Leaving Atitlan…

As a child I always resisted going to bed and waking up in the morning.  Something about the transition between those realities or different states of being felt so destabilizing, traumatizing…  I still experience those sensations as an adult, but have come to appreciate the way they keep me on the edge, ground me in the moment, and open up possibilities.  Transition and change are always occurring; it is the illusion of stasis that creates the trauma, inviting attachment, habituation, entrenchment…  At least this is what I kept telling myself on my bus ride to the airport, opened up and raw as I watched an inspiring two weeks of research, creativity, and new friendships fade into the haze of distant slash burning.  So much to think about…  What to make of it all?

In many ways Atitlan functions as the heart of its region.  Its tributaries like so many arteries, running to its deep blue center.  And the heart is suffering, but it’s detectable ailments are symptoms indicative of  a deeper wound; a cultural pathogen that the human community in the watershed is struggling with.  The pathogen manifests itself in trash filled streams, rapidly eroding hillsides, and untreated sewage in the waterways -- all striking to my western restorationist’s eye and yet in some sense a distraction..  The symptoms are what drew our attention, but it is not enough to treat them.  The human cells surrounding and supported by the heart are also in need of nurture, healing, reconnection.  Without these measures the symptoms will persist. 

Fortunately, the fertility and potential for resilience in the system is as striking as the degradation: vegetation rapidly recolonizes eroded banks, large woody debris (when not collected for firewood) rapidly traps the finer volcanic soils to provide new structure for vegetation to come in after a large event; smiling faces, color, tears and laughter adorn the people, and thoughtful, inquisitive and devoted young minds are investing their intelligence and vitality in bridging difference, innovating solutions, and visioning change.  The cultural disturbance events enmeshed with the revolution, subsequent rapid growth within the region, and the present disturbance state, all underscored by intercultural conflict, only recently became acute and can be mended.  The system remains vibrant, thriving, and bursting with potential to heal.

My hope is that the inspired and talented young researchers participating in the program will leave activated, prepared like so many red and white blood cells, to confront the challenges ahead and apply themselves towards the health of the others, the heart, and the whole.  Certainly, my time with them has re-activated me, reminding me why I dedicate myself to learning, teaching, the science of watersheds, and the pursuit of landscape restoration.  Perhaps even more resonant, however, was the experience of humans, like all other species, invariably coupled with our environment, reflecting its state as it reflects ours; one unable to grow, change or heal without the other. 

-Rene Henery