Falling into Place
Branching Out 006
To my new subscribers, welcome! I’m so glad you’re here. And if you’ve been reading Twig & Ink for a while already, welcome back! I appreciate your continued support.
I send out two issues of Twig & Ink each month—a shorter update around the beginning of each month, and a longer feature interview around mid-month. If you have questions, ideas, or suggestions for possible interview guests, please be in touch!
Rooted
I am feeling thankful for the communities I’m part of—lots of good news to share this month!
It’s October, and for the 5th year now, that means the start of mentorship season at Creature Conserve. I’m happy to be back as a Mentor again, and I’m also in a new role: I was recently welcomed in as a Fellow! We had a kick-off event yesterday, and the stories, knowledge, and insights that this community of innovative thinkers brings to the field of wildlife conservation are inspiring. I’m also looking forward to working with my co-Fellows, Natalie Field and Lauren Renee Frausto!
Twig & Ink was recently featured on SmallStack, and coincidentally, the post they chose to highlight is by a Creature Conserve mentee, Shivani Shenoy. Huge thanks to Erin Michaela Sweeney, Robin Cangie, Robin Taylor, and the rest of the team! Be sure to check out their new SmallStack Library.
And! I’m unreasonably pleased that over on The Art of Noticing, Rob Walker has included one of my Missing Word suggestions. (You can find it about halfway through the post).
That same Art of Noticing post about Spotlighting reminded me of this year’s terrific Wild Wonder Conference, and also of my daily tree drawings (I just started sketchbook #25!). It’s about attention, but as Rob Walker talks about in his Spotlighting post, the thing you say you’re paying attention to isn’t the only thing you’re focusing on. When I’m drawing a tree, it’s also about the juvenile Red-tailed Hawk screeching in the late-summer sky and the Ruby-throated Hummingbird whirring at the honeysuckle vine, the incremental growth of and confidence in my drawing skills, the way my breathing evens out as my hand moves and how the sounds of squirrels chittering and wind or music reclaim my brain from the swirl—a sort of drawing meditation that both focuses and enlarges my attention all at once, that bolsters me to face this crazy world we’re living in.
Rounded
A few months ago, I shared an announcement about an event in California called PST ART: Art & Science Collide. The extensive network of art-sci events and exhibits is now fully up and running, and it looks incredible. I’m particularly intrigued by Embodied Pacific, Ancient Wisdom for a Future Ecology, Beatriz da Costa: (Un)disciplinary Tactics, and Social Forest, but take a wander around the PST website, and see what you find. If you have the chance to visit any of the exhibits in person, let me know!
Reaching
What helps create a feeling of community for you? Especially in online spaces, what encourages you to continue to engage with a particular group or community? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Your blog has raised my consciousness in supporting me that I am not alone in my thinking about nature and a "humane' way of interacting with nature. Coming from AZ I have always been conscious of water conservation and regional plant management so finding you and those you interview is reorienting me and I now look for other sources who are like minded.
What helps create a feeling of community for you? Especially in online spaces, what encourages you to continue to engage with a particular group or community? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. MY THOUGHTS ON THE ABOVE QUESTION: I LOVE READING, HEARING OF OTHER PERSPECTIVES AND LEARNING AT LOOKING AT NATURE THROUGH ANOTHER'S EYE. AS SOMEONE WHO HAS USED NATURE AS A MEDITATION SINCE A YOUNG AGE I FIND THE IDEA OF MODERN LIVING, SCIENCE AND CONSERVATION AS A MEANS OF PARTICIPATION AND NOT FEELING ALONE IN MY VALUES.