Checking In: Community in Minnesota

We started this little online shop and community from our home in Saint Paul, MN almost two years ago. In that time, it has come to evolve in real time as our tiny team of two keeps learning every day.

But at its core, we’ve always held community as the nexus of this tiny business. Within the first few weeks of rescuing our (stinky) pup, we realized that spending time with dogs was an entry point to  community. The shyness our screens have inflicted upon us dissolves by simply asking “what kind of dog is that?”.

The more we were out in community with our dog, the closer community came to us. We stopped in local, dog-friendly businesses over and over again, as our dog continued to map them out on our daily walks. With time we’ve gotten to know baristas, booksellers, and retail associates. We’ve learned names and bits about people’s lives; exchanged information about the neighborhood and learned of events. Spending quality time with our dog has naturally fostered small joys that have connected us to people and place. Things that bring deep value.

The last few weeks in the Twin Cities, has redirected our time away from here as a small business to adapt to the evolving list of ways to help fellow residents as we resist federal occupation in Minnesota.

However, we want to take a moment to recommit our love of community as well as our love of (stinky) sidekicks and the invisible work they do to thread us together.

As we persevere, I hope we never forget that law firms, universities, and CEOs were the first to buckle in the face of tyranny. I hope we remember the friends, neighbors and small local businesses that stood with a strong back and soft front. I hope we remember it was ordinary people who had the courage to stand by their morals and refuse to obey in advance.

More than anything, I hope we continue to take care of us; I hope this shakes us from big-box store neutrality; I hope this shakes us from a culture driven towards convenience; I hope this wakes us up from isolation; I hope this moves us closer to our communities. We owe it to every single one of us. Every single one.

Thank you for reading this. We are thinking of all of you.