2026: The Well of Resilience
If you read this newsletter, you probably have some part of your day job tasked to managing climate impacts and/or water. You have a job description, a portfolio of projects or clients, and a maybe even a job title that labels your work in this space. In a larger organization, you probably have an annual review that evaluates what progress you’ve made over the past year against some explicit set of targets.
My hunch too is that if you’re reading this far, last year was hard with budgets, priorities, and staffing. If not with your job or institution, then for your partners or funders, or the people you may be funding or managing. From all I hear, this year may be more difficult.
I get all of that. But why do you keep showing up?
Maybe it’s just duty, your “job.” You work in this space because that’s where you are today, and tomorrow you may be doing something completely different. It’s a paycheck. I also have to think that’s a small number of AGWA members.
For a few more, anger may be important too: how did we end up with bad choices around water and climate? Bad leaders, investors, and policies are to blame. We need to get this fixed! What does a better system look like?
My hunch, though, is that most of you are here because of love. You need and have a job, and you may have some anger, but you’re worried about people and places too. Your job feels too big, but who else will do that work if you leave? Will they be as concerned, as empathic, as passionate? Scary as it feels, we need to rise to the work, which is more than a job description or a list of tasks. It’s a burden, but the kind you recognize when you see a wild animal defend its offspring against something much bigger and fiercer. You stand in the breach, both strong and small.
Duty, anger, love. That’s what 2026 looks like.
This may be a year when we need to think hard about what we’re taking care of, who we need to shelter and protect. We will see some difficult moments. Stumbles, that demand we get back up despite the bruises. Just having a job or being angry don’t help you in those moments. But love does, and love is a deep well of resilience. Nourish that love.
John Matthews
Corvallis, Oregon, USA
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