Women’s History Month was officially established by the U.S. congress in 1987, after receiving a petition from the National Women’s History Project – a group that spearheaded the effort to recognize and celebrate the varied contributions women have made to a vast number of fields throughout American history. This year’s theme is Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories.
We aim to highlight the achievements and contributions of women, past and present who serve as leaders and role models in all professions and are bending the future narrative with a focus on compassion, kindness and justice.
Northwest Vista College’s Women’s History Month committee, led by Rachael Bower, NVC assistant professor, has planned exciting events throughout the month. The events are open to all and include lectures, panel discussions, film screenings, and art/dance workshops. Please visit the Women’s History Month (WHM) website at: www.alamo.edu/nvc/whm.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the dedication of the Sojourner Truth Memorial located in the Community Peace Garden adjacent to Manzanillo Hall. We encourage everyone to join the rededication of the memorial on March 29 from 10am-12pm on the MZH Patio/Garden.
Spring is Mud and Miracle (excerpt) by Parker Palmer
I’ll wax romantic about the splendors of spring in a moment, but first there’s a hard truth to be told. Before spring becomes beautiful, it’s plug-ugly, nothing but mud and muck. I’ve walked through early spring fields that will suck the boots off your feet, a world so wet and woeful you yearn for the return of snow and ice.
Of course, there’s a miracle inside that muddy mess: those fields are a seedbed for rebirth. I love the fact that the word humus, the decayed organic matter that feeds the roots of plants, comes from the same word-root that gives rise to humility. It’s an etymology in which I find forgiveness, blessing, and grace. It reminds me that the humiliating events of life — events that leave “mud on my face” or “make my name mud” — can create the fertile soil that nourishes new growth.
Spring begins tentatively, but it advances with a tenacity that never fails to touch me. The smallest and most tender shoots insist on having their way, pressing up through ground that looked, only a few weeks earlier, as if it would never grow anything again. The crocuses and snowdrops don’t bloom for long. But their mere appearance, however brief, is always a harbinger of hope — and from those small beginnings, hope grows at a geometric rate. The days get longer, the winds get warmer, and the world grows green again.
From autumn’s profligate seeding to the great spring give-away, nature teaches a steady lesson. If we want to save our lives, we must spend them with abandon. When we’re obsessed with bottom lines and productivity, with efficiency of time and motion, with the rational relation of means and ends, with projecting reasonable goals and making a beeline toward them, it’s unlikely we will ever know the fullness of spring in our own lives.
So, let’s listen to the music, catch the beat, get out on the dance floor, and bust some moves. It’s spring, people, and the general dance will soon be in full swing!
Cafecito with Debi
Thank you to Kim McClurg and Steven Montemayor for hosting the February 22, 2023 Cafecito. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to spend time together. Please keep an eye out for an April Cafecito.
