“Stories were wild, wild animals and went off in directions you couldn't expect." -- Patrick Ness

As I write this, I've been on Atlanta soil for 10 days. Every day, connection, and moment reveals more and more synchronicities to experience and stories to share.

Acknowledge Earth Is Our Home

As I celebrated Earth Day in Atlanta...

About 12 degrees latitude south and 38 degrees longitude east of where I normally call home….

I’m meeting people and places to acknowledge how “Earth is Home” here for businesses, churches, artists, communities, and more.

This first step of the Reciprocity Cycle keeps me grounded in the swirl of addresses, meetings, and notes.

As I keep saying with every handshake that may turn into a hug…

Climate is a relationship.

Yes, a complicated one…

(Kinda like the one with my mother!)…

But ultimately just a relationship.

And it made me realize that Earth Day is a type of birthday party.

Where we intentionally shower some love on our friend.

And then continue the care all year long.

Discover Your Earth Archetype

Another realization popping up here in Atlanta is that I feel really good about finding community partners that the Weaver, Network, and Molecule hosts of "How on Earth?" can connect with for the various episodes.

The Embodiment and Metaphor partners will require a different strategy to find and engage.

This is a bit funny to me partly because these 2 are the Earth Archetypes I most identify with. And I'm certainly finding folks in the film industry to connect with from a sustainable lens.

The couple artists and culture makers I've talked with have been added once I got here but their expression is more about their personal freedom to express or a cultural impact through consumerism.

And due to the brutal history of the area towards indigenous peoples like the Trail of Tears, many of the nations that would call the lands of Georgia home are now elsewhere like the Carolinas and Oklahoma.

For my remaining days in town, I'll stay open to who may cross my path.

And then I'll buckle down at home to come up with a strategy.

Got any ideas?

Work Together in Community

Since transitioning from last week's SuperSouth conference to being in the streets, parks, and buildings of the community in Atlanta, an interesting idea is arising.

I figured that I was doing all the learning. After all, I'm the outsider with a lot of listening to do.

But then I started making connections. On Friday I met someone who needed a special type of solar installer. On Saturday, I met a great installer and connected them via email.

On Saturday and Tuesday, I connected with 3 different workforce development orgs that don't know each other.

Back to back meetings on Tuesday morning allowed me to introduce a materials reuse org to an artist who had just been at Home Depot before our meet up.

Also, on Tuesday, a pastor showed me 2 amazing lawns he is considering for a community garden and that night I learned about an issue around lead in the soil in his area of town and where he can get the soil tested for free.

And it got me thinking....

What if as a thank you, I create a really basic spreadsheet with org names, main contact folks, and a brief description of their work. Then I share it with everyone to encourage either their own outreach or the request for an introduction.

This idea has me excited, and I hope can be a great example of how the Weaver elements of this storytelling project can support the community.