Aryn Henning Nichols

For me, the winter theme “Wrapping Up” encompasses both the idea of cozying in, and the fact that we’re finishing up a year, with all its good days and bad days over and done. As we head into this season, let’s spend some time thinking about the past year, learning from our experiences, and remembering we need to rest and recharge to start anew in 2022.

“Rest is Productive” is a mantra that’s been something of a lighthouse for me through 2021. It was the first year in many that I put my mental and physical health as a top priority, and it has made all the difference in EVERYTHING. And, ironically, I’m getting more done than ever.

Rest is something we need throughout the whole year – not just winter or the end of the year – but the stillness of this season (and the occasional ice storm or -10 degree day) lends itself perfectly to beginning this habit anew.

In fact, the start of a new year often coincides with new habits (news flash, right?!). I recently read this is called the “Fresh Start Effect” – the idea that a person might modify past behaviors with new, positive ones once they reach a temporal (i.e. time-based) landmark (like a new year, new month, birthday, anniversary, etc). It can act as a reset button to help us get back on track with our goals.

On the opposite end of that spectrum is what I’m calling the “Deadline Effect” (as a publisher of a magazine, I live with so many deadlines!). I put my goals into high gear as I approach a deadline, and like to look at goals on a monthly basis, with fresh starts at the beginning of the month, deadlines at the end, and lots of good rest in between. I believe we are more likely to achieve our goals with a series of fresh starts and deadlines – they can be daily, weekly, monthly, yearly…it’s all up to you! Throughout the next section of this Inspire(d), you can read more about rest and transitions, and see what works for you.

As for me, I know my desire to always have “productivity” is a whole other ball of yarn I’ll need to unravel! But I’ll have to do that work myself. Maybe in 2022?!

Happy New Year, friends! Let’s make it a good one!

XOXO – Aryn

Brooke Pfeffer wouldn’t describe herself as a “community builder.” But community has a way of happening all around her (even some fun four-footed kind). That can’t be a coincidence.

Brooke is the owner and operator of The Peddler, a colorful and cozy little gift shop tucked into a side street of Lanesboro, Minnesota. A Minnesotan from the start, she was born in Mankato and grew up near Pemberton. She met her future husband, Joel, on a blind date in 2000. “I was planning to move to Detroit to become a flight attendant and told myself not to get distracted,” she remembers. “After three dates I got distracted.” They married, bought a fixer-upper house in Joel’s hometown of Madelia (where he was a self-employed contractor), and established their most important community, four kids: Brynn, Havilah, August, and Jolie, ranging from age 10 to 15.

Then Lanesboro happened. “Relatives in Preston invited us there for a birthday party,” she says. “We’d never heard of Lanesboro but as we drove down the County Road 8 hill on a beautiful fall evening, we were blown away with the look and feel of the place. We came back to look around and do some biking and soon found ourselves talking about moving here.”

On one of those visits in the spring of 2017, she walked by an antique shop downtown that had a “For Sale” sign in the window. “Other than brief Target and Herbergers jobs, I’d never worked retail before,” she says. “But I started imagining an antique shop that might also offer fun clothing and craft items. We made an offer. Six months later it all happened.”

Brooke’s desire to get involved in and give back to her new community started with simple questions. “When Joel and I first considered moving to Lanesboro we asked ourselves, ‘what can we bring to this place? What skills or talents can we add? How can we benefit the town?’”

The answers are coming for Brooke through The Peddler, but also through her volunteer efforts like serving on the board of the Friends of the Lanesboro Library, helping to organize recent Taste of the Trail events, her Farmers Park fund raising efforts, and volunteering with the Girl Scouts. “We had nearly 30 girls in the shop recently for an art project. It was a bit of a squeeze for our space, but I love doing events that bring people together. We also offered a pinecone painting class with ‘artists’ from age three to 80. I want the Peddler to be an inclusive, welcoming place for everybody who comes in.”

The Peddler has prospered, even through the COVID pandemic, evolving into the store Brooke envisioned.  “I have fewer antiques now, more clothing and crafts. We also have homemade handbags, hats, swimwear, candles, baskets, pillows, furniture, toys, shoes, and gifts, among other things. A fun variety. I look for whatever sparks peoples’ interest, what they’re looking for and talking about. That’s how I connected with the Fair Trade community.”

Fair Trade items come primarily from developing countries, made by workers who receive fair wages in healthy work environments. No sweat shops. “The work and the workers are monitored and certified,” says Brooke. “You feel good knowing that what you’re buying didn’t involve suffering of any kind.”

Fair Trade helps create the “feel” and the inventory of The Peddler. “We have knit-ware from Nepal, wrapped skirts and blankets from India, decorative trinkets from Thailand, Peru, and Mexico. I majored in geography, traveled some, and have always been interested in other cultures, so this is a good fit for me. For many customers the items spark memories of their own travel.”

For now, though, Brooke and her family have put down roots at their five-acre, formerly Amish farm six miles south of Lanesboro. It works for storage of Joel’s equipment, and was a perfect location for an expansion of their family – the four-legged kind. “We certainly weren’t looking for a new house. But I had dabbled in horses long ago and Joel said maybe this could be a place to do that again,” Brooke says. “Girls like horses, you know. He sold me and here we are.”

The farm now hosts a community of eight horses, seven alpacas, and two dogs. Most of the horses and all the alpacas came from Wisconsin via Craig’s List (“the lady made me promise that we’d keep them all together as a family”). Brooke has rescued the other horses from “kill pens” as well.

“People sometimes end up with older horses, often in bad health, that are difficult to re-home,” she says. “They don’t want to keep feeding and supporting them so they offer them for sale online. If the horses don’t sell in a week they end up in a kill pen to be shipped off for slaughter. We bought three including one that looked very overweight. A few months later she surprised us with a foal. They’re all doing well and we love them.”

Why alpacas? “I like alpacas,” she says. “They’re different. They also can present some challenges. For one, they need to be sheared at least once a year. I knew nothing about that. I figured it must be like bathing a dog, right? I ordered clippers on Amazon and watched YouTube videos to learn about it. I gave it a try one summer afternoon but after an hour in 100-degree sun with cranky alpacas and crying kids I realized it was not like bathing a dog. I called a local sheep shearer who did all seven in about an hour. I plan to call him next year, too.”

Are there new communities that Brooke plans to build? “My daughter wants chickens but I’m not sure about that. We might expand The Peddler so we can do more there. I’d like to offer more support to other business-friends in town.” As a busy mom and business owner, there’s much to keep her busy. “I need to keep my head down and not get distracted,” Brooke says.

But it happens. “On a recent Saturday morning I went for a walk to get some coffee and passed by an Amish family selling quilts and things. They had a crate of puppies. One had a broken tail. What can I say?”

 

Generally, when people speak fondly of a community, it’s because it’s a place where they feel a sense of belonging.

“To me, a community is a people and place that supports one another and works toward a common good. Where we come together because we’re stronger together,” says Amanda Goodenough. Amanda is a La Crosse, Wisconsin-based educator, consultant, and speaker for Social Responsibility Speaks (SRS), an organization focused on weaving equity, inclusion, and diversity into daily lives.

But sometimes, the sense of belonging isn’t extended to all community members. In predominantly white communities – like many of those found in the Driftless – it can be difficult for people of color to find their footing. To find that sense of belonging. To feel like they matter.

Amanda and her family have been building their lives in La Crosse for decades. And like many other U.S. cities, there are intolerances in this community that have permeated the lives of Amanda, who is of Black and Mexican heritage, and other people of color. “[La Crosse is] such a geographically beautiful area. Most of the people also reflect this beauty. But I think we still have a collective responsibility to always push our circles of influence to show up better for one another,” she explains.

That’s why Amanda has lived a life of advocacy, fighting to improve the experience for all in her community. “When people talk about things like racism in the Driftless Region, we’re often met with attitudes of ‘if you don’t like it, just leave,’ but it’s quite the opposite, really. When you love something, you hold it accountable. There is a lot that I love about the places and the people that make up the La Crosse area, and that is why I like to ask the hard questions and push us to be better. It’s truly an act of love,” she says.

She has been pushing for change for much of her career, first as a long-time member of the Campus Climate team at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, and now in her role with SRS. Amanda is also involved with the Greater La Crosse Area Diversity Council’s (GLADC) Speakers Bureau, and is an independent facilitator for the La Crosse area YWCA Racial Justice workshops, Waking Up White Collaborative, and Creating a Healthier Multicultural Community initiative. She was even recognized for her dedication to civil rights activism as the 2021 recipient of La Crosse’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award.

As part of SRS, Amanda has worked with non-profits, school districts, colleges and universities, and corporate businesses. Sometimes they need help in response to a harmful situation, and other times they need guidance for changing their culture. “We provide coaching, consulting, comprehensive reviews of policies/practices from an equity lens, culture/climate assessments, keynotes, workshops, and more,” she explains.

Amanda sees the value of intervention on this larger scale, but also knows how much work needs to be done at home with the youngest members of our communities. “My kids are still pretty young, but when I talk to children of color across the state, their stories too often echo mine from 35 years ago,” she says, recalling the discrimination, from unwelcoming looks on the street to death threats, that her Black/Mexican family experienced in her youth, growing up in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, just west of Milwaukee. “I try to be proactive and intentional with the conversations I have and the space I create for my children about racial and social justice issues because the world hasn’t evolved enough to use hope as the only strategy,” she adds.

She has seen her two elementary-school-aged children – often perceived as white because their father is white – shielded from some racism. “White privilege and colorism is definitely a protective layer granted to my kids that my parents and I did not get to experience.” And although she has seen many positive strides for her children and future generations, she is also discouraged by the progress that has not yet been made.

A lot of the work that needs to be done is in the coded, subtle day-to-day interactions of folks who oftentimes, have good intentions. “It’s the colorblind racism and the inequitable policies and practices found in dress codes and hiring practices. It’s the differential treatment when it comes to providing services or implementing discipline. It’s the lack of non-white representation at the highest levels of leadership and the whitewashing of history or school curriculum. And then, of course, it’s the everyday slights and insults that permeate too many casual interactions,” she says.

Amanda hopes that her conversations about race with her kids help to prepare them for these interactions, but she also knows that the clients she works with at SRS can contribute to changing the dialogue in their communities, too. The organizations and groups that have made the biggest strides, in her experience, have been those that are willing to learn and grow and embrace actual change, “not just an optics or check-the-box approach, where one might move through the motions with no intention to actually shift culture or change policies/practices,” she says.

There is so much value in talking about the race issues in a community and the work is never done. Amanda keeps pushing forward for the beautiful community that she loves and for all its members, so that they all find a place of belonging. “I believe dialogues about race and racism are important for everyone, and necessary to foster thriving communities. These conversations for communities of color can be a space for validation, affirmation, sense-making, healing, empowerment, and joy. For white communities, these conversations can be important for awareness, education (learning and unlearning), courage-building, action, and accountability,” she says.

Amanda hopes that her work will help to contribute to larger goals for the community of La Crosse, like reducing the discrepancy between races in poverty numbers, income levels, graduation rates, leadership demographics, and home ownership. She also wants local schools to be actively supported and encouraging increased consciousness and critical thinking of its students.

Though she has taken a very active role in building her community and giving purpose and belonging to all its members, Amanda knows she can’t do it alone. “All of us need to be in these conversations. We all have a responsibility to contribute positively to the world around us.” She adds, “My goal within this is to leave people and places better than I found them, to make both my ancestors and descendants proud.”