How are you using your guides? Are you finding the document useful? Are you finding some areas hard to work in or having challenges knowing what to do next? Did you know that ARK produced a guide for our members to show what a regenerative economy looks like and how a culture of caring feels? We want to hear from you and learn about you through the stories of your journey. I can assure you that buy sharing your light we all grow brighter and by sharing your darkness we diminish its hold on our lives.
Some use the bible, and some use a myriad of self- help books available on the market as a compass to guide them on the path of life. Some people refer to the sage wisdom of elders or celebrities who present as icons of success. On a less cosmic scale, guides are often produced to help people navigate the course of a nature preserve or a crowded convention center. Guides can also be people and if we remain open, all the people we encounter can be our guides as we all come to teach and come to be taught in the journey of always becoming the next version of our best selves. Mostly, guides are documents that share principles, convey ideas, and make recommendations on how an adventurer can make the most of the journey ahead. For ARK stewards that journey is just as much into the internal realm of self-discovery and personal growth as it about building methods, energy generation strategies and yes, gardening ideas.
To honor the many years of hard work by our dear friend, and stalwart steward, Willow King from Kenai, Alaska, ARK created a guide for new members titled “Harvest the Good” after her sustainable grocery store, “The Goods”. While a very limited document, the first version is filled with some simple ideas to start with and lays out the principles, plans, and practices we feel will help nurture the culture of caring that will empathically utilize AI to build bridges between the people and the planet; between nations and build a regenerative economy that can sustain generational prosperity. More importantly, it offers some practical steps to organize a meal with friends, a community garden or energy project, and things you can do to turn your habits into a side hustle that could grow into a career, passion, and mission of your own.
For ARK, think global/act local is more than just a notion. It’s a formula for success as a complete focus on the long-term and you starve, and total obsession with one step in front of another and you will be forever lost in the wilderness of distractions, escapes, and excuses. Local people need to know their efforts have impact, and global initiatives need to be collaborative efforts with those on the ground. Waste, delays, expenses, and often conflict ensues when one group (large or small) tries to manipulate or force others into something they don’t want to do. Influencing and incentivizing is one thing but bringing people together in the planning will avoid challenges in building a project or running a successful program.
A guide helps people navigate change and ours is no different. The main difference of our guide is that it serves as a manual for community resilience and individual empowerment as two sides of the change we wish to see in this world. It functions to organize people and organizations in the simple but necessary process of terraforming spaceship earth which is the goal of the Butterfly Renaissance. As the organization grows, the guide will change to reflect the perfectness of where we are. Your contributions, your wisdom, your intellect are all ways future versions of the guide can continue to aid and inspire future versions of you, me, and us.