock, pollution, and climate change. Establishing core protected areas for each surviving stock and preventing the stock from being fished above the maximum sustainable yield are crucial for its survival. For information about the collapse of fishery stocks, see U.N. Environment Program report "In Dead Water" National Center for Policy Analysis article Wikipedia article on Over-fishing.]

Birthday of Orello Cone (1835),

Universalist who believed that divine revelation comes from many sources. He believed science and religion could be complementary, and recognized that the Bible was written by fallible men. [Death day 6/23/1905] More on Orello Cone

Tolerance Day(AKA International Day of Tolerance) --Day to promote harmony in diversity through mutual respect and understanding of all, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, culture, language, nationality, or economic status. Despite international and domestic laws providing for equal rights, freedoms, and protections, members of minority groups are still harassed and discriminated against because of societal intolerance arising from fear and ignorance. Intolerance often results from projection of "collective guilt": it is immoral to blame an entire group for the acts of a member unless the entire group empowered the member who acted or endorsed the acts. See U.N. website on International Day for Tolerance Wikipedia article on Declaration of Principles on Tolerance

America Recycles Day--

Day to begin systematically recycling all your paper, glass, plastics, and metal that can be recycled. Ask your work, school, and house of worship to recycle, too! It is a great day to start a compost pile & keep all of that waste out of landfills. See America Recycles Day website. And see Natural Resources Defense Counsel (N.R.D.C.) website.

11/12 to 11/15: Tewa Buffalo Dance--focused on healing. Tewa rites honor Mother Earth, Father Sky, and the four directions and elements of life - air of the North, earth of the East, fire of the South, and waters of the West. http://youtu.be/nMxOVeCuPjU

Birthday of Sr. Juana Ines de la Cruz (1651), Catholic nun and feminist poet. [Death day 4/17/1695]

Sister (Spanish: Sor) Juana Inés de la Cruz, O.S.H. (English: Joan Agnes of the Cross) (12 November 1651 – 17 April 1695), was a self-taught scholar and poet of the Baroque school, and Hieronymite nun of New Spain. Although she lived in a colonial era when Mexico was part of the Spanish Empire, she is considered today both a Mexican writer and a contributor to the Spanish Golden Age, and she stands at the beginning of the history of Mexican literature in the Spanish language. See More on Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juana_In%C3%A9s_de_la_Cruz

11/11 to 11/17: Old Anglo-Teutonic fast marking Hod (God of Darkness)

unintentionally killing Balder (God of Light),

and his true love Nanna (Goddess of Flowers)

dying of a broken heart. The dead were honored.

Krystallnacht-- Night of the Nazi attacks on Jewish homes, synagogues, and shops in Germany, beginning the persecution that would end with the deaths of six million Jews (1938) Tonight is a night for meditating on the evil of all religion-based hatred. Try to come up with solutions for eradicating this type of evil from our world. We should never allow such horror to ever happen again.

Birthday of Fr. Thomas Berry (1914),

Catholic priest, eco-theologian, and cosmologist, who advocated for deep ecology and eco-spirituality. He believed the Universe, our Solar System, and planet Earth, in themselves, and in their evolutionary emergence, constitute the primary revelation of the ultimate Mystery from which all things emerge into being. Twelve Principles for Understanding the Universe and the Role of the Human in the Universe Process by Thomas Berry 1. The Universe, the Solar System, and the planet Earth, in themselves and in their evolutionary emergence, constitute for the human community the primary revelation of that ultimate Mystery whence all things emerge into being. 2. The Universe is a unity, an interacting and genetically-related community of beings bound together in an inseparable relationship in space and time. The unity of planet Earth is especially clear: each being of the planet is profoundly implicated in the existence and functioning of every other being. 3. The capacity for ordered self-development, for self-expression, and for intimate presence to other modes of being must be considered as a pervasive psychic dimension of the Universe from the beginning. 4. The three basic laws of the Universe at all levels of reality are differentiation, subjectivity, and communion. These laws identify the reality, the values, and the directions in which the Universe is proceeding. 5. The Universe has a violent as well as a harmonious aspect, but it is consistently creative in the larger are of its development. 6. The Earth, within the Solar System, is a self-emergent, self-propagating, self-nourishing, self-educating, self-governing, self-healing, self-fulfilling community. All particular life-systems must integrate their being and their functioning within this larger complex of mutually dependent Earth systems. 7. The human emerges within the life systems of Earth as that being in whom the Universe reflects on and celebrates itself in a special mode of conscious self-awareness. The human is genetically coded toward further cultural coding, by which specifically human qualities find expression in a remarkable diversity in the various regions of the Earth. 8. Domestication: transition to village life and greater control over the forces of nature took place in the Neolithic period, 12,000 years ago; beginnings of agriculture, domestication of animals, weaving, pottery and new stone implements. 9. The classical civilizations: progressive alienation of the human from the natural world; the rise of cities, elaborate religious expression in ritual and architecture, development of specialized social functions, increase in centralized government, the invention of writing and related technologies. 10. The scientific- technological- industrial phase: the violent plundering of the Earth takes place, beginning in Europe and North America. The functioning of Earth is profoundly altered in its chemical balance, its biological systems, and its geological structures. The atmosphere and water are extensively polluted, the soil eroded, and toxic waste accumulates. The mystique of the Earth vanishes from human consciousness. 11. The ecological age: a new intimacy is sought with the integral functioning of the natural world; destructive anthropocentrism is replaced with eco-centrism; transition to the primacy of the integral Earth community. 12. The newly developing ecological community needs a mystique of exaltation and finds it in the renewal of the great cosmic liturgy, which celebrates the new story of the Universe and its emergence through evolutionary processes. See also Thomas Berry's website. And see Thomas Berry's Earth Spirituality and the "Great Work" and Thomas Berry and a New Creation Story. [Death day 6/1/2009]

Birthday of Dorothy Day (1897),

activist for peace, economic justice, and workers' rights. [Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement.] [Death day 11/22/1980] more on Dorothy Day