@daily
Daily conversations from the Swell team about what's happening in the world.
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:33
#TellYourStory | For Boxing Day - Stories about Generosity
And it was always a way for those who were privileged to sort of turn around and say, what can we do? My father grew up in the Bronx and used to tell me that, literally, Boxing Day was when you'd go out near the garbage and get all these cool boxes and make things out of the boxes, literally. And it was just really cool because it was a way to be creative and kind of hang out and celebrate, continue the celebration of the holidays
Shawna Kearsley
@OnAcornBay · 5:00
And Martin Hutchinson was the lead in community gardening, teaching our community sustainability and building relationships through community gardening. And my town, we had gotten a grant to do economic development through food. It was really hard to get folks to help. I think when you're in a town where things are so depressed at times and another person comes in and said, yeah, we can do it, we can do it. A bottle of sunshine. We've seen it before
Shawna Kearsley
@OnAcornBay · 5:00
Forget about the photo op, forget about the governor, and look for the worker bees. And that has been the best advice, because the worker bees, like myself, are the people, boots on the ground, that are working fearlessly to do the vision and mission of the governor and all of that stuff. So that has been a very helpful thing. And whenever I'm in trouble, which I haven't been a lot, but I need spiritual advice, and I cry
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
And I remember coming into work, and I'm one of those people when I'm dealing with something that's really heavy emotionally, I go usually into a state of shock where I don't. Okay, intellectually, I process it, but not emotionally. And I've had this stuff down many a thing, especially being a special ed teacher and dealing with a lot of different things, physically and mentally. And I do have some severely emotionally disturbed students
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:25
Wow. That's a really beautiful story. And the gifts from the stores are never as good as gifts from the heart. The little things people do, the mementos they create to let you know they're thinking about you in a special way. You can't buy that. What a beautiful story. And sorry for your loss. And I'm so happy you were held by your community so beautifully. It's heartwarming and very coming