What does a joyful food system look like?
What would it mean if we paused despair and focused in on possibility and proof of nourishment?
How would our activism, energy, and systems change if we visually mapped where joy sprouted up?
Over the last 10 months, I’ve been part of the Food Solutions New England Network Leadership Institute.
Last week we gathered at the Ecology School in Saco, Maine for our closing session and group project presentations.
Not surprisingly, I was on the Narrative Team.
Tasked to develop a project that would support FSNE’s strategy of developing new narratives to change and reimagine what’s possible, we landed very quickly on the idea of mapping joy.
This is the result: A map of food system joy
You’re invited to add your joy to the map!
We’ll be updating the map at the equinoxes and solstices over the next year.
You don’t have to be in New England. Wherever you are, add your joy to the map.
Food is joyful.
As in full with joy, with nourishment, with the energy of connection. Let’s grow this map together and give more proof and possibility of all the ways we are growing a resilient food system now.
And on that note, here’s a poem I wrote last month that feels right to share with this joy:
Gather Together
I don’t want to be
self-sufficient anymore —
how exhausting
Here, let us sow seeds
together, intertwine our roots
carry the bucket
Hand in hand, together
as in to gather
as in community
Let us lighten
each other’s loads, remember
we were made for this
Want to share your joy here? Leave a comment - where are you finding joy right now?
I’ll go first. After last summer’s seemingly endless rain and floods, I’m finding joy in all that’s growing again: fresh salads, crisp radishes, herbs, flowers. And the living soil that makes it possible.