Making the Invisible Visible
Part II
Last week during part 1 of “Making the Invisible Visible” Conversation Starters Vikas and Priya Narula, Co-founders of Keyhubs and Neighboring Forest, shared strategies for leveraging human networks, both within organizations and beyond. This week, we continued our discussion of networks but with a focus on trees and what we can learn from these ancient living beings. If you missed the last blog post, Click Here to read!
We began with the following poem to transition from our busy lives into our heart space: Charlotte Tall Mountain, Love of the World
For the love of a tree,
she went out on a limb.
For the love of the sea,
she rocked the boat.
For the love of the earth,
she dug deeper.
For the love of community,
she mended fences.
For the love of the stars,
she let her light shine.
For the love of spirit,
she nurtured her soul.
For the love of a good time,
she sowed seeds of happiness.
For the love of God,
she drew down the moon.
For the love of nature,
she made compost.
For the love of a good meal,
she gave thanks.
For the love of family,
she reconciled differences.
For the love of creativity,
she entertained new possibilities.
For the love of her enemies,
she suspended judgment.
For the love of herself,
she acknowledged her own worth.
And the world was richer for her.
Charlotte Tall Mountain (July 1, 1941 to May 6, 2006) was an artist and poet of an Iroquois Native American heritage.
With this transition, we moved into our first, small breakout groups in which we discussed, “What does "love of the world" mean to you?” While the breakouts were only a few minutes long, they revealed some beautiful thoughts and feelings. One person shared, “The world is our container. How can we bring our love and passion to the container in which we live? The importance of bringing forth the positive, wonderful things that are happening to counter balance the negative things that are we going on.” Put it simply, in focusing on the love of the world, we must remove the focus on one’s self and point towards the light.
Following the breakout groups, Vikas and Priya shared their own personal experience and what prompted them to start Neighborhood Forests. It was through Vikas’ vision and passion for sharing trees with others, coupled with Priya’s support and determination that the success of Neighborhood Forest truly emerged. Giving children trees, while not an expensive endeavor, has lasting benefits for everyone. Children are able to develop a relationship not only with the tree but nature itself. It gives the opportunity to children to care for something and connect with the live-giving network by which we are surrounded. Trees not only can beautify neighborhoods, provide much needed shade, and property value, but also help reduce carbon emissions through carbon capture. As Vikas notes, at the end of the day, everyone loves trees! There is no political, social, religious, etc. divide when it comes to trees and that is what he loves about them “connection without any commentary.” Vikas went on to show images of some of the first recipients of trees and how the children has grown alongside their beloved trees as seen in the example of Mollie —>
We discussed how trees, like humans, talk to one another (as shown in the video to the left). Communication, networking, sharing in community are all shared traits. One person shared in the chat,
“[I am ] Learning that trees can teach us a lot about rooting and having meaningful relationships and not just surface likes that exist on Facebook.”
While we often think of our network and the act of networking as a social or professional act done on Facebook or maybe LinkedIn, our roots go much deeper than that. With this in mind, we entered the breakout rooms for a second time to discuss the following questions:
What is our sphere of influence?
How can we be conscious of our sphere of influence?
How do we connect human and non-human networks?
Over several of the Essential Conversation, the theme of Nature as not only important but healing and life-giving has emerged, this week was no different! As mentioned before, trees have stories just as humans do. Watching a tree emerge from a seedling and caring for it as it grows teaches us to be patient, nurturing, and to care for ourselves as well during the process. Being in nature, among trees and flowers and other natural networks that communicate and collaborate in harmony to create an ecosystem allows us to feel embraced.
In one breakout group, the members discussed the power of nature in its ability to not only heal but teach. Trees are “refreshing, innocent, and non-toxic” and can be used as tools. Not only do they add value in terms of scenery and global impact due to carbon capture, but they can be used to teach character to children, families, and community. This is the goal of Neighborhood Forest, to use trees to provide connection without commentary, to bring people together regardless of their background or beliefs for the good of the individual and community. Throughout the Essential Conversation I saw excitement as participants weaved threads of commonality and people began to collaborate and ideate on this shared hope of the power of nature. Commitments from the EC this week included spending more time appreciating nature, listening to the trees, one person shared how this conversation got his wheels turning on how he could implement planting trees not only in his home life by using extra acreage he had to start a tree farm to share trees with others, but how we planned to implement these concepts into a non-profit program he runs for children and families.
There is power in communication and strength in networks. This is why we continue to share stories each week at the Essential Conversations and why your participation is the root of our success. We are so grateful for everyone who has attended and undoubtedly made an impact on someone else because of their story and experiences. Your voice + Many Voices = Collective Impact! With that, we invite you to attend our upcoming Essential Conversations as well as invite others to attend and continue to grow our network of purpose.
