“This year, as I turn 50, I sought clarity on a deeply felt calling to work for racial and ecological justice. A training through Movement Generation called Course Correction: Just Transition In The Age Of COVID-19, inspired me to learn about bioregionalism. The statement, “You can’t love what you don’t understand,” ignited my desire to deepen my love for the life on earth rooted in understanding of ecology. I also participated in Norma Wong Roshi’s Seven Generations training, and the two together helped me to connect with a sense of sacred responsibility and place in the long arc of ancestors and descendants seven generations back and seven generations forward, to understand and love the beings in the San Francisco Bay bioregion. And as Robin Wall Kimmerer says in Braiding Sweetgrass, “Maybe the task assigned to Second Man is… to strive to become naturalized to place. Being naturalized to place means to live as if this is the land that feeds you, as if these are the streams from which you drink, that build your body and fill your spirit. To become naturalized is to know that your ancestors lie in this ground. Here you will give your gifts and meet your responsibilities. To become naturalized is to live as if your children’s future matters, to take care of the land as if our lives and the lives of all our relatives depend on it. Because they do.” It’s a day by day learning and deepening process, and I’m so grateful to have you, Alma, as a sister and inspiration on this journey.”

-Lisa Parks, December 13, 2020