From the Farmhouse Table: April 2025

This is a Time to Be Brave

When we gathered last month for Equivox, we were reminded of the power of storytelling, courage, and coming together during trying times. Our Executive Director, Kimberly A.C. Wilson addressed our community, offering her thoughts and walking us through this poignant scenario:

"Close your eyes and picture this: 

A woman retreats into the forest, following a shady path to a cedar-shingled cottage. She reaches out to open the latch of an arched hobbit door. One step inside and she can see everything: 

• A cozy window seat, 

• a yoga mat propped in the corner, 

• a red kettle,

• stairs to the lofted bedroom, 

• and a long writing desk. 

• She lights a fire, boils water, and bares her soul, first to the page, then to the community of writers seated around the farmhouse table, and later, perhaps, to the world. 

You can open your eyes.

From that writer’s lonely, courageous effort come stories with the force to inspire, teach, and ground. Her bravery has the power to make us brave, too. Which is a good thing because this is a time to be brave." 

Kimberly goes on to explain that, "In 1958, thirty years before Nancy Nordhoff and Sheryl Feldman founded Hedgebrook, Chinua Achebe published his debut novel, a masterpiece titled Things Fall Apart. In it, he wrote: 'Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.'

At Hedgebrook, the lionesses write. 

In these chaotic times, the lionesses resist. 

Their resistance demands courage—yours and mine. Let us be courageous for each other."

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