How my garden teaches me about conflict.

The ICE protests across the country showcase how the performance of conflict can prompt accountability, demonstrate solidarity and spark meaningful change. Here are some resources for you to find

• If you or someone you know in LA needs immediate support, call the direct immigrant assistance hotline at (888) 624-4752, or Union Del Barrio’s community self-defense hotline at 213-444-6562.

• Send a message to Congress to divest from ICE and CBP using this form.

• Donate to the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) to support legal defense, community organizing and public advocacy for the many millions of families who are under attack.

• Sign up for the “Adopt-a-Day Laborer Corner” workshop, hosted by NDLON, this Friday to learn how to show up, build trust, and offer real protection in your community.

• Join an upcoming workshop by Siembra NC to learn how to watch for ICE in your community.

• Keep an eye out for a protest to support in your city. Be sure to know your rights and follow safety protocols to keep you safe.

• For more resources to support community in LA, follow @chirla_org, @daylaborernetwork, and @lapublicpress.

When I look at my garden all I see is its beauty. This morning, it’s ravishing. The rain from last night’s thunderstorm glistens in the morning sun. My pepper plants, with their glossy leaves, reach unabashedly toward the sky. My tomato plants are laden with small, green tomatoes, and draped languidly over their posts. Herbs and flower sprouts blow in the breeze, tangled together like lovers. I, too, am romanticizing it all, walking through taking mindful steps and deep, calming breaths. For me, my backyard is my refuge, a calm respite from the world.

That lens doesn’t allow me to see the tension, the conflict and drama that’s present in this peace. Each of these plants are blossoming because of their constant negotiations with those around them. The plants I admire are trading resources beneath my feet—carbon for minerals, strength for resilience—in a negotiation far more sophisticated than any human contract. Each plant’s position and orientation in the landscape has been carefully claimed, the result of a conversation about resources and space.

Some of these plants may be growing in harmony. But I bet many are in the midst of a difficult conversation with their peers. Is it possible that some are avoiding each other, drawing back their roots to minimize any awkward interactions? And surely some are growing in protest; their existence a performance of conflict to disrupt and reset the community around them.

Joel Salinas and Robert Bordone, the authors of Conflict Resilience, note that our society is moving away from addressing conflict. Our views are more polarized, or communities are more isolated, and our retreat to digital spaces make challenging conversations more difficult to handle with care. Feeling overwhelmed, lonely and frustrated, many of us are choosing to opt for comfort over conflict, and stay in communities of like-mindedness than seek to understand and collaborate over diverse perspectives.

Like my whimsical view of my garden, I think we’re collectively raised to believe that beauty is in the absence of conflict. Worse, that any conflict somehow threatens the beauty that we seek. When we witness conflict, we retreat. And we miss out. Because that’s the fertile soil where we can deepen our relationships, set stronger boundaries, and tap into resources to repair and reset.

Right now, cities across the country are protesting the inhumane ICE raids set into motion by the current administration. These protests are public stages for witnessing what types of gardens we're cultivating for our community and real-time conversations about what resources are necessary for all of us to thrive, and what external threats are challenging our collective livelihood.

Reflection Prompts:

• What would it mean to cultivate this kind of productive tension in our own lives?

• How might we learn to see disagreement not as failure, but as the friction necessary to shape more resilient, more diverse, more alive human communities?

• How do calls for peaceful, non-violent interventions relate to our collective aversion to conflict?

• How are you rewarded for avoiding conflict? For addressing it?

The Serviceberry: Robin Wall Kimmerer’s latest teaches us how to orient our lives around gratitude and reciprocity from the wisdom of nature. You can read an essay on this topic here. Read >

I loved this video of Laverne Cox and Katie Couric on causing and repairing harm. Couric demonstrates radical accountability, and Cox holds the space with care and rigor. Watch >

This article about how fractal patterns in nature can help us predict its future was fascinating to me. Notice how many of these patterns reflect some type of rupture, or highlight some friction between species and objects. Read >

Can a crowdsourced map of the world help save millions of people from climate disaster? I’m convinced after reading this. Read >

Under the guise of national security and economic growth, governments and corporations worldwide are escalating legal strategies to suppress Indigenous activists and organizers. Here’s how they’re fighting back. Read >