By Carissa Waugh - Ékè Éwe
Welcome to our 7th seed! I am enjoying writing these blogs for the community, and I hope you have been enjoying reading them.
There is something about writing and sharing my own personal stories that is helping me heal my inner child, and I hope it’s helping at least one other person on their own journey.
This seed “Stop Planning, Start Doing” asks us questions like “how can we reframe our understanding of productivity and success?” and “how can we measure action through means other than documentation?”
I want you to keep these in mind while you read this blog.
At the end of October 2026, Reconnection Vision (RV) co-hosted the Northern Youth Climate Gathering with Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) and To Swim and Speak with Salmon (TSSWS), with help from Yukon First Nations Education Directorate (YFNED).
The night before the gathering I was getting really anxious, as I usually do before any big gathering where I have to speak. I am comfortable with public speaking but I have my moments! I decided I needed to smudge myself and say a little prayer for the gathering and everyone involved, and I asked my “Moonology Manifestation Oracle Cards” if it had one message for me that I needed to carry throughout the gathering.
The message I received was:
“Embrace the Flow of Life: It’s important to accept where you are, so you can move to where you want to be.”
At first it made no sense to me — I was looking for something a bit more direct and comforting, and this wasn’t it for me (at the time!), but I trusted the cards, and that this was my teaching to carry with me for the week.
The next morning we started the Gathering, and all the youth were checking-in, finding their seats, saying hi to familiar faces and grabbing breakfast. Katie (Johnson), Jen (Mierau) and I set up our RV banner, postcards and stickers as we talked about our introductions after the water ceremony.
Our MC Jedrek Dendys started us on time (shout-out to Jedrek for keeping us on time and on topic as much as he could - he did an amazing job and I hope we get to work with him more in the future!) and we began our water ceremony by the sacred fire in the back. The fire was being watched and cared for by Darcy and some youth from YFNED and the water ceremony was led by Colleen James.
The ceremony went on, and as we finished up we went back inside to do “quick” introductions that were quickly taken over by stories and teachings from Elders, and behind the scenes we knew we had to adjust the schedule which is okay! Some speeches had to be shortened, but it was important to slow down and listen to what our Elders had to say.
As many of you may know, ceremony can take any amount of time, but it’s usually a long process.
For those of you who don’t know but are planning gatherings or conferences here in the Yukon: you can’t rush ceremony or Elders!
We learned this throughout the Fellowship (Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship), that no matter how much you plan for a gathering, you can’t predict any family and/or community emergencies, sickness, late buses, and so much more that comes with working here in the Yukon.
Throughout the gathering, we had plenty of opportunities for our youth to speak, and it was usually the quiet ones who were the loudest. It made me so happy and proud to hear them, and for them to express how uncomfortable they were, but how they felt safe enough to speak in front of us!
I hold my hands up to them and anyone else stepping out of their comfort zone.
We brought youth together, we saw new faces, we heard new voices, we made new friends, and we had some good discussions.
We talked about Legal Personhood for the Yukon River, Rights of Nature, what our communities are doing for our land, our values, what we envisioned for 50 years from now, and what if we had no barriers. We asked ourselves what comes next.
We wrote and recited poems, we laughed and we cried, we were in ceremony, we got to pick traditional medicines with our Elders, and we shared meals together.
What else could you ask for, from a northern youth gathering?
Which brings us back to my oracle card: “Embrace the Flow of Life: It’s important to accept where you are so you can move to where you want to be.”
Imagine sitting here and listening to this.
Check out the teachings for this seed here if you’d like to think about how you can stop planning, and start doing!
Questions
How can we reframe our understanding of productivity and success? How can we measure action through means other than documentation?
How can we fund emergent projects with deliverables based on process, rather than output?
How can funder-recipient relationships evolve to better communicate the impact and outcomes of change-based projects?