It's time to fully engage with quantum social change. Stepping into preferment, I’m choosing uncertainty, entanglement, and oneness as the basis for generating transformative change. Will you join me?
Your article and that poem is precisely what I needed to read as I was feeling some wobbles about the choice to step away from leadership roles in worthy causes this year.
Like you, I dream and hope that preferment leads to space for more joy, more creativity and more cosmos-attuned ways of being of service.
I can already feel this is the case, but also know this journey is accompanied by occasional bouts of fear of lack of relevance, guilt about potential complacency, anxiety about making a sufficient difference in the world etc.
However, then synchronicities arrive that seem like the cosmos saying, ‘trust me’ - like recently choosing to name our not-for-profit artist residency in Italy ‘Casa Morphosi’, after Ovid’s poem Metamorphoses, and then reading your article!
It sounds like we are very much aligned for the year(s) ahead, with similar desires and occasional fears! I'd love to hear more about Casa Morphosi -- it is such a synchronicity with Anne's poem.
Hi Karen, love your concept of preferment, and am grappling with all those issues myself. (Four years on from ‘retirement’) All the best with new pathways.
Congratulations on your retirement and continued engagement in nature conservation. I cherish the great memories from our time together with Rodrigo and Clementina in the Maya jungle of Chiapas, Mexico, during our graduate school field work years. I remember your first night at Chajul Biological Station when you almost stepped on a highly venomous pit viper while walking to dinner. When you came with Mario and me on my boat, we helped you find the old CILA meteorological stations destroyed years earlier during the Guatemalan Civil War in the Petén jungles along the Usumacinta River. During the same 10-day trip, you shared a small piece of chocolate with us, every time we spotted a Scarlet Macaws for my dissertation surveys along the Lacantun and Usumacinta Rivers. Those were fun moments.
All my best and congratulations for all your accomplishments my friend.
Dear Eduardo, It's wonderful to hear from you and thanks for the message. I also have such great memories from our time in the Selva Lacandona. I'll never forget them! I do remember almost stepping on the small pit viper, and you pointing out that the small ones were more poisonous than the big ones. I also remember eating chocolate cookies every time we saw a pair of macaws while doing your survey on the Rio Usumacinta. Were you at the station when the harpy eagle showed up? I would love to have a Chajul reunion with you, Rodrigo, Clementina, Mario and Rafa, and others. It's on my "preferment list"! In the meantime, have a great year ahead -- and I am so happy to hear that you are in good health after the transplant!
Thanks Jono! I'm looking forward to having more time to read your inspiring newsletters -- you do a great job both linking and communicating the science of climate change and biodiversity loss.
I'm wishing you a rich preferment! Your ideas on quantum social change are intriguing to me, and I need to spend more time with them. In this past year of my own preferment, I've taken on a finance and operations role at a beautiful local nature center / biological field station, although I notice in myself that the return to 'work' has resulted in the energy to act on my 'why' sometimes getting lost or spent in the 'what' of the workdays. Your post, your connection to Lisa's solstice sermon, and Anne's poem all help with my discernment heading into our new year. Thank you for your writing!
Thanks Doug! I recognize that it may take some transition time to sort out my why's and what's and create new patterns. The word discernment pairs well with preferment and I will keep that in mind!
I loved the poem, Anne! Wonderfully profound and also so utterly apt for me
Your article and that poem is precisely what I needed to read as I was feeling some wobbles about the choice to step away from leadership roles in worthy causes this year.
Like you, I dream and hope that preferment leads to space for more joy, more creativity and more cosmos-attuned ways of being of service.
I can already feel this is the case, but also know this journey is accompanied by occasional bouts of fear of lack of relevance, guilt about potential complacency, anxiety about making a sufficient difference in the world etc.
However, then synchronicities arrive that seem like the cosmos saying, ‘trust me’ - like recently choosing to name our not-for-profit artist residency in Italy ‘Casa Morphosi’, after Ovid’s poem Metamorphoses, and then reading your article!
It sounds like we are very much aligned for the year(s) ahead, with similar desires and occasional fears! I'd love to hear more about Casa Morphosi -- it is such a synchronicity with Anne's poem.
Yes, definitely! I’ll send you our website link when it is finished in a few weeks!
That synchronicity with Ovid's Metamorphoses is so cool, Cindy! Glad you liked the poem too...
Hi Karen, love your concept of preferment, and am grappling with all those issues myself. (Four years on from ‘retirement’) All the best with new pathways.
Dear Karen.
Congratulations on your retirement and continued engagement in nature conservation. I cherish the great memories from our time together with Rodrigo and Clementina in the Maya jungle of Chiapas, Mexico, during our graduate school field work years. I remember your first night at Chajul Biological Station when you almost stepped on a highly venomous pit viper while walking to dinner. When you came with Mario and me on my boat, we helped you find the old CILA meteorological stations destroyed years earlier during the Guatemalan Civil War in the Petén jungles along the Usumacinta River. During the same 10-day trip, you shared a small piece of chocolate with us, every time we spotted a Scarlet Macaws for my dissertation surveys along the Lacantun and Usumacinta Rivers. Those were fun moments.
All my best and congratulations for all your accomplishments my friend.
Abrazos, feliz y saludable año nuevo.
Dear Eduardo, It's wonderful to hear from you and thanks for the message. I also have such great memories from our time in the Selva Lacandona. I'll never forget them! I do remember almost stepping on the small pit viper, and you pointing out that the small ones were more poisonous than the big ones. I also remember eating chocolate cookies every time we saw a pair of macaws while doing your survey on the Rio Usumacinta. Were you at the station when the harpy eagle showed up? I would love to have a Chajul reunion with you, Rodrigo, Clementina, Mario and Rafa, and others. It's on my "preferment list"! In the meantime, have a great year ahead -- and I am so happy to hear that you are in good health after the transplant!
Abrazos,
Karen
What a beautiful journey is unfolding Karen. I'm so grateful to see you're choosing life ❤️
I'm looking forward to the day our paths will cross again ✨
Thanks, Tijn! I love following your journey and also hope our paths cross soon.
Lovely reflection, Karen! All the very best with the transition and with embracing uncertainty! I look forward to following along.
Thanks Jono! I'm looking forward to having more time to read your inspiring newsletters -- you do a great job both linking and communicating the science of climate change and biodiversity loss.
Thanks so much, Karen! So nice to hear that :)
I'm wishing you a rich preferment! Your ideas on quantum social change are intriguing to me, and I need to spend more time with them. In this past year of my own preferment, I've taken on a finance and operations role at a beautiful local nature center / biological field station, although I notice in myself that the return to 'work' has resulted in the energy to act on my 'why' sometimes getting lost or spent in the 'what' of the workdays. Your post, your connection to Lisa's solstice sermon, and Anne's poem all help with my discernment heading into our new year. Thank you for your writing!
Thanks Doug! I recognize that it may take some transition time to sort out my why's and what's and create new patterns. The word discernment pairs well with preferment and I will keep that in mind!