Happy New Year

Bamboo given to us
as a welcoming gift when we
moved into our Santa Fe home.

Soon the Chinese  New Year will be upon us. The energy of the shifts from silver metal Ox to the black waterTiger. How very different the energy of the Ox from that of the Tiger. Dwight born in 1938 is a yellow earthTiger. Tigers and monkeys, which I am according to this tradition, do not seem compatible but we have had many happy years together sharing the highs and lows of BEing human.

In preparation for the yearly movement through the animals, we have a framed red paper cut, from China, adorn the wall just to the left of our front door. 

Chinese paper cut of Tiger

I miss ever so much Liu Ming and his erudite review for the Chinese New Year. Unfortunately is he no longer inhabits a physical form. I am I now rely on Susan Levitt. I frequently reference one or the other of her books (Taoist Feng Shui or Taoist Astrology).

Below is from the latest Susan Levitt's email preparing us for the Chinese New Year:

"January 31, 2022 at 9:46 pm PST but February 1 in China is a new Moon in Air sign Aquarius. This new Moon in Aquarius begins CHINESE LUNAR NEW YEAR. Chinese New Year is the second new Moon after Winter Solstice, in late January or early February of the Gregorian calendar. 

The first month of the lunar year is always a Tiger month. 2022 begins with a Water Tiger month in a Water Tiger year. Double Water Tiger! Time to follow your emotions and instincts

. . . .

2022 Water Tiger Year
Welcome to the new Roaring Twenties! Water Tiger brings power, passion, and daring. Now is time to pounce, take a risk, and start new endeavors. Brave and bold actions are rewarded.

The year of the Tiger is explosive, wildly creative, big, and bold. It’s a time of extremes when all of life’s activities will be experienced on a grand scale. Tempers flare, drama and excitement reign, and crazy dreams can become reality. Expect massive social change, political rebellions, and military coups. Reply to this email to schedule your Astrology forecast or Tarot reading for 2022 Tiger year.

Tiger the Individual
Tiger is grand, daring, powerful, independent, creative, and dynamic. Tiger individuals value freedom, are adventurers, and don’t ever want to be caged in or held back. No matter how many obstacles stand in the way, Tiger’s courage will not diminish. Tiger attacks with unique swiftness and stealth. Tiger actions show a combination of style and power. No one can tell Tiger what to do, Tiger stands out in the crowd, and Tiger is a free thinker who never conforms.

Four mighty Tigers guard the four directions:
North is guarded by the black Water Tiger who represents winter.
East is guarded by the green Wood Tiger who represents spring.
South is guarded by the red Fire Tiger who represents summer.
West is guarded by the white Metal Tiger who represents autumn.
The center is guarded by the yellow Earth Tiger who represents the sun.

The Chinese god of wealth, Hsai Shen, rides a Tiger that brings good fortune. All Tigers scare off thieves, ghosts, and fires. Therefore, Tiger is a formidable animal totem to contact in the shamanic realm to assist in banishment and purification.

 

The Element Water

2022 is a Water year of the five Taoist elements Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood. In Feng Shui, the Water environment is cool, dark, and soothing. The room of the home is the bathroom. This year, design your bathroom to be a private healing sanctuary to take long, healing baths. Bathing can be a quiet respite from the strong energy of Tiger year.

The most favorable season in a Water year is winter. In Chinese medicine, Water rules the kidneys (and bladder). This year, and next year Water Rabbit 2023, is the time to see an acupuncturist and take herbs for kidney balance if you experience health issues with urination, sleep, dreams, or other Water imbalances.

 

Your Fortune in Water Tiger Year

Rat
Birth years of the Rat: 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020.
Next year of the Rat is 2032.

Tiger and Rat are very different astrology signs with very different temperaments. Tiger makes life decisions based on impulse, whereas you Rat prefer to plan and analyze. So do not get swept up in Tiger year excitement. Instead, be pragmatic and thorough. Avoid confrontations, especially lawsuits, because protocols might not be observed in a Tiger year. Rat likes rules because you can figure out a way around them. But in Tiger year, no one follows any rules. Tiger’s explosive energy can bring inspiration, yet Tiger’s changeable energy could bring instability for the usually cautious Rat. This is not your year to get rich quick. Plan that for Dragon year 2024. Dragon is your powerful ally. If others see you as calculating this year, know that Rat logic differs from Tiger instinct. Your best months are April, August, and December, and winter is your best season. The element Water empowers Water Rat born in 1972, and Wood Rat born in 1984.

Ox (Buffalo)
Birth years of the Ox: 1913, 1925, 1937,1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021.
Next year of the Ox is 2033.

Have some fun in Tiger year! You’ve been working hard! But stay true to your Ox nature of being reliable and strong. Others can take wild risks or enjoy caprices in a Tiger year, but it’s not in your best interest to do so. Instead, build on the respect received and solid gains made in your Ox year 2021. Tiger energy can bring unexpected problems, so stay the course and be diligent and conscientious in your work. Oxen born during Tiger month (February), on Tiger day, or during Tiger hours (3am – 5 am) have an easier time adapting to abrupt changes in plans and the lack of structure during a Tiger year. Your best months are May and September, and your best season is winter. The element Water empowers Water Ox born in 1973, and Wood Ox born in 1985.

Tiger
Birth years of the Tiger: 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010.
Next year of the Tiger is 2022.

Go for it, Tiger! Free-spirited, powerful, and adventurous Tiger gets many lucky breaks this year. So follow your hunches and instincts. This is your year to experience good fortune, recognition, protection, and benevolence. Say yes to every opportunity. Love is found if single, or if in a partnership love deepens and is celebrated. Plan for big parties in spring and summer. Just refrain from overspending or being overly generous with gifts. Tigers are empowered by the energy of their own year. February, June, and October are your best months, and autumn is your best season. Luck is strongest for Water Tiger born in 1962, and Wood Tiger born in 1974.

Rabbit (Hare)
Birth years of the Rabbit: 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011.
Next year of the Rabbit is 2023.

The impulsive, explosive energy of Tiger year is entertaining. But it can, at times, be excessive for Rabbit’s peaceful, gentle nature. Unplanned changes and too much excitement can effect your health. If scattered or overwhelmed, stay calm, conserve your energy, and be the peacemaker. Find solace in Water in this Water year with baths, saunas, and going to lakes, rivers, or the ocean. Transform your bathroom into a luxurious home spa. You start a new life cycle next year in Rabbit year 2023 so for many Rabbits this is the year to tie up loose ends and complete cycles. March, July, and November are your best months, and spring is your best season. The element Water empowers Water Rabbit born in 1963, and Wood Rabbit born in 1975.

Dragon
Birth years of the Dragon: 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012.
Next year of the Dragon is 2024.

The two power animals of the Chinese zodiac are Dragon and Tiger. You, Dragon, can look forward to and enjoy Tiger year’s wild activities, sudden changes in plans, and changing relationship dynamics. You can experience success, celebrations, and good opportunities. But you can also be challenged this year if your plans are blocked by others, or if others won’t follow your Dragon lead. By year end, it is clear that Dragon is stronger than Tiger. Still, avoid power struggles or lawsuits because Tiger has a temper, and you can lose battles even if you win the war. Your lucky cycle is Dragon year 2024 so keep focus. April, August, and December are your best months. Spring is your best season. The element Water empowers Water Dragon born in 1952 and Wood Dragon born in 1964.

Snake
Birth years of the Snake: 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013.
Next year of the Snake is 2025.

Brash Tiger energy is very different from Snake’s refined sensibilities. The bold activities of others could result in difficulties or calamities, so refrain from overreacting or being codependent. Use your Serpent wisdom to cool down Tiger-year hot heads. Introspection and meditation bring rewards. A good use of vital Tiger year energy is to pursue your interest in the arts. In your career, build on what you accomplished in Ox year 2021. Your best months are May and September, and your best season is spring. The element Water empowers Water Snake born in 1953, and Wood Snake born in 1965.

Horse
Birth years of the Horse: 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014.
Next year of the Horse is 2026.

Happy times for the Horse! Horse is Tiger’s best friend, along with Dog. This Tiger year is your lucky chance to race off to greener pastures, and gallop after new opportunities. For some Horses, this is a chance to  really run free after the constricting previous Ox and Rat years. But for all Horses, it is fortunate to start new endeavors of all kinds from opening a business, buying a home, getting married, or having a baby. Anticipate lucky change and fortunate travel opportunities. Tiger year brings fun, frolic, and enjoyment of friends and family. Entertainment may be expensive, but this is the time for Horse to live well. February, June, and October are your best months, and your best season is summer. The element Water empowers Water Horse born in 2002 or 1942, and Wood Horse born in 1954 or 2014.

Sheep (Goat, Ram)

Birth years of the Sheep: 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015.
Next year of the Sheep is 2027.

Anticipate fun and exciting times for us Sheep. Sheep will be more social, and travel is fortunate. But don’t become depleted by Tiger year distractions. Tiger has endless energy, but not Sheep. So balance your energy, take care of your health, and practice self care. Think before you indulge, overspend, or make a commitment. March, July, and November are your best months. Summer is the luckiest season; winter is not. An even luckier year for Sheep will be Rabbit 2023 so don’t be melancholic during the winter of this Water year. The element Water empowers Water Sheep born in 2003 or 1943, and Wood Sheep born in 2015 or 1955.

Monkey
Birth years of the Monkey: 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016.
Next year of the Monkey is 2028.

Tiger and Monkey are opposites. So the spotlight is not on Monkey this year, and you do not like to be ignored. You’re a natural leader, but no one is a follower in a Tiger year. Your usual support systems that you rely on might not be there. So don’t rely on others. Be more independent and resourceful. To avoid challenges, it’s best to build on your current foundation and not engage in too many new projects. Your best months are April, August, and December, and your best season is summer. The element Water empowers Water Monkey born in 1992, and Wood Monkey born in 2004 or 1944.

Phoenix (Rooster, Chicken)
Birth years of the Phoenix: 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017.
Next year of the Phoenix is 2029.

Ox year 2021 was a good year for you. Therefore, build on your successes by continuing the Ox energy of being patient and methodical. Tiger year brings enthusiastic energy and exciting changes for you, Phoenix. And you see opportunities for rebirth. But events can occur so quickly in a Tiger year that you could lose control. Maintain balance amid your new Tiger year activities. So keep a critical eye, strong boundaries, and not get swept up in Tiger year passions. Your best months are May and September. Autumn is your best season. The element Water empowers Water Phoenix born in 1993 or 1933, and Wood Phoenix born in 2005 and 1945.

Dog
Birth years of the Dog: 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018.
Next year of the Dog is 2030.

This is your lucky year! Dog and Tiger are extremely compatible, along with Horse. Good fortune and strong energy are with you to know love and happiness. Dog experiences all kinds of windfalls and favors, including financial good luck. Time for a pay raise, promotion at work, or new more beneficial career. You appreciate Tiger year’s directness and quick problem solving that helps you cover much ground. Enjoy an excellent year as the consciousness of Tiger year inspires you to change the world. February, June, and October are your best months. Autumn is your best season. The element Water empowers Water Dog born in 1982, and Wood Dog born in 1994 or 1934.

Pig (Boar)
Birth years of the Pig: 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019.
Next year of the Pig is 2031.

Exciting times! Your dreams can be fulfilled because Tiger and Pig are close allies. Luck is with you in all endeavors including romance. Finally, you have opportunities for adventure, advancement, and travel, especially after staid Ox year 2021. Tiger year 2022 and Rabbit year 2023 create a very good fortunate two-year cycle for all Pigs. March, July, and November are your best months. Autumn and winter are your best seasons. The element Water empowers Water Pig born in 1983, and Wood Pig born in 1995 or 1935."                                                                                                                SUSAN LEVITT

As we consider the impact of moving from Ox energy to Tiger energy may we

2022 Plant List for PageRefuge

 MOSTLY NATIVE HABITAT:

GRASSES

Elymus glaucus (Blue wildrye grass)

Festuca idahoensis (Blue fescue)

                F. rubra (Red fescue)

Muhlenbergia rigens (Deergrass)

Stipa pulchra  (Purple needlegrass)

ANNUALS

Claytonia perfoliata (Miner’s Lettuce)

Western wild ginger, along the back, was recently
transplanted from Shasta's Auntie T's garden.
The large piece of green pottery
was made by Dwight and filled with "pretty" rocks.
It sits beneath the butterfly rain chain 
which is attached to a rain downspout.

PERENNIALS

Achillea millefolium (White yarrow)

Aquilegia formosa (Western columbine)

        Asarum caudatum (Western wild ginger)

Asclepias speciosa (Showy Milkweed) 

*Calylophus drum mondianus (Sundrops)

Epolibium canum  (California fuschsia ‘Calistoga’ & 

                 ‘Everett’s Choice’)

Erigeron giganteum (St. Catherine’s Lace buckwheat) 

E. glaucus (Seaside daisy ‘Cape Sebastian’)

E. grande rubescens (Red buckwheat)

Heuchera maxima (Alum root)

Melissa officinalis (Lemon balm)

Mimulus aurantiacus (Sticky monkeyflower)

Monardella villosa (Coyote mint ‘Russian River’)

*Penstemon eatonii (‘Firecracker’ penstemon)

P. heterophyllus (Blue Bedder penstemon  

                      ‘Margarita BOP’)

*P. strictus (Rocky mountain penstemon)

Phacelia bolanderi (Bolander’s Phaceli)

Plantago subnuda (Coastal plantain) 

Romney coulteri (Matilija poppy)

Salvia apiana (White sage )

S. sonomensis ( Sonoma sage ‘Bella Vista’ )

                S. spathacea (Hummingbird sage)

S. clevelandii x (‘Pozo Blue’ Sage)

S. clevelandii (‘Winnifred Gilman’ Sage) 

        Viola odorata (Wild violets)

SHRUBS

Arctostaphylos bakeri (Manzanita ‘Louis Edmunds’)

A. uva-ursi (‘Point Reyes’ Bearberry)

Berberos aquifolium AKA Mahonia aquifolium (Oregon grape)

Baccharis pilularis - female upright form (Coyote Bush)  

Calycanthus occidentalis (Western spicebush)

Carpenteria californica (Bush anemone ‘Elizabeth’) 

Ceanothus (California Wild Lilac ‘Dark Star’)

C. thyrsiflorus (California wild lilac ‘Skylark’)

Cornus sericea occidentalis (‘Tomales Bay’ Western twig dogwood)

Corylus cornuta californica (California hazelnut)

Heteromeles arbutifolia (California toyon)

Holodiscus discolor (Cream bush)

  Lonicera involucrata (Twinberry honeysuckle)

Prunus lyonii (Catalina Cherry)

Rhamnus californica (Coffeeberry)

Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum (Pink flower currant

                       ‘Heart’s Delight’) 

R. speciosum (Fushsia flower gooseberry)

Styrax redivius (Snowdrop bush)

Symphoricarpos albus (Common snowberry ‘Tilden Park’ +

1 dug up along road during Shasta’s & my morning walk)

TREES

*Acer ?? (Yellow leaf Japanese Maple)                    

Aesculus californica (California buckeye)

Cercis occidentalis (Western redbud)

*Chilopsis linearis (Desert willow)

Corylus cornuta v. californica (Western hazelnut)

        *Laurus nobilis (Sweet bay or Grecian bay)

Umbellularia californica (California bay)

VINES

Aristolochia calfornica (California pipevine) 

Clematis ligusticifolia (Western virgin’s bower) 

Lonicera hispidula (Honeysuckle, aka Hairy honeysuckle)

Vitis californica x European grape cross  ('Roger's Red' California grape)

FOR HUMANS:

*FRUIT TREES

        Apple

Cox Orange Pippin

Pink Pearl

Spitzenberg (Thomas Jefferson’s favorite apple)

        Apricot

Blenheim

        Lemon

Improved Meyer

        Plum

Santa Rosa

*BERRIES

        Blackberry  

             Rubus (subgenus Rubus Watson) ‘Black Satin’ Thornless

        Elderberry

             Nova 

             York

        Raspberry

          Boyne (Rubus idaeus) Summer bearing raspberry

        Strawberry 

              Albion

              Chandler

              Seascape

*HERBS

Basil

Chives

Marjoram

Oregano

Rosemary

Salvia officinalis

‘Berggarten’ sage

Common sage

Tarragon

Thyme

MEDICINAL HERBS

*Borage

*Comfrey

*Echinacea

*Peppermint (chocolate)

Wide leaf plantain

White yarrow

OTHER FOOD PRODUCING PLANTS

*Rhubarb 

* = nonnative  

Purest

In the creating the two native habitats in previous homes I was a stickler for using only natives: a purest attitude, so to speak, of only natives. Since living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and falling in love with some of the natives in that part of our country, my stance of having an unadulterated garden of natives has now been relaxed. I so miss living in Santa Fe, so to abate some of the grief I am bringing some of Santa Fe to my gardens here in Cotati.

In the 1980's when visiting Apple Valley, California, I saw a Desert Willow in bloom. I fell in love with the gorgeous flowers. This tree is native to the desert Southwest so many thrived in the Santa Fe area where we lived. Plants of the Southwest had these in 5 gallon containers. I bought and planted two; one was planted just outside of our 1950's Stamm home's sliding backdoor. 

September 06, 2020
The Desert Willow "bush"
planted outside
our sliding backdoor. 

Close up the flowers.
This is a cultivar.

December 30, 2020 Desert Willow pruned to be a tree.

The second one was planted outside of the double black wrought iron gate near the adobe wall. These trees grow pretty quickly so after the first year, there were flowers. I have planted two on the West side of our house here in Cotati. These two were much smaller than those purchased at the Plants of the Southwest so I am not holding my breath for the glorious blooms!

Picture taken on May 29, 2018, at the
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
These native tree blossoms are paler.
The flowers on the tree planted outside 
of the wrought iron gate are this color. 
Notice the seed pods, so like that of the Catalpa tree

The other nonnative plant now flourishing in the back yard near the finch feeder is Rocky Mountain Penstemons. I planted about a dozen of them in our front yard in Santa Fe. In the Fall the tall seed stocks were covered with goldfinches hoping up and down the seed stocks scarfing up all the tiny black seeds. Since we have a plethora of goldfinches coming to their feeder filled with nyger seeds, I thought they might delight in  penstemon seeds too? 

Rocky Mountain (Penstemon strictus)

and

Chocolate Flower (Berlandiera lyrata)

pictured above flowering in June of 2020 at

the San Felipe Circle native habitat. 

I have seeds on order from Plants of the Southwest. I plan to germinate a few of the seeds so I can grow these Chocolate Flowers. Yes indeed the flowers smell like chocolate.

Since Dwight enjoys Japanese maples and one is growing in our front, I decided to leave it. During the Winter months it is especially wonderful to look out and see the stunning red branches. These made a stunning backdrop for holiday lights and straw ornaments tied on with red yard.

The tall, and I mean tall, hedge (pictured above) along the Eastern side of our back patio blocks people living in the apartments next door from seeing into our back yard and library. My intention when we moved in was to remove this hedge. Friends who visit and sat at our patio table for meals vociferously voiced, "leave it." So leave it I have. I am now grateful that I listened to such sage advice.

All the while I garden I frequently 

Helpful Perspective

	This below helpful perspective arrived this morning in my email. I thought I would share it here for anyone who might be thinking "I just want my life to be back to normal" i.e. like it was before the pandemic, before the massive wildfires raging in the West, before the mirage of global alterations brought on by climate change, etc.
	We all live in California, now. Discontinuity is blowing up, all around us, now, everywhere — and the biggest changes are still incoming. Alex Steffen Jan 11 Meridith Kohut for The New York Times “We were in the midst of the worst wildfire season in the state’s history, and the evident wrongnesstraumatized us and shook us awake.” Yesterday, some of my ideas were the frame for a feature story in the New York Times Magazine about California’s need to learn to live with megafires. “I met with Alex Steffen, a climate futurist, on the back patio of a bar in Berkeley. Steffen, a 53-year-old mountain of a man with a crystal-ball-bald pate, hosts a podcast and publishes a newsletter called The Snap Forward. The idea behind both is that the climate crisis has caused us to get lost in time and space; we need to dig ourselves out of nostalgia and face the world as it exists. As he explained to me in his confident baritone, yes, California, and the world, are in bad shape. But the situation is not as devoid of hope as we believe. ‘We have this idea that the world is either normal and in continuity with what we’ve expected, or it’s the apocalypse, it’s the end of everything — and neither are true,’ he said. That orange sky in 2020? ‘We’re all like, Wow, the sky is apocalyptic! But it’s not apocalyptic. If you can wake up and go to work in the morning, you’re not in an apocalypse, right?’ The more accurate assessment, according to Steffen, is that we’re ‘transapocalyptic.’ We’re in the middle of an ongoing crisis, or really a linked series of crises, and we need to learn to be ‘native to now.’ Our lives are going to become — or, really, they already are (the desire to keep talking about the present as the future is intense) — defined by ‘constant engagement with ecological realities,’ floods, dry wells, fires. And there’s no opting out. What does that even mean? We’re living through a discontinuity. This is Steffen’s core point. ‘Discontinuity is a moment where the experience and expertise you’ve built up over time cease to work,’ he said. ‘It is extremely stressful, emotionally, to go through a process of understanding the world as we thought it was, is no longer there.’ No kidding. ‘There’s real grief and loss. There’s the shock that comes with recognizing that you are unprepared for what has already happened.’ I found Steffen’s sweeping, dark pronouncements comforting. He at least had language and a functional metaphor to describe what was going on. Most of us have dragged our feet and deluded ourselves for too long about the state of the world. While we remain stuck, our world pulled away from our understanding of it. We’ve now fallen into a gap in our apprehension of reality. We need to acknowledge this, size up the rupture, then hurl ourselves over the breach. As we sat there, the bar’s concrete patio filled up with young, busy people and their laptops, their gatherings part of an endless stream of work meetings displaced by the pandemic, individuals trying to make the shapes of their lives as ‘normal’ as possible — the whole premise of which, Steffen argued, was a mistake. The mind-set locks us into defining ourselves as the trapped inhabitants of someone else’s broken world. Relinquishing the idea of normal will require strength, levelheadedness, optimism and bravery, the grit to keep clinging to some thin vine of hope as we swing out of the wreckage toward some solid ground that we cannot yet see. ‘We’re no longer dealing with a fire regime in the woods that responds to the kinds of mild prevention and mild responses, the sensible responses we have thought about, and that thought alone is a crisis,’ Steffen said. ‘It means the lives we had we no longer have.’ … Across California — across the world — it’s easy, even comforting, to sit in despair. To stay depressed and mired in a state where not that much has truly changed. But nihilism is a failure of imagination, the bleak, easy way out. We need to face the lives before us. We need to name the discontinuity: See, there it is, the tear in the universe created by our fear and greed. What we believed was the present is actually the past. That was Steffen’s message to me in the Berkeley bar. We failed to keep pace with the future.” It’s a great piece, and you should read the whole thing. I can’t complain at all, either, about how my ideas are described and used to frame the story. And lots of people have already found my work because of the piece’s prominence — including about 1,000 of you who are new subscribers — welcome! [Pro tip: If you’re a paying subscriber, start listening to the podcast series at the beginning, since each builds on the last.]  All of which is fantastic. I have, however, been getting lots of questions about these ideas and what they mean, and I’m seeing people start to wrestle with the complexities of discontinuity, transapocalypse, ruggedization, and the Snap Forward itself. Long-time readers — especially paying supporters who’ve been listening to me ramble on in the podcasts — probably feel familiar with these ideas, so forgive me if some of this is recap, but I thought I’d lay down a few quick guiding thoughts to help clarify things. First, though this story is about California — and that was the specific focus of the conversation Liz Weil and I had last summer — the changed realities Californians find ourselves facing are different only in their specifics from the challenges people all around the world now face. California may get a lot of press for its fire tornadoes, atmospheric rivers, ocher skies and crumbling seaside cliffs. It may even have become some sort of shorthand for imminent destruction. Nowhere else is much better off, though. Ask not for whom the klaxon bell rings, dude, because we all live in California, now. Second, the reason why the planetary crisis is not an issue, but an era, is that we find ourselves living within a human world we’ve built, on a natural planet we’ve radically altered, and as we’ve driven planet-scale transformations through the climate and biosphere, our human world is increasingly unstable. The core challenge facing humanity is the need to rebuild the places, systems and societies around us to work on the planet we now inhabit. Every other problem we’re struggling with is subsumed under this overarching reality. There is nowhere to stand outside of it. Which means we’re living in a deepening discontinuity. Billions of us will collide with this fact in the next few years. The suddenness of our understanding of this reality — a reality that’s been solidifying for decades, but that a combination of predatory delay, entrenched entitlement and cultural inertia have kept us from seeing — means that our sense of tempo is shot to hell. Enormous changes will now come very fast. As I wrote before, “A big problem in thinking about discontinuity is that the first step is the longest one: embracing the idea that things can change at scales and speeds that render suddenly obsolete and unstable much of what we still assume is normal, valuable, and durable.” Third, the planetary crisis ain’t the Apocalypse. We do not face the End of Everything. We face the obliteration of our certainties, sure. We also face the destruction of many of the wonders of nature. And we face the reality that for billions of people, life will feel pretty damn apocalyptic, even as humanity as a whole staggers along. We live now in a transapocalyptic world. This changes what we might think of as right action in this moment. We are not the ones who are going to save the world by keeping the planetary crisis from happening, because it is already in motion, with more to come. There’s this line from 'No Country for Old Men' that I can’t get out of my head: "You can't stop what's coming. It ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity." We will not see what I call the Orderly Transition. There is no new continuity to be had. As I wrote before: We are not now capable of designing a future that works in continuity with our existing systems and practices while producing emissions reductions and sustainability gains fast enough to avoid truly dire ecological harm. This is an option that no longer exists. This means that major parts of our economy are precarious. That which relies on externalities for its profits. That which is valued without regard to its vulnerabilities. That which is based on the kinds of expertise and experience that have lost their value in discontinuity — including much current sustainability expertise. All of these are overhangs, waiting to fall. Fighting to forestall recognition of this reality is why predatory delay exists. (Paradoxically, idealists insisting that we can restore continuity in a discontinuous world — that we can “reverse” the planetary crisis — help preserve the illusion these slow interests depend on.) Fourth, we’re all waking up in the Snap Forward. We are, in increasing numbers, coming to realize that not only is the world already profoundly different than we thought — a rupture with our past — but that over the next few decades, the world will depart even more wildly from what we still think of as normal. If we want to understand our immanent future, we have to engage seriously with ways of looking at the world that are still only emerging. Shit is getting real. Discontinuity is the job. Discontinuity is the job for those of us who want to succeed with purpose, to have our own aspirations connect with strategies to deliver new solutions at the scope, scale and speed reality demands. Discontinuity is also the job, though, for billions of people who are more concerned with their own selves, families and communities than with the fate of the Earth. People acting from necessity — from the need to secure themselves from danger, to seize the opportunities to be found in rapid change before others can, to find cohesive constituencies who are ready to move with the speed demanded — are going to change our society far more in the near term than even the massive ecological dangers unfolding in front of us. Indeed, a core part of the Snap Forward is recognizing that people responding to discontinuity have become the dominant force of change on the planet: “[What’s coming is] a realization that large-scale actions are now being driven not primarily by collective agreement of all parties, but by the growing power of those who see fast action as not only being in their self-interest, but also to their direct advantage.” None of this is under control, much less optimal, but that’s what happens when you melt the damn ice caps. Nor is it all bad, at all. We don’t take the planetary crisis seriously enough, but we completely fail to grasp that we’re experiencing not just discontinuity but a massive transformation in the shape of the possible. It is not too late for humanity to find a future that’s brighter than the present, but it won’t happen because we all agree on what it should look like. Nothing is that simple, or linear, or collective, or predictable anymore. Fifth, it’s important to live when we are. Being native to now, I think, is our deepest responsibility in the face of all this. And being at home in the world we actually inhabit means refusing to consign ourselves to living in the ruins of continuity, but instead realizing we live in the rising foundations of a future that actually works. It may be a fierce, wild, unrecognizable future, but that doesn’t mean it’s a broken future. Indeed, it’s the present that’s broken beyond redemption. When it comes down to it, humanity’s discontinuity is made up of billions of personal discontinuities. Facing our own discontinuity forces the reality of changes that we desperately want to think of as “out there” into our own work, our own lives, our own homes, our own hearts. Even this, though, can be liberating. That’s what we’re here to talk about: liberating, in this new reality, the best possibilities of our selves, our solutions and our societies from the dusty, decrepit certainties of a predatory past. Succeeding in every sense. If that sounds good to you, you’re in the right place. Yours in discontinuity, Alex And while we mull over the above "helpful perspective" may we each