It's planting season.

I am writing this post in April 2025. As I sit at my desk, there are several dozen seedlings in red solo cups sitting under grow lights in my basement, waiting for the day that the air gets a little warmer outside and we get past the last frost.

In society and in my government job at a local human services agency, there is a lot of chaos and crisis. As a public servant and as a full-time working mother, it is hard to get out of bed some mornings. Most mornings. I am the child of do-ers, and so in times like these I've been trained to look for tasks that need doing to keep busy and to keep moving forward. In times like these, I was taught to start planting the seeds of a better tomorrow.

In the 1990's at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, I think my mom felt similarly. Exhausted and with two toddlers in the backseat, she volunteered to drive an AIDS patient to and from medical appointments, resolved to help at least one person through the most difficult time of their life. She didn't know it, but she was planting seeds in me and in my sister at that time. Be a helper. Be a do-er.

My sister is now an attorney for the county's Office of the Public Guardian, representing children in the foster care system. I try to write public policy that makes it a little easier for folks in need to access public benefits, to remove barriers for those returning from incarceration, to get more resources for our unhoused neighbors. There is news every day that makes our hearts drop. The important thing is to focus on what we can do, the things we can change.

I can invite friends over to write postcards to our legislators, and to share a warm meal. I can volunteer at my local park and spare a small smile for people I pass while walking my dog. I can speak out when I see things that are wrong, and I can keep going to work every day.

And I know that four or five months from now, I'll be in my garden surrounded by flowers, harvesting fresh tomatoes and basil.