Goodness Weekly 5.19.25

“Balance is not a passive resting place—it takes work, balancing the giving and the taking, the raking out and the putting in.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer

WHAT’S GOOD

On Friday, Sunset Ridge Collective hosted Creative Mornings SAT in our historic chapel to listen to storyteller and friend, Elizabeth Le'anani Coffee. Through the lens of her Hawaiian heritage, Elizabeth welcomed us into the story of Pele and Hi’iaka as an invitation to reimagine what revival may mean to each attendee.

You can listen to her story here.

Revival from Rest

Mae Czarnecki, Storytelling Manager, Sunset Ridge Collective

Years ago, I had the honor of photographing a farm in South Texas over the course of a year. Each month, I captured the changes in crops, the growth of animals, and the ongoing labor of the exhausted but devoted family caring for it all. At the center of their land was a large pond originally re-dug with the help of their pigs after they bought the property a decade earlier.

Once the pond was established, the land around it was divided into six sections: one each for cattle, pigs, chickens, and two for produce. The sixth section was always left empty—completely at rest. Throughout the year, they rotated each area through a thoughtful rhythm: chickens first, pecking bugs and fertilizing the soil; then cattle, grazing the soft grass and adding nutrients; next came crops, planted and harvested in their time; and finally, the pigs, rooting through and clearing out what was left. After this, the plot would rest, and the cycle would begin again.

That was the first time I saw regenerative farming in action.

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend signed us up for a farm tour at Behind the Oaks, one of our Sunset Ridge Farmers Market vendors. We climbed onto a trailer lined with hay bales and listened to Farmer Zach speak with deep passion, not just about the labor his family has poured into the land, but about the necessity of rest.

He explained that many farmers follow a “30-day rule,” giving each pasture a month to recover before bringing livestock back. But as San Antonio enters its sixth year of extreme drought, they’ve had to adjust, extending that period from 30 to 45, then 50, and now 65 days.

“Extreme conditions,” Zach said, raising his fingers in air quotes, “require extreme rest.”

“That’ll preach,” I murmured.

I, like Elizabeth Coffee, grew up Southern Baptist. I know the word “Revival” intimately, atomically, even. The version I learned was filled with extreme enthusiasm, devotion, and effort. But as I’ve grown into my Native heritage and surrounded myself with a community where rest is not easily come by, but deeply honored, I’ve started to see Revival differently.

This summer, our team at Sunset Ridge Collective is embracing a “slow summer.” Programming will be minimal. I’ll be bringing on a communications intern to learn the rhythms of storytelling in our community. And together, we’ll prepare for a different kind of revival, one that follows a season of stillness.

We hope it inspires you to do the same.

Come rest a while.

Communications Intern Apply Here