Note from the Founder: December

A week ago tonight, the announcement of no indictment came. I was on a flight home and with free on-board TV, able to witness ‪#‎Ferguson‬ in clouds of teargas and smoke right next to our president speaking about the need to be non-violent. The two young women sitting to my right were headed home for Thanksgiving during their first semester away at college, and they also had their laptops out. Thankfully my housemate and friend Jake was able to pick me up from the airport and we drove straight home, passing by Little Caesar’s on fire (so grateful my friend Suz who lives right behind there was okay!). Several hours later of watching live streams and monitoring Facebook and Twitter, I slept.

The next morning, I joined many other Ferguson residents and friendly volunteers outside some of the businesses that had been affected on South Florissant Rd. Allie Flores (one of our 2014 apprentices) and her family were serving up El Palenque tacos for free to volunteers and reporters. I headed to West Florissant next but it was closed to traffic. From what I could see at the corner, it was going to take a lot more than a volunteer clean up day.

Then I went to our farm in Ferguson, where 120+ flags had been placed where fruit trees will soon be planted. Monica and I talked about needing to find an electrician for the greenhouse, alum Jack came to have lunch and discuss the Slow Money conference he’d been to and how people can invest in community in a real way, and Rachel and I discussed many next action items for EarthDance. We are committed to long term change for our community, and are excited to figure out how we can expand the youth jobs program we started this year, as we’ve seen the need to do even morel. So much is in bud.

Some days it feels like our country has taken steps backward. When I’m feeling hopeless, I’ve learned to look to nature to try to make sense of the chaos and chart a new path forward. Recently I’ve thought about one of the things that makes natural systems so resilient is the incredible interconnectedness of all of the organisms. Through relationships, life is able to thrive. Perhaps, then, we can look at creating more relationships as one way to move forward. How can we create connection where there was none? And with whom can we make surface connections more substantial? How can we transform Facebook sound bytes about what has been happening into face-to-face conversations over a meal?

This is not an easy task, but it seems worth the effort to me. It’s often easier to remain quiet when things get uncomfortable, or for others, it’s easier to yell or point fingers. This past week (even after the announcement) it kind of feels like we’re waiting on someone, somewhere, to make some decision that will make everything better. What if we are the ones we’ve been waiting for? We shall overcome.

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