A few months back we had the opportunity to meet one of the owners of Rainforest Expeditions in Lima Peru. We came together with the intention of discovering a way to work together. We talked about collaborating as way to promote their lodge, tours and jungle ecology awareness to a new audience. For us, we saw it as win / win opportunity, providing us with the chance to experience part of Peru’s incredible Amazon jungle. But I wasn’t interested in providing a typical review in exchange for the experience.
I pitched a project where both Miro and I would participate by sharing our individual perspectives in relation to being in nature. I write a lot about being present and somehow the jungle seemed like the perfect place to be commit to the intention of being in the moment. So this is the kick off of that project called The Jungle Nature Project.
What is this project about?
- This project is about inspiration.
- This project is about being in the moment.
- This project is about observing and internalizing what’s out there.
- This project is about observing what’s happening internally as a result.
- This project is about the jungle inside and the jungle surrounding both of us.
- This project is about is about observing the narrative based on our individual perspectives and recognizing where they diverge.
Project Details:
We’ll spend a week participating in as many activities as possible. We’ll record our personal experiences in a daily diary through a photo essay which we will share first through Twitter, then as a visual daily diary of our web site.
Once each hour, we’ll respond to our alarm, take the moment to write down our observation in a journal we’ll carry with us and snap a photo. Miro’s will look very different than mine, and vice versa. That will provide not only an interesting perspective of our surroundings but it’ll create an interesting narrative about point of view between mother and son.
Story Telling
This project is a story telling project where we will upload an image along with an accompanying text description, 160 characters or less. (for use on twitter). In essence, we see this project as an exercise of ‘being’ in the moment, as the jungle invites us to be. The project will function like this:
From sunrise to sundown, regardless of where we are, (outside in nature or in the lodge, the physical location does not matter, it’s all part of the experience), Miro and I will each snap a photo once each hour that inspires us. Independently, we will both write text to accompany our image that expresses our unique perspective from the point of being in that moment.
The text in some cases will be a literal description, an internal emotion, an observation, a feeling, a thought, or a reflection. However, each of us will participate independently and only as we produce this project we’ll be able to see the interceptions in terms of our personal perspectives. Knowing that the natural environment will provide an incredible amount of inspiration, it will be interesting to see how the thought processes converge.
Lainie Liberti is a recovering branding expert, who’s career once focused on creating campaigns for green – eco business, non-profits and conscious business. Dazzling clients with her high-energy designs for over 18 years, Lainie lent her artistic talents to businesses that matter. But that was then.
In 2008, after the economy took a turn, Lainie decided to be the change (instead of a victim) and began the process of “lifestyle redesign,” a joint decision between both her and her 11-year-old son, Miro. They sold or gave away all of of their possessions in 2009 and began a life of travel, service, and exploration. Lainie and her son Miro began their open-ended adventure backpacking through Central and South America. They are slow traveling around the globe allowing inspiration to be their compass. The pair is most interested in exploring different cultures, contributing by serving, and connecting with humanity as ‘global citizens.’
Today Lainie considers herself a digital nomad who is living a location independent life. She and her son write and podcast their experiences from the road at Raising Miro on the Road of Life.
