“a general direction of change : a way of behaving, proceeding, etc., that is developing and becoming more common" -- Britannica

Trend is a very trendy word these days. A general direction. A fashion/fad. A social media meme. Trendsetters and trendcasters. And for some reason it seems to be a theme in this week's blog. Trends in weather, comments, and directions. Along the way, they all taught me something...

Acknowledge Earth Is Our Home

A couple days ago is when I started noticing.

A facebook post or 2.

News broadcasts.

Weather apps.

The Pacific Northwest had a STORM coming through!

Hail that could be damaging.

And a chance of a tornado.

Maps color coded the "danger."

And alerts from sources as wide as National Weather Service to Nextdoor.

Holy high pressure and low pressure forces, Batman!!

And then this pesky thing called the details.

We had a 2% chance of tornados.

And the severe weather was a 1 and a 2 on a scale to 5.

That's barely the start of a dance move.

And the reality?

We had 2 gorgeous days of way-to-hot-for-springtime in a temperate rain forest...

Before the clouds rolled in pretty quickly.

And over 4 hours, we got a couple smatterings of rain.

Now, having grown up in Minnesota, I've always found such drama really quite silly.

Heck on those hot, humid summer nights, we prayed for a thunderstorm to pass through to sleep more comfortably.

We just kept an eye on if the sky turned green, because that's when "duck and cover" feels very prudent.

Yet I honor these two different senses of home.

In fact, this year as I have lived 24 years in both locations, I've had friends ask which one I identify with more.

It's an answer I can't give.

The thunderstorms shaped my childhood. They will forever be encoded in my brain and body.

The drizzle shaped me into the adult I wanted to become. And I'm forever grateful.

And as both destabilize with climate change, I plan to tell stories into my elder years to help as many people as I can strengthen their relationships with nature -- whatever that looks like in another 24 years.

Discover Your Earth Archetype

The "How on Earth?" sizzle reel has been out now for a couple weeks.

And overall, the response has been great.

Kinda like this one...

"This is really well done and I now get it!  I can see the vision and I think there is an audience for this. The sizzle reel really helped me understand what you are doing. Would you like me to pass this around to a few people?"

PS. The answer is "YES!" Please share the sizzle :)

But why am I talking about such things in this step of the Reciprocity Cycle?

Because of the 2:22 short minutes that make up the total reel...

About 60 seconds of that is revealing the 5 Earth Archetypes.

That's a lot of real estate!

And I think a good choice.

People need to really connect with them to know the foundation of the show.

We can get into the weeds about the flow of the episodes if people are first hooked by the concepts.

Yet, of course we can't tell EVERYTHING in 60 seconds.

And what I find interesting is the 2 camps people can fall into as a result.

One: confusion.

"I'm still not sure what the 5 hosts are specifically addressing each. What does "Metaphor" mean? I point that out because being a big fan of Queer Eye, it's very clear what each role for each host is (personal style with hair and fashion, learning skills with food, home-makeover, life-coaching)."

Two: curiosity.

"I watched the sizzle reel and did find myself wanting to know more about the characters.  I know you picked names for them “Weaver”, “Metaphor” and was left wanting more—so that’s a good sign!"

As we reach almost a year of this blog, where are you at with discovering your Earth Archetype?

Confusion? Curiosity? A mix of the two? Something completely different?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Work Together in Community

When working on climate, global vs local can be a challenging dichotomy.

After all, climate by it's very nature encompasses the entire globe.

And we know that actions from one area can disproportionately affect other areas.

Yet, one of the known solutions is to act more locally.

For example, the "ideal" is that we source our food from within a hundred miles.

And local is how we can create the deep connections to support one another.

This is coming up more and more as natural disaster like fire and flood ravage communities.

Like climate activist and filmmaker Allison Begalman's words after the LA fires.

Then more recently...

A return to the dirt with Whitney Clapper

And

Climate community liaising Kirsten Midura.

For me, community is both large and small, and both need to work together.

Reconciling this seemingly paradox reminds me of what I first called this step: Work Together Across Differences.

And scale is one such difference.