We Climb Together Forest by Heather Buckner

We Climb Together Forest

by HEATHER BuCKNER

This piece was inspired by a tradition my family had growing up.

When I was a child, my family held weekly meetings where we would

share gratitudes for each other , resolve challenges, and go over any impor tan t up com i n g b u s i n e s s . O nce d uri n g a meeting , we decided to create a motto to represent our family. We settle d o n “ W e Climb Together” to symbolize our support for each other as we navigated the world as a family. Each of us then created our concept of a family tree, with grounding words on the roots and with branches symbolizing the values we wanted to share with each other and the world. We Climb Together Forest is a vision for the future. In this piece, instead of a single tree, I imagined a forest of “family trees” all growing together and supporting each other as we take on the collective task of tikkun olam (Hebrew for “repairing the world”). The roots symbolize some of the pillars that will help us grow a better world, and the branches represent the values that we will strive to embody and spread outward to the world. My partner, Sean, and my 14-month-old, Luna, contributed their talents and vision to this piece. It was Luna who reminded us to include laughter and silliness, which I very much agree are key values in our work to create a just, healthy, and sustainable world. Heather Buckner is the Montpelier Mother Up! coordinator for 350VT. She is a mother, activist, and writer. Heather, Sean, and Luna live in a wooded rural neighborhood in South Royalton, where they enjoy playing outside and looking at all the beautiful trees in the woods.