STAND. RIPPLE. BREATHE. REPEAT.

Walking across the country in 2014 we witnessed thousands of climate acts over the 3,500-mile journey. The emerging pattern of people working together created outcomes far greater than what could be achieved when working individually. When climate activists worked alone they often reported overwhelm, less than hoped-for results, and burnout. Replacing silos with community-centered efforts is the sweet spot of scaling climate solutions.

Together, we entertained and were entertained. Together, we spoke up, stood up, and spun up support for climate action in towns, villages, cities, reservations, churches, radio stations and along thousands of miles of rural roads. We hosted community climate conversations based on wicked questions for which communities were struggling to advance climate solutions.

These dialogues connected people to places and resources, to collective projects yielding renewed vitality, to endless meetings, letter writing, law-crafting, phone calls, coffees and climate actions. Was it hard? Yes. Was it worth it? Yes. We never know how far our ripples will reach. From banks to oil executives, from coal company boards to landfill operators, from coal ash pile reporters to little kids living beside them, from fracked well techs to air quality wrecks, our ripples begin with taking a stand, one step at a time until one day we reach the other side of the country.

STAND. We broke up a feel-good PSA (Public Service Announcement) by a regional bank CEO and his crew in Indiana filming right next to a company town made over by and right next to a massive BP refinery. Workers were suffering from outsized cancer clusters and breathing diseases in Whiting, Indiana. After several tactics to remove me, I stood persistently behind the camera and asked "How could you sleep at night knowing the 43 branches of your bank are funding the poisoning of the people who live right here?" He scrapped the shoot, got in his Lexus and drove off. https://mapcarta.com/W909694547/Map

RIPPLE. We sounded the alarm along the many states of understanding and disbelief, of facts and disinformation, of scientific studies and "alternative facts." Fielding questions from farmers and ranchers and teachers and preachers, we gave our best solutions available at the time, among them: Take the long view. Include everyone in the decisions. We are all stakeholders in Earth. Be precautionary. There is no planet B. Divest. We belong to each other. Too many principles to list here. As climate has changed for the worse, these values have not changed.

Solutions are more concrete now. It's up to us to ripple as rapidly, as far, as feverishly as we can the solutions we can see from the shore of wherever we are. Whatever skills we have, we must use. Whatever connections we have, we must access. Whatever resources we have, we must optimize. Whatever we thought was ours to do, we must do. If you are wondering, how you know what is ours to do if you are asking I wonder if... The answer is yours to find out. We are literally designing another world right here, right now. Lucky us to be alive at this time! Going slow, together we may notice our ripples-as the seas rise, the droughts persist, the wildfires spread, the rains flood, the storms surge, and the harvests fail. We are gathering a climate-activating tribe @TEDxVail COUNTDOWN. Join us: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tedxvail-countdown-tickets-407074018347

BREATHE. We listened voraciously to build trust in spurts of time to build rapid-fire bridges of trust hearing at the start, "It's a hoax." to "I was wondering about that weather pattern..." We sought first to understand so that we might be understood.

REPEAT. Earth warns humans to elementally right our relations for the little ones, for the hungry ones, for the burned ones, for the distrusted ones, for the unforeseen ones, for the unsheltered ones, for the crazy ones, for the other-abled ones, for the poor ones, for the war-ravaged ones, for the fearful ones, for the climate migrating ones, for the wild ones, for the underwater and in the air ones, for the deep in the soil ones, for the outer space ones, for the living ones, yes - especially for the 1% ones.

Indigenous people around the planet live respecting the spirit in all beings breathing and not. How might we ripple, (breathe) life into all our loving relations now? Celebrating life in all its forms, I picked up seeds and slept under old-growth trees.

STAND. RIPPLE. BREATHE. REPEAT. Take a STAND for the living part of Earth you love. BREATHE to find your center strength. This will not be fast or easy. Social change takes time, dedication, commitment, failing, learning, returning for more, and laughing - lots of being amused at yourself. I am the master of my EARTHly lovin' journey. Where are my right relations? Within first. I am loved, accepted, and celebrated just as I am. RIPPLE. Then I ripple inclusive green communities. I move and am moved. I take action. Every opportunity you see, take it. We never know where it will ripple. REPEAT. Do it again and again and again in authentic ways, original ways, specific ways, untested ways, scary ways, and creative ways. I zoom these days in these same ways. Building Climate Coaching Alliances to myriads of marketing trainings, the rooms change, and my message is the same, I STAND. RIPPLE. BREATHE. REPEAT. Earth is worth living in and loving on. Let's ripple.