Finding Our Way

The dedication of holding this place that is Ampersand, is to be actively engaged in being what this world needs. Our planet needs us to use our curiosity and creativity to live in a way that is respectful to our place and intricately linked to our lands and waters.
Those drawn here, hear this call too – in different ways. My job as a steward and teacher is to welcome that instinct and point down hallways and offer tools. I cradle my fingers to provide a step along the route to discovering a healthy humanity. As I discover it too.
We humans tend to be gregarious creatures. We certainly need each other. The economics of that are clear. If we are to wholly connect to a place, to our beautiful Earth, we must embrace the needs and gifts of our hearts and souls. When we see ourselves as part of an ecosystem, there is a niche for each need and each gift. Like water, abundance cycles through space and time. Your gift is needed. Give it. And more challenging, your need is a gift as well. It’s an opportunity for someone else to give. To weave an economy that primarily resides within the realm of our daily circles. We must reclaim the ability to provide for ourselves within the contours of our own landscapes and watersheds. It can begin with friendship.

And not just between people. Making friends with a place. Making friends with the plants and birds and soil. A well-timed quote, a lost button on the sidewalk, the wind’s way of answering questions: these are all the reciprocity of living within an ecosystem.
I enjoy sharing about how to harvest the sun and how to restore the land. But anytime I feel like I’ve got something really important to say lately, it’s about this: taking the risk. Risk scarcity, risk vulnerability – to be humbly present, to be fully connected. To really live as an active expression of your caring and your curiosity. I think that’s an avenue for humanity to find our way.
Written by Amanda Bramble