Goodness Weekly 08.26.2024

Aug 26

“We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.”

–Richard Rohr

What’s Good

Our community is so excited to welcome its newest member, Sebastian. Collective Coordinator, Noelle and her husband, Scott, of Scott’s Pizza, welcomed their beautiful baby boy a few weeks early. Plenty of neighbors and friends have asked how they can best congratulate the couple and we are happy to point you to their Meal Train. The family is not currently accepting visitors, but will deeply appreciate the meal.

Unexpected Positives

Taylor Bates, Deputy Director, Sunset Ridge Collective

Last week our best laid plans fell apart in both wonderful and frustrating ways.

On Monday one of our colleagues went into labor a bit earlier than expected and gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby boy! Yay! We’d initially planned that she would work with all of us last week to prepare for her maternity leave, but instead our team came together in her absence to make a swift strategy to cover all of her work responsibilities.

Our staff already had an extra full week planned here on our campus with multiple meetings, community gatherings, a podcast recording, and even several of our staff speaking on a panel for the Pathways conference. I also had several social engagements outside of work.

"Climate Ready Neighbors" meeting hosted by COSA Office of Sustainability

I was excited and also a bit overwhelmed about how I was going to do it all.

And then on Tuesday I tested positive for covid along with my husband and two toddlers, and my mom who was just about to fly out of the country for a two-week trip.

There’s never a good time for a forced pause in our fast-paced world. And personally I have major fear-of-missing-out when I have to cancel plans and stay home.

I love Kate Bowler’s book Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved, where she dismantles the sentiment we too often embrace—that somehow bad things are meant to happen for our own good. Instead my takeaway from her book is that the unprediectable is inevitable and is part of the human condition. And yet, mysteriously, so is love and goodness and beauty and joy and laughter and wonder.

Everyone on our team and in our community helped in their own ways to cover when my colleague and I were unexpectedly out and to keep things rolling smoothly. Yes, some things were canceled or rescheduled and that was a bummer. And I also got to spend time in isolation having slow mornings with our kids and going on a “treasure hunt” to the park where we found dozens of tiny spiral shells and natural trinkets, a bird's nest, and a huge butterfly that landed on a branch right next to us.

I’m back in the office again this week and have a somewhat dizzying amount of catching up to do, but I’m grateful for the little bits of good that are sprinkled all around us, whether or not we stay on the path of our best laid plans.

Coming Up

CAMPUS CLOSED Monday, Sept 2nd for Labor Day

Wednesdays Mission Compost Pick Up

Starting in September, Miss Anastasia will be leading storytime at Second Saturdays! Many of our neighborhood families have gotten to know Anastasia over the years through The Twig and will be thrilled to see her in Charis Park.

Lunchtime Yoga Flow with NYX Wellness, Mon-Fri at 12pm, upstairs in Room 200
Sign up for your class here.

For weekly hours of One Another Coffee, Scott’s Pizza, and NYX Yoga, please feel free to check our calendar and follow us on Instagram for any updates.