The Optimist View
The Optimist View: Think Global, Eat Local
“A garden is a solution that leads to other solutions. It is part of the limitless pattern of good health and good sense." – Wendell Berry BY Sadie Wilbur, Editorial Intern, July 2018 Dirty Hands, Happy Heart My love for all things green began when I was a young girl. I grew up alongside a Read More...
The Optimist View: Keen on Kelp
“The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.” - Jacques Yves Cousteau On a sunny Saturday morning, I drive about 30 minutes north of my home in Santa Barbara to an area called Refugio Beach. Aptly Read More...
The Optimist View: Trauma and healing in the first responder community
“Trauma creates change you don’t choose. Healing is about creating change you do choose.” –Michelle Rosenthal By Amelia Buckley and Kristy Jansen As we move in to a second spring colored by coronavirus, we all feel the toll. For those of us who have been working from home and living Read More...
The Optimist View: Knocking down the negative news bias
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” - Victor Frankel The old news mantra, “If it bleeds, it leads” has long steered traditional media outlets towards the violent, the Read More...
Optimist View: Finding our footing in a post-pandemic world
“Life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance, you must keep moving.” - Albert Einstein This past year has created challenges and cataclysmic life shifts for everyone, and while every person’s pandemic experience is unique, what we do have in common is the changed perspective that Read More...
The Optimist View: The power of investing in inclusion
“When we listen and celebrate what is both common and different, we become wiser, more inclusive, and better as an organization.” — Pat Wadors As we start off the new year with back to back celebratory months of Black History and Women’s History, we are reminded of the long journey Read More...
The Optimist View: Spring into Solutions
“Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own.” - Charles Dickens BY AMELIA BUCKLEY Stepping out of my house last week I was greeted with the ambrosial smell of blooming jasmine - a sure sign that spring had sprung in my little neighborhood. I spent an extra minute in Read More...
Optimist View: Taking Ownership & Choosing A Better Future
“All that you touch you Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change.” - Octavia E. Butler BY KRISTY JANSEN We humans have had and will continue to have a profound effect on this planet and the biosphere. It's no longer debatable and that’s Read More...
The Optimist View: "Our Moment of Choice" - Reflections on hope for the future
“A conscious business is a mission with a business, not a business with a mission.” - Steve Farrell, in Our Moment of Choice BY ARIELLE TIANGCO As I reflect on the unexpected events of this past year, I am confronted with a strange mix of emotions. Trepidation clashes with gratitude. Read More...
The Optimist View: Love is Kindness
BY: Summers McKay & Kristy Jansen “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” - Buddha Love is the most curious and powerful of forces. It has the unique ability to both build strong alliances and tear down unnecessary walls. It can Read More...