Episode 10 The Better Part Podcast ~ Bethany Tran founder of The Root Collective

The best thing about my job is getting to meet new friends and share time with them while they share their stories with us.  Best job ever.  Episode 10 of The Better Part Podcast is with my new friend, Bethany Tran, founder of The Root Collective.  (Click the iTunes button on the right sidebar to listen to this episode.)  Bethany describes herself as a doer and a fixer.  She says that after her 30th birthday she watched Half the Sky documentary "and the doer in me rose up in a passion that I knew couldn’t be stopped this time. The Root Collective was born that night."  Realizing it was impossible to 'fix' the big problems facing the people of La Limonada, her perspective shifts and she begins to see the value in partnerships.

In her own words:  "The problem-solver and the doer in me had to shift directions. My desire to fix changed into a desire to partner. It was humbling. I realized that I couldn’t fix anything for the people who lived in La Limonada, but I could come alongside them and tell them that I believed in them enough to invest in them. And investment is what brings about change".

In our conversation Bethany shares the story of how The Root Collective began, how broad stewardship really is, understanding the value in sustainable partnerships with artisan businesses, and more! 

E P I S O D E    L I N K S

THE ROOT COLLECTIVE

Don't forget to shop online at therootcollective.com using discount code 

BETTERPART for 20% off your order!

LEMONADE INTERNATIONAL

WHEN HELPING HURTS

HALF THE SKY

C O N N E C T 

You can connect with Bethany online in these spaces!  

INSTAGRAM ~ FACEBOOK ~ TWITTER ~ BLOG

S P O N S O R

I produce each episode of The Better Part Podcast with a portion of the commission I earn as a Noonday Collection independent ambassador.  I invite you to shop online at wendyhogan.noondaycollection.com and see for yourself the beautiful handmade items available.  Now is a great time to gather friends for a trunk show and shop for those on your holiday gift lists!  

Day 3 #write31days: Saturday-morning-breakfast-together-friends

Hi there.  How was your Saturday?  Ours was pretty good and it started with me A.I.S.-ing 3/5 of my men-folk.  Accidentally, as I was under the impression it was a 2 car into town day since I had a job at a friend's house after our 8 o'clock game.  So I roll out with the soccer player to get him to warm-ups on time.  To be sure my, "We're leaving!" was heard on the way out the door as I pass a child in our attic, I reached for the cell to call my spouse and the phone rings before I can dial.  Remember how the phone rings when you're in trouble? Distinctly that ring this morning.  That's all I'll say about that.

It was a great morning for soccer, cloudy and cool and warm with friendship.  My friend Melissa and I got a laugh as big as Texas when my husband arrived and said, "She AIS'd me!"  He's a pretty good sport.  Then Melissa and I caught up on very important things like Jim Gaffigan.  One of our favs.  We love Brian Regan.  Old SNL.  And Fallon too.  Usually, interwoven into our silliness are things about our boys, her students, life after her son's cancer, our husbands, how we should drag our husbands on a double date, movies, friends, and a few global problems we solve on the spot. How about that for a conversation.  

Friending is hard.  I think it gets harder the older we get.  I crave community with worn in friends more than air somedays.  So, when it comes I laugh with tears and belly aches and snorts.  I bare my soul.  I listen and treasure the concerns and jokes.  These are earthly treasures.

After soccer, my little re-united 2 car party of 5 crossed the boulevard to have breakfast.  We selected seats in the back and happened to be across from a Saturday morning breakfast together party of 4 friends.  They caught my eye.  I noticed them praying together, they all held hands, then let go with an amen.  They had their coffee and oatmeal.  It smelled so good I forsook my biscuit and got an oatmeal myself.  I felt myself longing for their table in my future.  I noticed I was noticed noticing.  

Michael asks, "Do you see us coming in here for breakfast together when we're old?"

I say, "Yes.  With friends.  Just like they are."

We finished and the boys took our trash and as we were leaving one of the ladies said, "I saw you pray with your boys.  I can tell you are Christians."

I said, "I saw you pray with your friends.  You encouraged us today."

They wished us well in our games, like we do here on college football game-day, and we wished them the same.  One gentleman boasts that he converted these, his friends from Michigan, to go for his team.  I remark that he must be pretty persuasive.  We all laugh and say our good-byes.

I began to wonder who Michael and I will be sitting across from in 20-30 years on our Saturday morning breakfasts together with friends.  It burned in my heart to let my friend know then and there that I love her so much that I hope for a few of these Saturday morning breakfasts together with her. 

Make new friends,

but keep the old.

One is silver,

the other is gold.

A circle is round,

it has no end.

That's how long,

I will be your friend.

Girl Scout Song Book, 1925

Keep your friend circles open y'all.  Melissa, thank you for friending me however many years ago it was.  

love, 
w

Day 2 #write31days: finished and done

My fingertips and thumbs are crusted over with Gorilla Glue super-glue gel. 

I'm 42 and cannot escape the perils of super glue.

I also peeled 2 pieces of said glue off my lower lip. 

I have no clue how that happened. 

I hope your week-end affords you the space to look back at work completed with peace.  Can't we afford grace for ourselves over any blunders and absurdities that no doubt crept in? 

Make space for grace, dear reader, for others and for yourself.  

This was a day The Lord made.  

I had a cafe au lait.  

I rejoiced in the cool temperatures.  

I had a phone call with a cherished friend who I shared a hard season of life in college with.  She and I alone share that season.  We laugh and love each other from a place deep within our hearts.  We laughed SO MUCH.  We talked about friends she spent time with at one of our favorite places and I truly loved knowing they were together.  It is a good feeling to miss being with people you love and have friendship with and at the same time have this deep joy knowing they were together.  

I gave thanks for work offered.  

I selected supplies, and worked with willing hands.  

As a matter of fact, as I am typing these words with Gorilla glue encrusted fingertips and thumbs, I am reminding myself that this day is indeed done and it wants to be done and rest in peace.  I will not torture this day with prolonged resuscitation attempts that cannot push back its inevitable passing.  

Rest in peace October 2, 2015.  

Tomorrow is a new day.  

Lord willing, and the Creek don't rise, I'll begin it serenely, with high spirits, unencumbered by my old nonsense. 

Day 2 of #write31days is in honor of my life friend, Jenny.  From the block.  Laughing with you today was good medicine!  It is criminal to let too many sleeps pass without that kind of medicine.  See you soon for a Sweep The Kitchen at Johnny's. 

love, 

w

Click this image to see the full list of my #write31days posts.