When I met Jakob Shockey, founder of Project Beaver, at a conference last fall, I was feeling particularly sensitive, for quite a few reasons. I was on the verge of a big transition, I was worn out from a long drive and a packed schedule, and the conference was happening in a casino—you walked across the playing floor every time you went between the conference and the rest of the hotel, so at every break you ran this gauntlet of cigarette smoke and jittery lights and jingles and dings and intensely focused people.
But the hotel also hosted a farmer’s market on Saturday, and that’s where I got a chance to talk to Jakob: outside the market, on the sidewalk, in the sunshine, eating tamales. I had really enjoyed his talk on beaver coexistence the day before—his clear love and respect for the animals; his emphasis on measuring success by increase in “number of acres under beaver stewardship,” since beavers have many millennia on us of tending riparian systems that are good habitat for everybody; and the clarity of his beaver policy work at the state level in Oregon. And indeed we had a good talk about all of these things.
But what really struck me, during our conversation, was his vibe. He felt WELL. You meet a lot of people in the conservation world who feel one caffeinated step away from burning out or despairing, which makes sense, it’s front line work, for sure, trying to maintain and defend the life support systems of this planet. But the vibe from Jakob was a felt sense of being grounded, well rested, embodied, and broadly resourced to grow the work at the right pace on a strong foundation.
Fast forward a few hours and I met Kirsten, founder of The Fermentation School, a women-led collective sharing the magic of fermentation with the world. We got to talking about the conference, the speakers we’d liked, about her work writing and teaching about fermentation and her interest in telling other kinds of stories. We dropped right in and were having a great grounded conversation. I didn’t know she was Jakob’s mom until he came over to stand next to her and I looked between their faces and their nametags and I was like, Ooooh, this explains it. This helps me see that well vibe in context.
They started telling me about their place where they all live together, Kirsten and her husband and Jakob and his partner and their kids, on a farm in the woods, and how Jakob’s three kids walk two minutes from their house to their grandparents’ kitchen, and how they garden and eat and tend the land together, and I was like: yeah, okay, here it is. Here’s the foundation. Here’s a glimpse of the kinds of choices, commitments and gifts (and yes, also privileges) that resource us to do deep strong work in the world, for the long haul.
So, for this episode of Kinward, I knew I wanted to talk with Jakob and Kirsten together. Not because all of us are suddenly going to have access to a multigenerational village on a farmstead in the mountains, but because I think a glimpse of that possibility tells us something important about what we really long for, and because I’ve seen over and over that the context in which our work lives is as important as the work: are we making choices and setting priorities that are in alignment with our values from the ground up? What can we learn from the simple practices of living well together to empower our work for change? What’s radical (remember the latin root of the word radical, radic, literally means root)—what’s radical about affirming our interdependencies in public?
I pray for a strong rooted foundation for all of us inside of this great turning time. I know it feels very far away for some of us. And there’s lots of different ways it can look. I hope you enjoy this glimpse into one version of what it can look like to deepen your roots: this short, lighthearted, and simple Immersion episode with Kirsten and Jakob, mother and son.
They share a morning wakeup blessing, a simple practice for connecting and grounding with each other at the end of the day, and a really really yummy sounding recipe for fermented beets.
You’ll hear a lot more about their multifaceted and multi-scale work of collaborating with life in the full episode, which will be coming out directly. In the meantime, settle in next to the fire with us—you’ll hear the rain whirring and the woodstove popping—and Immerse yourself in the pleasure of being held.
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