“It's cold today, but in a spring way, and I love you." -- Vladimir Nabokov, Letters to Vera

The spring equinox is upon us. As you read this, the sun's rays on the Earth have shifted. In the Celtic tradition, we have entered the time of budding and the amount of daylight changes more than 3 minutes each day. Returning from SxSW and integrating what is next, I'm feeling that tilt-a-whirl. How about you?

Acknowledge Earth Is Our Home

After so many aspects of SxSW had concluded...

Yet the music and film still continued to play...

I knew that I needed some time to connect with this land I'd been a guest on for a week.

So I snuggled under a full lunar eclipse...

Strolled along a river that the locals refer to as a lake...

Soaked in the sun next to a pool make from a creek...

And hiked through a dry creek bed famous for waterfalls that no longer flow.

After being asked several times what I thought of Austin but not being able to give an answer because I'd only known the few blocks of the skyscraped downtown...

I finally felt I had a more visceral and true connection to what Austin would be like to call home.

Discover Your Earth Archetype

I was delighted to hear Chief Scientist and an amazing communicator Katherine Hayhoe on panel at SxSW. You can read about my takeaways (that she reposted!) HERE.

Seriously read the quick post for the rest to make sense...

Because what I'm sharing with you, dear blog readers, is the 1:1 chat we had after her panel.

I wanted to see where she landed with how to move people from anxiety to communication to action.

I brought up Ayana Elizabeth Johnson's venn diagram.

I shared a bit about Earth Archetypes.

And I wanted to know what she found useful to get people to engage.

Her response is at the heart of her book "Saving Us."

Values.

And she gave the example of being a parent.

Interestingly, values are a part of the Earth Archetypes quiz. It's part of what makes people struggle with it. That I've been trying to fix.

Values is where now try to focus on as the opener for "How on Earth?" by asking "What do you care about?"

With her book already loaded into my audiobooks app, I'm excited to dive in more and see what other dots will connect -- and we can put into action with Earth Archetypes.

Work Together in Community

I'm so excited for all the organizations coming together in a couple weeks to help people have conversations about the value of awe.

Since the name of one of my projects in development is "Climate of AWE," I've definitely been drawn towards people's experiences and definitions of awe. And that's when I realized how new the scientific research behind this emotion was -- compared to joy, fear, anger, etc that have been studied for quite some time.

First I found an extensive white paper. Then the same scientist Dacher Keltner published a book all about his research. Having focused on awe as a storyteller for my entire career as a Metaphor Earth Archetype, I was fascinated by this Molecule view of the topic. Hint: by the end of the book, we are fully into Network Earth Archetype territory.

Then a year ago, Oregon Humanities recruited a bunch of people to apply, train, and prepare new topics for their Conversation Projects. And wha-la! "The Science and Story of Awe" was born. Over 90 minutes, I guide people with questions and objects to explore awe from many points of view.

Delightfully, Caldera Arts was the first to request this conversation. And because it will be private for their community, I asked if I could outreach to other organizations in the area to lead a public conversation at the same time.

And Paulina Springs Bookstore jumped at the chance. So if you are in the Sisters/Bend area on Wednesday, April 2nd, I'd love to have you be part of the conversation.

Let's uncover together the potency of awe for transformation.