We take great pleasure in sharing the stories of our Grant Partners (GPs) and their projects in the Invoking The Pause (ITP) blog posts. What is most rewarding is to hear back that these stories have an impact on you. Libby Modern of the Super Power Magic Motion Machine (SPMM) shared that she found inspiration (and maybe a bit of comfort) reading the recent blog posts about the CityLab7 pop-up mushroom project and its circuitous evolution.

Of the many “Collateral Delights” we experience at ITP, one is the unusual perspective of watching the evolution of our GPs process as they strive to reach the goal outlined in their initial grant proposal. This process, sometimes agonizing and frustrating but always fruitful and rewarding, can also morph along the way. Uniquely (or maybe not so uniquely) we bear witness to several of our GPs initial projects resulting in a different outcome than they set out to achieve.

Before the grant proposal ideas congeal into fully developed ITP grant applications, they are born from a divine spark, a mission, a cause, a yearning to make an impact or difference in regards to some aspect of climate change. Collaborators join forces and that spark becomes an inextinguishable fire inside. Brainstorming results in a carefully laid roadmap, a beginning and end, connected by a path with understood unforeseeable obstacles. This process path has merges, detours and forks in the road that no GPS system was programmed to alert you to, yet which have been laid out before you to travel.

Terry Tempest Williams, another ITP Grant Partner with the Council of Pronghorn wrote of the creative process in her book Refuge: “Ideas emerge slowly, quietly, invisible at first. They are most often abnormal thoughts, thoughts that disrupt the quotidian, the accustomed. They divide and multiply, become invasive. With time, they congeal, consolidate and make themselves conscious. An idea surfaces and demands total attention.”Libby Modern recently described the SPMM project, as her own personal “waterloo that will, at its finish, be amazing”. While she feels forward movement has been like molasses, steady progress continues weekly. The Super Power Magic Motion Machine project in its current state is not what it started out to be. (Read Libby’s recent reflection here) Accepting change along the way can prove exasperating but the “process of becoming” is a critical phase on the journey to reach completion. Libby will eventually look back on the process and wonder why she was so worried about it.

Some of Libby’s inspiration/comfort in reading about CityLab7’s process came in realizing that the ‘slogging’ - getting from point A — B – is a universal part of the process and the best of intentions can actually lay root to the best of outcomes. She shared with us a relevant story she heard recently on a podcast. A designer attempted to build a toaster from scratch, knowing nothing of mechanics or materials for the process. It was oddly inspiring listening to his pitfalls, and his ultimate result was not a toaster. The actual outcome was the process of understanding how the things we use everyday work. It’s really all about the — (dash) .