A Spring memory from Shawna Douma

It's a joyous feeling knowing the last of the cold winter morning temperatures are beginning to give way and we start welcoming warm sunny mornings with longer days filled with sunlight; and my favorite, waking up to the in-depth conversations of birds chirping in the trees. Ahhh, Spring is here!

Growing up on the reservation I can remember as a little kid the excitement Spring brought to our family. My dad is a 3rd generation cattle rancher and by default my siblings and I grew up spending our weekends on the ranch with our extended family. The ranch house seemed to love this time of year too, as it would come alive with kids, cowboys and cowgirls, horses, and loud ranch trucks pulling noisy trailers into the yard preparing for calving and branding season. 

I remember the nights before a big round-up, the living room of the ranch house would be filled with over 15 people in sleeping bags, cots, and mattresses, and in the back rooms of the ranch house more people would be resting or you could find cowboys outside sleeping in their tents or trucks. Mornings would be lit up by gas lanterns and the aroma of cowboy coffee filling the air. The clanging of pots and pans and the laughter of women already dressed and ready for the day, vibrated throughout the house. The stillness of the dark outside would also echo horses waking up and cowboys making their way to the kitchen for a full breakfast. Us younger kids were allowed to sleep for a bit longer but the older kids would be woken up to grab a quick bite to eat and told to help get the horses ready. 

Just before sunlight breaks, I could hear the faint sound of mooing in the background and that was the alarm to get up and get ready, if you were still sleeping. I would hurry to get dressed in the long sleeve shirt, pants, jacket, and cowgirl boots my mom packed for me, and quickly tie my hair back in a ponytail while running out of the ranch house to the corales to catch a glimpse of the cowboys bringing in the cows. I was mostly excited to see all the new baby calves that were born. To this day the smell of cows, horses, and manure evokes the excitement of early morning risings, and long physically grueling days of work out on the ranch. If you ask my dad what the smell of manure means to him, he’d say that’s the smell of money and hard work! 

From an early age, I learned that Spring is a time to learn from nature how to be a good steward in caring for the land, and those around us. We learn that one must work hard now, have steady patience, and the rewards of your hard work & effort is shown in due time. We learn how to take inventory of our home, our family, and most importantly ourselves, to make sure we replenish what was given to winter and prepare for the next seasons ahead. And above all prayer will help guide you and reinforce that you’re not alone.

 Spring is also a time of transformations getting ready to occur. A reawakening of life in our surrounding environments. For some, it’s a season that symbolizes starting fresh or starting over, a renewed sense of hope during challenging times experienced over the winter season. If this is the case for you, I pray your hope and strength are restored.  

Spring is also a time to be mindful of the baggage (literally and figuratively) that we carry and will bring into this new season. If you are anything like me, a single parent with some ADD tendencies, you’re probably already thinking about ways to declutter and rearrange your home and workspace. My “go-to” area for decluttering is our closets. There I get to witness how quickly my kids have grown and embrace the changes that have occurred over the last year. 

Spring is also a great time to get moving and shaking. As a former Health Educator and advocate for a healthy heart, mind, and soul, I strongly encourage you to get out in nature and include your family in being physically active. I personally love to play sports with my kids, go bike riding, take walks along the bosque, or get lost on the trails in the Sandia mountains. 

In any case, I hope this inspires you to get moving with your family and have a smooth transition from Spring into Summer with a sense of preparedness for the next adventures ahead. 

At RCLLC, we’ve experienced a lot of movement in co-creating some incredible new projects with our partners and experiencing some welcomed transitions of our own. 

RCLLC is taking on an exciting project created by our very own RCLLC staff. We are creating our own Fund for femme founders! This is a new and welcomed challenge for some of our staff to lean on the guidance and expertise of our capital strategies team and fearless leader Vanessa Roanhorse in learning about fund design and management. 

Next, RCLLC has a new address! We are proud to call The Lobo Rainforest Building at Innovate ABQ home! We now have a space to co-create with our partners and grow our broad range of work. If you are in the area, we invite you to come by and say Hi.   

And lastly, we’re excited to continue our work with the Rematriating Economies Apprenticeship in developing an evaluation plan and working to further develop the Center Native ecosystem to share with our networks. In all of this work, there will be more information to come.  

For now, I’ll leave you here to scroll down the newsletter to learn more about what our team is creating. Oh and don’t forget to follow us on our socials! Stay active and be well.