Hope Takes Root - Building Community
“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.”
— Margaret J. Wheatley
My first hope this Tuesday morning is that the Memorial Day weekend gave you memories to smile about.
As we head into the gifts of summer ahead and the final days of May, this week’s video has me thinking about community. The communities that we are a part of that bring a richness to our lives. Sometimes small and sometimes large, the best communities are the ones that bring us together as one.
Let me introduce to you, through my video series, Gardens and the Women Who Grow Them, Cass Smith and Tina Santa Maria founders of the San Diego Seed Swap.
With both of my adult children living in San Diego, I’ve had the opportunity to spend time there often. One thing I love to do while visiting is exploring local gardens and meeting fellow gardeners along the way.
What really touched me in meeting Tina and Cass, and our subsequent interview and garden tour, was their story. How as two busy moms they found each other during the isolating time of the pandemic through Instagram. They connected because of the passion they had both discovered during that time in creating their own new gardens.
Coming together they decided to share the spirit of gardening with their local community in the form of a seed swap to help make gardening more affordable.
Since then, they have built a thriving community simply through the joy of sharing. Their number one goal since day one has been to open up the possibilities and hope for their community. To turn others on to how to affordably grow their own food and beautify their gardens, together in community, starting with the power of seeds.
When the world feels divided, what if the national and global community begins with something simple: gathering around what we choose to grow together versus tearing us apart.
There is the saying, “United we stand divided we fall.” Maybe community doesn’t begin with solving everything. Maybe it begins with gathering around something worth growing.
United we grow. Together, hope takes root.
Wishing you lots of sunshine in the days ahead.
Plant often and with Love!
Cheri
Cheri Ruskus
Author and Founder of Grow You Girl
