Letter from Jenny Finn

Dear Springhouse community,

I hope this letter finds you well. The whole Springhouse staff showed up to do work projects with my husband and I on our farm this past weekend. I am excited to tell you more about this shared work day experiment and what I am learning from it. 

A few months ago, I asked the staff if it would be helpful if we all went to each other's houses once a month to help with house projects. The whole staff was in on the experiment and we started in June at Sarah Pollock’s house. We all brought a dish to share and got to work weeding, mulching, and planting in her garden and cutting down dead trees. Afterwards, we shared a meal together and headed home. 

We took July off with most people out of town and this past month it was my turn. My husband and I got organized with a list of projects and were ready when the staff members (and their spouses!) arrived that Sunday morning. Everyone got to work right away, splitting logs, cleaning gutters, staining the deck, taking down a fence, and working in the garden.  It was so inspiring. After the work was done, we headed down for a plunge in the Little River, and back up to the house for an incredibly delicious potluck. It was life giving and I can’t wait to head to Gigi’s this month. 

For much of my life, I really didn’t have many experiences of the infamous quote by John Heywood, “Many hands make light work.” I learned at a young age to look out for myself. I lived in the suburbs where I knew my neighbors, but we mostly lived individual family lives. The school I attended, like most schools then and today, reinforced individualism over community. The church I went to mostly consisted of catechism and Sunday mass. Community was a rare bird. I didn’t see much of it, so I did not know what was truly possible when it came to working together toward a common goal...