On Gratitude, Abundance, and Community

Hello everyone,

Thank you for continuing to read and engage with our newsletters! This is Heidi, again, with brief updates and reflections from the past month. As you may know, founding farmer, Brian Bennett had emergency surgery last month for a detached retina. He is healing, but recovery of his vision is taking time, and has been challenging.

We are so grateful for the support throughout the past month. Whether people have donated time, money, or food, called or visited Brian, or have stepped in to help with animal care, harvesting, or replacing broken well pumps, the community response has kept Kia and Brian going. Thank you.

I’ve been reading Prentis Hemphill, who talks about healing and community care in their recent book, What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World. In it, they note, “There is a difference between visions that come out of the most individualistic tendencies and those that arise when we are able to admit that we need other people.” When I think about all the problems facing the world, especially right now, I can feel overwhelmed. This book has me reflecting on the promise of connection, mutuality, and empathy.

Admitting that we need other people is hard. We live in a culture that values independence, individualism, and “pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.” But those frameworks simply aren’t sustainable or realistic. We need each other. I personally struggle with asking for help. I think it’s hard for most of us. It has been heartening to have experiences lately where sharing challenges or asking for help has been met with care and compassion. When we shake off the limiting mindsets of individualism, we can go farther together than we can go alone.

Thank you again for all your support. We still have a ways to go, and are still accepting help, visits, phone calls, at the farm.

With gratitude on behalf of Kia-Beth, Brian, and all the humans and non-humans that are part of the Bittersweet-Milkweed Collaborative.

-Heidi (she/her)

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