Planting Seeds

Happy Spring! (Here in the Global North)

It's a time for planting seeds and enjoying the flowers and greenery that comes with the awakening from our Winter rest.

Here's the thing about seeds. A dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) gets help from the wind to spread her seeds far and wide. She does all this work with the support of the living soil, the rain, and the sun to produce flowers that need pollinated by insects then she can produce seeds which she asks the wind to spread for her. It truly takes a village. :)

Humans are lucky because her tender new leaves, flowers and roots are all wonderfully edible and amazing plant medicine for us. There I am thinking about food again. Back to the seeds...

The wind takes these seeds and blows them all over. So the dandelion will never know of the offspring she has in a different yard or field. She does what she does out of love, to continue her line, to continue to feed the insects, soil and humans. She will never know her true reach in the world. How many offspring she has given life to or how many insects and other beings have benefited from her labor or love will remain a mystery.

We also plant seeds and don't know our true impact in the world. When we envision (or are open to) a future that has liberation for all people, we do the labor of love in planting seeds of justice and love in many places. We cannot know the true extent of our efforts.

As an elementary teacher of 5 & 6 year olds, I was privileged to see the blossoming of children in a rich learning environment. I watched them go from loving to hear books read aloud to reading books. They went from barely being able to write their name to writing stories with pictures and words. The curiosity and energy was contagious (and exhausting because I had outside influences always trying to get me to do more and have them learn faster but that's a different newsletter).

So it's a wonderful surprise when you see the seeds you threw in the wind are growing strong where you never expected it. In January of 2021, I was a guest on the Beyond Picket Fences podcast. The purpose of this podcast is a place for people to tell their stories so they can be heard. My friend Marci connected me with the hosts and before I knew it I was recording a very personal and vulnerable story about my Grandma Shirley and the effects of white supremacy and patriarchy in my maternal lineage. After that recording, Naomi (one of the hosts) asked me if I would go on record to answer some questions about cultural appropriation. So we did an off-the-cuff, no preparation second recording about cultural appropriation.

The two podcasts were made public in March of 2021 and as I listened to them, I was really happy with how they turned out. The hosts Mandi and Naomi have some great editing skills. :)

​#39 Honoring My Indigenous Heritage and Living Authentically w/ Trevia Woods​

​#40 Cultural Appropriation Versus Cultural Appreciation w/ Trevia Woods​

Then to my surprise I find out that the hosts with some guests came together to record another podcast about what they learned from me about cultural appropriation and how that was influencing their personal lives. I was blown away by this podcast and felt so grateful to have a glimpse of how the seeds I am planting are spreading throughout the world. It fortifies me and gives me strength to move through the hard times we are living through here in my home country The United States.

Here's the 3rd podcast in the series:

​#42 What We Learned About Cultural Appropriation w/ Brion Curran and Marci French​

I have two takeaways (sorry the teacher in me can't help using the educator lingo) from this experience.

1. Keep doing the work because you can't know who will take your seed and and tend it.

2. Let the people who offered seeds to you know how much their love, effort and work in the world meant to you and how it changed you.

Doing both ensures our movements to build a culture of justice and love continue even it we can't quite envision exactly how that future will look. We are co-creating that reality with many people across generations. I am honored to be in this together with you.

If you listen to any of the podcasts then I would love to hear what resonated with you and/or if you have another perspective to consider.

You can support Beyond Picket Fences' patreon page so they can continue to help people (especially women) have a place to tell their stories and be heard.