 The stories we tell are sometimes brave, but the lives we live are absolute miracles. ✨My friend and fellow food access supporter, Tiffany Bellfield, recently shared a personal story in a public way about what it feels like to be a black woman working in white and masculine spaces within the farming community. Afterwards, I thanked her for being so brave. She graciously reminded me that sharing her truth wasn’t really that brave compared to living her truth each and every day. Profound. I’m thankful for women like Tiffany who show up, again and again, even when it’s hard.✨
0 Comments
 The most fierce people I know actively seek out the good that’s easy to miss. ✨The very first time I met Jenna Settle was in the parking lot behind the old mall. We had started a new farmers market with the intention of being farmer run and focused on food access. There were likely 5 or so vendors set up and here was this young, energetic, hopeful woman offering up the skills we needed most. Over the years, I’ve been graciously offered opportunity that felt good to my ego, but a ring or two up the ladder I’d realize that where I really needed to be was back down and back to work feeding people. Jenna has always been there to catch me in ways that keep me inspired and focused.✨
 A feeling of inclusion begins in our childhoods. ✨The first time I met Madison she was not much older than Sterling. Nathan and I had just purchased a new home and were soon to be married. The Duncan’s, always neighborly, came over to say hello and bring us a gift. Soon after, we started having kids and as a work at home mom those afternoon hours, right after naps and just before dinner were sooooo long. Every day, Carter and Elizabeth at first and then Lilah and Adaline later would ask when Maddie would be home. They started to wait for the bus and once she was home they would stand at the edge of our driveway. I’d try to hold them back, but the excitement was too much. Maddie was a growing up girl and then a pre-teen and I’m certain that there were a lot of ways she could spend her afternoon, but more often than not, after she had been home for a while she would come outside and sit on the porch swing. This was her invitation for the kids to could come running over. She would read to them and blow bubbles, play her recorder and challenge them to a game of bad mitten. She’d push them on the swing and feed them yummy snacks. Years later, when Maddie visits, now in a wheelchair, she still offers my kids that same hospitality and friendship. Madison Duncan has been a very wise teacher to our family of being fully present and intentionally including those around her.✨
 In our moment of doubt we need people willing to get up from their chair and become our cheerleaders. ✨In 2013, I was invited to speak during the opening session of the Fruit & Vegetable conference. The reality of that invitation took a while to sink in. While that is the very conference where Nathan and I met as coworkers and peers in 2000 my presence up to that point had mostly been as his wife with all the kids following behind. Not only was I being invited to speak, but I would be speaking on something I hadn’t heard very often in local food conversations: food access. I shared the motivations behind Community Farmers Market to make local food more Affordable, Approachable & Accessible. I received mixed reviews and after I finished headed to the back of the room where Elaine Russell was there to greet me. In that moment,as I felt overwhelming doubt, Elaine lifted me up, shared her own work and ensured me that many people across Kentucky were invested in this very work too. I’ll forever be thankful for Elaine’s willingness to go from audience member to unexpected encourager.✨
 We need people who are willing to share the goodness of their truth even when we aren’t quite ready for it. ✨Helen Siewers offered me wisdom that helped change the course of my life, not once, but twice. When I was expecting Carter back in 2003, Helen and I were in a meeting together and afterwards she kindly shared how important her natural childbirths had been in her life and asked if I had considered hiring a doula. It wasn’t that pregnancy or the next, but during my third, fourth and fifth births the seed she planted with her words came to life. Another time, as we worked together on a project, I was growing increasingly frustrated at progress and expectations. Helen took me out for coffee and encouraged me to see the lessons in failure and infrastructure that would come to be even if the project wasn’t immediately successful. I’ve carried that wisdom with me time and time again. Whenever I see a bright, green spot in our community I’m certain there was a woman like Helen behind it.✨
 What those of us who do community organizing need most is people who show up with the simple intention to actively participate. ✨Selva is one of those people. Month after month, year after year of the BabyNet community meetings (meant to collectively press into the needs of parents) Selva was always there. Often times, she’d walk to the meetings: pregnant, baby in carrier, pushing a stroller. Selva came fully present with the intention to listen and learn. She was there for “just this” which is rare in any act of life. Being present, without concern of the past or focus on the future is an area of growth for me that makes Selva’s loving presence that much more important to me through the years. It’s the emotional work of women like Selva that bring ideas and planning to life.✨
 We are often quick to decide who’s on top and who’s not, who gets invited to the table and who is heard. We often see the big things people do, but rarely the seemingly small, but mightily significant on the individual and small community.✨Before folks had any idea that I’d be getting involved in local food to the point that I have Kristen Branscum invited me to the table. While Nathan worked the room at a conference preparing for his turn to present and with four of our kids dressed for the hotel swimming pool I stopped by the KDA convention table and introduced myself. With swimmies around my arms and changes of clothes in my hands I shared a vision of Kentucky families eating most of their food from Kentucky farms and those farms making their food more accessible to everyone. Kristen obviously had much bigger Kentucky fish to fry, but she listened and time and time again she asked for my opinion and encouraged me stay on my own path. Had she not been such an encourager back then I may not have had the courage to stay the course.✨
 There are people who know how to inspire others in small magical ways. ✨Sister Kathy is one of those people. We had met one another through the years, but only in passing. She was always kind and smiled with a sort of knowing that even I didn’t understand. Never wanting to demand my attention or expect much in return Sister Kathy has been a woman of few, but meaningful words in my life. Not too often, but at just the right time she encourages me to “keep telling on myself” and to accept that learning, growing, evolving is a life long process. I always leave her presence with a joyful understanding that the past is the past and my spiritual journey is really just now getting started. She has taught me to look at the second half of life in entirely new ways and for that I’m very thankful.✨
 I’m inspired by people who are willing to use their creativity and gifts to share a message everyone needs to hear. ✨I first met Ashley C. Smith when she toured our farm with the Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange. Soon after, I heard that she was launching Black Soils-Our Better Nature. Together with her partner Trevor, Ashley is committed to addressing a complicated and often overlooked part of Kentucky history and farm culture. Ashley holds space for this conversation with grace and hospitality. She is careful to lift up and recognize the work of Black farmers while cultivating an environment for learning where everyone feels welcome and fed. As I travel the state, Ashley’s work comes up time and time again as being just what we needed, done well, and at just the right time. Those of us who carry heavy stories and concerns can look to Ashley for inspiration and hope for fresh and new ways to be heard.✨
|
Kentucky Women
Kentucky women doing good and empowering other women for simple acts of grace and kindness. |
Michelle Johnson Howell
RSS Feed
