#11
Webs lingering from last night.
Yesterday, I zoomed into my first meeting as a member of the board of the Center for Humans and Nature. (Check https://humansandnature.org) I met Brooke Hecht, the Executive Director at a conference a few years ago and have since been to a few gatherings. Broadly speaking the organization fosters our understanding of and relationship with nature. It was founded in 2003 by Strachan Donnelley (1942-2008) who saw himself as a “fly fishing philosopher”. He worried that the environmental movement wasn’t big enough or all-inclusive enough to deal with the size of the challenges facing us. His goal with the “Center” was to bring together a full spectrum of big thinkers—economists and ecologists, to philosophers and poets—to move the level of discourse to the understanding that we are nature and until we embody that, our survival chances are slim. During private conversations, Brooke H. and I have whispered about shamanism and animal helpers and plant magic and native wisdom, and under her subtle guidance, the Center is beginning to embrace this greater world, this ‘enchanted world.” So, it was synchronicity (not coincidence) that within days of my committing to ‘my mission’ to contribute to the re-enchantment of the world, that Brooke H. called to invite me onto her board. I knew this was a perfect step along my new path when in the minutes from the last board meeting I read that organization wants to expand beyond typical scientific thinking and explore important possibilities that are now discounted by the mainstream. That the center can help bridge these gaps. Lately, I’ve often said that while I greatly value proven science I respect and trust many alternative ways of thinking and that my work is to build a bridge between these. The “Center” is located on 50 acres in Libertyville, Illinois, near Chicago. It currently has a publication arm (I have story in this https://humansandnature.org/kinship/ ), a farm which is on track to commercially grow food and medicinal herbs, and facilities for workshops and conferences. I’ve rarely been with a group of people that seemed so committed to the greater good. Stay tuned.