3.6 Judi Vinni Digs In

The script I prepared and the summary I typed while editing - not word for word nor bot-built

Judi Vini and kindness go hand in hand in my heart.
I first met Judi almost nineteen years ago.
My daughter had just died, on the day she was born,
and in the fevered days that followed, as we organized her funeral,
I decided I needed two willow baskets.
I picked up the phone book and looked up places I thought might have willow baskets,
Not realizing just how unlikely that was, how big an ask,
Those who had baskets, if indeed I found such a place, had no idea if they were made of willow, no one could help me. 

No one much knew what to do with my request, and I began to despair.
Someone recommended I call Willow Springs, and I knew enough about the place to know they are not in the basket-selling business, but they have a store and maybe…
So I called Willow Springs and Judi Vini answered.
When I told her my name she recognized it from my work on CBC.
and she knew about my daughter too.
And was so compassionate.
That alone was such a gift, such a lift to my grieving heart.
Now willow springs did not have an inventory of willow baskets,
Judi could not invite me over to take my pick.
But she reassured me she would get me my two baskets.
And I believed her, I was so happy to know that wish would come true.
And within a day or two, the first time I met Judi face to face,
she was standing on my doorstep with two beautiful baskets in her hands,
made just for me and my daughter.
So beautiful. 

So deeply kind.
The baskets and woman and the way she embraces what life throws at her,
who life connects her with,
just thinking of her makes me feel good. 

Soon after meeting Judi I joined the board of Willow Springs,
and got to connect with some simply wonderful people Judi is a part of
People who gathered or were gathered to help support and inform
that many-faceted hub of activity in the town of Lappe. 

Now Lappe is about 20 minutes West of Thunder Bay.
The kind of town so sparsely populated a stranger driving through would likely not recognize it as such.
But it has the centrifugal force that draws community together,
and for the last couple of decades Willow Springs has contributed significantly
to that connecting pull,
though their activities go far beyond Lappe.
They teach and lead creative and crafty activities,
they cater and host a food and crafts market,
they sell one of a kind work at their store front and books by local authors, including mine.
They bring horticultural therapy to communities all over the region,
particularly institutional settings from supportive housing to prisons and schools.
Check out the Willow Springs website, follow them on facebook,
find your excuse to take part in something,
whether it’s a summer afternoon crafting workshop, the Friday farmer’s market
or a winter festival, you’ll be glad you came.

I stayed on the board of Willow Springs for several years,
was even Chair for a few of them. 

And that is where we met for this conversation imagining the Kindness Economy

And of course she had a pot of tea brewed and tea cups set out as I stepped in the door.

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Eleanor Albanese tea of posey Earl Grey with flowers

Right away in my mind I thought of the way we treat elders - warehouse them, pull them away from community. That’s where we should start. We’re one of the oldest communities in Canada. I think we should do it differently. We work a lot with Seniors - such fantastic lives lived and something happens in longterm care, all of that is forgotten. That’s where we could make change.

HM other countries consider old age or capacity & vulnerability differently. Value familiar routines and giving relationships and connections, and allowing them to keep active and outside and connected. Finland helping people get out and safe and happy without removing them from their homes.

Judi - Scandinavia has houses in neighbourhood for small group of people who need care but are from that community, given priority to have outside time daily, active. The doors aren’t locked but they are closely supported and monitored but allowed autonomy and self-direction. People need things to do. They have so many skills. My father died after 17 years of Altzheimer’s, my Mom is living now in care with Alzheimer’s. They have skills to share even as they lose their capacity to speak. And they want to do something. Even if it’s folding laundry. I have a very hard time with the institution of our Elders

HM American article about Danish penal system as healing, obligations and consequences without stigma and locked doors, investing more in care than in control. It’s cheaper and more effective. Same is true with Long Term Care - so much lost in this control and simplification of giant institutions for the vulnerable.

Judi - schools too are too many kids in a class just makes it so hard to really support each one.

HM - schools teach how to stay small and quiet and not needing attention. Heartbreaking when it comes to kids. We need to do better

Judi - pandemic taught us kids need outdoors. We should be the model of outside based learning. Willow Springs Horticultural therapy since 2008, such benefits to outside based activities and so inexpensive. Social consequences of not giving this to kids and those struggling is huge. Addiction would be healed by more nature, creativity, growing and eating healthy food. If we have to make it about money, kindness economy would say put it up front because it is going to save us so much later on.

HM - what we really need to heal is kindness, time and space and trust. Then final step in healing is being trusted to help others heal and learn. Elders can teach in a multigenerational space. 

Judi - I don’t understand when we clump grade 7&8 together and take them away from other younger children just when they could help with the teaching and be mentors. Where elders get to connect with children, that makes sense to me. A mix of different ages makes sense. Not everyone connects with people their own ages.

At Willow Springs our food programming is employment training for adults with disabilities. That is essential. People need real work, they need to contribute, not just tokenism or something menial with no activity to learn and grow. Some of our people have worked with us for 10 years in paid employment. We can’t employ them all. We need more employers willing to adapt and include these workers, support their needs and take that opportunity to just see people just come to life, with confidence in themselves, wanting to take on challenges. We need all sizes of companies to make a place for people, a more inclusive society.

HM The Washington Post re: corrections that focus on caring for incarcerated and letting go of instinct to try and control.

Judi - in the penal system we take trust away. I have worked with willow with prisoners, first choosing those who I had a relationship with whom I trusted and they wondered at that. They doubted anyone would want to buy their work for shame of them, but Judi assured them people would want to pay more because YOU made it. That trust was huge. Believing in people. It is beautiful.

Every artist who went into the youth corrections centre felt that was their favourite place, because they felt they were doing something important. Leea weaving baskets with three men, so quiet, sharing stories of grandmas. It stays with me all the time.

HM - striking is how your experience and your expectations differ. You are not burned out, your heart gets bigger.

Judi - I searched for years for  my purchase. I did so many things: sports, studied athletic therapy, went to heavy equipment school, taught trades at the college, worked at a mines and mills and in the bush. When we started Willow Springs to allow people to be in Nature and create and celebrate around food and knowing where your food comes from, Local landscape architect Werner Schwar bartered a plan for these 2 acres and when he unveiled it I said, Wow - that’s a lifetime of work, I can stop searching. I am settled. Everytime I am working I just love it. I know I’m getting old and I got to slow down so we’re putting a plan in place but I just want to be an old woman under that apple tree in the back with a group of kids just telling stories or whatever.

HM When I think of how you are connected to your land and your neighbours. And I think of the power of being able to choose what you do and make a difference in the world around you. I can imagine schools with more people involved, more student-led learning, more connection to elders. A gathering place where everyone is known.

Judi - we believe in open, unexpected collaborations that you don’t know how they will work. There is a beauty in that. And the idea of trying things, or finding spaces to give it a go, to reconnect with passions like bread-making and gardening and art. During the pandemic, this is what people brought back into their lives. And on top we layer training, to learn or to share. It’s a very simple model that could be implemented everywhere.

HM - this is not a huge property or huge building, could be any other property with just a few people but this community hub benefits from the energy of so many.

Judi - come to Friday market to see the welcome, the diversity, the history, the connections. It is beautiful.

HM - part of the secret sauce you didn’t list because so obvious is people

Judi - coming out of the pandemic we can gather and people recognize the value of it. City is planning cultural days so much earlier this year than in the past. The room was filled with people from cross sectors: library health unit theatre indigenous museums sports, all seeking partnership. You could feel the hope in the room where people and the planet come first and profit comes behind.

HM or what you consider to be profit is the health of people and the planet

Judi we’ve never made money at Willow Springs

HM but you’ve never had to close for lack of it. You have Social Capital that is compounding. It’s about time and relationship and after a while a community blessed with it can bring forth amazing things. Because you can trust people. In Thunder Bay there is lots of room to be more connected

Judi but we are a small town - within 5 minutes you’ll find your connections with anyone. What can grow from partnerships makes me think of the Lappe Nordic Ski Centre. I started skiing and teaching then cooking and then the owner Tuija took a big risk and partnered with Willow Springs to expand and get us to design the commercial kitchen to host events and expand the work our trainees get to do. Our trainees lives were changed working at the National ski championships because they were just another person working hard.

You have so many circles connecting there, we fit together. The private owner partnering with other organizations and investing in her community

HM I think kindness and risk are related. If you focus on the risk, you can miss out on the kindness.

Judi. There is a risk in showing kindness 

HM But it is so much smaller than it seems. People are a good bet. And when they’re not it is the moment not the person. So flexing the muscle of engaging makes it easier to imagine everyone letting down guards and risking kindness more often and more easily. Despite being unable to know how it will go, but help when ask.

Judi and if it doesn’t work you can learn from it. No need to cry over it. Surround yourself like I do with amazing problem solvers.

HM Problem solvers are made not born, quicker to dare to try and fix the more you dare to try and fix. Like your resume Judi. You dared to try. It worked out for you!

Judi. I think it did. I doubt myself a lot. But instead of making New Years resolutions or judging how well I achieved what I set out to do, I focus instead on 10 things I accomplished in the past year and dwell on those. That’s a better way to move forward.

HM We all hate the person who sets a goal and focuses on what they wish you did differently. But that’s how we tend to treat ourselves

Judi Affirmations for ourselves and for others, a nice, honest comment is powerful. Be truthful. With art - we see that with art all the time. You get “what is that? That’s not what you’re supposed to do” scars people for life. And if you compliment without concrete evidence that you are actually seeing and appreciating their work, people can tell. Real feedback is such a gift. Be authentic, see them, no matter what their age or ability, meet them where they are. The key to kindness is empathy. We have to tap into it. Maybe stop listening to all the news might help

HM the news is a small black and white frame that pixolates the world and we are saturated with it. A healthy body needs a soupson of news, not a saturation.

In the Garden by Judi Vinni

Within the Garden

Daisies left to wave 

Mower weaves around wildness

Creating a meandering path for children’s games

Squash leaves giant fans shading fairy houses made of clay

Virgina creepers tendrils wind along the trellis

Like a toddler’s hand around my finger

While bouquets of Zinnias greet the camper stopping by for tender greens

Tended by youth searching for their purpose

Beneath the willows formed into a living arch the old man pauses

He notices the hoe he holds, remembers his childhood on the farm

And begins to turn the earth once again

Windchimes had of driftwood sing through the mist of the sprinklers

Rainbows all around

The peas are nearly six feet tall already

A small knot of children nestle beneath the  beanpole teepee

Safe, secure and free

 The soil flies here and there as a young woman sets to transplanting

Wheelchair tucked beneath the planting bench

Her smile white like a lily says it all

Raised beds of hearty vegetables line up like building blocks

Gathering baskets hold their bounty, preparing for the feast

The woodfired outdoor oven made of hand dug clay

Lies in wait for the first loaves of bread

Bold murals surround the patio, cheering on the servers

Who set mosaic topped tables flanked by welcoming willow chairs

Lemon balm blends with peppermint in large jugs of refreshing ice tea

Cool breeze blows in revitalizing sweaty brows

Breathing in the life the garden offers

Amidst the fruit filled apple trees

Easels draped in art, paintings of people’s pain seem to whisper Thank You

As guests look to the wide open skies for answers

Bird song, a gentle guitar strumming, laugher fills the air

It’s celebration time. The garden invites us all in

We breath in the peacefulness

Our hearts beat as one.

That’s my dream for Willow Springs

HM I could see it pouring like clear water across the whole city if we let it

Judi When we first formed Willow Springs we applied for funding to put a garden at every institution that has grounds in this City, every school, long term care, hospital. Growing food, planting gardens, bringing beauty. We didn’t get the money but I still think we need to do this! People who even passively view nature in hospital heal faster, it saves us money, this makes people feel better. 

HM I love the multigenerational, pass on knowledge, learn by doing, create their own agendas. Sam & I visited the Roots to Harvest Lillie St garden which was a lawn in an institutional space. It was all over the news lately how a lawn is so dead, with so little natural life in it. And fertilizing it can poison life. I remember a documentary about that years ago. Anyway, we’re walking around and Sam worried that we were trespassing, and the concept of a community space was hard for him. Which broke my heart. I want us to trust more and dare more with respect

Judi. People often say - why would you build a garden that someone might wreck or steal? Last year at our garden at Gorham and Ware school a child was taking the carrots from the garden home to share with her family for dinner. And that was just what the garden is for!

HM I also think about the skills that daunt people about gardening. People tried to garden during the pandemic and some found it frustrating and gave up. But it is hard. Growing, harvesting, keeping, cooking - layer upon layer of skills we could do with learning more easily and more often. Rebuilding our relationship with our food. From gardens to kitchens to community eating together. From potlucks to communally provide food. I remember a school program you hosted here where kids made vegetable soup chopped with knives the kids wielded solo. Life changing. What couldn’t we do across the city to address food insecurity and build skills

Judi - school gardens need summer tenders. If schools were to look at their neighbourhood they would find other groups, like a group home or Our Kids Count that would love to help. Once we pair that up. Willow Springs does that at Gorham and Ware, we tend through the summer and set it aside so in the fall the grades 1-3 harvest the rest, then they make a meal for 250 people from salads to chocolate zucchini cake, cutting up vegetables with knives, bringing their parents and serving them the food they made. It’s hard work. It’s a very noisy room. That’s when I recognize I’m getting old - so loud, but beautiful.

HM - I have a day dream of a Dew Drop Inn within walking distance of every person in the City who all eat there and help there and feel welcome and be fed

Judi - At Nordic Ski Centre we are thinking of teaching how to preserve, teaching kids to cook, offer themed dinners. We can! We have the kitchen, and the owner is saying Go for it!

HM - You also have insight into the people that can help do the work and join in but that aren’t trusted or given the capacity they dream of

Judi - The women in local churches that used to do all sorts of food programming, milk and lunch programs. That isn’t working anymore. We as a community need to pick that up in partnership from government to business. We can’t rely on senior women to keep picking up these social tabs.

HM - we’re talking about  gathering people around people

Judi - yeah and I think in Thunder Bay over the last 10 years the diversity of Thunder Bay, through the College and University’s international students, we’ve grown. My daughter lived near a huge community garden in Toronto and I saw so many vegetables I had never seen before. And when we coordinated the community garden at LU we could see the cultural roots of the gardeners just passing by their garden. Gardens are a great place to celebrate our diveristy. Then if we eat together, and learn one another’s food and share our tables more. We need to do that more.

HM - you mentioned Willow Spring’s recent experience with new immigrants to the City

Judi - we raised money through the Multicultural Association for Ukrainian refugees and we asked how many are here and the Association is supporting hundreds of people plus say there are many more who moved here just in recent months, hundreds more that are sponsored privately through family or friends. So we raised money and they gave those people gift cards. Then the Multicultural Centre called us back just before Christmas  and asked us to help again, saying a hundred people from Afghanistan had just landed in the city. Can you imagine? Oh gosh the weather, that must have been so shocking! So we want to look at that for this coming year. 

I think to be able to sit at a table and share stories about food would be amazing.

HM - In mMntreal most people turned their tiny front gardens into food-growing spaces. So much expertise to share.

Judi - We are known for the bread that we make. I have always wanted to have a bread festival. Or pockets of dough from pierogi to samosa to pasties - we should have festivals celebrating those things!

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Judi Vinni is a co-founder of Willow Springs Creative Centre, 

She is an artist, a teacher, a person trained in horticultural therapy
and a maker of many things that span the stretch from whimsical to practical.
She is an organizer and a visionary.

I love her image of growing old under her apple tree with children near at hand, sharing their thoughts and discoveries with her - old with young, all capacities and interests and goals included, valued, accommodated and celebrated. Of the power of eating together, sharing our traditions and skills. So cheap, so do-able, so powerful and healing and good. And I LOVE Judi’s poem. That she wrote a poem in anticipation of our conversation.

Now I have a song for Judi….

Dig In by Heather McLeod

Judi under the (E) apple tree
Gathering (G) children happily
(A) Making, doing (E) solving, teaching
(G) Laughing, growing and (A) opening
(E) Judi growing (G) old with her (A) apple tree

Welcome (E) stranger
Come (G) sit at our table
Come (D) grow your own garden
And (A) join me in mine
Life is (E) richer (G) when we (D) dig (A) in

Welcome (E) neighbour
Come (G) chat at our table
Let’s (D) share work & plenty
We’ll (A) help & we’ll comfort
Life is (E) richer (G) when we (D) help one a- (A) nother
Life is (E) richer (G) when we (D) dig (A) in

Get (E) Creative
(G) Welcome my heart find the
(D) courage to try cele- (A)brate & unwind
Life is (E) richer (G) when we (D) dare (A)
Life is (E) richer (G) when we (D) dig (A) in

I found that article that came to mind, introducing Americans to the Danish penal system where they get to go home at night, where the consequences include care and healing and avoid condemnation and stigmatization. It was in the Washington Post - I’ll put a link to it on the landing page

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/02/02/denmark-doesnt-treat-its-prisoners-like-prisoners-and-its-good-for-everyone/

I’ve also got a link to an article I read recently in the Reasons to Be Cheerful non-profit online magazine https://reasonstobecheerful.world/minnesota-all-square-prison-entrepreneurs/?utm_source=Reasons+to+be+Cheerful&utm_campaign=f0dce1951f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_11_22_04_40_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_89fb038efe-f0dce1951f-389613972

Which I also recommend - a weekly publications sharing articles from other sources as well as writing their own profiles of good things happening around the world but particularly in the United States. The article I’ll link is about All Square, a restaurant and food truck just South of Thunder Bay. In Minnesota. That employs the recently incarcerated, but doesn’t just employ them it empowers them. It provides therapy and training and seed money to move on to careers or their own entrepreneurial ventures. Several have become lawyers. The project was started by a lawyer. It’s an inspiring precedent. That totally makes me think of both Willow Springs and Roots to Harvest.

Check it out at www…

This conversation had me looking up more about how Elders are supported in Nordic European countries as they lose capacities. I’ve put some links up to what I found on that landing page as well - articles that really fired up my imagination with proven precedences of cheaper, more caring and effective options:

https://www.infofinland.fi/en/family/elderly

https://sweden.se/life/society/elderly-care-in-sweden

I also looked up some of the articles about student-led and nature-based learning initiatives I was thinking of when Judi and I were talking about education. There is a nature-based, student-led school in Thunder Bay, a private school kids can attend once or twice a week. It’s called Roots and Branches and it’s been going for a few years now. I’ve heard great things about it - and include a link to their website as well:

https://www.rootsandbranchesfs.com/school

https://www.childhoodbynature.com/guide-to-the-growing-world-of-nature-based-learning/

https://hechingerreport.org/lessons-from-a-school-without-walls/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244015608423

You can find all kinds of things at www.Something… , I have a whole library of hope: books and articles, documentaries and podcasts I have referenced and recommend. You can donate to the podcast, which is otherwise completely unsponsored, very very independant. What costs there are beyond what listeners donate I pay, just like I do the writing and research, book guests and editing tape and stand behind every episode and my own, no one else to pass the buck to or tell me what to do. Every donation is more than dollars, it is such an uplifting gift of support, thank you to Bill Martin and Kathleen Baleja, Ann Marie Maillette, Pauline Sameshima and the Arts Integrated Research Galleries and all those who have sponsored this podcast. Look for the Go Fund Me button on the home page, that is so welcome.

Theme

Thank you for listening. Thank you Judi Vini for imagining the Kindness Economy with me today. We’re more than half way through the season. Time flies when you’re having fun. I’m Heather McLeod in Thunder Bay. Join me again for another episode!

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