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MINNESOTA WOMEN’S PRESS POWERFUL. EVERYDAY. WOMEN. CAREGIVING THE YEAR OF POWERFUL SELF CARE CALLED TO SYRIA EVERYDAY ABORTION DOULAS WOMEN MN NURSES UNION acquiring : Economic Power Entrepreneurial Strength Equal Rights CAREGIVING ISSUE WOMENSPRESS.COM MAY 2018 ISSUE 34-5 MINNESOTA "What would it mean for me, a woman of color, to actually pause? None of the women around me ever WOMEN’S PRESS paused — they couldn't afford to. POWERFUL. EVERYDAY. WOMEN. There is always one more job to keep up with, bills to pay, rent due, children to raise, elders to care for." — Aida Martinez-Freeman What’s inside? PHOTO BY SARAH WHITING SARAH BY PHOTO Editor Letter 3 The Nature of Giving Care Reader Response 4 Where Are You Giving Your Energy? Think: News Roundup 7 GoSeeDo Calendar 8 CareGiving _________ 12-18 • Lindsey Smith: Called to Syria • Minnesota Nurses Association: Protecting Patients and Caregivers • SPIRAL Collective Doulas THE DOULAS OF SPIRAL COLLECTIVE PAGE 16 • The Mental Game of Caretaking BookShelf 20 Contact Us MWP team Redefining Success: A Parent's Perspective Conscious Mind 24 651-646-3968 Owner/Editor: Mikki Morrissette Aida Martinez-Freeman: Caring for Oneself [email protected] Business Development Director: Shelly Damm Column 26 Send a letter to the editor/suggest story idea Managing Editor: Sarah Whiting Amoke Kubat: Care. Less. Whispers. [email protected] Contributors: Terri Banaszewski, Sharon Day, Christy Grounded 27 Subscribe [email protected] Diane Farr, Anne Hamre, Neda Kellogg, Amoke Sharon Day: Ni Mama Akii Advertise [email protected] Kubat, Khadijah Lamah, Aida Martinez-Freeman, Julie Novak, Erica Rivera, Lindsey Smith Art of Living 46 Events listings [email protected] A Conversation with Becca Cerra Reporters: Nichelle Brunner, Siena Iwasaki Milbauer, Our vision: There is much to be done, now Oluwatobi Oluwagbemi What Women WAnt more than ever. We believe it is the creative Digital/Events Development: Mikki Morrissette Annual Survey of Women's Favorites 30 and collaborative energy of women that will bring measurable change for all lives. We turn Design/Photography: Sarah Whiting the dial by bridging communities — by sharing Factchecker: Selena Moon Ad guides the perspectives of powerful everyday women. Copy editor: Kelly Gryting Buy Local 10 Terri Banaszewski: Why I Invest Locally Proofreader: Quinn Dreasler The Minnesota Women’s Press is distributed free at Julie Novak: Why I Buy Locally more than 500 locations. To find a copy near you, Advertising Sales: Shelly Damm, Michele Holzwarth visit womenspress.com and click on “get a copy” or call 651-646-3968. Help fund our storytellers with a Accounting: Fariba Sanikhatam Just for Kids 22 subscription: [email protected] Neda Kellogg: Project DIVA Operations: Kari Larson Minnesota Women’s Press LLC Home _____ 28 970 Raymond Ave., Suite 201 Past Publishers: Christy Diane Farr: Charismatic Clutter St. Paul, MN 55114 Mollie Hoben & Glenda Martin (1985-2002) Classified Ads 44 ©2018 by Minnesota Women’s Press LLC Kathy Magnuson & Norma Smith Olson (2003-2017) All rights reserved. ISSN #1085-2603 THE NATURE OF GIVING CARE MIKKI MORRISSETTE, EDITOR “If all the world is a commodity, how poor we grow. When all the world is a gift in motion, how wealthy we become.” — Robin Kimmerer, “Braiding Sweetgrass” Taking care of others has never been It was a gift to me to reverse our roles from the world sacred again? Even in a market my strong suit. When I was in middle decades ago, helping him get ready for bed, economy, can we behave as if the living school, my mother went back to college to turning out his light, and saying goodnight. world were a gift?” deepen her nursing education at St. Kate’s. My patient 14-year-old son was by my Strawberries, for example, simply give Eventually, she became a nurse practitioner. side — also a gift — using his spring break themselves to us. Humans have made them A neighbor asked if I would follow in my time to repetitively explain things to his a commodity that can be bought and sold. mother’s footsteps — nursing still seemed to grandfather. It was a rare extension of care I “The market economy story has spread like be one of the primary job opportunities for could give my mother, who gave herself the wildfire, with uneven results for human young women — which might have fueled luxury of reading a book. well-being and devastation for the natural my desire to start a completely unnecessary A gift in motion: when we see care as world. But it is just a story we have told neighborhood newspaper as my training giving, not as taking, and freely offer our ourselves and we are free to tell another.” ground instead. powers as interdependent beings to create Humans might better learn to share our I recently spent a week relieving my spaces for each other. own gifts, “to celebrate our kinship with the mother by taking care of my father, who has world. We can choose.” dementia, so that she could get a week to Giving Care With All of the Living In this issue, we look at the role of women recharge in Arizona. The funds my mother as gifts of living care. A few days after my mother returned, I saved from her nursing career are what had the privilege of interviewing Robin enabled me to make the down payment Kimmerer for a future issue of this magazine. In the coming issues, we dig more to purchase this magazine — one of many She is a scientist and the author of “Braiding deeply into how women nourish investments she has made on behalf of Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific community through food and place. family. Hers is a classic story of the power of Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.” everyday women. She says our tendency is to make an "it" of While with my dad, I edited the articles in June theme: “Food” other living beings. In a public conversation this issue. Stories from: Food justice, community-based in front of a few hundred, with local • Lindsey, who describes her work with gardens and farms, bringing people author Heid Erdrich, Kimmerer suggested the Syrian refugee crisis. together with food. In this issue we we might consider replacing “he,” “she,” • Robin, a nurse, who advocates for want to know: Tell us about a time and “it” with the word “ki,” which comes patients and co-workers and volunteers with food that was special to you. from the Ojibwe word “aki,” or “the land.” in her spare time for the needs of people Send up to 100 words or a visual to The plural form of this non-binary, non- who are homeless. [email protected]. othering word, she suggested, could be • Aida, who has given herself permission Deadline: May 10. “kin.” A collective gasp of acceptance was to slow down. audible in the crowd. • The women in our expanded Reader Kimmerer writes that true leadership is July theme: “Spaces” Response section, who invest energy not about generosity — giving wisdom and Where do we feel safe? Where do only in others, but in themselves. care to others. In her soothing, lyrical way, we feel we belong? Or, are we still As cheré (whose name is not capitalized), she indicates that modern humans have looking? In this issue we want to a doula in a unique collective, put it: “It feels forgotten how to listen to the earth as a know: Tell us about a place where like a special sacred space — the work we living force that gives us care. you felt at home. Send up to do and the relationships we cultivate with She writes: “How, in our modern world, 100 words or a visual to editor@ each other and the culture that we create.” can we find our way to understand the earth womenspress.com. Deadline: June 10. The week with my father did feel sacred. as a gift again, to make our relations with Minnesota Women’s Press womenspress.com May 2018 3 READER RESPONSE WHERE ARE YOU GIVING YOUR ENERGY? Dying With Dignity Giving and Finding Energy I am part of a group of Minnesotans leading the eff ort to pass I give and fi nd my energy being around those who are passionate the End-of-Life Options Act. Modeled aft er Oregon’s Death with about their work — whether education, policy, law, business, writing, Dignity (DwD) law, it would authorize the practice of medical science or any fi eld. Th ere is power when people from all walks of life, aid in dying. Terminally ill adults of sound mind may ask for and race, religion, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, or ability come together to receive a prescription medication they can self-administer for a discuss issues they are passionate about and fi nd a common ground peaceful death if and when their suff ering becomes unbearable. to stand on. Six states and the District of Columbia currently authorize medical I give and fi nd my energy knowing that I can make a diff erence for aid in dying and 20 more states have introduced legislation. others. "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." I am giving My volunteers inspire me and keep me working in this politically my energy to my community by making sure that I contribute my contentious environment. Sally quit her job to provide daily talent of writing, and volunteering when possible. I am focusing my physical care for her mother who lingered for months before dying energy on women who are in the minority so that they can have a fair from leukemia. Dave watched his active, robust, elderly father chance in the community when it comes to making decisions.