View this email in your browser
Welcome to Springtime! (◉Θ◉)
I'm crawling out of my winter dormancy and have migrated off into the world again (mixed species analogy?!). With this has come a delay in keeping up Institute projects, but here they come!

I want to announce two open call opportunitites for interested parties.

First is the inagural edition of The Non-Human Observer!
This is the brain child of Portland OR artist Shawn Creeden and will be  a seasonal journal devoted to the understanding and celebration of the expansive field of Being.
The journal will be accepting all works including by not limited to drawing, comics, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, research, musings, photographs, eulogies, remembrances, and ponderings.
Send submissions and queries to

Second is the Vegitails Cookbook
Nick and Chelsea of the Vegan Cooking Essentials pamphlet are back for more!
What we're looking for:
- one SOLID recipe from each of you! you are certainly welcome to submit more than 1, but we may not choose all of them! but also, we might. 
- your name!
- the recipe should be something you make frequently and know is delicious.
- include list of ingredients & quantities, and a step-by-step guide to making the dish.
- please submit a short description/story of the recipe if it has some significance to you. 
- have FUN!!!! it's not that serious. make jokes if you want.
-we need all kinds of recipes from appetizers to snacks to desserts to "dunch" and "brinner"
-any other vegan food related information, poems, research you feel like you want to share, please don't hesitate! 
Art stuff: (NOT MANDATORY, but we would love it!!)
-feel free to illustrate how to plate your dish if you wish!
-step by step illustrations 
-little clip art of foods/critters/utensils/ fruits/veggies
-photos (of your recipe or bad pictures of food. or of you eating food! surprise us!)
-have fun and keep it casual
-submit images as b&w 300dpi tifs if possible. 
in a pinch, just take a picture with your phone and we can format it our on our end. 
This will be completely on a volunteer basis, so we are not able to pay but will provide you with a finished book. We are hoping to finish this project by early Summer. 
Send submissions to

<painted lady butterfly in Landers, CA>
Things have been slow this year so far as I adapt to many changes in my life and surroundings. It’s an interesting process.

We’ve spent a lot of time believing that true adaptation is based on spontaneous genetic anomalies that lead to changes which make some individual species more adept at survival. New technology is helping us to see that there are also real time changes happening to living species based on reactions to their environments (phenotypic plasticity). As someone who always felt ‘energies’ in the least woo-woo kind of way, this makes so much sense. No living creature or cell is an untouchable island to itself. How can we only be affected by our relationships from the past not the very real and physical interactions of our present?

Of course, for many species, the ability to make quick changes is simply not quick enough to keep up with what has happened environmentally over the last 100 years. This topic was especially relevant in the lecture by Duke Brady and the video by Madeline Hollander at In Lieu a few weeks ago. For many, the likelihood of significant adaptation for survival would require too many changes at once. This also feels very relevant to the human experience. Something like being in a state of denial when confronted with trauma. We have an emotional adaptation to withhold reality from ourselves when it presents too much change or pain at once.

Nature, like people, presents mixes of genetic history and environmental influences. Even if we may not feel closely related to the red eyed tree frog, perhaps emotionally we’re more tied up than we realize. I tend to believe empathy is going to be one of the most important tools in shaping the future. Coming from a culture that promotes radical individualism while denying structural disadvantage creates a challenging starting point. No one is starting from the same place genetically or environmentally, this become especially true between the extreme variations of species. You can’t know what its like to be from the other side of the world, nor lacking a spine, the best anyone can really do beyond depending on science to tell us what anyone feels is simply to believe they feel.


 Update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

This email was sent to <<Email Address>>

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp