Last week, I had the incredible privilege of attending the Bioneers Summit Conference in San Rafael, CA.
Paul Stamets kicked off the conference by announcing a huge new breakthrough in his research on mushrooms and their relationship to bees; Eve Ensler rocked the room of 2,300 people with her radically re-imagined story of Eve in the Garden of Eden; Naimi Klein declared that “we can power our lives without poisoning anyone”; and Terry Tempest Williams reminded us that “finding beauty in a broken world is creating beauty in the world that we find.”
After the plenaries, I gathered with a fired-up cohort of over 20 young leaders who I know through my work with Generation Waking Up. The energy we created was magnetic, as we dreamed the future of the world together. At dinner, I talked with Charles Eisenstein about sacred masculinity and discussed the power of vulnerability with my dear friend, Rachel Bagby.
I left the conference with a deep, heartfelt motivation to create beauty in the world today. To offer my gifts in service to all of life, both around and within me. Nature is terrifyingly beautiful, magnificently powerful, and effortlessly abundant. My deepest dream for our time is that we learn what it means to live lives of service, to know and speak our truths, and to rise up into the fullest potential of our humanity – our human nature – so that we might protect and restore this faint, fragile blue dot we call home.
We’re all in this together, and we’re all connected more deeply and intricately than we might ever have imagined. It’s time we start acting like it!
Dan Mahle
Whidbey Institute staff member & Whidbey Island Bioneers Coordinator
Join us for the Whidbey Island Bioneers Conference, November 7—9, at the Whidbey Institute!