Scattering Seeds in the Snow

From B Corps and Civic Reservists to independent journalism, a grassroots resurgence is taking root in the winter of our country..

Photo by Yoksel 🌿 Zok on Unsplash

So my dad would throw handfuls of grass seed on top of the snow in our yard in the middle of February.

Birds would flutter behind and peck away at the clusters of brown seed but it never stopped him.

I remember him explaining that he had plenty. When it became warm enough, the ones that slipped into crevices and escaped the birds would find the soil.

They would germinate.

Come spring, bare patches on the lawn would be fuller.

Decades later, I’m seeing seeds of all kinds being scattered in the same way.

For example, here’s a handful being sown in this note from a childhood friend “ME” in Houston: “I feel like I’m trying to hold back the rising tide. BUT, every time I buy something at the thrift store, or support the local farmers’ market, give money and food to local non-profits, I feel like I’m sticking it to the billionaires and ego-driven maniacs who want to do harm.”

Not only is ME one of the kindest people you could ever meet, she is tapping into and supporting a powerful resurgence.

Subversive consumption.

Decoupling our dollars from the architects of the billionaire circus.

For example, companies with a B Corp certification have business practices that give back. The certification requires regular audits to certify the company is following a “triple bottom line” model—balancing profit, social impact, and environmental sustainability.

One such company is Better World Books, a B Corp entity for people like us who love books. BWB is a socially conscious for-profit online bookstore that specializes in selling new and used books. Not perfect but like Bookshop.org it’s an alternative to Amazon which is no friend to authors. (Publisher Brooke Warner just laid bare their mistreatment in a recent post "Jeff Bezos Is Not Good for Books".)

I covered similar principles in an earlier essay highlighting my local Zee Bee Market, a fair trade goods retailer. Zee Bee is a member of the Fair Trade Federation (FTF), which establishes standards to meet a commitment for a humane, border-crossing view of work.

Not just scattering seeds then, but regenerating the soil of communities.

There’s an intellectual revitalization going on too.

Take the 350,000 people who were either laid off or “voluntarily separated” from federal agencies in 2025 and recently the 300+ journalists from The Washington Post. They are essentially a living library.

This talent hasn’t vanished; it’s relocating. Many former federal workers are forming 'Civic Reservist' groups—micro-consultancies offering deep expertise in climate data, law, or public health directly to communities cut off from federal support. They are the seeds finding the crevices.

Similarly, the deep expertise and knowledge of seasoned journalists are moving to Substack or other independent media models. I subscribe to my local independent newsletter and now to Wapo’s former book editor Ron Charles’ Substack. (See his essay, “I’ve Been Laid Off, I’m Not Done.”)

Imagine the depth of 300 seasoned expert journalists now redistributing their intellectual capital into a regenerative media ecosystem. They are the seeds being “broadcast”—in every sense of the word—across the frozen ground, waiting to find the soil of independent platforms.

What looks like a cold, barren “winter” for the federal workforce and journalism is scattering immense intellectual capital into new soil, though I do feel for the massive disruption of personal lives represented here.

And finally, I’ve been thinking about the persistent turnout of people protesting ICE raids and the detention of neighbors and community members in Minneapolis and St. Paul, LA, Chicago, NYC, Washington DC, San Francisco and Portland, Houston and Miami.

The protests are not fruitless. One outcome has been not only marches but the formation of new neighborhood pods where people share skills—tools, childcare, elder checks—lessening dependence on broken systems.

We are reinventing ourselves out of necessity. Like some seeds that require a period of “cold stratification”—a deep, biting freeze—before they are capable of blooming, perhaps this winter is a necessary season. We are learning that the ground isn’t just cold; it is expectant.

A grassroots resurgence.

As Maya Angelou once observed, “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.” She understood that the struggle isn’t just an obstacle, but a forge for the soul. “In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

In this season when sometimes the onslaught of news can feel like just too much, I take heart in the numerous small actions fortifying our communities. My dad knew something would come of the seeds that slipped to the ground.

We are finding out exactly what we can rise from.

Stay warm,