Embrace the woo
Last week I wrote about “acorn shoes,” a lesson from my daughter Nora (age 4) that the most obvious answer is not always the correct one.
“Acorn shoes” came about when, all within a 36-hour period, Nora fell, screamed dramatically (average for her), developed a pronounced limp, got (apparently) better, and then started limping again. The obvious answer was that she had actually hurt herself. And then Eric (my husband) did a physical exam. He found her feet and ankles both quite intact…and her right shoe full of acorns. (You can read the full story here).
Since thinking about this lesson, I’ve noticed my life is full of acorn shoes — and it’s best when I just put them on, even when they’re a bit uncomfortable.
You can listen to this post!
Tl;dr (Too long; didn’t read)
Today’s acorn shoe is: “Embrace the woo!”
If you’re founding an organization (as I am), it seems like you should 1) decide the problem you’re solving (e.g. humans are disconnected from nature and this leads to LOTS OF BAD things for people and the non-people planet) and 2) make a plan for how to solve it (e.g. integrate nature connections into the largest “kid-catchment system” on the planet – schools – by empowering 81 million trusted adults – teachers – who are already with 1.5 billion students on the planet for 20% of their waking hours – to make nature connections part of how they teach) and 3) do it.
This is the obvious path and I mostly follow this map.
Yet one (humbling) acorn shoe is that the most significant breakthroughs to date have come when I’ve let go of control, opened my heart, and paid attention to aligned stars and fateful encounters. When I’ve said “yes!” to the universe. When I’ve embraced the woo*.
*Woo is short for “woo-woo” or hippie-new-agey-crystals-and-chakras-unscientific stuff that I have typically regarded with a massive degree of skepticism. No more! It’s time to fully #EmbraceTheWoo, lest I trip over the acorn shoes full of wisdom, beauty, opportunities, and connections.
I’m not ____, but…
Raised in Wisconsin in the heart of the heartland among “salt-of-the-Earth” types, I am steeped in values like hard work, pragmatism, and neighborliness. On the latter value, I wave and smile to passersby whether or not I know them. I am generally chatty with store clerks or people in the checkout aisle or next to me on the plane (don’t worry, I can read the room if this is unwanted). I still stop and ask real people for directions. Growing up, my mom literally brought welcome baskets to new neighbors – a habit I echo with my neighbors albeit in a less baskety way. (Side note: when my dear friend Martha moved to Wisconsin for a summer during college – she’s from Manhattan – I conducted practice drills with her to slow her head-down-walk-of-progress by looking up, closing her gait, smiling, and greeting people she passed. She adapted quite well, though I have not followed up to see if she has maintained this behavior living in DC. Do you, Marts?).
I offer this Midwestern upbringing backdrop before the always suspicious sentence stem: I’m not _____, but…. because this allows me to introduce the woo acorn shoe.
Anytime someone utters this phrase, our ears should perk and our eyebrows should go up.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but…
I’m not a racist, but…
I’m not sexist, but…
I learned to be careful with “but” used as a conjunction in Ms. Petersen’s 9th grade English class. Ms. Petersen was a militant teacher – as in she wore combat boots, a high-and-tight haircut, and once (I’m reminded by friends, but truthfully – and astonishingly – don’t remember myself) had us do a WWI reenactment by crawling under our desks which apparently represented trenches). She was an equally militant grammarian and a fabulous teacher – and she impressed upon me that anything that precedes a “but” conjunction could just as well be eliminated, since whatever will come next is really the headline.
In the case of “I’m not ____, but…,” this teaching holds.
For Ms. Petersen, this was about clean language and brevity (I really did pay attention in her class, it’s just I love lots of words!). She was in favor of eliminating unnecessary clauses.
So when I found myself thinking “I’m not a woo-woo person, but…” I had to stop myself in my own tracks. The independent clause that follows – like the cheese – stands alone. No qualifiers.
So here’s the woo acorn shoe:
Breakthroughs — and beauty, opportunities, connections, and wisdom — have come when I’ve let go of control, opened my heart, and paid attention to aligned stars and fateful encounters. When I’ve said “yes!” to the universe. When I’ve embraced the woo*.
Embrace the woo - Exhibit A
On a jog the other day, I was talking with my friend Nena about Good Natured Learning (as I do), and about being a founder, and sharing just a fraction of the seemingly infinite list of ways in which I feel “not enough.” And exposed and raw. Budgeting – fiscal everything – talking with potential donors – social media – brevity 😂... So.many.things.
And then I narrated (in 23-minute fast-talking-while-jogging-I-told-you-brevity-isn’t-my-thing detail) a wildly fortuitous set of events that resulted in bringing on a new – amazing teammate: Trevor Soponis.
I’ll spare you the 23-minute oral version and share an abridged version of the woo-story here:
Trevor and I met at the Children & Nature Network’s “Nature Everywhere” conference (where I presented my “Apple-a-day” talk) at the end of May when I rudely interrupted a conversation he was having with Erin Allaman (yes, thee Erin Allaman with whom I co-founded Good Natured Learning who now works for the Children & Nature Network) to coordinate our bike ride to the Madison Botanical Gardens. Erin was on her way out at that moment and said, “I have to run. Let’s meet at 5:30 to bike to the gardens. And you two should talk.”
I was left standing there with Trevor and not a lot to do for the next hour because I had missed the bus (literally) for the session I was supposed to attend. So Trevor and I got talking and I learned a little about his (rad) work doing teacher professional development with his company The Sustainable Learning Projects and shared (likely too much - surprise!) about my work with Good Natured Learning. It was an easy, great conversation. And then life went on, I stayed at a bunch of different houses in 4 cities, did a bunch of work stuff in 2 different states, and got busy.
Fast forward two weeks and Trevor reached out on LinkedIn. I could obviously retrieve the exact transcript, but what matters is that Trevor ended his message with “How can I help?,” which it turns out is my lonely-founder-living-on-another-continent love language.
What ensued was a whirlwind work-courtship-marriage-proposal complete with a magical Colorado mountain retreat with Good Natured Learning alumni fellows – and saying “yes!.” Now Trevor is officially our Chief Learning Officer.
Lots to figure out, but damn I feel grateful to the stars, crystals, nature, and all-the-woo. And proud of myself for saying “yes!”
Back on the jog
After hearing the more detailed version of this story, Nena said something like, “Wow, I was just talking to another friend who founded a non-profit about 10 years ago and she’s actively looking for her Trevor because she knows she is not the right person to lead the next stage of the work – and she’s having a heck of a time finding that person.”
We stopped to walk for a minute and it dawned on me how fortunate I am – and how I owe that to the woo. And the yes.
I actually got a pit in my stomach as I thought about her friend on this desperate search for Cinderella. Truth is, if Nena had asked me months before what would help Good Natured Learning, I would have been able to articulate that I needed more capacity, and that I needed a partner in the U.S. to drive the work forward there. That’s about as much color as I could have given. Even if I had sat down to plan for recruiting said person – which seems like the diligent and obvious path forward when faced with a problem – I don’t believe I could have come up with a description of who and what I/Good Natured Learning needed. So I didn’t make a plan. And then a breakthrough just walked right into my life.
I remember saying something hyperbolic-sounding (but it’s actually how I feel) like, “I could never have gone in search of Trevor or described who or what I was searching for, and he’s exactly what I and Good Natured Learning need. I am 100% sure this is the case.”
Here’s to putting on a shoe full of acorns and embracing the woo.
❤️,
B
P.S. Trevor is actually not my first embrace-the-woo acorn shoe. Just the most recent. That should tell me something!
and that's what's been in my shoes. LOL Congrats on the successes that came out of your trip "home".