With the season of harvest and gratitude on us I find myself feeling grateful for the amount of mobility I have regained after injuring basically the whole right side of my body earlier this year. It’s been a long road and I have learned so much about myself, what I value, and how I relate to the world through recovering from that physical trauma.

I’m grateful to still have my partner’s mother with us. She contracted COVID-19 earlier this year and as she’s in her mid 70’s we were on pins and needles for several months. Miraculously She is home recovering slowly but surely from the devastating effects of the disease on her body. With reduced lung capacity and muscle atrophy from many days on a ventilator, she has a long way to go.

I’m grateful for the many broader cultural lessons that have been brought to the front this year. All things that have been so important in our history but swept under the rug for too long. We are reaping what we have sown this harvest.

With that, I respectfully acknowledge the Ramaytush Ohlone, the original peoples of what is now the San Francisco Peninsula, and acknowledge that the greater Bay Area is the ancestral territory of the Miwok, Yokuts, Patwin, and other Ohlone. Indigenous communities have lived in and moved through this place over hundreds of generations, and indigenous peoples from many nations live and work in this region today. Please join us in acknowledging and honoring their ancestors, their elders, and their communities.

Since I was a child I felt like many of the original people of the land known as the United States had the right idea about working in concert with the land and animals around us, that we are part of nature rather than in dominion over it and I look forward to a United States government that acknowledges the value and experience of those people.

I also look forward to a United States that recognizes the blatant racism that is the basis for much of the culture of our country. Until the problems in the bedrock of our culture are addressed we will continue to struggle. We have a long way to go. Let’s stay idealistic enough to keep doing the work of understanding how our behavior impacts others and making the changes on a personal level to change on a cultural level. Change starts with you.

Despite the challenges this year has brought so much growth. Much like the literal forest fires that California and other western states suffered this year, devastating evidence of climate change hopefully we can foster new growth in ourselves where all this loss has taken place.

I have been fortunate enough this year to be able to focus on my injury recovery, and produce some of my own creative work. These are blessings indeed.

I will be at a Holiday Art and Craft fair with some other folx from The Manos Project on December 12th, 2020 at the Mission Bowling Club, COVID19 regulations permitting. I hope to see you there. Regardless please consider shopping local or supporting local makers in your own community.

Happy Holiday Season,

Kenna