Tonight was the WLCV holiday party. I stopped by after my CSN meeting got out. Anne in a little purple dress, beer, hugs from Matt D.? Couldn’t miss out.
For a long time, from 1997 through the first half of this year, I was dedicated to the conservation of natural stuff in and around Wisconsin, through working at the Nature Conservancy, volunteering with WLCV, consulting with land trusts around the state, participating in collaborations and partnerships, and giving of my meager charitable dollars. Along the way I became enmeshed in this web of amazing people working amazingly hard to protect amazing places. I was a piece of a larger whole, my Venn diagram overlapping with so many others. A roster of familiar faces would mix and merge in multitudes of combinations. I found a community and a cohort of friends.
I’ve since moved apart from that group, into a new realm that focuses on developing opportunities for people of few means, of creating a community from disparate parts. I use the same skills I always have in my new job: facilitation, planning, organizing, coaching, pushing and prodding, just with different goals in mind.
Tonight’s half-hour spent at the holiday party brought home for me just how much I loved being a part of that larger effort, and what I miss about it. I had little to talk about other than “oh holy cow it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you!” I gotta get back in the game.
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