Planting Seeds of Hope is here to inspire radical hope within each of us that will sprout anti-racist action and inevitably spread across the land like wildflowers. Usually this is how we finish our monthly newsletter, but this month the reflection by ARCtivist and embodiment coach Simone Stephenson-Bellwood was so beautifully expressed we just couldn’t bring ourselves to cut it down to fit the newsletter word count. Instead you can enjoy it in full here!
Cooking & sharing my passion for food has blossomed into my seed of hope over the last 10 months. Last autumn, financial necessity and the kind words of my window cleaner, with a nose for fragrant flavours led me to try out a food based side hustle.
I swallowed down perfectionist tendencies that would rather see me hide away & shrink than risk the thought of failure. I made myself send a message to my neighbourhood WhatsApp group and a few parents from my kids’ school and before I knew it ‘Homestyle’ was born.
A super local community interest ‘takeout’ endeavour, to provide affordable/PAYF delicious home-cooked meals with Caribbean flava, to my neighbours was a hit (or so I’m told).
Once a month, my mum & I transform my kitchen into a takeaway outlet. Deciding on the small menu (literally meat or veg) the sides & of course the complimentary fried dumpling. I experience so much joy in the process of getting everything ready & vibing in the kitchen with my mum to some good tunes. The fear that once stopped me from sharing my food beyond the family quickly diminished after the first success of positive feedback.
But something deeper was happening that I didn’t initially foresee. My daughters started observing and then helping by greeting neighbours, preparing side salads, shaping dumplings & more recently, baking cupcakes to make pocket money.
Suddenly I’d become a proper auntie type, preserving traditions I thought I hardly knew. They just seemed to unfold naturally. For those who don’t know or have never had the experience, in Jamaica & across other Caribbean Islands it is standard practice to buy cooked food from residential homes. The locals usually tell you where’s good. One of my most memorable meals was on holiday in Jamaica over 20 years ago. A local woman served up the most delicious rice n peas and chicken I’ve ever had. We had to order the day before & then it arrived on a proper plate, piping hot & wrapped in foil. That was the first time I experienced this wonder of buying food from a neighbour. Another memory was in Barbados when my husband drove to a stranger’s cousin’s house to purchase ‘pudding & souse’, traditionally eaten there across the weekend. It is a delicacy. We had those westerner jitters because we were not used to this way of doing things & some ‘what if ‘ thoughts were there initially but they were quickly replaced by trusting enough to be shown something different. I’m sure this happens in other parts of the world too but it’s not at all typical in the UK.
But somehow I have become that neighbour, welcoming familiar faces and sometimes strangers to step momentarily into my kitchen, the heart of my home. They are in fact, gifted a small piece of each heart that helped to prepare their meal. How cool is that? The love that we put into the food is absorbed by all that crosses that threshold into my kitchen.
Just let that land.
Now we have an intergenerational exchange through the language of food, passing on these skills & traditions. Three generations of girls and women in my little kitchen. Each one with their own job to do , gloves & hair bonnets in place, it’s quite a sight 😂
Before I knew it we were bringing the community around us together for a positive & soul filled experience. Some say it’s the thing they are most excited about each month, others have commented on the welcoming surroundings & cosy vibe that leads some to sway to reggae as they enter. Sometimes I observe people as they sit in stillness, taking their moment to inhale a little bit more deeply and relax into the change of atmosphere around them.
This is one of the ways that I do anti-racism. By sharing a piece of my heart & being something my neighbourhood community claims proudly, as each one makes it what it has become. ARC showed me this was possible.
Being a part of the ARC community not only provides connection & support but it makes me more self accountable. It nudges me out of hiding & false comfort, into small courageous acts (like writing this). My reward, inner & outer alignment, plus the possibility of seeds we plant now, (through the behaviours that we model) shaping a future with more progress than I can foresee.
Simone
🖤
