🌱 the abundance of what is to come

Spring Equinox bandanas are for sale in my shop now. Local pick-up option available!

Hi friends,

It's been over a year since you received a weekly (hahaha) Tender Dispatch from me.

For some of you, this is your first.

Welcome!

I sent my last Tender Dispatch in February 2022, just a week before closing on a house. I could write 100 newsletters about what the past year has been like, but I'll leave it at this: it was a lot. 

As so many delicate living things this time of year, I'm emerging. Maybe not from hibernation, but from a sort of fugue state. I'm excited to feel embodied, energized, and inspired enough to send a humble dispatch this morning.

Here are three things I thought were worth sharing this week:

1.  What if climate change meant not doom — but abundance? In this Washington Post op-ed, Rebecca Solnit writes: "Everywhere, I see people rethinking how they work and live, turning this knowledge into reality."

Through my work at NOFA-VT I collaborate with folks who are making real change everyday, executing both short-term mitigation strategies (i.e. food access projects like The People's Farmstand) and long-term systems change work (i.e. changing culture, economic systems, and federal policy to eliminate the need for food access programs) that transition us to an agricultural system that is more sustainable and just.

Lately I've been feeling more agency more than despair, more hope than cynicism. I celebrate the invitation to reimagine how we do things and what the future can look like. I genuinely believe we have the ability to build newer, better systems and stronger communities because I see people swinging their hammers everyday, and often they're having a good time doing it.

Solnit puts words to it: "To respond to the climate crisis — a disaster on a more immense scale than anything our species has faced — we can and must summon what people facing disasters have: a sense of meaning, of deep connection and generosity, of being truly alive in the face of uncertainty. Of joy." 

2.  Skunk cabbage. I went on my first bike ride of the year on Monday to visit my favorite spring ephemeral:

I posted on Instagram about why I love this plant so much.

I'm in good company apparently, so I formally launched the Skunk Cabbage Appreciation Society. 

A shirt isn’t required for membership in SCAS–it's just fun to make things.

The only currency exchanged for membership is genuine wonder and enthusiasm for this amazing and absurd and perfect plant.

3.  S.C.N.P.K.M.A. For most of the past 13 months my house has been a source of anxiety, but several experiences lately have me feeling like I've crossed a threshold into a new phase of homeownership, one that's more comfortable, stable, fun.

One of those experiences was receiving a new sound system from my friend Jon. Jon is one of my favorite civil servants. When he isn't designing public parks for the city of Burlington, he's refurbishing vintage audio equipment under the moniker Audiohaus.

I'm frugal and I owned exactly zero records when I purchased this sound system from Jon, but I justified making the investment after reading one of my favorite Maybe Baby newsletters by writer Haley Nahman, In Defense of Burdens.

Jon set me up with a record player, cassette player, receiver, speakers–but most importantly, he gifted me few mixed tapes including S.C.N.P.K.M.A. (She Could Not Possibly Kick More Ass) featuring a line-up of femme singers that–you guessed it–could not possibly kick more ass.

This has been on repeat in my house which–now that's it's filled with music–is finally starting to feel like home.

What's moving you these days? Where can I find cheap records and cassettes? 

Feel free to respond directly to this email, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for being here!

(Christine is the human behind Tender Warrior Co.)