Emerging

Thanks to Kathy Purdy at Cold Climate Gardening for the lovely new header image. I have been feeling very much like these tender new shoots, pushing up through the cold ground – in mid-February sunshine, for goodness sake. I have been caught off guard, surprised by how messy, how fuzzy life can get. It is strange to realize that there has been a fog at my back, mist shrouding so much. I suppose it is only when it begins to lift, when you can peek out from beneath its dense veil that you can begin to see. There is so much more here, of course, including the gifts of my amazing community, but for now I need to tend to the shoots and be sure we keep emerging. I’m not sure how much blogging will be happening this spring, but I hope to get here sometimes. Today it felt like a good place to come.

I was emboldened today during an interview with the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida I won a Student Action with Farmworkers alumni recognition award so they interviewed me about my background and how I came to social justice work. It was amazing to name all the communities that raised me and brought me to the change-making that drives my work, my parenting, my community building. Unitarian Universalist communities in different parts of the country, the Amigos de las Americas volunteer program, Guilford College, SAF, the public health community, writers and musicians over time, leaders with vision. It is often tiring to always see potential, to be ever-evolving and to never feel done, but at some point we must all ask ourselves Mary Oliver’s query, “what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”