Carnival!

Carnival Season is here.

Yes, I'm a somewhat slow learner... not growing up a religious person per se, I'm just beginning to see the links between the Winter Carnival that I heard so much about in Quebec, the Saint Paul Winter Carnival we love so much, the Mardi Gras of New Orleans and Carnival of Rio and Trinidad that is now celebrated so vehemently in Belize, Miami-Broward, Toronto and throughout the Caribbean.

It's incredible to see the emergence of such amazingly vibrant colors and textures on incredible engineering designs expressing sailors, flowers, fire, birds, butterflies and bugs! Trinidad Carnival Queen Competition For the first time, I'm learning the history of carnival and connections to cultural, ecological traditions marking the scientific cycles of seasons change. Even the correlation between Valentine's Day and carnival traditions are surprisingly relevant to our increasing desire to play mas.

Agriculture. That basic necessity for food and water is at the root of what still drives our motivation to participate in community even today. 

So in an effort to ensure that our access to safe and healthful food and water will improve rather than deteriorate, we take notice and action on current events and steps to the future. Clean water is one of those primary building blocks of life. Right now, it's our responsibility to clean up our mistakes, and train ourselves for a future that protects water as a basic right of humans and the natural world. 

Obviously, besides air, food is the next basic element that we need. And to protect our food requires us to fully comprehend and defend the complex and interconnected systems that contribute to our ability to access safe, healthy food.  Pollinators. Climate. Biodiversity. Hydrology. Harvest. Distribution. Seeds.

These are milkweed seeds. We brought them to last week's Martin Luther King Day Parade and celebration. Because these seeds represent a human decision to take action. In this case, action on behalf of one family to encourage others to replant this single source of monarch caterpillar food. That butterfly that is now endangered due to habitat loss and pesticide pollution. That plant ecosystem that once sustained aphids, ladybugs, ants and butterflies... that no longer exists as expanses of fields holding fuel for the seventh generation of monarch before their great annual journey south and north across this great continent... I remember those many, many monarchs... gathering like orange maple leaves changing over a frosty late summer evening on the north shore of Lake Ontario... And I intend to see the day when my children get to witness those monarchs en masse, following the cycles on a path to safe, clean food and water across the lap of our beautiful earth mother once again.

Milkweed seeds by Adrienne Chadwick

That's it for 2015!

Each cycle is a transition... and life is a series of cycles... birth, growth, expansion, contraction, transition... and repeat...

Here's an oldie but goodie:
"Reflections on the Reef"
from Tobacco Caye
back in 1998...

Thinking about that possibility of a multiverse - not the TV or satellite or gaming cube... but the mathematical, astrophysical, scientific concept of infinite universes...

Kinda makes sense, logically. And really puts a focus on how much our actions, choices and impacts really boil down to:  what is it that is so important to me that I can make no other decision other than to take this path right here.

Subjective, yes perhaps.  Lacking critical analysis... maybe.  Considered rebellious by the mainstream population... most likely.  But if we are careful to include continual critical analysis in our daily life habits, then the points at which we have the opportunity to take action will necessarily reflect an ongoing critical perspective.

Wellness is a state of balance that is constantly in motion... wobbling, either perceptively or not, between the range of possible extremes.

And so, we vow to continue on... and jump in to another cycle, with reverie, resoultions and respect for our own self discovery as individuals in relationship with families, communities, organizations and other individuals all over this beautiful land and infinite interspace...


Tara's Year in Review

Cheers!

The Season....

Photo credit: Jeff Holmes

It is upon us again... that time of year that comes with the official end and beginning of all things transformative in the subtropical paradise we know as south eastern Florida. Folks from the mid latitudes tend to think of this place as the South... little do they realize that perched on the edge of this peninsula... the trading happens in over 60 languages, across all seven continents, and if they were to look at their own achievement, health and equity gaps... they'd realize that the North is way more southern than south eastern Florida.

Photo credit: Yours truly

Nope we're more of a portal. The northern most tropical port in an interconnected continental divide that is rooted in 100,000 years of genetic memory carrying biological migration patterns that awaken in us like hormones in the endocrine system of a healthy young 12 year old. Like the karst and marine atoll topography thirstily absorbing minerals flowing south through the rivers, rivers of grass filtering out nitrogen, bringing in the memories of an ancient and distant volcano... if we sit for a moment and ponder... we realize we will never forget. Who we are. Who's come by. How we are related. What we must do.

Like every ant, beetle and spider, our ever so humble task:
Pass the torch. Continue the spark. Remember. Understand. Learn. Keep going.

No matter what, keep going.

So that is what we must do.

That is what we will do.

What I will do.

Keep going.

Photo credit: Adrienne Chadwick

Open hearts

Hard to believe a month has gone by... I'm gonna start out on a brave note, with a little bit of stream of consciousness writing again... vulnerability...

Well the thing is, it's becoming so clear how in sharing our stories, those most personal of feelings, the ones we sometimes find difficult or uncomfortable sharing with others, are the very ones that bring us such profound healing and connectivity... it's in those most special and meaningful spaces that we find the healing, the truth, the things that allow us to see ourselves in each other...

And those are the elements of true community building... the lasting stuff that relationships are built on, those kinds of bonds that are strong, lasting and as flexible as a spider web in a storm.

So much seems to be happening right now in the micro and macrocosm world around us, sometimes it feels difficult to keep up with all the changes that are happening. And yet all that change produces relatively little difference in the big picture, in the long term.

One of the interesting parts of living in a diverse urban area is that if or when one encounters the opportunity to share stories between cultures, the roots of many of our historical and contemporary experiences reveal uncanny likeness in experience and impact.

This month I was honored to work with the Broward County Public School Board on an intensely impactful art project encouraging anonymous personal reflections around the process of achieving equity in diversity.  A magnificent question for our particular geographic and demographic locale where no majority cultural, ethnic or racial group exists... here in the present, we are a reflection of the future.

It was so beautiful and also jarring to see a snapshot of what our educators and administrators may not be able or willing to share verbally as a matter of daily or even periodic conversation.  They were deeply personal "thought selfies" with identifying characteristics absent.

TRUTH.  FREEDOM. EQUITY.  In Action.

The process of co-facilitating the collaborative creation of the thought-quilt was quite spectacular in itself. The practice of engaging in art making, placing one's thoughts into action, the bravery of stating one's truth... each was incredibly varied in the approach, the level of comfort, and the amount of time each collaborator was willing to invest - if even they invested at all.

The end results of the collaborative work...well - the results in-process, or to-date... speak for themselves in attesting to the beauty, integrity and strength that is possible when we are able to share willingly, with our hearts open....

Florida Fall

Just a little stream of consciousness blogging this time - it's my birthday month after all! And that beautiful time of year when I get to enjoy avocados from the tree so generously planted by my mother in our almost non-existant back yard! It's amazing what you can grow, even with very little space.  The eggplants that sewed from seed at the start of summer have blossomed all month, but not a single fruit.  The leaves are beauties though - not sure why no one has them as houseplants! Maybe they're like squash and it takes a human touch to ensure pollination...

So many thoughts, so little time. One of the most exciting highlights of the month was seeing the bald eagle again across the street. Signs of hope. Hopefully. And of course knowing that we've entered a new era, according to the count of the moon. New is always good, at least if it's all natural - by the way, it may not be actually, if there's a label involved....

Okay, so now that I'm feeling all shy and embarrassed for providing a short glimpse into the raw, unedited mind of me... I'll close for now... Enjoy the beauty of the season!

Bawshkeengwabigun.

Full circle, once again

This is me at Lovitt's Point, a half-acre park at the edge of the Scarborough Bluffs donated by Mr. and Mrs. Lovitt after their 1940's post-WWII home "went over."  I had no idea these trees were so little back then.  The Point, as it came to be known, was my forest, my solace, my destination.  This was the wilderness I could access on my own, even when as a youngling, my freedom to wander was limited.  The Point was my static datum point from which I observed the changes and cycles of nature.  It was the place from which I developed and processed my ever-changing self-realization.  It remains the place to which I am forever connected as the geographic point on the surface of our Mother Earth from which my own mother opened her doorway of life for the first time, and allowed me a safe passage here to the realm of the living.

It was here that I watched the moon rise and set. Here that I witnessed the monarchs roost. And here that I learned I could climb whatever mountain I choose with careful planning, balance and strategy.  The black-eyed susans and milkweed flowers that filled the summer fields with sweetness and beauty are some of the very same species that belong here, at this very southern most tip of our North Eastern seabord. Not surprising since our bird relatives make their way back and forth along their natural fly ways.  I do miss seeing those beautiful warrior hummers and that field full of honey-scented milkweed, buzzing with bees and red with lady bugs by day; dotted with fireflies by night.


This week, though, we saw the bald eagle again, fishing at the restored Miramar Pinelands Lake.  Now this is my forest. My wilderness. My place to walk and process and plan the next phases of my life. This beautifully restored ecosystem, billions of years in the making, so I could walk through and introduce my little one to his first memorable glimpse of our country's emblem and protector.

Seasons and cycles are ever changing, but some things will always remain.

Assigning Value

Jam-packed, chaos-filled building from the ground up...

Making something from nothing on two very different projects; both unexpectedly challenged my own internal assumptions about value.  Particularly, negotiating that delicate balance between self assessment and the expectations of others.

So many factors come into play! Self esteem, self worth, the racism, sexism and classism that we know influences the value the others assign to our work, and which we ourselves have also internalized.

It is such an act of will and bravery to even attempt to proceed through these murky waters, fraught with emotional reaction to these points of lifelong sensitivity!

Perhaps it's just easier to let others assign their value and just go with that...

But no, not for me... I had to be the child of a rebel mom - challenging every possible notion of mediocrity, status-quo and assumptions wherever possible.

And so, I inherited the obligation to continually learn how to stand up for myself... to be proud of who I am... and to teach the value of what I do... the value of what we all do, when we bring our whole, complete selves to the table.


Our future is inextricably linked to our past and sharing with each other who we are is not only valuable but invaluable to the success of our collective future.