A Golden Hour

One phase ends and another begins...

I've long hesitated to really point the camera at my disease.

To those of you who have recovered from something disabling or life-threatening, you likely understand why. It diverts focus away from healing. It's almost as if by telling people and having them see you that way, you reinforce the disease itself. Life can be tricky that way…

But given the fact that I am devoted to the regenerative movement and I've lived the experience of my body regenerating from collapse, I think I need to learn how to talk about this more. Plus, I'm feeling stronger now, strong enough to do so.

I've long known that I wanted to get into participatory storytelling. It’s a process that people can understand and recognize as valuable, and it is something that inherently attunes community to place and each other.

In early April when I began creating what I’ve called the anchor videos for a participatory storytelling model, making videos was really the only thing I had strength for. I didn't particularly have much experience doing so and I think that's clear to see when you look at the first videos. But now they are a little more slick. Maybe they've all been medicine too, because I feel ready for something new.

Time to get out there more, emerge a bit from the infirmary (basement), and figure out how what has been formed can bring more lessons about place-based participatory storytelling and really serve communities.

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Two Anchor Videos to Mark the Moment

I opened this article with a glimpse into my recovery in part because these two videos are deeply tied to that experience.

• The first explores ritual and how it supported my healing, and what I’ve learned about its role in transformation and the psyche. In the video, I propose it as a process we can explore as regenerative movements to scaffold collective healing.

• The second is about future visioning as civic infrastructure, but it is deeply informed by my experience of imagining a healthy version of myself as a powerful force in my healing.

1. Ritual of Return
A closing to Chapter 2: Revealing Transformation

2. Participatory Storytelling as Civic Infrastructure
A practical overview of how this storytelling process supports regeneration

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What’s Happening Now

• The first full story cycle is preparing to launch in a month or two. Lots still up in the air.

• We’re now beginning soft-launch prototypes to:

  • Test the StoryGram experience

  • Dial in the tech + backend support

  • Learn from early participants

• This is the shift from solo content creation → community co-creation

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🌀 What the Participatory Story Cycle Offers

• A ~6-week journey of Returning Home, through participatory storytelling, place attunement, and shared future visioning

• Three chapters or “movements of return”

  • Remembering Life & Place

  • Revealing Transformation

  • Reweaving Life & Place

• A rhythm of:

  • StoryGrams (daily reflections and story prompts)

  • Group reflection and sharing, as well as some rebroadcasting of stories submitted to give the whole experience a “live” and living feel.

  • Anchored by places, guided by narrative, open to anyone on social media wanting to watch or join in

• Designed for:

  • Community groups

  • Regenerative leaders

  • Local storytellers

  • Cultural organizers

  • Anyone in the world who is “place curious,” longing to reconnect

• Landing page still coming together…

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What’s Possible if Place-Based Storytelling Movements Grow

• We all discover the vital ecological role of hearing all voices in relationship to their place, and thus voices of place.

• A living archive of stories of place, from remembering to suffering to healing to shared vision

• A platform to:

  • Reveal place-based wisdom

  • Inspire collective action

  • Build regenerative civic identity

• A growing network of trained local community partnerships, facilitators, and storytellers, equipped to guide their own communities

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Ways to Engage Now

• Follow the journey - new videos, prompts, and stories will be shared publicly as we go

• Join a future story circle - reach out if you want to participate in a coming story cycle

• Support - if you’re a funder, partner, or curious/potential ally, I’d love to connect. Send me a private message here on Substack or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/benji-ross-4a906a29/).

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Thanks

Thank you to everyone who has followed this work, supported it, shared it.

I’ll continue to do what I can to learn and build in public. That feels like the bulk of the value created so far. I’m doing so almost daily with shorts on YouTube/Instagram/Facebook.

Feel free to follow on any of those three.

Here’s the YouTube channel link. Please subscribe to get the daily updates: https://www.youtube.com/@AwakeningLands

Excited to see where this goes.

You can also make a one time donation by clicking on this 👉 PayPal link.