THE "VILLAGES" STORIES
Hardly anything nourishes me as richly as "kindred" community and engaging relationships. Especially during the pandemic, I yearned for personal connection that was in-person. As a relative newcomer to Missoula, options were slim. I work hard most of the time, and I was ready to do so collaboratively, not solo.
I set out to find kindred folks, and discovered Franklin to the Fort Neighbors in Action- a small but dynamic group in my 7000-person neighborhood of the city. Dreaming together of a mid-winter event, our 1st story walk evolved. I got inspired to write and illustrate "What Makes a Village".
The upshot: on a cold January day, 45 neighbors walked the story routes & arrived at our local park. Four of us were there to meet them, to ask of their hopes for being like a "village" with each other, for working together to make those real.
Their hopes included: connection and compassion, knowing neighbors to help them and to ask for help, community-held garden space, seed exchange and collaboration with the abundance of nature, safer walking conditions and more sidewalks, traffic calming, more neighborhood activities and art, a family-friendly center -- maybe a corner market-- as a welcoming place to be with neighbors.
I set out to find kindred folks, and discovered Franklin to the Fort Neighbors in Action- a small but dynamic group in my 7000-person neighborhood of the city. Dreaming together of a mid-winter event, our 1st story walk evolved. I got inspired to write and illustrate "What Makes a Village".
The upshot: on a cold January day, 45 neighbors walked the story routes & arrived at our local park. Four of us were there to meet them, to ask of their hopes for being like a "village" with each other, for working together to make those real.
Their hopes included: connection and compassion, knowing neighbors to help them and to ask for help, community-held garden space, seed exchange and collaboration with the abundance of nature, safer walking conditions and more sidewalks, traffic calming, more neighborhood activities and art, a family-friendly center -- maybe a corner market-- as a welcoming place to be with neighbors.
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11 year olds Greta & Carlos star in the story and its sequel "Villages as Butterflies". The stories propose that "buddies" and "village" could be our greatest security. And that we can imagine and create new & kinder ways of living together in the same way that caterpillars imagine becoming butterflies. And DO it!!
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