Clement Waters

Taking a glimpse at a lovely waterfowl visiting a pond this afternoon… Have you taken time to find beauty in an autumn world lately? 💚🌱

Go get that good for you food that tastes amazing picked fresh! 💚🌱

Y’all know what time it is 🥬!! Today (11/4) on 3819 Wayne Avenue, KCMO from 9am-1pm 🙌🏾.

🥬Bok Choy
🥬 Swiss chard
🥬 Turnip greens
🥬 Mustard greens
🥬 Collard greens
🌶️ red jalapeño, green jalapeño peppers
🌶️ banana peppers
*🥕purple carrots
🧄garlic
🥔 potatoes
🍅 green tomatoes

NOT YET:
🍠sweet potatoes (still curing)

This is going to be so worth your time. 💚🌱

Global One Urban Farming gets it—partnership is key to making the right things happen! 💚🌱

Sharing our bounty of vegetables with Blissful Soul Kitchen Supporting entrepreneurs is crucial to our growth! Let’s keep growing! Thank you all for your continued support!

We are still without power. But the good news is, no power is needed for fresh veggies!! We are still OPEN for market today at 9am. 3819 Wayne Avenue, KCMO 64109.

Star is so knowledgeable about growing food. Go learn from her. 💚🌱

We're proud to support a partner organization of ours and their amazing vision and works!

I Have A #Vision - By Carl A. Stafford On January 16th Heatland Conservation Allience held its annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Nature Walk from MLK Park to The Bruce R Watkins Cultural Herit...

This Saturday we are happy to partner with Biodiversity for a Livable Climate and the Post Carbon Institute to bring a truly hot issue to the forefront of our minds in Kansas City:
What can each one of us do to help the nature we love ... continue to be the nature we love?
(You know, instead of a desert wasteland...) 💚🌱

This virtual gathering focuses on your impact NOW. The speakers and live discussion will help you pick the most impactful actions that fit your abilities and lifestyle today.

Other experts in effective personal climate action who will be presenting include representatives from the following organizations:
My Region Wins, The Resilient Activist, Global One Urban Farming, Young Family Farm KC, The Buffalo Seed Company, Metropolitan Energy Center, Building a Sustainable Earth Community, Manheim Park Garden Conservatory, Regen Partners, and Villaging.

Register now so you can either participate live on Saturday, or come back later and listen to the recordings.

Enormous thanks to Louise, Carl and Sami for being the visionary forces that brought this event into being! The world needs more like you. 💚

Nature as the Newest Hot Trend in the U.S.?! National and local groups seem to be swinging nature-based solutions squarely into focus as our next best option for survival in a changing world. -

Nature as the Newest Hot Trend in the U.S.?!

We came across this while unpacking boxes. These are the ground rules and important information that it was essential to tell (and show) the visitors from KU Gear Up when they came to our urban food forest trail to extract honeysuckle via the root docking method. After about 5 minutes of trepidation, they were finding toads and snakes and carrying 20-foot-tall honeysuckle bushes over their heads triumphantly… what an awesome group of kids! I have hopes that we’ll be seeing wonderful “volunteer power” times like that again soon. We have a few open board of directors spots. (Just sayin’.) 😁 💚🌱

Are you getting our newsletter every month? Stay connected to what's coming next with Clement Waters Retreat. 💚🌱

Humans and horses and bears, oh my! What is Group Equity?

It's time to talk about who's allowed to own land. In present day. 💚🌱

Breaking the Norms of Land Ownership in a Segregated City For the board of Clement Waters Retreat, this little nonprofit is our heart song. Every day we get up and ask ourselves, “How can we help people work with nature to increase peace and to heal what ails people?” It’s a thankless job, unpaid for all of us, and very gratifying. In just over five ...

We’re about to drop a blog piece telling the story of how trail mending became social justice. Keep your eyes peeled.

After any particularly stressful time in your life, you'll notice the nature effect more dramatically. Take the Clement Waters 3-day Nature Challenge. After 3 days of dropping devices and demands ***for 15 minutes*** to notice something that's moving in nature, post a picture of your favorite thing you noticed, and tell your story of what happened. Then use and tag a friend. Let's see how many people worldwide can feel the difference. 💚🌱

Apologies about not having provided a beautiful picture of a garden wall yesterday.

As I was setting up to take the snap, my phone battery died, and a quiet voice inside told me, "You need to really savor this more than you need a picture right now." Resigned, I put my phone away and sat to listen for more quiet nuggets of wisdom swimming within my many muddled thoughts.

Being a nature-praising organization is great, but when members of our growing family of volunteer staff are hurting, it's best for us to have the same philosophy. Without their health and sound readiness to serve, we are nothing. We must all take some mental space for ourselves, and nature heals us, so that mental space is going to happen there.

So we're taking a pause on production right now to allow the people doing this important work to recover from a time of national mourning, national re-living of trauma, national fear of not being able to find dignified, respecting professional care when it comes to reproductive health. It's important so we can all start effective efforts again when we've recovered.

Thank you for understanding. Peace be with you.

~Joy (Clement Waters co-founder)

For any and all hurting hearts out there, find the nearest wooded area and make some friends. You'll thank yourself later.

Feeling lonely? Go for a solitary walk in the woods, science says It may seem counterintuitive, but heading into nature can make city-dwellers feel less alone, a new study has found. 

We feel so lucky that a Kansas City, Kansas resident chose to call in to the "Up To Date" show to mention our Ozark Mountain nature getaway project The Refuge at More Mountain. Thank you, Leslie!

COVID and fuel costs aren't stopping this year's summer vacations Whether looking local, stateside or abroad, travel experts have suggestions for where to go, how to get there and where to stay.

It may sound odd, but we're starting to plan for next year's food gardens in a couple of new spots. This involves observing the sun and shade, observing what weeds like to grow where, and taking measurements for areas where we will be building beds during the fall and winter months.

If you had a tool as awesome as this to help you plan growing spots around your home, would you grow more food?

Garden Planner Quick-Start Video Want to see how to get started using the Garden Planner? This video will take you through all the main features you can use to plan a productive and beautif...

Let the people say "Amen." Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie said these words last night in Kansas City at an interfaith service honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the 50th birthday of his organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. 💚🌱

Whose job is it to strengthen the future? - https://mailchi.mp/clementwaters/whose-job-is-it-to-strengthen-the-future

Without self-coping skills, the swelling numbers of trauma survivors could shrink for a chilling reason. Is there help outside of strained healthcare? - https://mailchi.mp/clementwaters/unintended-health-effects-stewarding-land

We’re hoping Yum Yards are using companion planting and biointensive planting, or at least square-foot gardening methods, to be as inclusive as possible for those with smaller yard sizes.

This is the best way to use your remaining lettuce and radishes~Pub Salad Board with Creamy Caper Tarragon Dressing

An is comprised of your favorite greens (ie lettuce), , Irish cheddar, fried , pickled green beans, tomatoes, and cucumber. were replaced with garden in this . All of it is served with a homemade and dressing. Not only is this beautiful, but also fun to eat!

What would you like to see come back again, now that we're emerging on the other side of a global pandemic?

How the Pandemic Changed Our Mission Approach What was the most searched-for phrase on Google in 2021? It was "how to heal." In 2021 America seemed to acknowledge en masse that trauma has entered the national scene.[1] Americans are now eight times more likely to be in some form of mental distress than before the pandemic.[2] Who hasn’t felt ...

We're calling for a few new board members. Message us for more information. Thank you!

Root docking, Restoring and Retreats, oh my! Last fall a volunteer brought us 60 ferns he started from spore. He's at it again, now with a potent medicinal. RSVP to Saturday's Earth Weekend workshop (https://fb.me/e/2cbMxE3ia) to work with plant babies and help native sprouts on the forest floor grow healthier!

Root docking, Restoring and Retreats, oh my! Last fall a volunteer brought us 60 ferns he started from spore. He's at it again, now with a potent medicinal. RSVP to work with plant babies on Earth Day! - https://mailchi.mp/eb9fa04138cf/root-docking-restoring-and-retreats-oh-my

Support your neighbors who live around Swope Park by showing up at this meeting tonight and telling how essential urban tree canopy is to you and your fellow beings. 🌳🌲🌳

UPDATE: The developers will NOT be presenting at the SCC meeting tonight as a result of community pushback they received at the SKCA meeting on Monday 3/14. Supposedly, they will be rescheduling their presentation after they reassess their plan.

Neighbors Vehemently Oppose Scannell Properties Development
(Please attend the next development plan presentation of by Scannell Properties, Wednesday, 3/16, 7PM)

Thanks to the more than 30 neighbors and supporters who attended last night's meeting (3/14/22) of the South Kansas City Alliance presentation where realtor Whitney Kerr and Scannell Properties presented their warehouse development proposal for the Oldham Farms wooded greenspace.

While this proposal addressed some blatant issues that arose in last year’s warehouse plan, it still failed to come close to developing the property in a way acceptable to Blue Ridge Area Quality of Live Initiative (BRAQOLI).

Those attending passionately criticized the proposed development raising concerns about the plan’s many grave problems.

At the meeting Amanda Gehin read a prepared statement from BRAQOLI outlining many of our concerns. (Posted below.)

We encourage you to continue to express your support of healthy positive development or conservation of the Oldham Farms greenspace.

PLEASE ATTEND THE NEXT DEVELOPMENT PLAN PRESENTATION OF BY SCANNELL PROPERTIES at the Southern Communities Coalition Meeting, Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 7:00pm again at the South Patrol Station, 9701 Marion Park Drive, KCMO.

There will be a presentation with questions from the Community.

Or attend on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84799253431?pwd=NzFyVUVNUUUxdVhwLzJGTm9mTit3UT09
Passcode:065906
In person attendance is encouraged.

Current BRAQoLi Statement provided at the SKCA meeting:

We, the Blue Ridge Area Quality of Life Initiative, oppose the rezoning of 93 acres of woods in the Oldham Farms neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri. This acreage is not vacant. This acreage is valuable green infrastructure that increases Kansas City’s climate change resilience. We ask the city to honor the residents that participated in the creation of the Blue Ridge Area Plan and retain the R-7.5 zoning of these parcels. Having a healthy woodland on the site is the most beneficial land use for the community, however, a light residential development would maintain significantly more of the green infrastructure than would an industrial development.

The ecosystem services that these woods provide are extensive. Currently, these woods mitigate stormwater runoff in the vulnerable Blue River Watershed where they soak up water like a sponge, mitigate the heat island effect in the age of climate change, cool down the environment with transpiration, control air pollution near I-435, connect to Swope Park as a wildlife corridor, and increase the health of area residents by encouraging an active lifestyle. We perceive an oversaturated warehouse market in our area, and we know that an industrial development would not come with any guarantee of jobs for area residents, as we are in the age of increased automation. We see areas around us that would be more appropriate for commercial and industrial development- areas with flat topography and few trees. The shift from high-quality green infrastructure to commercial or industrial use would be devastating for local communities. This shift would also have city-wide implications regarding climate change and regarding the integrity of Kansas City area plans. An industrial or commercial development would not only remove ecosystem services and health from the neighborhood, but it would increase light pollution, carbon dioxide emissions, air pollution, noise pollution, and/psychological stress. Our health would suffer, and our estimated lifespans would statistically shorten. An industrial or commercial development in this sensitive ecological zone would be a costly liability for the city, and it would bring misery to the lives of Oldham Farms residents.

From Joy, one of our founders: We’re moving out of our KC apartment today. Why would we do that? Well, we’re expanding to care for a retreat center near a rare diverse Ozark town, with hopes to bring a more diverse crowd comfortably into nature. Read the full post for the backstory that’s hard for us all to face.

Turns out we need help loading the moving truck today, if you could spare an hour or two. Reach out & I’ll PM you the address of our apartment just inside 435 @ Gregory Blvd. Thank you for your prayers and help.

Today is peak leap of faith time. We are moving all of our possessions to a town we‘be never lived in, for a cause we love, because we’ve responded to nudges of serendipity in support of that cause.

Right around Halloween 2014 I was reeling over having been released from a job with the State of Missouri’s Division of Workforce Development because (with no question) I had caught my same-level coworker, a Job Center manager, tell a woman to “Go back to St. Louis because you’ll never find another job down here.” When I showed my confusion as to why she was told this, the words were spoken by a squinting, small-hearted man: “Did you not see her? She was Black.”

Though my curiosity and shock were the only consequence of catching him, he and his director called the Deputy Director (my boss) down from Jefferson City the next working day to reprimand and release me for drinking grain alcohol openly around clients. (Obviously a falsehood.)

It was a final blow to my hopes that my Black friends would come visit me in the land where my husband had found miraculous healing and I had found precious peacefulness. My mostly-European-descended friends had come to feel the massage of the pristine waters’ current. My best Black friend had given me a serious “No” when I had begged her for the third time to visit. When I had suggested that she bring her 17-yr-old son if she didn’t feel safe traveling as a single mom, she shot back mama bear eyes. “No, I’m not going to risk his life like that!”

Now that I was fired for noticing a racist action, I was beginning to understand. And now instead of just fired, I was fired up.

But what can one do when a problem is so evil only a few dare to see it? You pray. And I did, hard. The concept of having protected peaceful safe places where nature helps people get healthier became our Clement Waters 501c3 filing, and we started looking for helpers. We haven’t given up since. This is a cause that needs more than just a few people’s efforts.

Now, even though the bad behavior of racism spotlighted this cause for me, it’s not the sole motivation. It was just the fuel for really seeking change, personally. People who had no clue about this incident’s influence on us would come support what we were doing because they also experienced fluke healings after a nature walkabout. But from our friends and acquaintances of color who understand nature’s healing, their drive to help has had a deeper motivation. We know the beauty of rural spaces needs to be open and available to all.

Just yesterday, one of my kids’ teachers put it best. I was notifying the school about our move and got a chance to tell him about our cause. “The healing of nature is something people have to feel to believe. You don’t ‘get it’ unless it’s happened to you. But how is it supposed to happen to a whole group of people who could be threatened for being at the riverside?”

He knows the Current and Jack’s Fork River well, because his girlfriend’s family inherited land near Eminence, MO. While fishing there on her parents’ land, he actually had to pull a firearm in defense to dispel a GROWING CROWD of white men gathering to defend the other party of an in*******al relationship.

The story gave me resolve in the face of this daunting challenge. I have to get my stuff to Eureka Springs. Today. On a donated moving truck (Thank you, Penske Truck Rental). There has to be a safe place for people to come, protected, loved, supported to unwind and really relax, to finally exhale and breathe new life in.

Maybe if that happens, the rest of the world will breathe new life as a human family. Oh, faith. Where will you take us?

Help these helpers gain $10,000 for housing people who are experiencing PTSD hell by "liking" the original image on Evergy's page: https://www.facebook.com/EvergyPower/photos/a.10160237721455680/10160237710800680.

Evergy will give $10,000 to the most voted-for solution of 10 chosen for public competition on Facebook. There are many worthy projects (and even more local projects that were passed over) but this is finalist that resonates with our mission-driven insistence that being in nature can help people recover from crippling traumas.

Camp Valor - Saving the lives of homeless Veterans - Kingsville, MO

The mission of Camp Valor Outdoors Veterans Village is to house and rehabilitate homeless veterans, through financial, psychological, spiritual, emotional, and physical guidance to achieve a sense of well-being. The project will design and build a tiny home within the current Veterans Village community to house a homeless veteran. Learn more about Camp Valor’s work at www.campvaloroutdoor.org.

Camp Valor Outdoors