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Photo: The author, a committed climate activist, marching for the climate at the Women’s March in DC this past January. It just seems like it is becoming more and more difficult being a climate/environmental or any other kind of activist these days. I dread looking at the headlines to see what new drastic action is being taken to undo decades of environmental protection regulations and progress that has been made in the United States. Even so, I remain committed to doing all I can to leave a live-able world for my daughter and her generation, as well as for other generations to come. I am sure most, if not all, of you reading this blog feel the same way. So, how do we stay the course when the ground beneath our feet keeps shifting on a daily basis? Just as getting a good night of sleep is essential to one’s being able to function when awake, committed activists (or even concerned citizens who don’t have the time to do more than sign a few petitions) must take care of themselves so they can function when standing up for our environment. There are many ways to nurture oneself, such as meditating, exercising, engaging in creative activities or psychotherapy, or praying. And, of course, none of these excludes any of the others. Another important part of one’s “self-nurturance toolkit” can include understanding and being in nature. In fact, research has demonstrated repeatedly that being in nature is good for us all. Among other things, it improves cognition and mood, reduces stress, promotes healing and contributes to overall happiness. One Earth Conservation’s Nurture Nature Program is all about this. As never before, humans feel disconnected from nature and the beings that co-inhabit the earth with us. The Nurture Nature Program is a lifelong discovery of nature with practices that provides resources and resilience for nurturing oneself and Earth and Earth’s beings. Learn how to build community and foster relationships through slowing down, sharing experiences, and co-­designing activities that nourish each other and all of nature. Learn, practice, and discuss foundations drawn from science, psychology, communication theory, and mindfulness practices that clear the way to nurture oneself, others, and the earth. If you are in the metropolitan New York area, I will be giving a free presentation this coming Sunday, April 2, 2017 on “Addressing the Climate Crisis Through a Journey of Self-Discovery” as part of a Climate Justice Festival at the Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock. The Festival begins at noon and the presentation is from 1:15pm to 2pm. The address of Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock is 48 Shelter Rock Road, Manhasset, NY 11030. All are welcome! You can also learn more about our programs by clicking here and visit our new Nurture Nature Academy by clicking here. There is much to learn about how to gain a sense of belonging and inspiration through experiencing connection and beauty in nature. As one’s wonder and awe increase, so does one’s ability to do what must be done to ensure these experiences will continue to inspire generations to come. #climatechange #nurture #selfhelp #nurturenature #resistance

Honduras is the most dangerous place in the world for environmentalists. Because of the factors that cause this, we have not been able to enter certain areas where parrots and people are struggling. Finally this year we were given the go ahead by the military, which accompanied us along with the forest service, to travel up to the reaches of the indigenous territory of the villages with whom we work. First we set up camp at the edge where the pine savanna meets the broadleaf forest, and then hurried up to the overlook so as to do an official census of parrots. We were looking mostly north to the Colon Mountains (photo above). Met with unseasonably cool and wet weather, some of our count had to be done from within the truck with ponchos held high to get a glimpse of the rainbows, storm clouds, and what we hoped would be a great green macaw. Perhaps only a couple hundred are left in Honduras, and I had yet to see one here. The rain parted for just a bit, and out of the dark, drizzly mountains flew a large macaw headed towards us into the savanna and a likely nest (video above). It was a great green macaw! We celebrated on top of the lookout and then headed back to camp to find a way to stay dry with the overnight rain (photo below). We slept close to one another due to stories of jaguars who might snatch one in the night. In the morning there was scant time to tease the snorers before motoring up to the lookout for the morning count. Some counted while others went in search of the green macaw nest. Night camp with my hammock in the foreground Here is what we found during our two counts: (Tablitas Mirador) March 2 p.m. March 3 a.m. Amazona automnalis (Red-lored Amazon) 12 57 Ara macao cyanoptera (Scarlet Macaw) 4 3 Pionus senilis (White-capped parrot) 1 0 Eupsittula nana (Olive-throated parakeet) 2 0 Ara ambiguus (Great green macaw) 1 1 Amazona guatemalae (Northern mealey parrot) 1 0 Amazona auropaliata (Yellow-naped amazon) 0 4 Psitacara finschi (Crimson-fronted parakeet) 0 4 Red-lored amazons were busy protecting territories and nests (photo above and below, and video below showing pairs fighting) Our plan had been to build a permanent camp here so we could extend our parrot protection efforts, but due to recent violence in the nearby forest, we adapted and decided to make the camp portable and break it down every day. Then as the week progressed we heard more and more news about the level of violence, and decided that once again, this is not the year. Camp we will not repeat, this year Now may not be the time to be in this territory, but it is always the time to teach Back at the research and conservation center in Mabita we organized our patrols after gathering all the information we could to live and promote peace while protecting parrots and people in this area. It seems an impossible dream at times, even though last year not one macaw chick from our conservation area entered the wildlife trade. Patrols organizing for the season Amidst all the challenges, however, there is a beauty that cannot be squelched. Our job is to testify to it, and tell the story of what might yet be once again - not just one solitary macaw flowing out of the mists, but flocks of a hundred as in times before. Awake my people, and arise on the wings of indignation to bring liberation to all. There is always time for joy! (Full team at camp.) #Honduras #parrot #conservation #moakitia #poaching #drugtrade #narcos

Red-lored female on nest in Ahuavispan, Honduras I am headed back to New York after two weeks in La Moskitia, Honduras where we now work with four indigenous villages who seek to protect their scarlet macaw. Much more than the scarlet macaw is at risk, but by protecting this endangered bird we also preserve and protect other wildlife, people, and habitats. Our plan on this trip was to coordinate with the communities to locate, monitor, and protect nests, as well as survey what nests we could. We couldn’t document many nest contents by climbing nest trees, because it is early in the nesting season yet and we didn’t want to disturb the birds while they are incubating eggs. Females are very reluctant to leave their nests and we leave them in peace when we can. Double rainbow after storm in Tablitas, Honduras We also didn’t engage in as much biologic monitoring as we’d hoped, because we were met with much rain, wind, and mud along the way. I’ve been coming to this area for almost 7 years, and I’ve never seen it this cool or rainy, unseasonably so. The local people said it’s like summer was here, but it slipped back into winter. Now checking the weather forecasts, which predict heavy snow in my home area, I wonder if I will make it home without any delays. Spring is refusing to come, though the trees and nesting birds in the USA know that now is the time to get to work and produce more life to come. We know it too, that now is the time, before more life slips away. The nesting season is a time of work – for the birds, and for us. Though our efforts concentrate on the scarlet macaw, it is a rainbow under which all other species and people may prosper. As indigenous leader Tomas Manzanares once told me, “If the scarlet macaw doesn’t make it, neither do my people.” Rainbow over yellow-naped amazon roost site in Ahuavispan This rainbow adorned parrot, flying over head and nesting (though the weather and tides of time would prevent them from doing so from the pressures of poaching and habitat destruction), seems to hold us and lift us up, trying to soar even though storm clouds are all around. Nearly 15,000 hectares of forest in each area of this region are destroyed and replaced by agriculture and ranching. Pair of scarlet macaws at nest I look forward to getting home and nesting with family and friends indoors while a storm rages without, but not for too long. There are chicks to protect and welcome into a flourishing future that belongs to them, and could be all of ours. #Honduras #parrot #nesting #CentralAmerica #conservation

Photo by Fibonacci Blue Last week’s blog was on the topic of Emotional Intelligence (EI), which is particularly relevant to today’s political situation. Have you tuned into the political news lately, and wondered where all the EI has gone? Does anyone have it? If there were more of it, the earth and biotic communities would be in a lot better shape – even flourishing, instead of floundering. Knowing that this is within the realm of possibility, after watching or reading the news, I need all the EI I can possibly muster. EI is the ability to be open to, curious about, understand, and accept one’s feelings and needs, having greater choice around feelings and behavior so as to meet your needs and the needs of others. Using this definition, how many can you name of our political national leaders that exhibit much of it? What if they did? We might see a tweet like this: "Just got named “narcissistic” by the press. I’m SAD! Need acceptance and respect. Would someone help me feel great again? It would be a really big deal for me. THANKS!" During the Obama years, there was a running skit about him and Michelle having an “Anger Translator.” Maybe our politicians need EI translators to help them learn about what might be going on for them and to speak in those terms. For the rest of us, it would help us understand their feelings and needs (Social Intelligence), and it might also help us connect to our own feelings and needs (improving our EI even more), even though our needs are so not getting met by the current political situation. We would have improved self-connection, and a resulting deeper connection to all life. Try this as an EI practice to nurture yourself, and human nature in general, so we can nurture others and our wondrous earth. Join me on twitter at #gettingmoreEI and let’s do some translating and sharing, finding ways together to nurture ourselves and our public life, and maybe have a lot of fun. We tweet not for a “gotcha moment,” but to get and share more EI, which also makes us all more socially intelligent and which is a powerhouse for change and power-with dynamics. Let’s all get more EI! If tweeting is not your thing, visit our website, join or start a Nurture Nature Community, and take advantage of our resources and new Nurture Nature Academy at http://nurture-nature.thinkific.com/courses/nurturing-nature-for-life. #emotionalintelligence #connection #nurture #selfhelp #nurturenature #Politics #empathy #emotions

Over the next couple of months we are going to take a tour of the five natural intelligences that form the foundation of our Nurture Nature Program: Emotional, Social, Multispecies, Ecological, and Spiritual. We will begin this week with Emotional Intelligence (EI), because it interconnects with the other intelligences and brings out our full potential to nurture. EI is the ability to be open to, curious about, understand, and accept your own feelings and needs. This provides you with greater choice around your feelings and behavior, so as to meet your needs and the needs of others. We need to know what is going on in our bodies and to accept what is going on, if we are to understand other humans (social intelligence) and other animals (multispecies intelligence). Knowing what others need is key to ecological intelligence (how the needs of one person relates to other beings). All of these intelligences lead to an overall view that takes individuals beyond their own concerns and perceptions by connecting them to so much more than the perceived isolated self (spiritual intelligence). These intelligences all have aspects of nature and of nurture. Each of us was born with a certain ability in each of these natural intelligences, some more than others (nature), and all of us can grow them with practice, understanding, and support (nurture). What happens to us and around us matters. Nurturing our human nature as much as we can helps us live well, so that all people and other beings can live well. Healthy communities are those that have free flowing expressions of emotions with immediate feedback from others. We can do this in the virtual world, but really practicing EI and social intelligence (SI) requires body sensing and resonance, within ourselves and with others. Sharing need not be intimate or overly vulnerable (though it sure can be). Try this with another person: state a simple sentence, “I feel this because I need that.” For example, on the shuttle ride to the airport early one recent morning on my way to field conservation work in Honduras, the driver told me how Mexico is exporting their criminals to us. I might not choose to share EI with this particular individuals (3 a.m. may not be most opportune time to seek connection with someone’s back to you), but I can do it later with someone else. What I did right in that moment was take a deep breath, and continued listening. I could have said, “When I hear someone say, ‘Mexico is exporting their criminals to us’ I feel irritation and sadness, because I want empathy and understanding for others, and shared reality for myself.” Getting it? It seems such a simple thing to practice EI, yet it is the hardest thing to do. If you’d like support for this, visit our website by clicking here for more tips, resources, and support. #emotionalintelligence #emotions #nurturenature

So many unsung heroes at risk in Honduras Late last week, another social justice activist was killed in Honduras, Tolupan Indigenous leader, Jose de Los Santos Sevilla. This comes at a time when Honduras authorities seek to discredit a Global Witness report published January 2017. This report revealed that Honduras is the most dangerous place for environmental activists, and implicated the government in these deaths. Since 2010, when One Earth Conservation began in Honduras, 120 environmentalists have been murdered. This is where I am going on Sunday. When I was in Honduras in March, Berta Caceres was assassinated, and I work with Tomas Manzanares, another indigenous leader who survived his assassination attempt in 2009, though he will always carry the scars and the pain of his near death. You might ask why I would go there? I go because one published goal of One Earth Conservation is to go to needed areas, which we define as regions where there is very little to no parrot conservation efforts or capacity; communities are marginalized due to socioeconomic factors; there are endangered birds; we can have the most impact for our size; and there is little funding. I also go because I am healed, affirmed, and invigorated with the chance to work with people like Tomas, and my dearest colleague and partner, Honduran biologist and conservationist (and One Earth Conservation Board Member), Hector Portillo Reyes. We will be in the Moskitia region for 2 weeks, setting up for our 2017 nest monitoring and protection season. We hope to assist even more communities this year, especially now that One Earth has purchased a badly needed truck for the conservation project there. The hope is that we'll spend less time broken down on roads, in fields, and partially submerged in creeks, and more time getting to hard to reach places where the parrots are increasingly threatened. Truck last year, with a flat once again I go because I truly believe we all are part of a global community, and that we must act as nobly as we can to stand in solidarity and resistance with those of the "Noble Globals" club, such as Jose, Tomas, Hector, and the many, many others. I ask that you accompany me on this trip, and again in April, when I return to Honduras for a month. You can keep up with updates here and on our Facebook page, and please consider donating. Let us all be Noble Globals. Newly purchased truck! #Honduras #conservation #LaMoskitia #assisination #GlobalWitness

The roost site in 2009 In the years 1991-1995 we monitored the numbers of yellow-naped parrots roosting in a set of towering ceiba trees on the southern coast of Guatemala. We named this area El Paraíso (Paradise), because hundreds of parrot nested in these trees. In 1995 the ranch, Ilusiones (Illusions) converted even more of its land to sugar cane monoculture, and we had to fight to protect nest and roost trees, and literally throw ourselves in front of tractors. A ceiba tree being torn down in 1995 The owner promised to leave the roost trees standing, even though burning the sugar cane killed two of the roost trees. We started counting the birds again in 2009, and where once there were over 250 birds, now there were only 12 spending the night. We continued to monitor this site until 2013, and the last count only yielded 2 parrots. The reasons for this tremendous decline has much to do with the nearly 100% poaching rate for the last several decades in this area, with people taking young chicks from their families to sell them into the illegal wildlife trade. I returned after nearly a four year absence in January 2017 hoping that the trees were still standing, because with our recent efforts in Guatemala we thought that this species could make a comeback. I was devastated by what we found, and this video was filmed on site. Video taken upon visit to roost site in 2017 I found out that the ranch had been sold to a sugar cane company. At this point, the farming intensified, and the new owners started to install cement ditches and clear the way for irrigation systems, and so they cut down many, many trees. Roost site in 2017 I am under no illusions that the way forward will be easy. We face the fallout of corruption and violence, for when I was in Guatemala in early 2017, the neighboring ranch, Caobanal, where I used to live, experienced a tragedy. The hired security forces robbed and killed two accountants on ranch property. They killed the very ones they were charged to protect. I wonder, aren't we other humans doing the same to the trees and birds - killing what is ours to cherish and protect? Even if we can diminish poaching, where will the birds sleep? Eat? Nest? We don't plan on waiting around for an answer to this. We will work with this sugar cane company to restore what was lost, but it will take generations to grow such towering trees again. Some of the last parrots to roost at the site For now, let us keep the birds in our hearts, witness their loss and ours, and resist what seems like the inevitable. We will not leave and allow these birds to remain silenced, but instead will stand in solidarity with them, and the people, too, who suffer from the advances of intensive agricultural practices and monocultures. Guatemala is the third largest exporter of sugar and ethanol in the world, and such production results in the loss of biodiversity, soil erosion and degradation, water over use and depletion, water and air pollution from the burning, displacement of sustainable small-scale agricultural practices, and marginalization of rural communities. Video of burning sugar cane in Caobanal, Guatemala Please join us by sharing this story far and wide, and donate some of your resources to One Earth Conservation so we can renew and replenish the spirit of beauty to this land, and to the human heart. Once the tallest ceiba seen for miles, is no more #conservation #parrots

Everyone one of us is held in creation's hand - a part of the interdependent web. - Therefore, strangers need not be enemies, - no one is saved until we all are saved, - and all means the whole of creation. Rev. William Schulz We are excited to announce that our Nurture Nature Communities are going national, today! We felt an urgency to offer this program on a widespread basis, because of the need to develop communities or resistance, resilience, and solidarity. We have much work to do, the very reweaving of our culture, to make it stronger, and to make it more beautiful and inclusive. Our evolved biology is a dangerous thing, and that is why we need to be as intentional as we can to guide our culture's evolution. In Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind, author Yuva Harari writes "Biology enables, Culture forbids." Biology provides for a vast repertoire of possible cultural expressions, and it is our cultures that can put the brakes on various possibilities, such as violence, sexual coercion, consumerism, etc. This is at once both liberating (we can overcome our biology) and daunting (it is up to us). Harari goes on to write that in fact, though we have made progress in so many ways through various cultural revolutions, suffering seems to increase exponentially in each phase of human development. This is because our cultural myths, which bind our cultures in ever advancing cooperation amongst more individuals, have allowed and thrived on oppression and domineering hierarchies. Each cultural shift appears to give us greater freedom, but really just lands us in a bigger cage with more room for suffering. Ross Douthat in an opinion piece in the "New York Times" on February 4, 2017, Who Are We?, specifically refers to the myth of the USA being a land of divinely guided settlers and pioneers where the dream of prosperity, freedom, and equality could be achieved by all. The USA was built upon this and much good came of it, yet it is a story of untold suffering for Native Americans, Africans, and the wildlife on this continent. Because of this the myth is losing favor, though it is far from dead. We see evidence in the USA upset election season of 2016 where it seemed there was a backlash against those who would throw away the human and white exceptional story of pioneer America because it represents so much harm. The problem is that we have no current myth that can both replace it and include it, even honor it, binding us all together, resulting in a political process in shambles. What myth will work that transcends globalization, commerce, religions, politics, and ideologies, and at the same time recognizes the heritage that made both the American dream possible and deadly? We need a new story that takes into account that there is no beauty without tragedy, and that beauty and tragedy connects all individuals, each of which has inherent worth and dignity. A story such as this allows us to forgive ourselves and one another. We could not have gotten here where we are, with the hope of mass cooperation diminishing suffering on a global level, without having gone through our imperialist, genocidal, racist, and extinction producing past. With forgiveness in our hearts for our kind, we can move forward, though with no guarantees. Steven Pinker in The Better Angels of Our Nature indicates that we are on a knife's edge - we could go any direction. Our biology can still enable the very worst that we can do to one another. We could lose all the gains over the millennia that though may not have reduced suffering, but has reduced violence. In recent decades, suffering seems possible to diminish with recent decreases in global poverty rates. His solution to what must be done is deluge the world with a story based on an empathetic and deep awareness of nature, human and otherwise. This is a story based on the inherent worth and dignity of each, and that every being strives to live, and live well. No ideology can trump that. Such a story might allow us to move to the next stage of cultural evolution that actually opens the cage doors and liberates everyone. We need a larger myth that does not give any space to oppression, and only accepts liberation if it is for all of us. And by all, I mean all of creation - all species, all individuals. We don't know how to organize under this story politically, or what it looks like, but we do know that what we are doing now is not working. Maybe our new way will be that of a "vitacracy" - a way of organizing our communities that is based on life. The needs of all individuals matter within the biotic community. Each individual of all species has a vote, and indeed does already vote by being part of the whole. We just need to acknowledge those silenced voices, tally their votes, and see where life leads us when we consider the needs of each and all. In the meantime, how do we live with the tension of existing in a world of utopian dreams mixed with dystopian nightmares glaring at us through our social and news media? Let us tell the story far and wide of the inherent worth and dignity of all, and let that be our source of resistance, resilience, and solidarity. Maybe hope will come out of that, and maybe not. But for one moment, when we speak of beauty and tragedy indivisible, we are inviting momentous change, and that out of our witnessing must come real political engagement. We persistently ask, "How do we live together, well, all of us?" ? I don't know how to live this way exactly, but when we testify, we are living it, and exerting our political selves that resists any way of life that does not accept and affirm all of nature, human nature, and otherwise. Each of us can do this at any moment - in conversation, in activity, and in thought. When we do it together, we are ever more greatly empowered and nurtured. This is what our Nurture Nature Communities are for - nurturing ourselves and all of nature, and the call is urgent to do both of these. You can do so by joining or staring a Nurture Nature Community. We are seeking to seed Nurture Nature Communities throughout the USA. To find out more of these communities go here, and to find out more about the Nurture Nature Program and One Earth Conservation, which facilitates it, go here. Let our mantra be; "Biology enables life, Culture affirms life." #resistance #nature #nurture

White-fronted amazon parrot nesting in Palm in Barra de Santiago Parrots take refuge wherever they can. Sometimes it is in cities where poaching might be less and where there is more protection. Other last stands for many parrots are on steep volcanic slopes, such as our project on Ometepe Island in Nicaragua. Another location is the mangroves along the Atlantic coast of Guatemala where there is still a roost site for the endangered yellow-headed parrot, and possibly for the yellow-naped parrot on the Pacific coast of Honduras, both locales of our current projects. We have wondered if perhaps the parrots are not just roosting there, but also breeding, though we know little about the nesting habits of parrots in mangroves. Entrance to Barra de Santiago This mystery was partially resolved in January 2017 when our yellow-naped parrot project in Guatemala, COLORES, visited a study site in El Salvador. We had been counting parrots from up near the Mexican border and traveling south along the coast until we reached El Salvador. Once in El Salvador we went to Barra de Santiago Protected Area to meet up with Salvadoran colleagues Adriana Hernandez and Walter Mendez. They are students from the University of El Salvador who wish to document the nesting behavior of the yellow-naped parrot in mangroves. This is an historical study site where this species had been documented in both natural mangrove tree nests and artificial nest cavities. Climbing mangrove trees looking for parrot nests Perhaps one reason that parrots have sanctuary in the mangroves is the difficulty of traversing the terrain, which became immediately clear to us. Typical mangrove terrain where parrots nest You begin by boat, and then land on muddy banks and from there have to crawl over uneven mangrove roots. When returning, you often have to first haul the motor and then the boat out because of lowering tides. The students told us that in the rainy season, they actually have to swim through the mangroves to reach potential nest sites. We conducted several observation periods looking for nests, and also counting parrots. From what the rangers from MARN (Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources) tell us who have worked here for decades, the number of parrots is decreasing, as are the nest sites. MARN Ranger Alberto with COLORES Project Director Manuel I thought of this while counting zero parrots on our last night there. I was laying flat out (due to food poisoning) in a sugar cane field with the mountain El Imposible (The Impossible) to the north. Truly we work with the shadow of the impossible looming over us, to save these parrots and be in solidarity with refugees of all sorts who find themselves in ever narrowing circumstances. El Imposible (view from sugar cane field) But wherever two or more conservationists are gathered, there is love and hope. Muddy crew back from morning parrot watch (Manuel front left, Dr. Joyner front right, Adriana behind Dr. Joyner and Walter near back with gas can) Thank you conservationists of El Salvador for making a corridor between our yellow-napes of Guatemala and Honduras. May all those refugees journeying along corridors to safety, either in Central America or other regions, either of the parrot or people kind, find and be offered sanctuary. One Earth Conservation is dedicated to providing a safe home for parrots and their "people communities" in Latin America. If you would like to help us make a home for these parrot refugees, consider donating your financial resources by going here. #ElSalvador #parrots #birds #conservation #COLORES #yellownapedparrot

For the last couple of years, volunteers at Tak A'lik Ab'aj Archeological Park in Southern Guatemala have been counting yellow-naped parrots in hopes of understanding them, and then developing conservation plans to protect them. They do this alongside protecting the memory of the Olmec and Mayan culture as found in the ruins of the city all around them. Twice a month, these volunteers arrive early before work hours, and stay after work, so as to count the parrots. They have also worked to find nests and document if they have any successes in and around their park. While counting birds, this lineated woodpecker was using last year's parrot nest, to our disappointment. The chances are then that this won't be an active nest this year. Lineated woodpecker Right after the new year, they hosted a training we offered, and once again came in early and stayed late so as to study the birds. They then went to a neighboring ranch (finca) to mark possible nest trees so they would not be cut down. In the weeks to come, these volunteers will work with our project coordinator to monitor and protect nests. We honor these efforts, and those to come, for we hope to make Tak A'lik a regional center for rescuing and liberating parrots, educating the public, and offering artificial nest boxes to the wild parrots to promote reproduction. Some day historians will unearth the monumental effort of the people here, but before then, let us thank them, each and every one. The voluteers of Tak A'lik along with Dr. LoraKim Joyner (upper left) and Project Coordinator Manuel Galindo (lower right) Alberto Gómez Villagrés Mario Rolando Barrios Ciguenza Amílcar Silvestre Pérez Ciguenza Amílcar Estuardo Juárez Méndez Pedro David González Rivera Able Amílcar Monterroso García Alberto Víil Huinil Victor Flores Carlos Espigares Migues Medina Marvin A. Castillo Thanks to the directors of Archaeological National Park Tak’alik Ab’aj – Miguel Orrego Corzo and Christa Schieber de Lavarreda #maya #archeology #guatemala #bird #conservation #parrot

A lot has happened in the past few days that are challenging my ability to cope with the present. My family and I are beneficiaries of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as my husband and I are both self-employed (I currently work part-time for One Earth Conservation) and we have had to buy our own health insurance as best as we can for more than ten years now. Before the ACA, we cobbled together what we could to cover our daughter and ourselves. Just a few years ago, we were coming perilously close to joining the uninsured, due to skyrocketing costs. The ACA arrived in the nick of time for us. Even though costs have also risen with the ACA (and I’ll admit it is far from perfect), the coverage we have has served as a much needed safety net. We attended a local rally in support of the ACA this past weekend and heard stories of many others who also benefit from it. However, our lawmakers don’t seem to care about who they might hurt by repealing the Act and this has been very hard to watch. So, even though I believe in standing up for what is right and taking action whenever I can, sometimes such efforts can still feel rather hopeless. That is when I turn to my self-care toolkit, of which Nurture Nature is a big part. I find that using Nurture Nature concepts is an important first step is to find a way to break out of that feeling of hopelessness. To do that, it often simply takes distracting myself (stopping my ruminating and negative thoughts), and effective ways for me to do that include taking a walk in a beautiful setting (when I have the time), watching a cute animal video, or taking a few minutes to talk to Dusty, our beautiful little cockatiel. He is so sweet and funny that he often lifts my spirits even as he benefits in turn from receiving my attention. Once I break away from feelings of hopelessness by connecting with nature, I can then proceed with taking some kind of positive action, even if I start with only washing the breakfast dishes and then later work my way up to calling a local politician. Nurture Nature has indeed become second nature to me.

We are journeying up and down the Pacific coast of Guatemala within the range of the endangered yellow-naped amazon. Each morning we rise early to catch the bird activity, and do the same thing in the evening. We are surveying the population, and also training and inspiring as we go, though motivation can sometimes be lacking during the long, hot days, especially when we have counts with zero individuals seen of this species. Even when we count higher numbers of birds, it is far lower than it was 25 years ago. And it may go lower yet. So what message do we deliver to these people of this area? Do we warn them of peril, or instill confidence in that we can turn the situation around? What message do we in fact receive ourselves for the meaning of our work? We are working against immense odds, and still we plod along. Will we be successful, even in a little in some small place here? Last night I read in “News of the World” by Paulette Jiles, “Maybe life is just carrying news. Surviving to carry the news. Maybe we have just one message, and it is delivered to us when we are born and we are never sure what is says; it may have nothing to do with us personally but it must be carried by hand through a life, all the way, and at the end handed over, sealed.” I find peace in these words, for it means we live in mystery and all of us carry a jewel, even if we don’t know what it is, can explain it, or can see it with our human limited perception. It is good and right to find peace here on the Pacific slope of Guatemala where we have been working. This region is called this because you drop down in altitude (our highest elevation was some 800 meters) as you leave the volcano slopes and to go to the ocean (we will be on the beach this week in El Salvador). Perhaps like the land here, we will tumble into peace even when it is not possible to know what meaning comes from what we do here – either for ourselves or for others. It’s just our job to carry the one message that is our life, and not drop it, or drop out. I’m not saying it’s easy to work under these conditions, mostly because of the circumstances of the people and parrots here, but it appears that these are the conditions that life set up for us. Knowing we carry treasure, no matter what we do or think, counteracts the status of threatened birds, poverty, violence and climatic and environmental harm evidenced everywhere. We are the messengers carrying unknown, precious messages, as are the people and parrots with whom we work.