This was more than a one-day event. It was the result of months of collaboration, dreaming, and deep work with partners who brought wisdom, creativity, and heart to every detail. I’m grateful to each person and organization who trusted this process, who showed up with open hands and open hearts, and who helped shape an event that felt both grounding and visionary.

We offered a lot: interactive workshops, live mural painting, immersive art, community science, music and performances, a virtual reality game, a nature walk, parent/child yoga, and educational material. Visitors spent hours at the event and enjoyed participating in each and every activity. Many guests shared that the DIY rainwater harvesting workshop was one of the highlights of the day. There was something so simple and empowering about it: the chance to connect hands-on with water stewardship in a way that felt empowering, doable, useful, and rooted in everyday life. This is what Agua es Vida is all about.

What we created together is a foundation. Our deepened relations will support ongoing impactful work together. For instance, the community mural, featuring an Indigenous woman with a child in womb connected by water, can now travel to tribal museums and cultural centers as part of a larger project focused on developing place-based water museum exhibits. The videography and photovoice activities, which invited participants and organizers to reflect on Agua es Vida through images and words, will serve multiple purposes, centered in reciprocity. It is helping us analyze the emotional and relational impact of the event, while also providing beautiful media content that our community partners can use to share their work, promote their services, and celebrate their impact.

It would be easy to see this event as a conclusion. But truly, it feels like a beginning. Agua es Vida helped clarify what’s possible when we seed research within relationship, when we treat evaluation as attunement, and when we prioritize reciprocal benefit at every step. What we built together in terms of knowledge, trust, vision, and momentum, will carry into the next chapters of community-engaged, justice-driven, healing-centered work. I’m honored to walk forward alongside my cherished collaborators, students, and friends.

We are just getting started.