Activity 4-2: Find Your Niche in a Regenerative Ecosystem

Motivation
As your relationship with the beings in the park has developed, you may have noticed the relationships they have with each other. How some birds often visit certain trees, or which insects seem to favor particular flowers. Each plant and animal in an ecosystem has its own role that interacts with others to help the system function. A "forest" that had just one type of tree, with no grasses, flowering plants, squirrels, birds, insects, or other beings that contribute to a thriving ecosystem, wouldn't survive very long. In the same way, there is a multitude of things that need to be done to build regenerative communities. By finding your unique role, your efforts will complement and interact with others' to heal our relationships with each other and our ecosystems. A regenerative community Venn diagram is one tool to help you find your niche.
Image of a Venn diagram with circles for joy, gifts, and need overlapping on a center of action.
Adapted from Ayana Elizabeth Johnson's Climate Venn Diagram.
Image by Tracy Kugler
Things to Think About
Printable worksheet
Where do you find joy?
Considering the activities you have done so far, which aspects of the park and its story are you particularly drawn to?
When you visit the park, where do you tend to linger?
How does your relationship with the park enrich other parts of your life?

Thinking more broadly, what activities, places, and people bring you joy? Consider not just superficial pleasure, but also a deeper, steadier sense of contentment. In addition to activities, consider places and interactions with others.

Building regenerative communities is a long-term project, so it is important to enjoy the work.
What can YOU offer?
What skills and talents do you have, professionally or otherwise?
What areas of specialized knowledge do you have?
What networks are you connected with?
What other resources can you bring?

Think about the unique role that you can play in the work needed to build regenerative communities, your special niche in the ecosystem.
What does your community need?
The park I hope you have come to love depends on particular patterns of precipitation and temperature, networks of habitats for the creatures that pass through, and functional social systems to support it. All of those systems lie in the balance as the climate crisis deepens and social systems struggle to adapt.

So much needs to change to transform from our competitive, extractive economy and culture into a cooperative, healing community that the kinds of things that need to be done are limitless. Of course we need to transform our energy, transportation, and food systems to slow and adapt to the climate crisis. But we also need to address economic and political systems designed to concentrate wealth and power and replace them with just, interconnected communities with room for everyone to thrive. Check out the resources below for lots of ideas for projects and areas of action.

The scale at which to think about transformation is important. As Rob Hopkins and the other founders of the Transition Towns movement put it, "If we wait for governments, it will be too late. If we act as individuals, it will be too little. But if we act as communities, it might just be enough, and it might just be in time." I encourage you to think beyond changes you can make in your own life and imagine ways you might work with your community to make it easier or more likely for others to act in socially just, ecosystem friendly ways.
What is your regenerative community action?
Hopefully, after considering the questions above, you can see some overlap between them. Some overlap probably happened naturally, as things you enjoy are also things you are good at, and the regenerative community solutions you gravitate toward are in areas that interest you.
Now think about how you could put all of these ideas together into a concrete activity or project. It doesn't have to be huge. In fact, it's best to start with something manageable. Then think of one or two first steps you can take. Chances are, once you take those first steps, others will follow!
Wildflower beds are models of cosmopolitan harmony, abundant and flourishing with a diversity of purple, white, orange, and pink.

July 24, 2016 ~ Englewood Ave.
This Moment is dedicated to Philando Castile. See this essay for more on his story.
Resources
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson's Climate Venn Diagram - The inspiration for this activity came from the fabulous Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, marine biologist, writer, and climate activist. Her site includes a TED talk on how to explore a climate Venn diagram. She is also a co-founder and longtime co-host of the excellent "How to Save a Planet" podcast, which connects with scientists and activists in the field and manages to deliver a lot of laughs on the way.

For ideas of areas to think about when considering what your community needs, check out these resources:

25 Enterprises for Resilience - This report from Transition US highlights enterprises across the country that emphasize being part of their communities, ecological responsibility, and equitable economics. Enterprises range from farms to bicycle delivery services, to local investment networks, and more. The Essential Guide to Doing Transition includes a similar listing of project ideas.

Project Drawdown's Climate Solutions Library - Project Drawdown has conducted extensive analysis on the potential greenhouse gas reduction and storage of a wide range of climate solutions. While many of the solutions in the library require action beyond community scale, others can be implemented locally.
Suggested Reading
Braiding Sweetgrass chapter: "Sitting in a Circle" - Kimmerer describes guiding what I imagine must be the best field course ever. Her students gather cattails, spruce roots and other materials needed to build a wigwam and prepare food. Along the way, they learn some of the many ways Indigenous people have used different parts of the marsh and forest plants. They also begin to learn how the plants and animals weave together to form a mutually functional ecosystem and to ponder how they can return their own unique gifts.

Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in without Going Crazy, by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone - A central idea of Active Hope is that hope is not simply an abstract feeling that one has or doesn't have, but a practice that can be developed. The book guides readers through the "Spiral of the Work that Reconnects"--coming from gratitude, honoring our pain for the Earth, seeing with new eyes, and going forth--a powerful framework for reconnecting with the world and finding a way into hope through action.

A friend and I designed a six-week book study around Active Hope, and facilitated it with a small group from our church. It turned out to be a truly transformative experience that is still echoing through the congregation years later, even though many of the members of that original group have moved away.