Bioneers Gathering

 I held my hand up to my mouth, wiped at my eyes as if my allergies were acting up, not as if I was convulsing in agreement, my heart beating out of my chest with understanding about this love and excitement for something as small as a seed. Yes, talk of seeds brought me to tears. 
Every. 

Single. 

Time. 

And not in a 'Hey lets buy this packet of Freckled Lettuce' type of excitement (although I love that, too), but in the 'Wow these are my people that KNOW that a seed is more than just a tiny speck of matter' sort of way. They know a seed is soil and health and freedom and revolt and pure life wrapped in the memories of ancestors and land and countless sunrises.

Each night I slept in my car so I could buy more books, be early to the keynote speeches (conversations), immerse myself in the energy of the gathering place. 
(and hell yeah, I was being cheap because the tickets were not)
(but at least the scholarships were plentiful and included this youth attendee who wrote about it too)

Each morning opened with drums and dancing and stomping throughout the auditorium. 

And coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. 

Each day was filled with talk, with listening, with clapping and snapping and sighing and screaming:

A mushroom hat-wearing Paul Stamets describing how mycelium can heal the world. I wanted to shout, “I know, I know! I learned how to grow oyster mushrooms! I get excited about mycelium running through the compost pile! The fact that mushrooms are closer to animals than plants kinda freaks me out, but it is soooo cool!” 

Eve Ensler passionately, poetically ranting about eating that apple of light and truth and becoming the Eve that flicked off the patriarchy. My fingers itched to begin writing plays then and there. Rise up with my old love (theater) and circle back with a revolutionary tongue.

The bizarre scene of Vandana Shiva sitting at a small folding table in a sterile hotel banquet room. Did they not know the space would be bursting at the seams with admirers? Couldn't they have picked a venue with at least one living plant? She spoke eloquently of farmers fighting back against Monsanto corn in Mexico, tragically of bankrupt farmers hanging themselves with Monsanto seeds in their pockets in India. She spoke of quantum physics, of undissolvable energy and matter, of hope.

I could list each speaker, each inspiration, each Yes! that erupted from my lips as the person in front of me read my mind. Or blew my mind open with possibilities. 

But I won’t. It lasted for three full days and my notebook is full.

I will say that gathering with community, speaking of the beautiful actions and thoughts we CAN realize even among the ugliness and despair- it changed me. 

I am still buzzing and plotting and growing.

Going to a forum like Bioneers is one way to get a dose of hope. 
We all need that. 

Find it. Get it. Grow it. Gather and nourish. 

It is up to us.