Change is in the air.
Laguna Canyon Foundation is going through remarkable change as are most of us. When we think about it, though, isn’t that just life?
Often, when we communicate with each other, we shorthand any new phenomenon to quickly make sense of it, cute quips like: “Change is the only constant in life,” or the latest jargon we’ve been hearing: “The Great Resignation.”
Michael Singer in The Untethered Soul describes our need to label our experiences this way: “… narration [and definitions] makes us feel more comfortable with the world around us. Like backseat driving, it makes us feel more in control.”
As on a hike, when we focus less on our pace or what’s streaming through our earbuds and take the time to sense what is around us, we are able to experience the smell of sage, the sound of a red-tailed hawk, or the changing shadows under an oak tree. So too, when we take the time to experience each other, we sense more clearly the personal ways each of us are adapting to our world and that we can’t shorthand all our unique lives into one label.
For those of us at Laguna Canyon Foundation, our individual adventures and adaptations vary. For some, it is new and well-earned roles and responsibilities within our organization. For others, it is the adventure of living in different states like Oregon, Washington or Colorado. Still others it is the adventure of a new fixer-upper home, up the California Coast, with a backyard for the dogs, or, as another employee says, hers is simply “the adventure of time.”
A Great Resignation? Nah, there is much more to understand and unpack. We’re all doing our thing, as nature does her thing. This also includes very committed and skilled people joining Laguna Canyon Foundation’s already talented team to preserve and protect our open space.
As our staff ebbs and flows, so does our very sense of place. Thanks to the Massen Greene Foundation, Michael and Tricia Berns, as well as many committed supporters, our headquarters and surrounding land have gone through remarkable change. After two years of COVID, working remotely or in separate rooms at headquarters, we are finally able to commune together without masks. Our new landscaped areas, designed by Terremoto will allow us to develop a nursery, teach in several beautiful gathering spaces and even organize and maintain our tools. We are slowly moving back in.
Recently, one of our staff shared that two years ago she planted a matilija poppy in her unfenced backyard along a small Laguna Beach canyon. During those years, she watched this plant, whom she named JaJa, settle in, go dormant, struggle with her new environment, get nearly trampled by a neighbor boy, spring up, and finally bloom just this week! JaJa took her time and in her own way adapted – and will continue to adapt – to her world.
As Laguna Canyon Foundation continues to grow and develop, it is in very good hands with its community of supporters and with its staff – tenured and new. Working together, we know our wilderness is in good hands, too.