Our autumn board/staff retreat, brilliantly facilitated by incoming Board President Larisa Benson and staff member Meg Gluckman, gave the Whidbey Institute team an opportunity to reflect on the life cycles of our work. We played with questions of germination, emergence, growth, harvest, and death. We looked at what’s being nurtured from seed to seedling, what’s abundantly mature, and what’s being composted to nourish the new. We looked at the projects, ideas, and ways of working that we’re ready to let go of and the projects, ideas, and ways that want to emerge.
One thing that is abundantly clear to me in my communications role is that telling a true story—in the moment, as it unfolds, with all its beauty and flaws—matters more than telling a perfect story. So much has changed at the Whidbey Institute since I arrived six years ago, and how we share what we’re up to needs to change too. It’s time for our blog to take center stage, as a place where you get the day to day stories from behind the scenes.
Whidbey Institute is unfolding its butterfly wings as a transformational learning center, truly embracing its values of transparency, authenticity, and vulnerability. We learn better when we learn together, unafraid to be imperfect on our collective journey of growth and change.
You can expect to see changes on our website in the coming months, harvesting our work, our learnings, and the gaps between what is and what can be in the areas of equity, climate action, self-organization, and more. You can expect to see regular blog posts from me and my colleagues, and you can expect to see programming that aligns more and more with our deep purpose to nurture the conditions for transformation in service to a future in which people and planet thrive together.
I, for one, can’t wait. Thank you for being on this journey with me.
—Marnie Jackson
February 6, 2020
