We snaked through the trees and came up over the hill to find ourselves standing before a scorched field.
In the cold and the damp I could feel, more than smell, the acrid in the air.
“Sometimes you have to burn a field to help it grow,” I said to my son.
But also to myself.
It was the day after Thanksgiving, and we had decided to go to a nature reserve we don’t typically visit. It’s only about 15 minutes further than our usual hiking places – but you know how those 15 minutes land when you’re busy. On the day after Thanksgiving, when everything feels slightly lazier and slightly more open, we decided to go for a nice long walk in a place that felt more special – more like a destination.
The trails in that park are extensive, and we soon ditched our plans to follow a map and just started exploring the woods. We came upon an adorable flock of quail (which is apparently called a covey), found some hidden art, collected acorns, admired trees.
And then the trail we were following suddenly opened up to a blackened, charred field – a scene that, at least at first, felt very much like an ending.
But, after taking a beat and breathing in the view, I found my eyes darting along the sides of the path – lighting upon the hints of chartreuse in the charcoal.
I smiled.
Even in the cold air of winter, thousands of tiny bright green shoots were pushing up through that dark earth. Defiant. Triumphant.
Life was returning, thriving, growing – even before the burn marks had faded.
Shaw Nature Reserve, November 28, 2025
Growth happens mostly in darkness, while people above ground are focused on other things.
When you’re a gardener, you get used to trusting in potential and tending to things you can’t yet see. You water what looks like barren ground because you know there are seeds just below the surface. And those seeds need the water you’re providing to break down and become what they’re intended to be.
Most seed coats need water to split open. Some are especially tough; they might need more water than most. And if you’ve left seeds in the seed drawer for too long, you might even have to soak them – sometimes for a day or two – before they’ll be softened up enough to open on their own.
You have to create the conditions for seeds to break down, so they can finally open up.
That transformation happens completely unseen and underground – the breaking down, the breaking open, the freeing of the center. All of that has to happen before the first root hair grabs hold of the earth, before the first green shoot peeks into the sun.
Because as much as gardening is about growing, it’s also about destroying – destroying those things that offer protection, but also constrain us and hold us back.
We destroy those barriers with water, with warmth – and sometimes even with fire. Without the soaking, without the splitting, without the watering of seemingly barren ground, there’d be no green shoots to tend.
We live in a microwave-style society, where three minutes is too long for a video and three seconds is too long for a website to load. We have the answers to every question we could possibly ever want to ask at our fingertips – and if we don’t have that immediate answer, we’re mad about it.
So it’s no wonder that we are out of practice with the level of patience and care and dedication and old-fashioned love that it takes to coax delicate things along.
It’s easy to spend all of our time tending to what we can already see, while simultaneously neglecting or underestimating the needs of the things that are below the surface.
It’s how we approach politics. We water the visible crops – the campaigns already “showing promise,” the competitive races, the places where we can see our impact immediately on a spreadsheet. Meanwhile, seeds are waiting just below the surface in Red States, and in Red Districts within those Red States. They’re dismissed as unviable before they’ve even had the chance to split open. We abandon fertile ground before the transformation can even begin.
When people ask me why I focus so much of my attention on Red States and Red Districts, I think of all the seeds that are just below the surface, waiting to be watered and warmed up and loved on.
Red state organizing isn’t throwing money into a hole. It’s creating the conditions for the transformation that has to happen underground before there’s anything viable and visible to tend. It’s funding nominees nobody thinks can win. It’s building infrastructure that won’t pay off this cycle. It’s supporting organizers doing work that doesn’t show up in polls or in easy-to-graph metrics but that softens the barriers that have been put up over decades of drought.
It means having the patience and hope and love to tend to the darkness that supports strong roots – instead of only chasing green shoots.
Saying that we need to run everywhere isn’t naive. It’s understanding that you have to soak the seeds or they stay dormant forever. It’s understanding that those old seeds that have been sitting in the drawer – the ones everyone else has given up on – are exactly the ones that need the longest soak, the most intentional care, the warmest spot on the shelf.
On that post-Thanksgiving hike, my son and I looked for things that represented pieces of this past year and of ourselves. It’s been a difficult year for everyone, and it felt like a good way to talk about difficulties without talking about difficulties directly. As we walked through the nature reserve focusing on what was in front of us, we were able to focus on what was inside of us, too.
We looked for something strong, something to leave behind, something pointing up to the sky, something growing, something changing, something small that feels big.
For my “something small that feels big,” I found the smallest and most adorable acorn. It is a miracle that inside a tiny shell that I can hold between my thumb and forefinger is everything needed to create a massive, towering oak – a life sustaining and strong and resilient creature. Able to give shelter, able to anchor the ground.
But only if the conditions are right. Only if it gets what it needs to split open. Only if it does its work in the darkness.
And those green shoots in the burned field didn’t appear by magic. Something broke open underground first there, too. Something had to split, had to transform in the earth, had to do the invisible work that nobody photographs and few even mention.
The acorn is still in my coat pocket. Small, tough, full of potential. Waiting for the conditions that will help it become what it’s meant to be.
I may plant it. I may keep it on my desk as a reminder that my work – our work – is to create conditions for growth. To destroy the things that hold us back. To tend the work done in darkness. To trust what we can’t yet see. To soak the seeds that everyone else has written off.
And to have faith that without the splitting, there’d be no green shoot to tend.
Let’s get to work.
Look at this wee, adorable acorn! I think it will make the most glorious tree, don’t you? From Shaw Nature Reserve, November 28. 2025
Actions for the Week of December 2, 2025
Friend, things may be heavy – but you can lighten that load by doing something small – a “small deed” – to bring about the world that you want to see. In doing so we tell the world, the universe, our leaders – and most importantly, ourselves – that we will not go quietly into that good night.
I call it Action Therapy.
That’s why in each Tuesday post I share a few “small things” – usually a Small Thing to Read, a Small Event to Attend, and a Small Call to Make or Action to Take. My intention here is to give you actions you can tuck into your week with ease – and know that you’re doing something today to make tomorrow better.
Join me in doing so. It matters.
Small Call to Make: Last Day to Help Aftyn!
All eyes – and I mean ALL EYES – are on Aftyn Behn’s race in TN-07. So all resources in TN have been mobilized to help boost her. But even if you live outside the district or state, you can still help! There are opportunities to phone bank today – and you can phone bank from literally anywhere. Check out available opportunities here: https://www.mobilize.us/aftynforcongress/
Small Event to Attend: Blue TN Special Election Recap with Corbin Trent!
More about TN-07! We’ll get the official results at some point tonight, but regardless Aftyn’s race has been an absolute master class in campaigning, in the need for us to invest in every district in every election, and in the potential we create when we do.
This Thursday at 7:30pm eastern, our amazing Blue TN community is hosting a special post-election analysis with Corbin Trent of America’s Undoing here on Substack. You should come! Register in advance here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/nRCEnMLmTKmTP8YA6frLXw
Small Thing to Read: Reuters Tracks Retribution, and How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America
First, this Reuters analysis and deep dive into Trump’s retribution strategy is particularly excellent. They tallied 470 targets (and counting) and detail Trump’s efforts in this piece: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-retribution-tracker/ Highly recommend.
Second, this post by Michael Green, the Chief Strategist and Portfolio Manager for Simplify Asset Management, made the rounds this past week and gave me so much food for thought that I just had to share it. While it’s official title is “My Life is a Lie,” I think the main heading is a much better descriptor of what the piece is about – a broken economic benchmark that has left all of us seemingly doing “just grand” on a spreadsheet but in actual fact just getting by. The meat of the post begins about three or four paragraphs in.
Check it out here:
Yes, I give a fig… thoughts on markets from Michael Green
9 days ago · 3185 likes · 146 comments · Michael W. Green
(Note: At something around 9/10 of the way through it explains the conclusion is only for paid subscribers, but I thought the piece was so strong up through that point that I wanted to share it even if we lose out on those last few paragraphs.)
Thanks for reading, friend – I’m glad to see you here! You’re making a difference, I promise.
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Small Deeds Done 