Assessing how we spent last year’s 525,600 minutes and what we will do with this year’s is what a lot of us are doing right about now.
Before you start beating yourself up for opportunities missed or dwelling on shortcomings, turn to page 76 of our January issue for an uplifting kick in the non-practicing yoga pants that you wear around the house.
Executive Editor Tina Eshleman found 16 Richmonders who took a new path and who were willing to share what they did right and what they would do differently.
I was particularly moved by Amber Karnes’ story. For years, I’ve told myself that I can’t possibly go to a yoga class for a list of reasons: My feet are too ugly. People will stare. I’m too big. I’ll be the least flexible — all statements that compare me with others, an unhealthy mindset. Karnes shared: “I spent a lot of time hating a body that was a perfectly good one, just because of external forces and things I had been conditioned to believe, that when I really examined my thoughts and became mindful about the body that I had, weren’t actually true.”
Her realization can be applied to all those conversations you have with yourself, those that keep you in the exact same spot.
That’s the analogy that I’ll also apply to the Richmond region. I know, I know, it’s stretch from yoga and paralysis analysis to local government, but stay with me.
On Tuesday of December’s snowstorm week, I attended a meeting of the Partnership for Smarter Growth. What attracted me was the format: 10-minute reports in rapid succession from around the region on urgent needs including transportation, housing, preservation and planning. I heard plans for extending bus service into Chesterfield County down U.S. 1 and of a new regional affordable housing study for which the top administrators from Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover counties and Richmond were at the table from the onset. But it was Greta Harris of the Better Housing Coalition who cleared the path for 2019:
“Until we as a community can have really challenging conversations about race and our rich and complex history as a community and country, and somehow dig down deep to find our humanity to ensure that all of our neighbors have an opportunity to succeed and thrive, we won’t reach our fullest potential as a community yet, because you can’t have a quarter of our citizenry rooted in generational poverty.”
We will mark the magazine’s 40th anniversary with special features in each issue. See page 144 of our January issue.
