The Power of Thanks
The Partnerscapes Blog by Steve Jester
Thank you for all you have done for your land, landscape, community and organization this year! I wanted to state that up front before I expand on why it is important, knowing this is long enough to get moved from the newsletter to the blog page!
Growing up when I did, where I did, you learned at a very early age that expressing thanks was not only a good thing to do, it was an absolute necessity to securing your next meal! I am thankful (see what I did there) that I learned this early. Especially when I reached a certain level of understanding through working with landowners, communities, and partners. I eventually realized that a sincere thank you is not just a recognition of and appreciation for personal and collective effort, investment, and sacrifice, but it also helps to strengthen or establish relationships necessary for voluntary collaborative conservation to function–anywhere I have been.
The defining moment for me, from a practitioner viewpoint, was when a landowner of many generations on the land was asked what could be done to recognize what she, and the generations before, had done to steward their land. Her response was “A simple thank you every now and then.” Flipping the coin over, I once watched a landowner panel speaking to a group of voluntary conservation practitioners that began spontaneously and unprompted thanking the attendees for their partnership and hard work in their efforts to help landowners. Needless to say, the attendees were blown away in a very good way.
Our working landscapes don’t just provide for individuals and families, embedded human communities, and natural systems and species. Collectively they are what makes life possible for the vast majority of our population that will never set foot in a working landscape. Nearly all our food, water, air, energy, and building materials that don’t come from offshore (either from the ocean or overseas) come from a working landscape. I want again to sincerely thank landowners, local communities, and the partners that work with them for what you have done this year and for what you do every day for all of us.