Happy spring! + new free zine
Happy spring! As I write this newsletter, the sun is out, casting clean golden light across a waking landscape. What joy!
A new season also means a new seasonal mini zine from my friend Rebecca Minifie and me. Our spring edition is called “Signs of Spring,” and it is available as a FREE downloadable PDF on my website. Or, if you live near McMinnville, Oregon, you can pick up a FREE printed and folded copy at Alchemist’s Jam.
This mini zine is a gift from us to you!
May it help you move into the present moment, more aware of the beauty of spring’s hope even in these hard times.
New work out in the world!
I’ve had a few more projects published since my last newsletter:
“7 Small Signs of Hope to Watch for this Spring” in Farmer-ish (Spring 2022) — A graphic essay exploring how it feels to have my spring birthday share an anniversary with the start of our family’s COVID experience. Yes, there are some overlapping themes here from the zine, but I can never get enough of Spring’s goodness. Farmer-ish is a free online journal, so check out the whole issue for plenty of inspiration!
“Mama vs. the Blackberries” in GreenPrints (Spring 2022) — A personal essay about blackberry removal, parenting and the boundaries between pests and the wild. This essay is only available in print, but it’s a great little magazine and worth checking out!
“Write newsletters people want to read” in Growing for Market (March 2022) — An article about why writing a regular newsletter can be valuable for a farm, with tips on publishing platforms and content ideas. After writing 614 farm newsletters over 15 years, I figured I had some insight to share on this topic! (I also hope I continue to write newsletters people want to read …) This article is available to GFM subscribers on their website and in print.
Big things to come …
In addition to writing this newsletter to you, my big task today was making a monthly project plan for the next year. Yes — the next entire YEAR, through March 2023! That’s because I have something big on the horizon that I requires I make plenty room in my work life to complete. More to come on that soon …
While I’m excited to start some new bigger projects, I’m also enjoying how spring forces me back into the present. It seems to me that winter is perfect for contemplating and dreaming, spending lots of time in my head. And then spring starts to bring me back into my body to appreciate the fresh colors and scents and work needing to be done in the garden and fields.
To be sure, I still spend a good chunk of every day thinking about my work and family, sending prayers to Ukraine, and worrying about whether I should still be worrying about COVID.
BUT. When I step outside and see the clematis blooming on the shed, for a moment all of that drops away, and I am just here, with these delicate star-shaped flowers, truly grateful. It seems that to lead a balanced life, we need to be present to both of these realities: the hard on-going work of living together and supporting each other (even across the world) and also these sublime moments that make life truly worth living.
So, in celebration of the Spring Equinox (and to thank you for reading this newsletter), I want to leave you with one of my favorite spring poems, illustrated with flowers that are currently blooming in my yard.
