Change that Empowers.

"In order to design a future of positive change, we must first become expert at changing our minds" Jacque Fresco

On this day, as was the case for most Saturdays I remember of living at my childhood home, I woke to the sound of whistling and followed the smell of bacon and eggs to the kitchen.  My father was there cooking breakfast with the television on in the family room to keep him company.   It was generally tuned to a nature show on the weekend and helped him shift gears from a long week of travel with his work.   What I remembered most was the show "The Nature of Things with David Suzuki.  There were animals in their natural habitat empowered to do what came innately to them for their survival and the protection of their young and their species. I think my father gravitated towards these shows, beyond the obvious reason of how captivating the natural world is because they offered a comfort that could only be found in the flow of the animal world. They were living an empowered life, making their own choices and decisions, surviving unbelievable circumstances, and always innately following their instinct and intuitive nature provided by the energy of the universe.  Being a sensitive soul, I did not always have an appetite for this complete honesty about predators and prey, the perils involved in survival, and the continuous changing circumstances, elements, and balance of power that they had to navigate every moment of their lives and I was young enough to have not yet made the connection to myself as part of this world order.   My Dad was always reassuring me that indeed, however constant change was in nature, this continuous shift in balance, and power, could and should be trusted as the earth and its living things have been surviving and thriving long before humans' attempts at control or power over.  This may have been a simplistic explanation to soothe his young daughter's concerns at the time but I believe it was that explanation and his faith in nature, that has played an intricate part in empowering how I have evolved, who I have become and how I understand the world around me even when it is making the least sense to me. It has been a compass to come back to and comforting to know that nature allows this flow to occur and as a result, it provides for the need of all of its creatures to be and do what their nature requires and this aids their interconnectedness.  From the matchstick moss and other forms of fungi that support trees' longevity to the black bear's protection of its young, there is an interplay happening that we don't need to interfere with and if we are looking for answers, we don't have to look far to see how nature has and is and always has flowed with grace.

If we have not been hiding under a rock recently, and it is alright if we have as it is necessary sometimes,  we are aware of many man-made changes in our world right now that are disempowering to all people.   When we talk about change, we are usually talking about making someone or something different by altering, modifying, or replacing.  It is the act or instance of making or becoming different.  There are abundant examples of change in nature.  Birds molt winter plumage to gain breeding feathers, deer coats transform from ash gray to rich brown and rabbits have a similar experience.   Rivers, lakes, and oceans continuously change color hues, water levels, waves, ripples, tides, and currents.   You can glance at the lake in the early morning and see a glass-like surface and moments later it has evolved to white caps. These are the kinds of changes that have the element of comfort. We allow nature the power to make those decisions for itself.  What will work best at the moment and we assume that change is moving things, cycling, and improving.  We adapt to the obvious change and tend not to question it.  Patterns, transformations, and cycles are witnessed and allowed in nature.  This exemplifies the element of trust my father had referred to.  I think because of nature's examples, we always believed that humans would also follow this laid-out trajectory and trust.  The result of this would be that we would be continually learning, changing, and growing in our capacity for openness,  humanity and ultimately love.   Somehow knowing there would be slip-ups and setbacks.  Mistakes would be made and things would not always be digestible for the faint of heart but we would extend this trust to each other as we too are part of the natural world and the rhythm it creates.

I have continued to marvel at the work of  David Suzuki over the years.  Recently he shared information about bias in the scientific classification of 450 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, and other animals.  With the ever bias and missing pieces of history of indigenous, black, queer, and disabled populations,  we can't be surprised to learn that bias had found its way into the reporting of facts about numerous species and as a result, we are missing any knowledge of queer ecology.  The scientific research he presented was so interesting and important to our understanding of ourselves and all of nature.  David shared that Giraffes, bottlenose dolphins, and grey whales mate in all-male groups.  Bighorn sheep are homosexual until six or seven years of age.  Female foxes form lesbian communities and over ninety percent don't reproduce. Male foxes are indeed bisexual.   Bonobo Chimpanzees mate with multiple partners regardless of gender.  Clownfish change from male to female depending on the needs of a colony. Male and female spotted hyenas have the same genitalia. Snakes, lizards, frogs, insects and birds all have intersexuality, gender diversity, gender-ambiguous organs, or other gender organs. They also can physically change genders.  Female lions grow manes and exhibit male-like behaviors.  If this was not your area of study or expertise, you may never have learned these facts about other species so similar to us.  The difference being that they have not been disempowered or mistrusted in the ways in which they adapt, live, connect and cycle through life. 

We can trust in the many species who do what is best for their survival, their young, and who molt, adapt, and evolve as necessary to stay in the current of life.   Recently there has been reporting of Orcas who are aborting sixty percent of their pregnancies. It is believed that they are doing so because of the shortage of salmon as a result of humans.  Without the salmon, they won't have food for their young. They are such wise, majestic creatures who have survived and thrived for centuries.    Caribou survive on lichens. This is their primary food source. Because this food source has been threatened, their bodies will naturally reject their fetus. What a wonderful natural phenomenon in nature so they will be able to have young when they can both live a bountiful and full life. There are many other examples in nature where animals will pause a pregnancy. What a gift nature has provided for all species.  We can continue to trust in these natural decisions made.  Otherwise, we would be disempowering these creatures with our resistance to their being able to have agency over themselves. This is disempowering change when we don't believe in the species, or individuals' abilities to do what is best for them and as a result, is best for all of the natural world. 

My father has seen many changes throughout his life. Many of those related to the raising of three daughters.  He came with his own beliefs, biases, prejudices, and ignorance as we all do. But he came with a willingness to learn, a will to do what was best for us. Many times all of these things he came with conflicted but he can be proud of the instances that he chose to do or allow what would give us agency over ourselves and to have the opportunity to have the lives we chose and not those thrust upon us by circumstance or choices of others. My father was able to extend the trust he had in nature to me and my sisters and in trusting us, he helped to bring empowering change into our lives so we could continue to trust nature's wisdom and our true nature as well.