Holly is chair of the Wellington Stewardship Council. She advocates for and educates about responsible land stewardship.

THE CORNERSTONE IN GUELPH . . . 5:30 p.m.

Pinto, Mushroom and Avocado Enchilada for Holly. Curried Chickpea Walnut Burger for me. Tofu Chocolate Cheesecake for desert.

THE CONVERSATION

Holly works on stewardships for the Credit Valley Conservation Authority. She finds that the work requires all of her education and life skills, as well the creativity to adapt as the field grows. Most recently, she has moved from educating school groups to providing individual consultations to landowners. She laughs that there is much to do, but little clear definition.

She can see both sides of the argument to define stewardship. Many feel that it depends on the individual and their understanding of their particular contribution. Others feel that a definition is important for communication with policy maker and the media.

Holly says, “It’s education. It’s caring for the land, for your health, for your community, for future generations. It’s a responsibility.”

Holly adds, “There is no real stewardship course. It’s a personality. It’s an ethic. It’s not these are the hard skills. You learn the science. You learn how to communicate. It takes a certain person to make the connection and pass the message on. ”

The message is clear in the way Holly lives. She has chosen her favourite vegan restaurant and explains her choice, “I started to do a bit of research and all signs pointed to this. I went strictly vegetarian first and it was so easy. I gradually sopped eating yogurt, milk and cheese.”

Holly is thrilled to be living in Guelph because there is community that understands stewardship and her choice to eat vegan as a part of her commitment. She explains the strength of the community based on the presence of the agricultural school and the university.  She adds, “Even though I feel stewardship should come from grassroots it needs to be politically supported. You have that support and it just works.”

The work is almost never done for Holly. She is an active volunteer for a number of community organizations addressing environmental issues. Her commitments have involved anything from Youth Outdoors Day to Hiking Ontario. It can become too much.

Holly says, “Last September, I made a promise to myself. I cut down on some of my obligations and it lasted for a week. I was going to take a year for myself.”

While she is far from taking a year off, she has focused her volunteer energy on her role as Chair of the Wellington Stewardship Council. She credits a strong mentor for providing the nudge she needed to take the role. She explains, “I feel really young on the council. In volunteer groups, people tend to be older. They’ve been doing this for a long time. I didn’t know if I was ready to lead a group like that because the people around the table are a wealth of knowledge.”

To Holly’s excitement, she is realizing that there are things she knows. Just this month she realized, “This was the first time I had spoken and I didn’t have to research. It’s an amazing feeling. I’m an expert at something that all of the people around me may not know.”

It is no surprise that Holly is not one to keep that knowledge to herself. She loved delivering the Stream of Dreams program to elementary students. The students learn about the water cycle and then paint a big wooden fish. She says, “It represents their commitment to caring for their local environment. We create this mural on the school fence and it becomes a community message. Don’t’ underestimate youth. They are interested.”

“We tell them. Now you’ve learned this and it’s become a community message through the mural. Now we want you to go home and tell your mom and dad too.”

Holly knows how difficult it can be to get the message through to parents.  She is proud of her mother for buying green products and recycling, but admits her dad had a harder time. She and her mother were thrilled when he recycled his first item recently.

Holly says, “That sort of stuff gets me so excited. That little light bulb goes off and you get the smile. They know they’re doing something.  It’s those little baby steps. We need to appreciate what people are doing. When I am surrounded by like minded people all the time we get frustrated by those people that don’t do those things we think are common sense, but they don’t understand.”

Stewardship values a community based approach to building that understanding. Holly says, “You go out. People invite you in for coffee and the want to chat. People are excited to share what they’re doing, every tree they planted, and everything they’re doing for it.”

Landowners are encouraged to host their neighbours to share what they are doing and learn more about what they can do for their land. Quite simply, “The excitement spreads. People, farm by farm by farm are joining.”

“Stewardship is a cause you can get involved in that you don’t have to donate money to. You can do it on your own property and see the benefit to your kids. It’s hands on and in your face. It’s real and it can change you.”

Holly herself isn’t so much changing as evolving. She is completing another ten day meditation retreat this winter. And she has just won a trip to watch a portion of the Winter Olympics, a life long dream.  Her new place will not have cable and she’ll continue to explore the community and environment she loves so much.

She says, “My friends are the people I want to be. The new people that I’ve met are all doing super cool things. I think wow, how do you do that? I want to do that and I’m learning from them.”

As much as she continues to learn, there are things Holly knows like how to care for friends, the community and the land as part of the same thing.

STILL DIGESTING

Holly is definitely a woman coming into her own. She is one of the warmest people I know and has much to contribute to her work in stewardship. We talk about her love of people and learning, and laugh about the struggle to be as healthy and productive as possible. There is just so much we want to do.

There are also the nagging insecurities we don’t always talk about. Holly knows that there are parts of her life where her confidence is through the roof. I know there are parts of mine where it is climbing out of the basement.

We can commiserate about the contradictions and the fact is that they may continue to exist due to our determination to constantly take on new challenges and learning. Just as some are committed to finding that elusive balance in all parts of their lives, some of us need to be just enough off balance to keep moving ahead.

Holly’s next challenge will be to sit still. She is returning to her second ten day meditation retreat because the first was so difficult that she learned immensely from it. Confidence isn’t always screaming from the roof tops or hiding in the basement; more often than not, it is waiting quietly for us to do what needs to be done for ourselves, for our communities and for our world.