“Life, it seems, is nothing if not a series of initiations, transitions, and incorporations." -- Alan Dundes

With 5 meetings a day, my last 3 days in Atlanta were FULL! And landing back in the PNW asked for a little rest, recovery, and integration. Here's 3 glimpses into how the reciprocity cycle continues through the initiations, transitions, and incorporations...

FYI: The 3 steps are in reverse order of when they happened chronologically. You may want to start at the end and find yourself back here :)

Acknowledge Earth Is Our Home

After 1 day of bed rot upon reentering the Pacific time zone, it was time to get back to work, but I knew that this included grounding in body and place.

So I decided to cut the grass.

Now considering my backyard is about postage stamp size, this might now seem like a big deal. BUT, it was the first time of season. I had purposefully let it grow.

Bugs and bees that use the ground for hibernating got plenty of time to wake up. Pollinators benefitted from all the dandelions and other random flowering bits.

Plus, I got to enjoy purple dead nettle in my smoothies, dandelion greens in my salads, and cleaver in a tea as a lymphatic cleanse.

I had actually picked and froze a bunch of purple dead nettles before I left because I knew during my 2 week absence, they'd be long past their bloom, So I started by adventure on Monday by gathering dandelion leaves and cleaver from the middle of the yard -- leaving a perimeter for continued growth and greens.

Once I had those piles on my kitchen table, I grabbed handfuls of dandelions, clover, and tall grass. Tearing sounds and green smells with every swipe. Plus, I got quite a few squats in!

Now, the yard was ready for the push lawn mower. Roughly 3 passes over every patch -- which got the cardio pumping and arms talking.

By the end of an hour or so, my little postage stamp yard had filled half a curb side compost bin!

And my body and brain...

After 2 weeks of imagining Atlanta as home for the first season of "How on Earth?"...

Felt grounded here, in my Oregon home.

Discover Your Earth Archetype

One my last day in Atlanta, I had the honor of being invited to the first class of the 9th course of Atlanta Watershed Learning Network.

The stated goal was to give participants information about the watersheds to empower them to take action. And the first class started with news from past participants, some quick potent stats about water pollution, and principles around organizing.

One of the facilitators is Dr. E. She uses this term when referring to her scientist side. She also uses Erica when describing her side that is a resident and neighbor -- someone who attends block parties and drinks the water that flows into her house.

I was struck by how Dr. E invited people to imagine right before lunch break started.

After connecting the dots between stats and statistics that speak to the goal of delivering information and demonstrate very well a Network Earth Archetype...

She used a set of pictures to encourage use to move past equality (after all separate but equal did NOT work)...

To move past equity (which doesn't address the root issues)...

To even move past liberation (where no barriers/fence exists at all)...

Into this new unknown. This fourth space. This place we get to create.

It was done in a brilliant Weaver style.

And instantly it kicked in my Metaphor thoughts.

"Crisis of Imagination" and the classic "Yes and..." improv game came to mind.

The first could be used to explain the blankness of this 4th space.

The second to practice dreaming an image into it.

It actually got me thinking about the Earth Archetypes quiz and how this example could be a way to show a preference between the 5 types.

What do you think the Molecule and Embodiment examples would be in this example? LMK!

Work Together in Community

Dr. Na'Taki Osborne-Jelks is an amazing woman.

So many times during my chats with people in Atlanta, her name came up.

Impressive for a short, black, soft spoken woman.

But let that fool you. She's a....

Scientist working on climate data around race, class, and health that hasn't had a federal study since the 1990s -- or as the young person in the room commented "The 19th century"...

Professor at Spelman College...

Facilitator with the AWLN course...

Executive Director of West Atlanta Watershed Alliance -- which includes an outdoor activity center on an amazing 22 acre forest in the midst of town...

Woman of faith...

And MUCH more!

Before seeing her share these stats at AWLN, I got the privilege of walking around the OAC property for an hour.

She shared about the three tiers of the organization with education, stewardship, and justice.

She introduced me to the grandfather beech tree, a new shelter, and the work to preserve an adjacent plot of land that holds baseball history.

I'm grateful for all she shared about how it "all flows into the watershed."

I'm also grateful that I got to share with her why I believe in the power of storytelling. "Crisis of imagination" came up then too. So did my appreciation of how the Queer community has used entertainment to forward the movement. We even chatted about my love for middle school students.

As we stood side by side looking at the new shelter and the stories it will tell and one day hold...

She told me that she'd never thought of these Metaphor perspectives like that before.

And I felt delighted to be finding our way towards working together in community.