61 A restored relationship to rivers and coasts, especially in small cities, starts with shifting how we see and experience these landscapes. For a long time, our relationship has been defined by production from the Industrial Revolution or adaptive re-use of those brownfields for human recreation and use. I believe we’re currently going through a relational shift in cities, moving back toward stewardship, care, and an actual, lived relationship with the land. When people care for the landscape, they receive reciprocal benefits: emotional regulation, a sense of calm, joy, and opportunities for gathering and connection. There’s reciprocity, just like in our human-human relationships. When we care for the systems that sustain us, they in turn support us. Resilience is not an end goal in itself. We need to reduce the underlying stressors that cause the need for resilience. Every being has a threshold beyond which Small City Natural Environment • Respondents Mill Race Birds Eye-Flood Diagram (Laura Stedenfeld)
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