My involvement started out serving on the allocations committee of a United Way in a small town after college. After that, I had my foray into the arts, serving as a volunteer and a board member of Chicago's Business Volunteer's for the Arts. Then I left that and was uninvolved. During that time away, I concluded that I needed to be more serious, more socially conscious than just trying to have fun. So when I returned, it was to serve on the board of a nearly 100-year-old social service agency. After nearly a decade there, I was on hiatus again, until, bored with nothing to do, I served on the board of a not-for-profit (that's important in my opinion!) hospice.
My move to Michigan has seen me involved with a start up not-for-profit to support local agriculture, a community arts council, a start up that seemed destined to promote local food in a hands-on way, and a little time spent helping a community garden get going. Now again, I am a bit at loose ends.
But my travels through these organizations and their issues have taught me several things. And admittedly, life experience has taught me too. I've learned:
- My interests are varied but in all cases there is an element of creativity that I need to be able to exercise in my involvement. Doing tasks is NOT beneath me and I have done them and will do more. Yet, I am at my best when I am creating.
- The issues that draw me and continue to hold me include an element of righting what I consider to be wrongs. Whether it is providing support for people to die with dignity rather than being poked, prodded and "treated" into the afterlife or moving dirt to fill garden beds to create a place where good, healthy food can be grown and children can learn what my parents knew about caring for the land. My activities include a thread of what might be called "social justice."
So what to do with those loose ends. The answer has begun to present itself over the last several months. As I have changed how I think about things, the things I think about have changed. I have grown into the next morph of myself and this version has left behind (finally, whew!) the self-image of the corporate person I was "supposed to be" and is re-inhabiting the persona who waited patiently deep inside. That person grew up next to the dairy farm, warmed by the sun and simple pleasures. It is a life that may not be possible in the future, but one I think worthy of attempting to promote and save. Having the choice, not being forced into a life that doesn't fit is so important to me. It's my version of independence. Thus the loose ends have begun to resolve by committing to continue writing. And voila...magically I find myself writing (at least occasionally) for a new publication, Edible Michiana. I've also committed over the past few years to fight for the right to grow/produce and have access to good, healthy food, not be limited to what a large multi-national corporation tells me is "good for me." Poof! Here I am in conversation with two organizations Slow Food and Slow Money about starting chapters right here where I live.
If the ideas of Slow Money and/or Slow Food interest you and you are nearby, please let me know. The more the merrier - and potentially the more potent. Or if you aren't nearby, you may have (or could start) groups in your area. But even if these aren't things that quicken your heart, surely there is something that brings you joy and satisfaction beyond what you do for pay. Do it. Don't wait. And if you find it loses its appeal and it can't be regained, move on. Look around. I truly believe that is what life is for - to express who you are at your deepest core through what you do and to support the community you are part of.
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