Goodness Weekly 09.16.2024
“How do you know you are growing in the right direction? You can breathe more deeply, think more clearly, and feel calmness and happiness flow more strongly through your being”
– Yung Pueblo
What’s Good
This past Saturday morning Charis Park was filled with the boisterous storytelling of Miss Anastasia who has been the resident storyteller for children at the Twig for over 20 years. She has the magical gift of being able to hold the attention of toddlers by bringing books to life. We are so excited to have her joining us for Second Saturdays in the park from now on–mark your calendar for the next Storytime in October.
You’re Invited
Jess Lowry, Executive Director, Sunset Ridge Collective
We’re throwing a party. Saturday, October 26th we will celebrate the official Grand Opening of Charis Park. This celebration is not the closing of a big project but the very beginning of a new chapter that we are all writing together.
After carrying around this dream for more than a decade, there is a temptation to mark a big check on the to-do list as if this special place is something to be finished. I’ve learned through this journey that this dream was never about a project or even a park, but has always been about the people who would become a part of it—who would shape it and mold it into the unique face of this neighborhood.
Some of those faces were at Storytime in strollers on Saturday—they will grow up never knowing the space as an old parking lot, but always as a park where they meet new friends. Others carry the stories of the Red Cross building that was on the lot, or the time they spent teaching their children to ride their bikes on the asphalt. Each story is a thread that is woven into the DNA of this community space.
As a child that grew up in the glory days of the 80s and 90s where we spent every day running the streets of our neighborhood with our friends, unencumbered by hovering parents or worries of safety—I have longed for this kind of joy for my own children and thought it was an impossible dream. But in these few short weeks that Charis Park has been open, I see it becoming a reality as I watch my daughter play with a whole crew of new friends. Teens play wiffle ball, a dad and his boys play catch, a person lays on the hill and looks at the clouds, and strangers become neighbors.
There is a slower pace in the park, a pace that reminds me of my own childhood—a pace of wonder.
This Charis Park story is so much bigger and so much better than we could have ever dreamed, because you have brought your dreams to it, too.
Let’s have a party to celebrate the beginning and all the joy to come. I can’t wait to see what we shape together—may it always be a place of goodness and kindness to one another and the earth.
I’ll see you Saturday, October 26th.
Love, Jess
This Week
Tuesday, Sept 17th, 6:30 PM Terrell Heights Neighborhood Association Meeting
Coming Up…
Thursday, Sept 26th De Colores Opening Reception 6-8 PM, Upstairs in Coworking Room, RSVP Here
Saturday, October 26th Charis Park Grand Opening
For frequent updates of One Another Coffee, Charis Park, Scott’s Pizza, and NYX Wellness, please feel free to check our calendar and follow us on Instagram for any updates.
Inhale:
Create in me
Exhale:
the space to hope and dream again
