#TheYearofBelief | #TYBReflect

May Reflection: Ice Break Up – Observing Nature’s Transformations

🌿 From the Land: Looking Back with the Ice

In the Arctic, May doesn’t end with a sense of closure.
It ends with the first crack and shift of the shore fast ice.

The ice doesn’t break all at once. It rots. It softens. It moves in pieces.
The nauyaq are still calling—still circling the slushy edges, hoping for fish scraps from the last days of ice fishing.
This is the time when things begin to break open.

Corina’s husband Qaluraq points out the window of their kitchen in Kotzebue, Alaska. His son Tyler listens to him speak about the ice and how to read it for safety.

We don’t mark this time with a celebration or a new beginning.
We mark it by noticing that the world has changed again.

In this 3-minute video, Qaluraq Lance Kramer, Corina’s husband and highly experienced Iñupiaq subsistence hunter, gives you a lesson on reading the ice using the Kotzebue Sound as his classroom:

In The Year of Belief, this week isn’t for setting goals.
It’s for turning around and seeing what is actually there supporting you. It’s for recognizing what you’ve already done.

What has shifted?
What’s no longer frozen?
What kind of researcher—what kind of person—are you becoming as the season moves?

🏛️ From the Institutions: From Intention to Integration

Institutional calendars often move from May into June without pause.
But in TYB, we recognize that transitions deserve attention.

You’ve already engaged in:

• Buchanan’s (1996) imperfect duties—not just thinking about your responsibilities, but acting on them (Perfecting Imperfect Duties)
• Scoones et al.’s (2020) enabling approaches—doing your work inside systems that weren’t designed for transformation (Transformations to Sustainability)
• Rämö’s (2004) kairos and phronesis—noticing when it’s time to act, and doing so with relational wisdom (Spatio-temporal Notions and Organized Environmental Issues)

You’ve practiced belief.
Not as a final product. But as a rhythm, aligned with the seasonal, social, and ethical flows around you.

This is how respectful research takes shape.
This is the foundation of equitable Arctic research.

🧭 TYB Framework: This Week’s Practice

This week is about integration, not output.

1. Know Who You Are
   What’s changed for you this month?
2. Do the Next Right Thing, Even Imperfectly
   Let your reflection be honest, not perfect.
3. Invest in a Community of Support
   Who witnessed your growth? Who helped?
4. Reinforce Hope with Grit
   How did you keep moving through resistance, weather, or uncertainty?

✅ Month-End Reflection Prompts

Set aside a little time this week—just 15 minutes, if that’s all you have.

Try writing, walking, drawing, or talking through these:

• What felt different in my research this month?
• What did I offer that was meaningful, even if unfinished?
• What belief am I beginning to build?
• What’s melting inside me—making room for something new?

📣 Share with: #TheYearofBelief #TYBReflect
Post your ideas for first steps in comments, on our EAR Facebook Group, ARCUS’s Connect the Arctic portal, or simply keep your reflection as your own inspiration to keep moving forward.

🌊 Remembering Forward

You don’t have to force transformation.
You just have to notice when the ice has started to move.

The end of May is not an end. It’s a breaking open.

You’ve already begun.
You’re already in season.
And June is waiting.