Jen, Leah, Jenn and I just spent a whirlwind week in NY together for Climate Week. So many great conversations were had. So many events attended. So much traffic. But what I always come back with is a heart filled to the brim with gratitude for this incredible team we have here at LOAM, and our nearest and dearest supporters!
Other than that, what stood out this year, was the glaringly obvious realization that scaring people into change doesn't work. Climate anxiety is real, and it sure is paralyzing! So, I am glad to see that there was a common understanding in all circles, that we all crave stories of hope. Stories of impact that show us the power of people, native wisdom, communities coming together. Stories that remind us that together, we can make a difference. That there are so many people out there fighting for what is right and good and needed.
And that actually, there are many people excited to fund such stories, and with that, the work being done on the ground.
We all left feeling deeply inspired to lean even more heavily into creating and sharing of such stories. And use them as a vehicle to drive impact and direct funding to our nonprofit partners on the ground.
Narrative threads are being more and more interwoven into documentaries. It's clear that we want to see ourselves in these stories, and be reminded of the interconnectedness of it all. Every panel we watched around indigenous wisdom reiterated the fact that we are not separate from nature, we are nature.
And as Chenae Bullock, the founder and CEO of Moskehtu Consulting so eloquently put it: When something is wrong with your mother, and you sit back, that's not okay. Do something. Do anything!
The doom and gloom stories about climate change I remember seeing when I was a kid, left me feeling completely overwhelmed and scared. While the stories we hear from our nonprofit partners, and the stories we heard last week, feel deeply motivating. These stories inspire hope. And we believe hope is what really inspires action. And only with action can we create change!
However, when we speak of hope, we need to get clear on its definition first. To me, hope isn't an optimistic promise we can lay our head upon to rest and wake up to a new world. To me, hope requires hard work, maybe even some blood, sweat, and tears. You certainly don't build hope by promising people things will be fine – I don't think that would work any better than the doom and gloom stories of my school days. You build hope by giving people a story worth believing in, and a sense of purpose and resiliency. That's where active participation comes in. That's what gets us fired up and out the door! That's why we designed our Immersions with active participation in mind.
Hopefully, you can experience it yourself, one day. And in the meantime, please listen to one of our impact stories. We hope they give you hope.
I would like to leave you with my other favorite quote from Chenae Bullock, from the Indigenous People's panel on Climate Credibility at the Impact Lounge. It goes right back to action, and what we can do, even when things feel overwhelming at times.
“ I don't know the way but I can paddle. “
Let's paddle together into a better future. And let the indigenous communities lead the way.
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