some pieces for your consideration xo

Yesterday was Batman's birthday and the 13th anniversary of the day we first stepped onto our "bit of earth" here in Vermont. We had strawberry pie to celebrate. We may also have had pie for breakfast today.

I have not really said anything very specific here at sewandsowlife about the events of the last month and a half. I've tried to leave space for all of us to find our way through whatever it is that we need to do. 

I'm a child of the 60's, and my innocence was disrupted by assassinations, protests, and an early recognition that there was much to be done in this world. I have felt called to do some of that work.

When peaceful protestors were attacked on the streets outside the White House, the "people's house", to allow a fascist  to walk across the street to hold a book upside down for a photo opportunity something in me snapped. After I shrieked, screamed, raged and nearly lost my mind I took a deep breath and thought...OK, this is the moment when everything will shift. 

Resources have exploded across the internet. "You should read this!" You must watch this!".  This is required reading!" 

My, how strident we have become!

I have spent the last month finding my own way through articles, interviews, books, conversations and quiet thought.  I have been drawn to poets, farmers, quilters and educators. I am drawn to transformation. Matters of the spirit and of the heart. This is the only way I can find my way through life. Through beauty and hope and vulnerability and openness. 

I offer this handful of gems to you today. Pieces that have moved me to tears. Pieces that have challenged me, reassured me, shaken me up. There are so many! But these will do for now.

Take them or leave them. Your choice. xo

• brönte velez's  spoken word, via for the wild, the prophecy of the well.
• Resma Menakem, author of My Grandmother's Hands, speaking with Krista Tippet on On Being. Notice the Rage, Notice the Silence.
• Serotiny-The Story of Lead to Life, On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of MLK,Jr. the organization Lead to Life gathered in Atlanta to transform guns into shovels used to plant trees alongside victims of gun violence. brönte velez is part of this group of young visionaries. 
• Amber Tamm is hoping to create a farm in Central Park, NYC where a small settlement of predominantly free African-Americans lived  and worked. Known as Seneca Village, it was taken from them by eminent domain in 1857 to create the park as we know it today.
• Our VTMQG hosted a virtual talk by Chawne Kimber last month that raised money for the Greater Burlington chapter of Black Lives Matter, the Social Justice Sewing Academy and the Third Street Alliance, a place dear to Chawne's heart. You can see Chawne's work here.

I have pages of notes and a list of where to go next. This work, for me, needs to be ongoing, sustained and shared.

If you have any gems that you have stumbled upon, please list them in the comments or send me an email.