What do marriage, your career, and global warming have in common?
Hello Friends,
I've been toying with the question of what my "niche" is. What am I uniquely positioned to offer you? How might I be of service?
So far, what I've got is the funky intersection of two seemingly disparate worlds:
the realm of productivity, entrepreneurship, and digital transformation
and
earth-based spirituality, permaculture design, and ecological living
I'm aiming to weave these two worlds - and all I'm learning as I dance between them - into my monthly missives. I'd love to hear from you how these pieces are landing with you and what you'd like more of!
Monthly Missive
When I was first learning Permaculture Design, my instructor had a signature joke he used to illustrate a point about the power of our words.
“I ask you how your relationship is going” - he pauses.
“You tell me ‘it’s sustainable’”
“I’m thinking: that’s not so great”
Why do we settle for sustainable? The status quo. If we think about how things are these days in terms of the environment, it’s not exactly a status quo worth preserving. Right now, 800 million people (eleven percent of the world’s population) is vulnerable to impacts of climate change such as droughts, floods, heat waves, extreme weather events and sea-level rise. If we do nothing, climate change will continue on its trajectory and by 2050 more than 1 billion people could be displaced.
Sustainability isn’t enough. This is one of the tenets of permaculture and modern ecological movements. We need to strive for regeneration. Regeneration is the goal because it is what nature does on its own. If you clearcut a forest and then leave it alone long enough - guess what happens? It becomes forest again.
| Read On |
Landscape
To get a glimpse into what is possible when humans pause, check out The Year Earth Changed on AppleTV+. The legendary David Attenborough narrates this documentary of the collective deep breath the natural world experienced in 2020. Dig deeper with the book The World Without Us, an imaginative thought experiment that paints a vivid picture of how rapidly the world would change if we were to instantly disappear. Drawing from the reality of places abandoned by humans such as the Korean DMZ and Chernobyl, author Alan Weisman envisions nature's rapid reclamation of buildings, farms and even the NYC subways.
Real Talk: I'm super proud of myself for trouble-shooting funky website back end things so you didn't have a crazy long email to contend with. Hopefully a better experience than my last one -- progress not perfection! Thanks for reading and please hit reply if you've got any feedback. I'd love to hear it!
With Gratitude,
Kate
If you value my perspectives and know others who might enjoy, the coolest thing you can do is invite them to subscribe!
Kate Andlund
this is a manifesto of wholeness. of not shrinking to fit into boxes. of peeling away labels and shining in the radiance of all that i am. all that any one of us is. for all of my life i have asked: where do i fit? why don’t i belong here? or here? why is there always one foot in each camp? finally, i have come to accept my role as a bridge. i am not of one place or another. i am the being that connects them. finally, i have come to accept my belonging as child of creation. there is no one...
Hello Friends, As we approach Equinox, it feels a fitting time to return to this practice of connection, expression and service. It was just before the last Equinox that I signed off, preparing to welcome a new life. In the time away from this letter, my own life has changed in a great many ways. I am confident that these changes will work their way into some of my coming reflections but just to summarize, in the last six months: Stella was born and spent the first month of her life...
Hola Reader, This marks my last scheduled missive for the next few months. I'll be 36 weeks pregnant on Saturday and am "closing down shop" at my day job, my consulting - even my personal email inbox - as we near baby's arrival. I will be fully on leave until late June but anticipate that I may drop in occassionally before then when inspiration strikes. Thanks to all of you for accompanying me this far, and into this new chapter. Marking this turning of the page, tonight I share a poem that...