Thanks for this post and comments. Happy Earth Day!!
I call myself The Celebration Coach and coach and write around living a celebrated life. Of balance, connection, hope and sustainability.
And yet, especially, in the past 5 years, it has felt like a celebrated life is less and less possible, probable. But I am coming to realize that celebrating life, living a celebrated life, is more important now then ever. Even when times are hard. Especially then.
For me personally, that means balancing the heartbreak and fear by feeding my heart and spirit daily, with walks in my local park. Taking nature photos. Being as present as I can. Giving myself lots of time to just be. And be in joy. Creating writing, sharing photos. As I have lately struggled with all that is happening in our country, I feel a need to put fun first each day. To flood myself with simple joys, in ways I have never done in my whole life.
"Climate hostages" is so apt, my goodness. All of this was well parsed out including this particular point. We are in a very complex place but it helps me to know that Mama Earth is right there with us in all of her complexity too, reaching for the same balance we are. And helping us get there too.
So like, I’m totally there with ya’ll as I read this and doing what I would if I was in the room: listening intently, taking notes and overlaying my own CJ action plans upon the template you provide here Dr Wray. I might have worked up the courage to even pose a question if ya’ll were taking them :) So nice to meet you, Leah, and thank you! I’m desperate to grow in the CJ space:
GOALS
Within the larger context of social-ecological restoration working in social, environmental and climate justice our big 3 CJ GOALS are to 1) Mitigate Flooding 2) Cool the Urban Heat Island, and 3) Provide Nature Access. Maybe I should reverse these??
PATHWAYS
Building consensus is really, hard (heart breaking), work with identified frontline, overburdened, urban watershed communities. Public engagement and empowerment are key. Ideally there are organizers with ambassadors on the ground living in the community and intimately familiar with daily and ongoing life there. If this doesn’t exist, we must try and create that connection through listening and letting folks be heard in multiple ongoing safe spaces. There may be many organizations and institutions working in the community, and we must offer them avenues to getting on the same page with elected officials and with each other. Everyone needs to trust the process. Seats must be offered at the table.
WILLPOWER
Every “fraction of a degree” of Nature Access I may help provide as a landscape architect (with teams waaay LARGER than just me – I’m tiny) begins to mitigate Flooding and cool the Urban Heat Island. Especially true when we’re removing impervious surfaces in urban areas… #floodplainrestoration… calm, cool, collect and clean stormwater runoff through natural processes… Rebuild resilience and revitalize – don’t build new in the hinterland – while growing the population through workforce initiatives, training and education: empowering the folks whom in the words of Eddie Melton, mayor of Gary, IN “invested the most in their communities by staying in the face of massive economic and population loss”.
Thank you for bringing us into the room here Britt. Drawing strength from you always in these many endeavors <3
I really enjoyed the discussion on optimism. It's so hard to not be pessimistic during times like these, but it too often leads to a thought process of "it's over. We can't fix it." I find it difficult to convince my friends and family to be optimistic without ignoring the problems going on. Thank you for sharing!
Yes! You will find this riddled throughout Dr Chan Hellman's writing and talks, he is the Director of the Hope Research Center at U of Oklahoma. I've learned this by interviewing him, and hearing him speak, and reading a variety of his papers, so there's different ways to track down original sources by peeking at his stuff: https://www.ou.edu/cas/socialwork/about/faculty-and-staff/chan-hellman
Love the discussion of efficacy too! Talking Climate with Katharine Hayhoe talked about the same thing today. As you outline so well, hope is not wishful thinking, it's knowing you can do something rather than feeling hopeless / futile https://www.talkingclimate.ca/p/isnt-every-day-earth-day?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1796118&post_id=161914930&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=45udo0&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Thank you, Britt. I needed this read ❤️
Ronja! <3 so lovely seeing you here. Hi my friend.
Thank you for the excellent conversation with Leah about anger, hope and action. REALLY valuable!
Thanks for this post and comments. Happy Earth Day!!
I call myself The Celebration Coach and coach and write around living a celebrated life. Of balance, connection, hope and sustainability.
And yet, especially, in the past 5 years, it has felt like a celebrated life is less and less possible, probable. But I am coming to realize that celebrating life, living a celebrated life, is more important now then ever. Even when times are hard. Especially then.
For me personally, that means balancing the heartbreak and fear by feeding my heart and spirit daily, with walks in my local park. Taking nature photos. Being as present as I can. Giving myself lots of time to just be. And be in joy. Creating writing, sharing photos. As I have lately struggled with all that is happening in our country, I feel a need to put fun first each day. To flood myself with simple joys, in ways I have never done in my whole life.
"Climate hostages" is so apt, my goodness. All of this was well parsed out including this particular point. We are in a very complex place but it helps me to know that Mama Earth is right there with us in all of her complexity too, reaching for the same balance we are. And helping us get there too.
So like, I’m totally there with ya’ll as I read this and doing what I would if I was in the room: listening intently, taking notes and overlaying my own CJ action plans upon the template you provide here Dr Wray. I might have worked up the courage to even pose a question if ya’ll were taking them :) So nice to meet you, Leah, and thank you! I’m desperate to grow in the CJ space:
GOALS
Within the larger context of social-ecological restoration working in social, environmental and climate justice our big 3 CJ GOALS are to 1) Mitigate Flooding 2) Cool the Urban Heat Island, and 3) Provide Nature Access. Maybe I should reverse these??
PATHWAYS
Building consensus is really, hard (heart breaking), work with identified frontline, overburdened, urban watershed communities. Public engagement and empowerment are key. Ideally there are organizers with ambassadors on the ground living in the community and intimately familiar with daily and ongoing life there. If this doesn’t exist, we must try and create that connection through listening and letting folks be heard in multiple ongoing safe spaces. There may be many organizations and institutions working in the community, and we must offer them avenues to getting on the same page with elected officials and with each other. Everyone needs to trust the process. Seats must be offered at the table.
WILLPOWER
Every “fraction of a degree” of Nature Access I may help provide as a landscape architect (with teams waaay LARGER than just me – I’m tiny) begins to mitigate Flooding and cool the Urban Heat Island. Especially true when we’re removing impervious surfaces in urban areas… #floodplainrestoration… calm, cool, collect and clean stormwater runoff through natural processes… Rebuild resilience and revitalize – don’t build new in the hinterland – while growing the population through workforce initiatives, training and education: empowering the folks whom in the words of Eddie Melton, mayor of Gary, IN “invested the most in their communities by staying in the face of massive economic and population loss”.
Thank you for bringing us into the room here Britt. Drawing strength from you always in these many endeavors <3
I really enjoyed the discussion on optimism. It's so hard to not be pessimistic during times like these, but it too often leads to a thought process of "it's over. We can't fix it." I find it difficult to convince my friends and family to be optimistic without ignoring the problems going on. Thank you for sharing!
Love this interview. Could someone share the source(s) for the hope efficacy research? Would love to use those three elements in my teaching.
Yes! You will find this riddled throughout Dr Chan Hellman's writing and talks, he is the Director of the Hope Research Center at U of Oklahoma. I've learned this by interviewing him, and hearing him speak, and reading a variety of his papers, so there's different ways to track down original sources by peeking at his stuff: https://www.ou.edu/cas/socialwork/about/faculty-and-staff/chan-hellman