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Your Business!
Oh hey, lookie there – you’re looking here! Can you imagine how many people will look at YOUR business in this spot as well?! Let us write a super-fun business blurb for you, upload it and your logo, and watch the hits come in! Plus, you get to support positive news and community-building in the Driftless! Win + Win! Please reach out for more web sponsorship info – we’d love to make it happen!
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Agora Arts
Agora Arts is a contemporary fine craft gallery located in the heart of beautiful downtown Decorah, Iowa. Agora has been connecting art and artists to the people of the Driftless since 1992, carrying the work of 200+ talented American artists – including lovely art, jewelry, pottery, prints, sculpture, and more. A brainchild of Decorah native and Luther College grad, Gail Bolson-Magnuson, Agora is most definitely a must-stop spot on any visit to Decorah.
Summer 2026 Inspire(d) Editor’s letter
Sponsored by
Your Business!
Oh hey, lookie there – you’re looking here! Can you imagine how many people will look at YOUR business in this spot as well?! Let us write a super-fun business blurb for you, upload it and your logo, and watch the hits come in! Plus, you get to support positive news and community-building in the Driftless! Win + Win! Please reach out for more web sponsorship info – we’d love to make it happen!
Sponsored by
Agora Arts
Agora Arts is a contemporary fine craft gallery located in the heart of beautiful downtown Decorah, Iowa. Agora has been connecting art and artists to the people of the Driftless since 1992, carrying the work of 200+ talented American artists – including lovely art, jewelry, pottery, prints, sculpture, and more. A brainchild of Decorah native and Luther College grad, Gail Bolson-Magnuson, Agora is most definitely a must-stop spot on any visit to Decorah.
Summer often feels like it’s all go, go, go! But this year, I’m proposing we take it slow, slow, slow!
I’m writing this letter the day after my 45th birthday. This is the first year where that midlife panic is starting to creep in. That, “Yikes, time is running out and I’ve got to get my life goals on track,” feeling I’ve often heard hits folks around this age.
But I don’t want to live in that space. I want to live in the living. Take it easy. Think about things. Marvel at the world. Take up space and be my enthusiastic self. This issue of Inspire(d) Magazine encourages you to also take an easeful approach to summer (and life). We want you to let the magic of it all seep into your soul.
Summer Inspire(d) cover artist Jamie Heiden lets magic seep into every one of her pieces, and I just love them. We featured Jamie 15 years ago in Inspire(d), and it’s fun to see how things have shifted, grown, and progressed for her over the years.
The Decorah Community Meal has been progressing for nearly 15 years as well, and at this point feels like a template for community building, especially for reaching the vulnerable in a community.
In the Lanesboro area, Community Builder Bonita Underbakke keeps showing up for others, and taking notes along the way. She and I messaged about photos one evening as we were getting this magazine ready for press. I apologized for bugging her so late (9 pm) and she replied, “No bugging at all. This between time of day and night is a gift, just to be.” It was a quote I wanted to write down and tuck in my heart. The idea of accepting time “just to be” as a gift, to be savored instead of filled, is so lovely.
You can embrace this notion of “just being” by using the Easeful Motivation tips in my infographic on page 45. Then move on to our mental health piece by Olivia Lynn Schnur. She goes deeper into motivation and the psychology behind it. And don’t miss the worksheet at the end! We love putting these ideas into something readers can apply in their own lives.
The middle school student-written Future Focused pieces in this magazine are centered around the idea of growth, progress, and overcoming difficulties. I had the difficult job of choosing just four for publication. Readers have been loving this new section of the mag, and it makes me so happy to know people see the value in listening to the next generation.
Perhaps you can take a kid in your life out for a hike this summer and see what they’re thinking about these days? Use writer Marge Loch-Wouters’ suggestions in her Summer Hiking column on page 76. Or take a kid (or yourself) to the Genoa National Fish Hatchery near Genoa, Wisconsin (pg 56) for a walk around their extensive property. It is one of those places you visit and then can’t believe you have never been there before.
Closer to home (for us in Decorah), we are excited that T-Bock’s owners Mike and Dom Bockman are this issue’s Sum of Your Business feature. They are our neighbors and have long been business-owner inspirations to us here at Inspire(d) HQ.
Finally, the probit interview is a sweet one: Mary Patterson, mom to Decorah’s Lise Hedstrom and grandma to Decorah’s Siri Steven! She’s 102 and a half years old. Imagine all the magic she’s experienced!
Here’s to an easeful, slow summer of fun, magic, and progress, friends!
Looking forward,
Aryn Henning Nichols
In this issue, you’ll find:
Easeful Motivation: Progress is progress, so go easy on yourself. Artist Jamie Heiden • Community Builders – Decorah Community Meal / Decorah – Bonita Underbakke / Lanesboro • Mental Health Strategies for Finding Easeful Motivation • Future Focused: Progress, growth, overcoming • Genoa National Fish Hatchery • Paper Project: Fish Fidget! • Sum Biz: T-Bock’s • Summer Hiking with Kids • Probit: Mary Patterson • And more!
Read the whole thing online here:
Listen to our SUMMER playlist while you read!
Listen to the Spotify playlist that Aryn put together while making this issue! Easeful Motivation: Progress is progress, so go easy on yourself! <3
