HOME

COVID transmission levels are low in our area, and we’re spending more time interacting with our community. The promise of new beginnings in nature and the faces of people I see in our community feels hopeful and inspiring. Transitioning to spring brings about a sense of renewal that is so necessary in moving forward.

Shifting out of winter and into spring feels a little like shedding a cocoon to try out our new wings. What can I take from the months of introspection to metamorphosize into action? Share in the comments below what you are hopeful for in the spring season.

GARDEN

“A seed is the essence of hope.” - from the Lone Star Nursery newsletter

I’ll be taking off next week to spend time with my family for spring break, but I’ll be back with ideas for spring on March 25th. Until then, be sure to check out last year’s blog post on seed starting and preparing for spring in the garden.

WELLNESS

Is retirement really the goal or living a balanced life? (*link has sound)

CREATIVITY

“I planned to plant tulips and daffodils in my backyard today. Instead, I learned to fire arms and get ready for the next night of attacks on Kyiv.”

Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian member of parliament. Source: The Washington Post

In times of trauma and often following traumatic events, creative outlets may be the only way to process the events. In the midst of a senseless war like the one happening in Ukraine right now, I’m honoring the beauty of the people who have stayed to fight and those who are currently fleeing their country or have already made their way to relative safety in a neighboring country.

These links celebrate the strength, courage, joy, and poetry of the people of Ukraine.

Vinok (flower crowns) (link from Aesthetics of Joy)

Comfort Town in Ukraine (link from Aesthetics of Joy) and more on Comfort Town

The work of artist Maria Prymachenko

Pysanky, the Tradition of Ukrainian Easter eggs

Strong Sense of Place: Two Poems from Ukraine’s Rock-Star Poet Serhiy Zhadan (thank you to MMD Book Club for this link)

Ukrainian Artists on Etsy: ArtcolorSlizovska, KATERYNAfineArt, JuliaHappyArts, Healthy Linen, and AnnaSArtWorkshop

For Ukraine: Artists Around the World Create Powerful Art in Solidarity

Understanding the Ukraine Crisis - A Comprehensive Reading List

Audiobooks to Understand the Ukraine-Russia War

Art cannot stop war, but it can reach our hearts on a deep emotional level and cause us to act, to have courage to keep going, and to join together as a global community in solidarity against injustice.

BOOKSHELF

I’m inspired to finally build bookshelves in my home office/library after watching this video by Thuy Dao on Her86M2 YouTube channel (*link below has sound). These bookshelves* and this clever book art idea* caught my eye.

Warmer weather has me itching for day trips to all my favorite bookstores and a few new ones to explore in and around Austin, Texas.

The Painted Porch in Bastrop, Texas

Lark & Owl Booksellers in Georgetown, Texas

Fabled in Waco, Texas

Bookpeople in Austin, Texas

Recyled Reads in Austin, Texas

I loved this opinion piece on the way languages evolve over time. Quotation marks being used as jazz hands had me cracking up!

With so much happening in our local and global communities right now, reading can be a healthy way to process it all and take action in an informed way.

Book Banning at School Boards

Texas Students Push Back Against Book Bans

Texans for the Right to Read

COMMUNITY

Last year when I listened to Pride by Ibi Zoboi, the book became an instant favorite for me. Zoboi’s story follows the main character, Zuri, as she watches her neighborhood change. The book had me thinking about how as communities change, so do the cultural traditions and web of personal relationships so integral to a community. How can we support communities from the inside and out to retain those traditions and relationships?

Cook’s Nook here in Austin shared a comic on Instagram recently that highlighted how we change our communities from a grassroots level.

The book Reclaiming Your Community by Majora Carter, advises that many communities are hungry for gathering and community-building places she calls “third spaces”. Prosperity should be visible in a community by supporting and building locally-owned stores, coffee shops, bookstores, farmers’ markets, and parks to reinforce what is possible when a community works together and residents put themselves at the forefront of their growth.

Often the focus on “helping” communities is to add more low-income housing or healthcare (from outside investors who don’t understand the community and often profit from keeping people in poverty), but there needs to be a way to encourage young professionals to stay (or return to) and invest in their communities. For a community to grow and succeed, it must be made up of a wide range of ages. Majora Carter makes the case that nature thrives in biodiversity and that communities do as well.

Stories of success must be seen through the eyes of the people already living there. The stigma tied to returning to their communities must be erased to see its value. When local talent is lost to other communities, so are the examples of success that are possible for its residents. Majora Carter calls this fracture in the community “brain drain”.

“We are taught to measure success by how far we get away from our own communities.” - Majora Carter

Community members have to be able to see value in themselves and where they live. When residents sell their homes or businesses to investors outside of their community, generational wealth accumulation gained in marginalized communities is then lost. Those hard earned dollars are sent outside of their community.

Gentrification uproots communities when money is funneled outside of the community and forces local residents to relocate as they can no longer afford to live in their neighborhood. What can residents do to advocate for their community and bolster the local economy before gentrification occurs? How can we as a society help community members create a neighborhood that flourishes?

Majora Carter suggests that a project-based rather than advocacy-based approach to community development means that residents see the work being done and potentially the value of their community and why it is worth saving.

The author of Reclaiming Your Community, Majora Carter, suggests that “if you want to be a part of the solutions, engage the problem.” When she set out to transform the South Bronx into a community that could see its worth and value, the process did not come without challenges.

“Still it was depressing to walk by the building and have the potential scream out of its cute little dormers even though no one seemed to believe it.” - Majora Carter

Reclaiming Your Community is the story of one woman’s journey in community-building work and how she fights every day to persevere.

Take good care of yourself in these times of renewal and change. Get involved in your community. VOTE. Speak out. Act.

“Do your little bit of good where you are. It’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” -Desmond Tutu

I’ll see you back here for Season 12 on March 25.