Earthling Exploring

I mentioned that I wanted to bring a sustainability initiative or goal to my company as a way to contribute to moving the sustainability movement forward. God, just writing that sounds hopelessly vague. (I'll think more on that later.) I was seriously doubting myself, thinking "they're going to wonder what this has to do with anything and why I'm asking for this and what I propose they do and then they're going to tell me they don't have the time or resources to do it." That thought kept returning and putting me down every time I came back to this idea. (It still does - look at what I wrote up above: " hopelessly vague ". That's not very encouraging to myself.) It turned out that I had already been sent a source of inspiration for this particular battle - my boyfriend's sister had sent me her two favorite books of 2020, one of which was Daring Greatly  by  Dr.  Brené Brown . It has helped me frame the thinking I describe above as: my thou...

I made a trip to Redwood National and State Parks over the new year weekend and was absolutely overwhelmed. I have never seen anything so ancient or enormous in my life. Everything seemed to be living and breathing within a wild, mystical cloud. Of course, Redwoods are well known for being the tallest trees on Earth, but I also learned that this area of Northern California contains some of the last remaining stands of old growth forests on Earth. This left a dent in my heart. After that trip, I did research on tree planting programs in cities, which drew me to several articles about the use of satellite imagery in helping map biodiversity and habitat loss, and even one research paper about a remote sensing mapping project in Romania that is aimed at identifying old growth forests so they can be protected. The authors, Watson & Evans, wrote: "[M]aintaining and, where possible, restoring the integrity of dwindling intact forests is an urgent priority for current global efforts t...

This year was the fifth year in a row* that I anticipated I would be "changing careers to something in the sustainability field." It was another year during which I was happy with my current career as an immigration paralegal, but just felt I wasn't doing what I originally intended to be doing. This was another year I spent weighing options for how to make the shift - perhaps going back to grad school (what program? would it actually be useful?) or just starting by applying to new jobs (what job exactly  was I looking for?). I started a GRE prep course, I read many job postings, and I spent a lot of energy just thinking and feeling bummed that I wasn't actually doing what I wanted to be doing . Then I started speaking with a coach ( KB ) who pointed out that I was evaluating during what was actually an exploring phase, and quickly getting exhausted from the effort. As soon as she said it, I knew she was right. And I realized that I needed to change my approach. I ...