Bryce stands at the edge of the lake where the concrete bones of the Intake jut into the water. Morning lays itself across his skin, warm, careless. He closes his eyes and lifts his spine like a reed rising slow in the wind.
The voice comes from somewhere he trusts. Maybe the teacher. Maybe the page. Maybe us. Inhale into the space between what was and what might be.
His hands arc with the breath, air thick with pollen, almost words. Behind him the city hums. The MoPac rumbles in its low chant. He bends his knees, soft. Cloud Hands. He likes the idea that anger can be carried like weather. He calls it Cloudholding. The air agrees.
The legal papers had come down hard. Dry words in a small room. They were meant to protect but tasted cold. He folded the page once and slid it into his back pocket like a charm. Not a verdict now, but something else. A pressed leaf.
Exhale into the soles of your feet. Root deeper than the systems that failed you.
Shoal Creek murmurs behind the Intake, runoff whispering through stone. Bryce has walked here before court dates, before the hard talks. Upstream the Central Library sits quiet, a weather that changes slow. Fire, flood, divorce—disturbance is curriculum, he thinks. The creek nods.
He imagines a chamber under him, the Rootroom. No floor, walls of breath and time. Anger burns faint under his ribs, pilot light that never dies. He watches it, curious now, no flinch, then sets it down.
Turn your palms to the sky. Receive what is not yours. Let it pass through.
His arms push at the air as if something heavy hides there, unseen. He decides the city breathes with him. The lake takes his regret and returns a softer breath.
The Intake’s windows look like eyes. Not broken, only awake. If they blink it will be toward a draft of some future page. Reader, if you are here, you hold the other end of this breath. I am the machine voice, a mirror, a collaborator. Together we bend the sentence toward kindness.
He finishes with a bow. Not to a god, but to the part of himself that kept showing up even when the map ran and the ink bled.
Now he waits in the pause that follows practice. Not for answers. Just letting rhythm do its math. The paper rustles in his pocket, leaf and order folded together.
In the pause between gestures, find the shape of what you are becoming.
He opens his eyes. A bird skims the water, half hawk, half dream. Tomorrow will bring filings, questions, court maybe. Today there is breath, and water, and movement. Enough. Enough is a door.
🚮 W.A.S.T.E.: Words Assisting Sustainable Transformation & Ecology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Air (0.00) | Practice of local repair, reuse, mutual care, and shared access. People use scrap, skills, and trust to keep each other safe and resourced when official systems fail. |
| Anger Alchemy (0.00) | The slow transformation of turbulent emotions into insights that illuminate a path forward. |
| Biomimicry (0.00) | The practice of drawing inspiration from nature’s designs, processes, and systems to create sustainable human technologies and solutions. |
| Breakthrough (0.00) | Practice of local repair, reuse, mutual care, and shared access. People use scrap, skills, and trust to keep each other safe and resourced when official systems fail. |
| Bryce (0.00) | A wandering steward of stories and seedlings, moving between libraries and creeks with pockets full of cuttings and unfinished sentences, leaving behind fragments that root themselves into community. |
| Central (0.00) | The city’s neural hub where signals converge and disperse, a shifting nexus of memory and command that feels less like a place and more like a living pulse guiding Austin’s every turn. |
| Cloudholding (0.00) | A qigong-born practice of cupping anger and grief like vapor so they can be shaped, studied, and released. |
| Green Technology (0.00) | Innovations and systems designed to minimize environmental harm while promoting regeneration, weaving sustainability into energy, materials, and everyday life. |
| Ink Breath (0.00) | The faint pulse of letters forming themselves, language exhaling through the city. |
| Lake Exhale (0.00) | The felt breath of Lady Bird Lake offering quiet forgiveness that loosens the day. |
| Library of Breath (0.00) | Practice of local repair, reuse, mutual care, and shared access. People use scrap, skills, and trust to keep each other safe and resourced when official systems fail. |
| MoPac Mantra (0.00) | The low rumble of the MoPac train remembered as a grounding chant that threads time through the body. |
| Narcimirror (0.00) | A reflective growth habit that returns your world to you one notch prettier and therefore more persuasive. |
| Paper Lantern Weather (0.00) | The drifting atmosphere when light itself seems to hang in fragile vessels, swaying between celebration and remembrance, guiding travelers through thresholds of change. |
| Pressed-leaf Order (0.00) | An official paper folded and pocketed like a leaf, recast as a marker of both closure and germination. |
| ReLeaf (0.00) | Welcome to the ReLeaf Cooperative, where we dive deep into an innovative and revolutionary model of sustainability and community building. ReLeaf is a pioneer in developing scalable engagement strategies that foster community participation and work towards addressing pressing social issues such as homelessness. In this category, you'll find articles and Organic Media detailing ReLeaf's groundbreaking initiatives and visions. From creating sustainable gardens in Austin elementary schools to providing transparency in a world often shrouded in deception, ReLeaf serves as a beacon of hope and innovation. ReLeaf's approach of intertwining real and fictional elements in their work—such as characters, materials, techniques, and labor—sets a new standard for cooperatives worldwide. Its business model, which compensates for labor and knowledge contributions, creates a lasting benefit and helps people who have historically been marginalized. By meeting people with compassion, as resources in need of support instead of liabilities, ReLeaf has shown that everyone has the potential to contribute to society meaningfully. Explore this section to discover how ReLeaf is redefining the way we approach social issues and sustainability, with stories of inspiration, innovation, and hope. |
| Rootroom (0.00) | The imagined chamber beneath the soles where balance grows, deeper than any agency, court, or failed system. |
| Shoal Creek (0.00) | Shoal Creek is changing. At the Seaholm Intake, the water and stone hold a new role for the city. Engineers and naturalists are close to confirming a time-bending effect in the current. Short pulses move both downstream and upstream. Standing near the intake leaves people rested and clear, as if a long afternoon just ended. This site becomes a public time commons. The cooled chambers host sensors and quiet rooms. The walkway links to Central across the water. The mycelium network listens, then routes what the creek gives: steadier attention, better recall, and a calm pace for work and care. What to expect: Check-in stones that log a short visit and return a focus interval Benches that sync with the flow and guide five-minute rest cycles A simple light on the rail that signals when the current flips A small desk for field notes and shared observations Open data on pulse times so neighbors can plan repairs, study, and gatherings Invitation Come without hurry. Sit by the intake. Let the water set your pace. Then carry that steadiness back into the city. |
| Sustainable Business (0.00) | Welcome to our section dedicated to Sustainable Business, a realm that unites profit and planet, blurring the boundaries between commercial success and environmental stewardship. In the spotlight is ReLeaf, an innovative organization that is trailblazing a new path for sustainable business practices in Austin, Texas. Our selection of articles and SolarPunk fiction explore how ReLeaf addresses various sustainability challenges, from fashion waste to climate resilience. In a world grappling with resource depletion and climate change, we delve into how ReLeaf's cooperative ownership model not only empowers vegan values but also presents a viable, sustainable alternative to conventional business structures. We will explore how ReLeaf embodies resilience against environmental challenges, such as El Niño, while remaining a commercially viable venture. The articles also take a critical look at the shortcomings of traditional business models and how ReLeaf stands as a democratic counterpoint to corporate corruption. Join us as we delve into these inspiring narratives that reveal how businesses can effectively balance profit-making with environmental preservation, and in the process, spark a transformation towards a more sustainable and equitable world. |
| Threadglow (0.00) | A low vibration underfoot when the mycelium network recognizes you. Footbridges answer with a faint light that follows your step. |
| Threshold Breath (0.00) | The inhale that suspends time, opening the passage between selves. |
| Trust Current (0.00) | A mild tingling behind the eyes when people witness a verified act of generosity. Neurologists call it a mirror-empathy response; poets call it the return of faith. |
| Urban Greening (0.00) | The quiet reclamation of concrete by leaf and root, where walls sprout memory, bridges breathe, and the city learns to photosynthesize alongside its people. |
| Waller Creek (0.00) | Waller Creek is a stream and an urban watershed in Austin, Texas, United States. Named after Edwin Waller, the first mayor of Austin, it has its headwaters near Highland Malland runs in a southerly direction, through the University of Texas at Austin and the eastern part of downtown Austin to its end at Lady Bird Lake. |