Month: May 2019

Someone said, “I don’t know how you do it.”

I said, “I wasn’t given a choice.”

I read this online this week and it ran true for me in so many ways. When we need to do something, we find a way. For all of your are being asked to rise to the circumstances in front of you today, and every day, know I’m with you. I believe in you. I know you can do difficult things. I am rooting for you.

Sometimes not getting what you want is exactly what you need. This has been a huge learning for me over the past week. I’m feeling so grateful that life often doesn’t work out according to my plans. Here’s a recent example of this:

This summer, I wanted to talk more than one class for my graduate program in biomimicry. Unfortunately, no other classes are being offered this term for which I meet the pre-requisites. (I’m still working my way through the core classes that are pre-reqs for all the other classes that follow.) I was quite frustrated by this because I took two classes last term and found it to be more-than-manageable. (And I got A’s in both classes.) Disappointed, I resigned myself to the idea that I would just take one class this summer.

And then something really amazing and unexpected happened…

Within the hour, I had been offered a new consulting opportunity for an education / communications project that I’m extremely excited about. (More details on that in a few weeks.)

Within a day, I had solved a major plot challenge in my second novel and could proceed writing at a much quicker speed than I thought possible. (To be honest, I thought I was going to have to chuck the entire first draft. Thankfully, I don’t need to now. Whew!)

Within three days, I confirmed that I had the latitude in my job to work on a few passion projects that I thought were out-of-play at the moment. Turns out, they’re in play if I want them to be.

So here’s the lesson: the universe knows how to make room in our lives for opportunities that have yet to step into the light. You can bet that when you’re down to nothing (or at least less than you thought you’d have), the universe is up to something. Sometimes, it’s up to a lot of somethings. When things don’t work out, despite my meticulous plotting and planning, I’m learning to take a deep breath, look around, and see what’s next because there’s ALWAYS a next. And many times, next is much better than what we (thought we) had lined up. Make room, and accept when room is made for you. It’ll be filled in soon enough.

“Stay angry, little Meg. You will need your anger now.”

These words written by Madeleine L’Engle & spoken in Ava DuVernay ‘s beautiful movie, A Wrinkle in Time, are maddeningly appropriate now, especially this week. Stay angry, friends, and use your anger to make this world better for all beings.

Today I’m very excited to begin as a judge for the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge by the Biomimicry Institute. This year, the theme of the challenge is Climate Change with a special focus on:

1. Food waste: reduce food waste in lower-income countries by improving infrastructure for storage, processing, and transportation.
2. Plastic pollution in oceans: decrease the amount of plastic entering the oceans by intervening at the source in highly polluted rivers ~or~ begin to remove the 250,000 tons of plastics already circulating in the oceans.

Each team that enters the Challenge will create a nature-inspired innovation (a product, service, or system) that combats climate change by either:

1. Helping communities adapt to or mitigate climate change impacts.
2. Reversing or slowing climate change itself.

I’m really excited to participate as a judge this year and to be inspired by the submissions that have poured in from around the globe. I’ll update you on the progress of the competition as we move along. The winners will be announced in late June.

For more information on the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge, visit https://challenge.biomimicry.org/.