Shared Leadership - "Seeing Nature - Deliberate Encounters with the Visible World"

[Heather K]

Reflections of visions & patterns within nature - to inspire us in creating a resiliant comunity landscape & culture.  
I had just returned from being immersed for 3 weeks in the Olympic Parks ancient forests & shorelines observing the movements & patterns within nature. Now while back in our consumer-culture, I sense the movement & patterns within our community's emergent awakenings, and I am inspired to share words from Paul Krafel's observations of leadership within a flying flock of geese - H.K  (9/25/09).

 “Seeing Nature”, a book written by Paul  after he spent 8 years immersed in the wilderness as National Park ranger. His words are a delight to read to savor & implement:

Quote from his book – “Seeing Nature:” :
"We rounded a summit & came upon a spectacular ridge connecting two mountains...The wind blew bracing & chill, invigorating us as we walked along the sinuous gentle pathway two miles high...Patches of life extend downwind from the rocks like shadows. The wind shelter of each rock extends only so far...We heard a sound overhead & saw a V-shaped flock of geese approaching the ridge. The flock came on slowly because it was flying straight into the mountain wind. As the wedge of geese passed low overhead, I noticed that the leaders kept exchanging places several times each minute. The lead goose is like a ridge rock; it cleaves the wind & creates a wind-shelter behind it. Yet no single goose has the strength to lead indefinitely. By dropping back into the shelter of the flock, a goose could regather the strength needed to lead the flock again against the wind. Trading places allowed the flock to fly with greater strength...
"I remember the wedge of geese flying against the mountain wind. The older members used their mature strength to cleave a passage for the younger members who followed. As the younger geese mature, they shall move forward to help cleave a passage for the next generation...We fly within the protection of all that has gone before...As I mature, a desire grows within me to press forward and feel the resisting wind against my face, to help cleave a passage for the impossibilities that can follow...
...Once upon a time, sex, vision, flight & consciousness were impossible. Impossible in the sense that they had never occurred in the entire history of the Earth. But tiny changes kept accumulating & eventually each of them became possible. Life pushes against its edges...Each expansion creates opportunities for new expressions of life & each new life creates opportunities for further expansion. This spiral of change with all it has made possible & with all it will make possible is what I've come to call Gaia. This spiral created the soft, moist, green world & made possible my ability to be conscious of this miracle. I feel humble gratitude for the life preceding me & the life surrounding me" end quote

- yours in the spirit of community inspiring life's upward spirals of co-creation & gratitude, Heather K

(cross posted from discussion on Gaia Inspires)

[Angela Mercy]

Thanks for the beautiful words, and for me the reminder that in all our uncertainty  and fumbling we are contributing to  the upward spiral.  Certainty is impossible when the place we are heading is unknown...as the future always has been and will be.