In Our Hands | February 2014 Newsletter

In Our Hands | February 2014 Newsletter

Each one of us matters, has a role to play, and makes a difference. Each one of us must take responsibility for our own lives, and above all, show respect and love for living things around us, especially each other.”
― Jane Goodall, Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey

At the Whidbey Institute, human connections matter deeply. Building our team to support your work in the world has been an ongoing project this winter. Those of us employed at Chinook are each committed to living with intention and care—committed to our own uncommon work. Bringing the right people together has been an artful process, and the resulting team is full of power and potential. The work that’s in our hands—yours, too—is vitally important. We don’t underestimate it.

Click here to view our February newsletter and read on!

February 6, 2014

Crafting Our Future | January 2014 Newsletter

Abraham Lincoln once said, “the best way to predict your future is to create it.” At the Whidbey Institute, we’re creating the future we want: one in which each of us is personally empowered to steward our thriving communities and vital ecosystems. Here at Chinook, we’re refining our best practices for life on Earth in the 21st Century.

Here is just some of what we’re looking forward to:

  • New team members. After bidding a fond farewell to Mary Jakubiak, who spent 22 years caring for the land, people, and spaces at Chinook, we spent the final weeks of 2013 exploring possibilities with some stellar candidates. Watch for an upcoming announcement as we fill this important role.
  • Green technology improvements. Along with continuing refinements of our energy use practices, we’re looking forward to getting off our diesel boiler in Thomas Berry Hall with a planned heat pump installation.
  • White Pine Partnership, with which we’re transforming the loss of two beautiful pine trees into opportunities for local woodworkers and artists.
  • Deeper partnerships on Whidbey and around Cascadia. As a 2014 Whidbey ECO Network Spotlight organization, for instance, we’ll be working with 11 other groups to inspire better watershed stewardship.
  • Our biggest and best Whidbey Island Bioneers conference ever. This year, we’ll celebrate the 25th anniversary of Bioneers central at our 5th annual Bioneers conference here at Chinook, November 7—9, 2014.

Click here to view the newsletter online and read on! 

January 7, 2014

As We Receive, So May We Give | December 2013 Newsletter

Chinook founder Fritz Hull has given of his time, energy, funds, and spirit in countless ways throughout his life. This week he was honored in Susan Knickerbocker’s South Whidbey Record article as South Whidbey’s Hometown Hero. The fruits of his lifelong generosity are particularly visible here, where he and his wife Vivienne created the Chinook Learning Center that we now know as the Whidbey Institute.

Fritz and Vivienne gave a gift that keeps on giving. The Institute now provides a home for the work of hundreds of program partners, like Dan McKee, around the region and nation; works with volunteers and local conservation groups to sustain 100 acres of wilderness habitat and public trails; builds and strengthens connections among community partners in Yakima, South Whidbey, Portland, Port Townsend, and Bellingham; contributes to the Good Cheer Food Bank and provides land-based education through the Learning from the Land Apprentice program, and keeps a warm hearth for neighbors and friends.

Click here to view the newsletter online and read on! 

Header photo courtesy Flickr user Fishtankbird. 

December 5, 2013

Into Action | November 2013 Newsletter

I went into this weekend’s Whidbey Island Bioneers Conference expecting friendship, fun, and education. What I got came as a surprise: an eye-opening opportunity to reevaluate what it means to be human in these times, and a serious challenge to live my own life more intentionally. I learned—or re-learned—that my own compelling causes are just faces on a whole world in transition, and that there are as many roads forward as there are people to travel them.

After spending a weekend discovering the affinities and differences among “the choir”, I have learned that this activism business is not  a matter of “us” fixing “them”. “Us” is a nebulous concept. The Great Work is bigger than that, better than that, and harder than that. I have shaken off the delusion that someone else can fall into line and allow the future of which I dream. I must create it myself, alone and alongside each fellow dreamer.

The future we hope for is coming, and it needs each of us.

Click here to view the newsletter online and read on!

November 6, 2013

A Mighty Power | October 2013 Newsletter

We at Chinook were witness to nature’s mighty power when one of our oldest and tallest fir trees was struck by lightning last month. The lightning strike, in felling the massive tree, revealed the awesome strength of the elements. The experience gave us a chance to appreciate our fellow trail users, one of whom discovered the resulting fire during a hike, and our local firefighters, whose competence in reaching the steep, off-trail site and putting out the smouldering embers helped limit the damage to a 40-ft. diameter burn.

The forest is still in balance: from death comes regrowth, and from decay comes nourishment. Its flora and fauna are not divided by generation, but grow seamlessly from and with one another. So, too, goes human life at Chinook: from our founders, we take our inspiration. To our children, we give our dreams. Our 40th Anniversary Festival took place in September, bringing together 200 Whidbey Institute and Chinook supporters to celebrate our past and build our future. Please, build it with us.

Click here to view the newsletter online and read on!

October 2, 2013

A Deluge of Delight | September 2013 Newsletter

I got a note from Thomas Berry last week.

Don’t get me wrong: he passed away in 2009, and I never had the pleasure of his acquaintance. Nonetheless, when I ordered a bargain bin copy of The Great Work it came in the mail inscribed from Berry to a friend and out from between its pages fell a handwritten copy of An Applachian WeddingIt ends, in his confident, leaning script, like this: . . . a deluge of delight / as we open our arms and / rush toward each other / all of us moved / by that vast compassionate curve / that brings all things together / in intimate celebration / celebration that is / the universe itself. September 1, 1991. Tom Berry.

We are experiencing our own delights at the Whidbey Institute this month: rain, and with it a whisper of autumn. Gifts, from the beautiful new Farmhouse patio to the recently-installed Portal sculpture in our Thomas Berry Hall courtyard. A fast-approaching gathering of friends.

We can continue to learn from Thomas Berry, for whom our great hall is named, as our 40th Anniversary Festival comes and goes. The Great Work is ever more vital, and we are fortunate to have some great thinkers—Joanna Macy, Drew Dellinger, and David Spangler among them—joining us at our Festival to move us on this path.

Won’t you join us too? Click here to view the September Newsletter online and read on!

September 5, 2013

Deep Roots | August 2013 Newsletter

We stand at the peak of summer, between the explosive growth of early summer and the satisfied abundance of fall. The bountiful season is underway, with carrot and beet beds yielding a rainbow harvest and well-rooted greens supplying the kitchen. The Whidbey Institute is well-rooted, too: as we prepare to celebrate our 40th anniversary, those of us with ties to Chinook are fed by the decades of effort, care, and positive intention that have made and continue to make this place what it is. Today, I’m standing between an inspiring history and a promising future. The view from here is wonderful.

I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Marnie Jones, and I’ve recently joined the Whidbey Institute as Communications Manager. I’ve spent the last decade in journalism and non-profit communications, working most recently with the Timber Framers Guild and the Humane Society of Skagit Valley. I retain a half-time role at HSSV, where I can exercise my passion for animal welfare. The Whidbey Institute, with its focus on sustainable action, vital communities, and inspired leadership, supports my personal commitment to a life of compassion and connectedness.

I live with my husband, daughters, and a number of extraordinary animals in the South Fork Valley of Whatcom County, but my roots are here. I grew up in Langley and spent my youth riding my horse down every trail and every quiet shoulder of the south end. Chinook feels like home. I’ve been drawn to the Institute and its restorative atmosphere, and I’m excited about learning from this place and the people who work, play, and grow here.

Click here to view our August newsletter online and read on!

August 2, 2013

Blossoming Into Abundance | July 2013 Newsletter

July is a time of flourishing growth. Walking the land, everywhere you look, life is blooming, blossoming, thriving. It is a time of unmistakable beauty and one can’t help but be enchanted by the diversity and willfulness of Mother Nature—as though life had no other choice but to blossom into abundance. Similarly, Henry Thoreau writes of human potential in Walden: Or, Life in the Woods, ” . . . if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

This wisdom is especially resonant for us here at the Whidbey Institute, as one of our beloved family members—Hannah Lee Jones—has recently transitioned from her role as Communications Manager to dedicate all of her energy to the thing she loves most: her writing.

You know Hannah as the poetic voice whose deep connection to this place was clearly evident in our newsletters and other correspondence, and who has been a part of our greater community for over two years. Hannah, your words have touched us. We wish you well in this new adventure and we look forward to witnessing your journey as you blossom into the ever more creative spirit and author you were born to be!

Click here to view our July newsletter online and read on! 

July 2, 2013

The Long, Golden Days of Summer | June 2013 Newsletter

The month of June holds a special power. It’s the halfway point, the calendrical summit of the year, culminating with the summer solstice on June 21. Days reach their peak of longevity, and our energy seems to soar as we do more and sleep less (sometimes, not enough)! During the summer season especially, the sunlit beauty of this land is the stage of incredible inspiration and transformation: young and old alike, of all endeavors and walks of life, gathering to hold world-changing and life-altering conversations so powerful that they alter the course of our common future.

Ben Franklin wrote that “a house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.” Here at the Institute, the doors are open, and the light will always stay on for leaders, thinkers, seekers, and changemakers like you – now and all year long, through all seasons. Welcome home.

Click here to view our June Newsletter online and read on!

June 2, 2013

May Blooms, and a Nod to All Mothers | May 2013 Newsletter

As the blossoms peak in our Appletree garden and we enter the heart of May, we’ve been thinking a lot about the beauty of this late spring season, with all its glorious colors, and the vibrant energy they bring along with longer and sunnier days.

Lately we have also been thinking a lot about mothers. Mother’s Day is this month, prompting a reflection on motherhood, in all its shapes and meanings: what it means to exercise one’s “maternal” genes, and being a mom, whether to a child or a nest full of robin chicks. We know this much is true, as we enter this new season of activity and wakefulness: love, connection, and nurturance are qualities we do well to emulate from all mothers of the world, including our very own mother Earth. Have a wonderful Mother’s Day.

Click here to view our May newsletter online and read on! 

May 2, 2013