In my 20s I was thrilled by the promise of a blank slate. I moved often, believing each new location was rich with the potential to solve anxiety, stalled creativity, and a lack of community. Nowhere I landed felt like home enough to stay, building further on my expectation for the next place I went. As I got older I realized that my commitment had to come first. Home is a difficult concept, and it requires work.
While compiling this issue I was struck by how feverishly our community is working to renew itself. There is an underlying respect and appreciation churning below the surface of the Valley, and this issue of CV Collective shares the stories of many who are working hard to improve the lives of people other than themselves.
Though you are holding the Renewal Issue, there is a subtext of hope present here. By working to improve something you are asserting its value. I no longer have the desire to move on. Renewal is in each snowfall. It’s in the salmon runs and the silence of the forest. It’s present in the open arms of the most welcoming community I have ever been a part of, and I see it in the faces of the people on the street that I have yet to meet. I hear it in the laughter that resonates in the warm pockets of the Valley where people gather to tell their own stories.
Renewal is a part of getting older. Each new challenge we take on requires a different version of ourselves. I am relatively new to the community, and in many ways I am still trying to figure out how I fit into it. But I know that the answers are to be found, slowly and deliberately, right here at home.