Happy September daily actors!
Great gads of inspired and collaborative action! Together with you and incredible partner organizations at our side, us daily actors rock a lot of water-saving, food-growing and community-building action. Though recently we have taken this to an exciting new level. In addition to our quiver of greywater installations, presentations and home, hood and business park lawn transformations, now we bring you a collaborative extravaganza of youth powered drought action!!! We are talking 30 lawns gone in 30 days while building soil, community and more inspired and skilled young leaders!
But amidst such immense need, how do we stay nourished, inspired and effective in regards to the things that matter most? As is often the case, I pontificate such things in the garden as the day wakes. I’m soaking in the stillness as the bees start to buzz, chickens work up their first clucks and a Towhees nibbles seeds from the towering sunflower that decided to grow in our path. From this spot my mind zips off to reflect on another month gone by, today’s todo and what’s coming up, as summer draws to a close.
With extreme weather, drought and increasing awareness of the urgent need to build personal and community sustainability, has come a deluge of opportunity. I am so inspired by how daily actors from staff to volunteers, donors and partner organizationsand agencies are rising to the challenge.
In August,local efforts to build resilience from neighborhoods to county-wide action have ranged from elderberry jamming workshops with berries harvested from the Cavanagh Center Food Forest to greywater installations and co-organizing last weekend’s DIY Drought Solutions with the Water Agency and City of Santa Rosa. Then there’s the incredible Another Lawn Gone! Community Collaboration just launched with the Water Agency, Conservation Corps North Bay, the Sonoma County Youth Ecology Corps and a range of agencies with the goal of sheet mulching 30 lawns in 30 days and creating several new public demonstration gardens.
Because we are rooted in the belief that through our daily actions, we can transform self, neighborhood, community and world, we extend our efforts beyond Sonoma County. Regionally, Daily Acts is a part of the Steering Committee to launch the NorCalCommunity Resilience Network. Around the state, we are beginning a new collaboration withCivicSpark, a California Governor’s Climate Change Initiative, which would have AmeriCorps Fellows implementing the Community Resilience Challenge around California in 2016. Taking the ripple effect out further, next Tuesday I will be in the UK to learn, network and present at the International Permaculture Conference (IPC), sharing your inspiring stories and efforts. After the IPC is the International Transition Towns Conference that Carolyne Stayton, MarissaMommaerts and I will attend to represent Transition U.S. Closer to home and via the magic of pre-recorded video chats, I’m doing the kick-off talk for Tierra: Onlineon Tuesday which is a super exciting new initiative by neighbors and daily actors, Tiffany Renee and Jaimey Walking Bear as part of their new 8th and Bee Homestead &Resilience Guild. HOLY SMOKES, too much goodness.
I share this because YOU make it all happen and together we are a part of something much larger that is deeply powerful and hopeful. We live in big times that offer and demand a lot of each of us. So how do we stay nourished, inspired and effective amidst soooo much?We start by rooting into our purpose and vision, that which gives us power and direction. Daily Acts exists to inspire personal and community transformation. To achieve this we provide sustainability education and action programs that inspire people to grow food, to conserve resources and to build community. By remembering that change starts in our hearts and that every choice we make matters, we go about helping reconnect people to each other and their power. When we are living our sustainability dreams, this modeling inspires others to model in their actions, at home and work.
A key practice to find and stay true to what matters most is identifying and moving through emotional triggers. A trigger is an event that evokes a negative emotional response. When triggered it’s easy to focus on what is wrong with the situation or person triggering us and to give away our power. A few symptoms are judging or blaming thoughts, not breathing or rapid breathing, emotional outbursts, feeling sorry for oneself and a range of physical sensations, all of which make it difficult for good connection and problem solving. A great practice is to just notice and name what the trigger is, to create space and not act when triggered and to shift our state by breathing, moving our energy, connecting to purpose, laughing or anchoring oneself. From here we can more wisely and effectively respond to life’s myriad growth opportunities.
What started in the garden is finishing at my computer in my new Wonder Woman Power Pose that Brianna, our Programs Manager showed our team in the hallway yesterday. This is an example of an anchoring technique that Brianna remembered after our Personal Ecology session in the afternoon. Our staff gets together monthly to be of support for each other, to help clarify personal purpose and vision, our strengths and to talk about what throws us off and how to best live into our potential personally and organizationally.
What gives you a greater sense of power and purpose? What is the vision you wish to be living and sharing? How aware are you of when you get triggered or thrown off path? And more important, what are you doing with this glorious opportunity to reclaim your peace, your power and your ability to be the change you wish to see and to support this in others? From personal to planetary crises, most folks are navigating a lot these days. As we step into a full fall and a world that will only need and demand more of what us daily actors are living and sharing, take the time to stay nourished, to renew your inspiration and to better your ability to live what matters to you.