OTK Issue 01

ISSUE 1

Her Words. Her Journey. Her Story.

M A R IELL GUZMAN Color Story

EVENTS Decorating Classes

EVENTS Corp. Decorating Classes

DESSERTS Corp. Branded Cookies

DESSERTS Corp. Branded Chocolates

ORGANIC DESSERT SHOP GLUTEN-FREE • DAIRY FREE • EGG-FREE • SUGAR-FREE • NUT-FREE • KETO • VEGAN AVAILABLE AS SEEN ON FOOD NETWORK • AWARDED FORT WORTH BEST BAKERY • AWARDED MOST LOVE CUPCAKES AND CAKES

DESSERTS Celebration Cakes

DESSERTS Celebration Cupcakes

DESSERTS Celebration Cookies

ambershumakephoto.com amber@ambershumake.com 817.575.7140 3901 W. Vickery Blvd., Suite #6 Fort Worth, TX 76107

IN-STUDIO O N - L O C AT I O N C O R P O R AT E P H O T O S BRANDING PHOTOS MARKETING CONTENT

FROM THE OWNER Wheels were turning in my

mind, and everything just seemed to click. My son was 4, and my daughter was 10 months. I designed the magazine cover to cover, void of editorial content, in 2017 as a shell of what I envisioned. Then doubt set in. Three years went by, and I procrastinated and found one excuse after another for why it wasn’t a good time. Fear of what could go wrong had a hold on me. Each year I would tell my husband, “This is the year,” and each year he would support me all the way until I would find myself at another dead end.

Women of Fort Worth Who Inspire

2

Then a pandemic swept over the world, and my daughter Zoe, now 4, became my little motivator. Everytime we went to the mailbox, she would look at me and say, “Mommy, is that your magazine?” Those words would become my motivation. I had to show her that dreams can become reality — you just have to believe in yourself and not give up.

I needed to put my fear of failure and wondering what others would think aside. And I needed an editor to help me build content and a team. It took ONE simple text for a recommendation, and that led me to Jocelyn, our executive editor. I believe our paths crossed for a reason — we have a parallel vision for what will make this magazine meaningful and relevant to our hometown.

Things started to propel forward, and it wasn’t long after that, abstract artist Mariell Guzman’s name was brought up in one of our brainstorming meetings, and all I could think was that name sounds so familiar.

What are the odds? I met our cover woman for this issue a few years back at a pop-up event. My mom took me thinking that maybe I would meet women who would inspire me to launch this magazine. As we walked from booth to booth, all I could think was, Where did each of their stories begin?

I was drawn to the vibrant colors and interesting designs of Mariell’s clay earrings and clothing, so I had to stop and introduce myself. I thought, Wow, she would be great to write about in the magazine. If only I could make it happen. Now I know there was a reason we had met then. She had to be our first cover, I thought to myself. And writer Shilo Urban perfectly captured Mariell and what this magazine is all about. I can’t wait for you to read it.

With appreciation,

ADRIENNE MARTINEZ

Owner

It’s funny how things happen. People come into our lives at the perfect time, and things happen for a reason at other times. This first issue would have not come together if it weren’t for Jocelyn and I sharing the same passion and vision for this project. I hope you enjoy our very first issue in Fort Worth’s first women’s magazine as much as we enjoyed making it. To all my family, friends and everyone who has supported us, thank you.

Your journey with One To Know begins now.

• AURELIA Albers • JULIE Alvarez • • CALLIE Anderson • AMY Arriaga • ANELIA Banda • • ANDREA Bell • JUANITA Bermejo • VALERIE Bigler • OLGA Buster • • ALEX Cambora • ELVIRA Casarez • TANISIA Castillo-Queppet • • LAUREN castleberry • CONNIE Cervantez • BRIANNA Cervantez • • SARAH Cohen • TONI Contreras • ALEJANDRA Contreras • LEILA Daniels • • FRANCES De Leon • PATRICIA DeLeon • DORA DeLeon • VIRGINIA DiPierro • • MICHAEL Edwards • MARY HELEN Enriquez • STEPHANIE Fenyes • ROBIN Fielding • • LAUREN Findley • LAUREN Foster • ROSANNA Frias • REBECCA Galindo Castro • • EDDYE Gallagher • STACEY Garcia • JUANITA Garcia • AMY Garland • MARÍA ISABEL Garza • • ALICIA Garza • EDWARD Guerra • LAUREN Guerrero • CAMILLE Guerrero • • DENNISSE Guerrero • LINDA Hailey • JENNIFER Hamrick • JADE Hebbert • • LAUREN Heimburger • VANESSA Hernandez • VICTORIA Herrera • SARA Herrera • • LAURA High • MARIA Huizar • HEATHER Kauffman • LINDSAY Kinzie • ELVA Lopez • • EMMA Lopez • LINDA Lopez • ANGELA Martinez • DONNA Martinez • ERIN Martinez • • VERONICA Martinez • LANETTE Martinez-Vidaurri • MAGGIE Mercado • PEGGY Miller • • VALERIE Ochoa • RACHELLE Ohlhaber • DIANA Oliveros • LUCINDA Ortega • • ROSEMARY Ortez • ELSA Pais • EMMA Patino • CARLA Prieto • BEATRICE Ramirez • • PAULINE Ramos • SKY Ramos • THERESA Ramos • ROSIE Rios • KARINA Rodriguez • • DIANA Rodriquez • DANIEL Rosales • BARBARA Herrera Rosales • SUSAN Russell • • LATOYA Savala • ALICIA Servin • SANDRA Sharp • DEBRA Sherman • COLLEEN Shutt • • NICOLE Sinclair • ERICKA Solis • LINDA Soto • CHRISTINE Stivers • • RUTH Tijerina • HERLINDA Tijerina • BECKY Tobin • TRISH Torres • • SHILO Urban • SHARON Urban • ANGELIQUE Urquidez • LAURA Valdez • We are Romy and Abby of Urban Plantology, a Mother-daughter owned plant shop in • ELISA Valdez • VANESSA Villasenor • NAYA Walker • Fort Worth, Texas. We are beyond grateful to share our passion for plants with all plant lovers.

• CAROLYN Watson • SUSAN White • HAILEE Wood •

PLANTS CAN REDUCE STRESS

We have something for everyone, even if you don’t have a green thumb (yet).

URBAN PLANTOLOGY | 817.879.3341 308 N Main St. | Fort Worth, TX 76102 @urbanplantology1

F O R

@urban_plantology

Y O U R

S U P P O R T

3 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

u o k y n a Th

FROM THE EDITOR Who launches a magazine during an economic downturn caused by a raging pandemic? We do.

Because storytelling during difficult times is more important now than ever. Stories can teach us, connect us, amuse us and inspire us. At a time when isolation is at an all-time high, we think it’s essential. Our

4 Women of Fort Worth Who Inspire

brainstorming sessions began on Jan. 28. It wasn’t long before those ideas turned into checklists, and each week we would hit a new goal. This thing was moving forward with powerful force like a train picking up dedicated passengers along the way.

Looking back I’m amazed at how this magazine has come together — our team of writers and creatives and the work they produced for this first issue are the things of which I am most proud. The creative collaboration invoked a combination of journalistic pieces, personal essays, fiction, narrative profiles, multimedia and illustrations that are nothing short of beautiful. Speaking of multimedia, we hope you get to know and relate to these women’s stories in what we call our “digital jumps,” which are videos of our subjects accessible via a QR code within the story.

My journalistic career began when I received a master’s with an emphasis on literary journalism after finishing my Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. Although I am a fifth generation Fort Worthian, I was forever changed when I got a gig as a general assignment reporter at a daily newspaper in West Texas days after I graduated in 2008 . I developed an acute sense of social responsibility through journalism, and a my love for the high desert began. On occasion you can still find me in a teepee somewhere near Big Bend all these years later.

After teaching journalism at local colleges for more than a decade while freelance writing for a handful of publications, I’m living out my dream, working with women to tell stories that help us feel less alone in our own complicated yet beautiful stories. And I am forever grateful to our founder Adrienne for possessing the creativity and courage to launch With gratitude,

One To Know Magazine with a primary goal of giving back to women of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

I hope you laugh and cry, or cry laughing, as much as I did reading

JOCELYN F TATUM

Executive Editor

through this first issue. And I hope you stick around to see how we grow over the next year. We couldn’t do this without you.

CONTRIBUTORS

JILL

Bold

AMBER

Jill is a mother, journalist and lifelong learner, currently navigating her way to a bachelor’s degree in journalism while loving life with her family.

Jen is a Texas tomboy who loves the outdoors, spends more on books than shoes, relishes horror/ psychological thrillers, and finds joy in early morning runs and a perfectly cooked steak.

A recovering oil painter with a cold-brew problem, doodling her way through life.

JADE

LINDA

Jade loves capturing the world in ink and has a passion for storytelling, Hemingway, Earl Grey tea, traveling, and the study of historical dress, but words will always be one of the great loves of her life.

Linda is your personal hype girl for all things photography.

“Let’s create together. “

JESSICA

AZUCENA

Jessica loves to write about all that Fort Worth has to offer, and when she’s not doing that, she’s roller skating in the park and taking care of her two children.

Azucena “Azu” is a photographer and content creator from the cozy streets of Fort Worth.

Emerson Hebber t

Stran ge

Ho

Torres

GINA

Lopez

Gina is a financial adviser who loves to make money fun for others and shares that through her writing.

SHILO

Urban

Shilo lives for adventures, loves animals, and likes writing about culture, food, music, art, and travel—all the good stuff.

Davis

AMBER

Shumake

She’s an old soul, living in the digital age, shooting as much film as she can.

SONYA

Cisneros W ierzowiecki

Sonya is an endlessly curious storyteller, connector, friend-maker and party planner who is deeply rooted to her native Fort Worth community through volunteer work and championing art for all.

5 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

JENNIFER

Casseday-Blair

F E A T U R E S One To Watch

40 Peggy Carr Electric Potential

42 Blaize LaFleur Advocate on the Rise Profile

44 The Women Who

6

Run The Show

Women of Fort Worth Who Inspire

Short Story

48 Breakthrough

A short story by Rebecca Balcárcel

30 MARIELL One To Know

guzman

Color Story

Intrepid abstract artist Mariell Guzman paints in her own language bringing others joy.

Photo by Linda Ho

We believe in

making finances fun and comfortable for every woman

7 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

We are building a community of women who desire to take

charge of their financial future, expand their knowledge, and build their confidence regarding money and wealth.

Whether you’re at the end of your rope or the top of the corporate ladder, there is always more to learn about how you can make your money work for you.

JOIN US AT OUR NEXT EVENT WINE WOMEN & W E A LT H

M O N E Y 101

WINE WOMEN & W E A LT H

TUES

TUES

TUES

TUES

OCT 5

OCT 12

NOV 2

NOV 9

6:30 pm

6:30 pm

6:30 pm

6:30 pm

Joe T. Garcia’s 2201 N Commerce St, Fort Worth, TX 76164

Common Desk 2833 Crockett St, Fort Worth, TX 76107

Joe T. Garcia’s 2201 N Commerce St, Fort Worth, TX 76164

Common Desk 2833 Crockett St, Fort Worth, TX 76107

M O N E Y 101

Please txt RSVP to 469.294.3008 or tag

@TheConsultaFinance

CONTENTS ISSUE 1

12

24

64

Women of Fort Worth Who Inspire

8

SPOTLIGHT 10 SINGER

SUPPORT

Hitting a High Note

No Cream, No Sugar

Slowing Down

22 PLANT SHOP

64 GRATITUDE

12 PAPER ARTIST

Cutting Up With Kyoko Endo

WORTH 14 TRYING

A Box With a Cause

16 READING Nonprofit News

18 TRYING Pass the Salt

Stories with QR codes

20 COFFEE SHOP

Made in the Shade

24 SUSTAINABILITY Laude the Label

READER’S REVEAL 26 LESSONS LEARNED The Biggest Thing I Took Away From the Pandemic Was...

LIFE 54 FINANCIAL ADVICE

BE WELL 60 MINDFULNESS

Why Gratitude Works

68 ADVICE Back to Life

FOOD 72 ESSAY

Stop Food-Shaming Me!

PHILANTHROPY 74 THE GATEHOUSE This Time It’s for Good

Finance Can Be Fun

56 HUMOR ESSAY 2 Owner’s Letter 4 Editor’s Letter 5 Contributors 28 Craft 80 Ponder

Normalcy Is Overrated — and Awkward

GET YOUR SMART PHONES READY. Scan the QR code at the end of the article for more video and audio content.

The Poly Grill used to be painted stark white with blue lettering that matched the floor-to-ceiling bars covering the doors. Mia

painted it black “to match the name, the owner and the people in the community.” The metal bars are gone.

- No Cream, No Sugar by Sonya Cisneros Wierzowiecki on P 20

I ran my fingers over the brand name burned into the handle in the Tools section of the home improvement store. I watched light strike the flat planes of its dull silver head. I even hefted it just to feel its weight, its power. My power.

- Breakthrough, a short story by Rebecca Balcarcel, P 48

Publisher & Owner Adrienne Martinez For Editorial Inquiries editorial@OneToKnowMagazine.com Advertising sales@OneToKnowMagazine.com Design Adrienne Martinez, art director Editorial Jocelyn F. Tatum, executive editor Contributors Editorial Jill Bold, Jennifer Casseday-Blair, Jade Emerson Hebbert, Gina Lopez, Jessica Strange, Shilo Urban, Sonya Cisneros-Wierzowiecki Photography Linda Ho, Amber Shumake, Azucena Torres Illustrator Amber Davis Have an idea or see a mistake? Tell us about it: editorial@OneToKnowMagazine.com One To Know Magazine is a bimonthly, subscription-based publication.

All rights reserved.

Views and comments expressed by individuals do not necessarily represent those of the publishers, and no legal responsibility can be accepted for the result of the use by readers of information or advice of whatever kind given in this publication, either in editorial or advertisements.

No part of this publication may be reprinted or duplicated without the prior permission of One To Know Magazine LLC. FOLLOW AND LIKE US

@onetoknowmagazine VISIT US ONLINE OneToKnowMagazine.com

who ate shredded cheese straight from the bag and taught myself Roku. Will I even remember how to hold a conversation? What about hugging and handshaking? Are we going to be stuck doing the stupid elbow bump forever? Are we introducing ourselves with pronouns now? Does this hat make me look like a psychopath?

- Normalcy Is Overrated — And Awkward, a humor essay by Shilo Urban on P 68

I am asking for empathy on behalf of that 13-yearold middle schooler who is tired of answering the same question to closed ears, on behalf of the person who

finds ordering at restaurants challenging, on behalf of the person who is constantly asked why they’re not drinking, on behalf of the person who is struggling to navigate the complexities of personal health and weight loss, on behalf of the person who is judged for having different foods from different cultures, on behalf of the person who is made fun of for not eating dessert — and the person who does — and on behalf of the person who is exhausted from constantly being judged on their body, let alone what they decide to put into it.

- Stop Food Shaming Me!, a food essay by Jade Emerson Hebbert on P 72

totally different in the mirror than she did just three years ago when she was battered and bruised in her bathroom — again — Today, she sees someone

shooting up drugs with her kids outside the door wondering why she spends so much time locked behind that ominous door.

- This Time It’s for Good, a philanthropy profile by Jocelyn Tatum on P 84

Mariell was caught between two cultures, two languages, two homes. Feeling out of place and misunderstood, she struggled to make sense of her shifted existence.

Questioning her identity became “a constant,” and she embarked on a search for answers in the deepest realms.

- Color Story, the cover story by Shilo Urban on P 30

OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

I’m not one of those people who toned up their abs and learned how to speak Italian during the pandemic; I’m one of those people

9

[S P OT LIGH T] S I N G E R

Women in the Fine Arts

10

Hitting a High Note

Soprano singer Corrie Donovan is a bright beacon following a dark time for many in the performing arts.

By Jennifer Casseday-Blair Photo by Steven Visneau

attention whenever she wields her powerful voice.

“It feels wonderful to be performing for live audiences again. My intention through the shows I’m doing now is to spread joy to people following the pandemic. I want to bring music to the community that makes them smile,” Corrie says. Focused on gathering families together, over the summer Corrie did a series of pop-up family Cliburn concerts called Happy Hearts, featuring musical theater classics, American tunes and familiar piano melodies.

Corrie will soon entertain Fort Worth fans with a Halloween-themed show of spooky Broadway classics throughout October because of its overwhelming popularity last year. “I am passionate about creating these intimate concert experiences that more easily allow audiences to make meaningful personal connections with the music,” Corrie says.

As a soloist, Corrie has performed with the Corpus Christi Orchestra, Las Colinas Orchestra and the Centro Fox Youth Orchestra. She’s participated in Cirque du Soleil’s vocal workshops in Mexico, and her credits include the New York Baroque Festival and singing opera in Brazil on the Holland America Maasdam.

11

Corrie also loves working with children and is dedicated to inspiring musical appreciation among younger audiences. She acts as a facilitator for The Cliburn and has presented hundreds of shows for students across the metroplex, breaking down the many facets of music and introducing the works of great composers. Geared toward the youngest Cliburn enthusiasts, Corrie contributes her vocal expression to the Cliburn Kids video series as well. This collection of highly entertaining, 10-minute videos is designed to introduce children to the fun of classical music.

Among her unique skills, Corrie is trained in Celtic and belly dancing. She is proficient in reading the Romance languages and specializes in Scottish, Irish, English, cockney, U.S. Southern, Indian, Italian and French dialects.

Corrie also characterizes herself as a female explorer and is mildly obsessed with climbing mountains. She will start next year on an extremely high note — Corrie is rigorously training for a January summit of Mount Aconcagua in Argentina. Not only is it the highest mountain in South America, Aconcagua is the tallest peak in all of the Americas, as well as the Western and Southern Hemispheres. “The summit is a two-week trek with an all-female expedition group. It is going to be the most physically challenging thing I’ve ever done,” Corrie says. Just as with every endeavor Corrie embarks upon, she plans to reach the top.

OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

Whether she’s starring in a world-premiere concert, promoting music appreciation to school-aged children for The Cliburn, singing for former world leaders, or climbing a mountain, Corrie Donovan commands

[S P OT LIGH T] P A P E R A R T I S T

Cutting Up With Kyoko Endo

By Sonya Cisneros Wierzowiecki Photos by Azucena Torres

Women in the Fine Arts

12

Art transcends language and doesn’t require a command of English for self-expression. Printmaking became therapy for then 18-year-old Kyoko Endo navigating her first year of college as an immigrant to the U.S. It connected her to a rhythmic form of meditation that replicated the feeling she had as a child sitting alongside the ocean in rural Japan.

After a jog or spending time in nature, one might find Kyoko immersed in methodical cutting of crisp yupo paper that will be layered to create what resembles a three-dimensional painting as delicate as sea foam. “I try not to think of anything; just move my hand,” Kyoko says. This could go on for up to five hours at a time as she works to stay present in solitary contentment.

For the background of a paper cut, Kyoko uses liquid watercolors, acrylic gouache or ink, striving “to provide a sense of calmness and peace.” She chooses colors that relax her, including light green, blue and white, though she prefers to wear black.

Photographs she captured of Hawaiian ocean waves often serve as inspiration for Kyoko, who considers herself to be an experimental artist and lifelong learner. “It took me so many years to get my own style,” she says after considering how her work has evolved since 2007.

“I’m still feeling out which way to go,” she says.

This openness to discovery is a deeply personal characteristic shared by her much-admired shokunin, who is devoted to mastery of his or her craft and making each day better than the last.

13 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

SCAN THE QR CODE to WATCH Kyoko in action.

[WORTH] T R Y I N G

Creating Women Positive of Change One Box at Inspire a Time Fort Worth Who

14

A Box With a Cause It delivers kindness to your doorstep and around the world, and we think that is worth trying.

A box that brings kindness and goodness to your doorstep? That’s something we think is worth trying. “We started Alltrue to create a place to discover businesses that are making the world better, and connect a community of women who are seeking to create positive change,” director of marketing Kelly Mellenthin says.

With up to $300 in value per box, subscribers spend about $60 on a box that comes packed full of charming and useful products that serve

a greater good. The boxes with a cause are quarterly and seasonal, filled with sustainable and socially conscious goods. Instead of discovering new makeup or clothing trends, this box has a deeper meaning and helps people discover honest brands that feed the world’s soul. Some favorites are the zero-waste items like the reusable produce bags, instead of using all that plastic at Central Market, or the reusable products that eliminate the need for cling wrap and foil.

Reviews:

(These have been edited for brevity, grammar and AP Style.)

“I have been getting these boxes for a few years now and love them. Price is great. It’s always hundreds of dollars of great products for $50. Can’t beat that. The source of the products is for a good cause. You’re always getting [products] from companies that are healthy and environmentally conscious, which is really important to me. There’s usually at least one item made from a hard-working community in South Asia that needs the support. I feel like it’s my birthday four times a year. Things I love that I may not have picked out myself. Always useful.

Always great quality.”

“I can’t say enough good things about Causebox. First of all, all the products featured are for a good cause. They’re usually fair trade too. Secondly, every product is useful and beautiful. Typically, any beauty products are natural and organic, which is a huge draw for me [. . .] I love how anything in the box that I don’t like would make an awesome gift.”

15 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

“You both can feel good knowing that each seasonal box received gives back and supports a number of causes for the season.

We pride ourselves on connecting our members to brands that share our vision for creating well-made, useful products that are made responsibly,” according to the website alltrue.com about gifting a membership.

The company recently rebranded to the name Alltrue “because we needed a name that better represented our mission: to build a community that brings truth, kindness, and goodness to everything we do,” according to its website. With the rebrand, it aims to make intentional living more accessible.

In the bottom of each box, you will find a booklet that introduces each product and the brand’s story behind the product. For example: “Among other things, Alltrue has helped develop and empower a womenled artisan cooperative in Jaipur, India — which employs thousands of female artisans, and creates several hundred thousand products per year,” Kelly says.

Also in the booklet are healthy earthfriendly recipes and ideas for do-it-yourself, eco-friendly projects. And as someone who signed up for the Causebox at the beginning of the pandemic for a little self-care treat, I’m always pleasantly surprised when I find the box on the doorstep and unfold what is inside. I also love reading the booklet about what people around the world create to do their part to make the world a better place.

And if there is something I can’t use, they make great gifts for others.

- Jocelyn Tatum

[WORTH] R E A D I N G

Nonprof it News The latest journalism juggernaut is worth a read.

By Jennifer Casseday-Blair Photos by Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report

Educate, Engage and Empower the Public

16

Fort Worth Report’s government and accountability reporter, Jessica Priest, leaves no stone unturned. If something unethical is going on, she’s got the experience and intuition to bring it to light. As a vehicle for news delivery in Fort Worth, she says this recently launched enterprise promises to produce objective local journalism that informs public decision-making, addresses the community’s citizens’ quality of life and holds policymakers accountable. “Fort Worth Report’s main objective is to educate, engage and empower the public.

We aren’t competing with other news sources.

We’re filling the gaps in coverage,” Jessica says.

Before her role at the Fort Worth Report, Jessica most recently worked as an investigative reporter for USA TODAY. “We helped count COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes when the federal government had not started doing so yet,” Jessica says. She has earned dozens of awards for her work. Many of her other stories, including an in-depth piece about a lack of mental health care in the rural community, have spurred public officials to address larger problems in the community.

FORTWORTHREPORT.ORG

Fort Worth Report’s main objective is to educate, engage and empower the public.

We aren’t competing with other news sources. We’re filling the gaps in coverage” -JESSICA PRIEST

“We realize that journalism is a public service.

In the future, I will be exploring such topics as redistricting, public housing and the water district,” she says. The Fort Worth Report is free to anyone who accesses its primary digital channels.

So why is this nonprofit news organization worth a read? Because its nonprofit economic model keeps the content out of the hands of big advertisers, allowing it to operate independently, and it keeps our local government in check.

WHERE I LIVE

17 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

A R T S A N D C U LT U R E

H E A LT H LOCAL GOVERNMENT

BUSINESS

E D U C AT I O N

[WORTH] T R Y I N G

Pass the Salt

By Jennifer Casseday-Blair Photos by Amber Shumake

A Natural Remedy That Provides Relief

18

S

alt gets a bad rap. It’s often negatively associated with high

blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, but salt can use its power for good. Salt therapy has been practiced in some form or another for centuries to improve physical and mental health. In fact, the ancient Greeks used salt-based remedies as early as 460 B.C. Speleotherapy, dry salt therapy, hospitals existed in 19th-century Italy, and in the 1800s a Polish doctor first noticed that salt mine workers had fewer respiratory conditions than other miners. This led to the creation of popular salt caves and chambers across Europe through the early 1960s.

“Try this for a few sessions and you’ll notice a difference.”

DR. SHABANA PARVEZ, Arlington Integrative Medical Center

WANT TO LEARN MORE? SCAN THE QR CODE to HEAR more from Dr. Shabana Parvez, MD about salt therapy.

SALT RETREAT 2552 Stonebrook Parkway, Frisco 469.345.7258 thesaltretreat.com

Locations that offer halotherapy use a dry salt aerosol to spread tiny particles of salt around the room. The salt contains a mixture of different minerals, including sodium chloride, calcium, manganese and sulfates. Active salt rooms use a salt generator to spread the salt around the room, and passive salt spaces include large amounts of salt in the room without a generator to move it around.

Many are wondering if this type of progressive treatment could assist in combating the lingering symptoms of COVID-19 long haulers. The Salt Therapy Association suggests dry salt therapy has antibacterial effects that could be beneficial for COVID-19. However, there is no scientific evidence to suggest that salt therapy is useful for preventing or treating COVID-19, and people should refer to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for help with symptoms associated with the coronavirus.

ARLINGTON INTEGRATIVE MEDICAL CENTER 1420 North Cooper St., Ste. 109 Arlington 76011 817.538.5439 arlingtonintegrative.com

PURELSÓL SPA 1 Resort Way, Boerne 830.537.5010 puresolspa.com

AUSTIN SALT CAVE 2951 Ranch Road, Austin 512.838.6545 austinsaltcave.com

19 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

Used as a natural remedy to provide relief from seasonal allergies, stress, depression, acne and stiffness, advocates for speleotherapy and halotherapy, which is breathing in salty air, suggest the benefits can include: • improved lung function • pollens, toxins and viruses cleared from the lungs and nasal tracts • reduced inflammation • cleaner nasal cavities and sinuses • relief of certain skin conditions

[S U PP ORT] C O F F E E S H O P

No Cream, No Sugar — Black Coffee’s Mia Moss Eastside coffee shop opens months before the pandemic to wide acclaim Story and photos by Sonya Cisneros Wierzowiecki

Eastside Culture and Community

20

There is an eastside convenience store a few blocks down from Texas Wesleyan University on a relatively unremarkable stretch of Vaughn Boulevard. Mia Moss lives five minutes away with her husband and two sons. The neighbors she saw at the convenience store as a child are those she serves today from behind the counters at Black Coffee.

Mia remembers the old Poly Grill, which was a 1940s-era diner that remained a fixture in her community until 2013. When considering a location for Black Coffee, it was important that she find an old building that she could “breathe life into.” The Poly Grill is now home to her award-winning coffee shop.

The Poly Grill used to be painted stark white with blue lettering that matched the floor to

ceiling bars covering the doors. Mia painted it black “to match the name, the owner and the people in the community.” The metal bars are gone.

Cheery illustrations of ice cream and snow cones painted on the windows gave way to a powerful reminder to create positive change.

The stories woven into the shared history of the building now include those of commissioned local artists. The way Black Coffee has been received is simply “overwhelming,” says Mia, who invites everyone to share in exclusive eastside culture that people fight for with pride.

“It’s a feeling,” she says. “It’s friendly. It’s inclusive.”

It could be the way it feels having just missed the soak of an unexpected summer rain as

M i a ’ s P i c ks FAVORITE COFFEE SHOP:

Water Avenue Coffee in Portland, Oregon FAVORITE LOCAL COFFEE SHOP:

Race Street Coffee

21

wanted to. Her mother passed away that year.

“She was one of my coffee partners. We would grab coffee together all of the time,” she says.

Mia is a pour-over kind of girl but enjoys an iced Americano when she has the time to get lost in a book and listen to a record.

Ask about her tattoos, and she lights up in the way an old friend with new gossip would.

A portrait of Frida Kahlo on her arm connects her deeply to her mom and an inside joke they shared during a tender time. It makes her smile.

A purple flower graces her wrist. It’s her husband’s favorite color. Her next tattoo will be a coffee cup.

In her last few years, Mia’s mom encouraged her to do what would make her happy. “She would be proud,” says Mia. “And that keeps me going.”

BL ACK COFFEE | 1417 Vaughn Blvd. | Fort Worth, TX 76105

www.blackcoffeefw.com

OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

she looks out the window while her favorite jazz melody unfolds. Her team of five baristas chooses the playlist, whose selections celebrate their Black, Thai and Hispanic cultures.

It could be the feeling of childlike delight in the unexpectedly delicious first taste of an espresso tonic with raspberry, a recipe inspired

by Thai coffee culture.

She draws inspiration for seasonal beverages from the global coffee community and uses her husband as a taste tester. “He’s our toughest customer,” Mia says with a laugh. They worked together at Seattle’s Best Coffee in Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport after high school.

“Once you work in a coffee shop, you’re hooked.”

In 2010, Mia had no idea that she would open a coffee shop 10 years later or even that she

[S U PP ORT] P L A N T S H O P

Made in the Shade

By Jennifer Casseday-Blair Photo by Amber Shumake

Sharing Their Passion With You

22

S

mall businesses are still recovering from the dark shadow cast by the global pandemic. During isolation, much of the quarantined population sought out unique ways to pass the time, including an unexpected gardening craze. Maybe with the disappearance of intimate encounters came the need for purpose or a desire to connect with nature or the want for work that produced tangible results. Whatever the case, garden retail was one of the few businesses left unscathed in the last year and a half. In fact, it flourished. Burpee Seeds and Plants, which was founded in 1876, reported selling more in the last year than at any time in its history.

“Having a plant is like a therapy. You care for a plant, and in exchange the plant purifies the air and gives you positive energy,” says Romy Venegas, owner of Urban Plantology in Sundance Square. Romy’s passion for plants budded when she first began growing her own herbs at home because she used them in her tea. From there her collection grew. She added succulents and soon other exotic and tropical plants. “One day my son walked in and said, ‘Mom, the plants in the house are getting out of control.’ I knew he was right.

It just so happened that it was the beginning of the pandemic, so we all had a lot of time on our hands. We also had all the materials, so our family decided to build a small greenhouse,” Romy says.

Before opening her storefront in December 2020, Romy and her daughter, Abby, sold their

plants at local farmers markets and pop-up shops. It was then Abby decided hand-painting the plants’ pots would make them distinct.

Customers responded well to the artistic creations. “We are the perfect team. She is worried about how it looks, and I am worried about how the plants are cared for. Abby also handles all of our social media and makes sure the public is aware of our community events,” Romy says.

Urban Plantology hosts weekend community plant-cutting swap events that are free and open to all plant lovers. “If you have an overgrown plant at home, you can make a cutting and then bring it to the event and exchange it with another person.

It’s a neat way to propagate plants. I especially love it when young people and kids come up and want to learn,” Romy says.

And Romy and Abby help new plant parents of all gardening skill levels by sharing comprehensive maintenance tips, including light sensitivity and watering schedules. As far as what the future holds for this mother-daughter duo, they will continue to focus on establishing their roots downtown and cultivating a greater customer base as Fort Worth goes back to business as usual. “There was a big learning curve in opening the business. If anything good came from the pandemic, it was that it slowed things down enough for us to ramp the business up gradually,” she says.

23 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

URBAN PLANTOLOGY 308 N. Main St. | Fort Worth 76102 | FACEBOOK: @urbanplantology1 INSTAGRAM: @urban_plantology

817.879.3341

[S U PP ORT] S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y

A More Conscious Approach to Fashion

24

Clockwise Starting With Top Left: The best-selling Everyday Crop Set in Eden, sustainably handcrafted from organic cotton.

Photographed by Collin Sansom

The LAUDE the Label Showroom in Fort Worth, TX.

Photo courtesy of Laude the Label

The Laurel Jumper in Natural Grid by LAUDE the Label.

Photographed by Collin Sansom

The LAUDE the Label Showroom in Fort Worth, TX.

Photo courtesy of Laude the Label

Laude the Label

The label deserves the praise it gets for its high yet simple design and mission to support women all over the world.

126 S. Main St., Suite #100 | Fort Worth 76104 682.708.3122 | laudethelabel.com

I’ve really grown to love Fort Worth and the community we’ve built here.

The people behind our brand are who make LAUDE the Label what it is, so I truly couldn’t imagine our headquarters being anywhere else.”

-CARLY BURSON

real beauty goes much deeper than the fabric — Carly Burson’s clothes assist in ending family separation due to the economic insecurity facing women by providing them safe employment all over the world, providing livable wages, which opens doors for women who may feel stuck, whether it is an abusive situation or poverty.

After some time in the fashion industry in New York City, Burson’s husband’s company relocated them to Fort Worth nine years ago. Burson put her experience to work in her new home and built her headquarters here. “I’ve really grown to love Fort Worth and the community we’ve built here. The people behind our brand are who make LAUDE the Label what it is, so I truly couldn’t imagine our headquarters being anywhere else,” she says.

She also hopes to make an environmental impact by changing the face of the industry and playing a part in continuing a more sustainable approach to clothes-making while meaningfully employing vulnerable women worldwide.

“The fashion industry and the way the Global North consumes are incredibly harmful to our earth and the makers. It’s my hope that our brand can continue to stand as an example for a more conscious approach.

The world cannot continue to withstand the unethical ways in which most companies conduct business,” Carly says.

She has recently rebranded and moved her store from Magnolia Avenue to Fort Worth’s blooming SoMa District on South Main across from Tinie’s Mexican Cuisine.

- Jocelyn Tatum

OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

J.Crew’s line Madeworthy recently picked up the Fort Worth line LAUDE the Label for its Hepburn-esque cuts and colors like white, black and turmeric. But the

25

[R E A DER ’S R EVEAL]

THE BIGGEST THING

A Place to Be Heard

26

I took away from the pandemic WAS...

“FAMILY, FRIENDS and FAITH really are the most cherished things in my life.”

“I AM BLESSED to be alive.”

- S U S A N W.

“How to SLOW DOWN and enjoy the time we have with our loved ones...and how much money I was spending socially eating & drinking.”

- ALICIA S.

- MARIA H.

“The importance of SELF-CARE. It’s important to take time to reflect, pray meditate- whatever you need to center yourself and focus on your own well-being.”

- JULIE A.

“The biggest thing I have learned during this pandemic is SELF DISCOVERY. I have always been an individual that would always place everyone before myself. During the pandemic I learned that as much as I give, I do not receive and it hurt.

To know that you give so much emotionally to those you care about and you get nothing from them. I’ve also learned my people pleasing habit not healthy at all has affected a lot in my life not in a positive way. So, at the end of it all I learned that I need to fix myself figure out what I deserve and that I’m worthy of Love and success no matter what others may not think I deserve. An interesting journey.”

- LEAH M.

READER’S REVEAL

is a section within our magazine dedicated to our readers.

For each issue we want you to voice your opinions and share your thoughts with us.

SCAN THE QR CODE to answer our issue 2 question.

ONETOKNOWMAGAZINE.COM @onetoknowmagazine.com

27 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

A place to be heard

[C RA F T] C O V E R A R T I S T

LAYERS

By Jocelyn Tatum

Women of Fort Worth Who Inspire

28

She often doodles in her notepad using markers from Australia that resemble highlighters and paints colorful worlds in layers.

It’s meditative for her. But she used to use dark colors, which she would say reflected the existential phase she went through, immigrating from Mexico at 10 years old. She can’t pinpoint a specific time when she picked up her first bright marker or jar of neon paint, but one day about eight years ago something “clicked,” and her art forever changed.

Her mom is also a painter and had a bunch of art materials lying around in the garage. Mariell found an odd-shaped piece of cardboard about 2 feet by 2 feet. The beige material was bland and ugly to her kaleidoscopic mind, and she wanted to bring it to life with the vibrant colors she remembers from her childhood in Mexico. “I got all of these paints out and

MARIELL guzman

www.bymariell.com

her mom saw it, she said that Mariell is never selling it — she’s keeping it.

Today, her work is made up of countless layers of other works she’s developed, so when we asked her to design the cover of One To Know Magazine’s first issue, she created a

she says she was creating more pattern-based, geometric mandala-like shapes. She found that this abstract process was even more meditative for her than the former because of the way she says her mind works.

“It was the most colorful piece I had made,” she says. “It looked like this landscape, constellation explosion.” And the moment

visual representation of her journey as an artist, showing how her work has evolved over the course of her creative life. “I realized that’s what I need to do for this. So, I’m creating a collage in a way where all the different color areas have a subtle layer on top of various paintings, drawings [and] murals I’ve done over the last eight years,” she says.

29 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

painted on the floor with more flowy kind of techniques [and] in terms of letting go of control of everything in the process,” she says.

She painted the piece in a few hours, and her mom was like, What? It was different from what her mom was used to seeing. Before that

BIG DREAMS, BRIGHT FUTURE “Outtakes” by Shilo Urban

“My favorite thing to do is to experiment with new things and get unexpected results because I don’t know what the medium is going to do … that’s when I get the most excited.” With the soul of an explorer and a passion for experimentation, Guzman has bold ideas for the future:

One of my dream murals is to paint the inside of a pool. I love the idea of someone experiencing the mural when it’s distorted by the water and constantly changing. It would almost become like an installation at that point, because it’s never the same at any second.”

I really want to design textiles and work with a fashion designer to create a whole line.

I like the idea of art that’s functional. When somebody wears art as a statement piece and it gives them confidence, I think that’s a very special kind of bond that you can make with that person.”

I love marine biology and am a huge advocate for coral reef conservation. I’d love to create some kind of installation with the dead coral, to ‘bring it back to life’ in a way — maybe even in the ocean, working with marine biologists.”

I want to start getting more into augmented reality. I think it’s really interesting how AR can completely push the limits of how you experience a painting or a mural or anything.

I love the idea of these multiple realities — it’s such an awesome time right now for art.”

Each issue we ask a local artist to design our cover, and we write about what inspired her design here in the Craft section of OTK magazine. Mariell happened to be our cover profile and our artist for the first issue’s cover.

If you are interested in designing one of our covers, email art@onetoknowmagazine.com.

Mariell Guzman photo and digital illustrations

[ O N E

T O

K N O W ]

Her Journey to Now

30

Story Intrepid abstract artist

Mariell Guzman

paints her own language bringing others joy.

By Shilo Urban

[ O N E

T O

K N O W ]

31 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1 Photos by Linda Ho

[ O N E

Her Journey to Now

32

T O

Happy blue squiggles burst into life beside flashes of yellow and wavering greens. Red and purple skip together holding hands. Feral pinks frolic through a lucid daydream with colors so bright they pop out and hover. Welcome to Mariell Guzman’s world, an exuberant visual playground that vibrates with energy and hums with happiness. Her colors wiggle, flutter, shimmy and bounce. Inspired by nature and imbued with childlike wonder, her expressive imagery sparks joy — a lot of it.

Mariell’s fun-loving murals are blooming across North America from Memphis to Miami to Mexico City. Fort Worth claims the largest collection of her handiwork, which adds a spirited verve to Sundance Square, The Foundry District and Tulips music venue (to name a few). She’s one of Pepsi’s “Texas Tastemakers” and has a slew of brands like Samsung and 7-Eleven lining up at her door. While the 27-yearold is known for her murals, she also experiments with mixed-media paintings, installations, sculptures, illustrations, apparel and plants.

Photo Top: Mariell Guzman as a child doodling before bed. She fell asleep almost every night with her marker and paper in hand.

Photo Bottom: Mariell’s first abstract piece.

Mariell Guzman Photos

K N O W ]

“I like finding ways to make all these different forms coexist together in harmony, to create an experience that can take someone to another place and make them feel happier,” says Mariell, a Mexican-American artist who immigrated to the U.S. as a child. Today, her murals transport countless viewers to whimsical worlds far and wide.

But it all began with one little girl’s search for a space where she belonged.

Growing up in a small village in Michoacán, Mexico, Mariell’s childhood was saturated in lively colors: pink houses, vivid blue skies, tart green tomatillos. Marigolds glowed. Red chiles blazed.

Kaleidoscopic banners of papel picado (cut-paper decorations) floated above the plaza. Rooted in pre-Columbian traditions and a sun-blessed environment, Mexican culture’s profound connection with color reflects its natural warmth and vibrancy.

It’s revealed in Mexico’s ancient relics and modern architecture, folk art and food — and in its people.

“It’s a very bold culture in many ways,” she explains.

“We’re very emotional and love to express ourselves passionately. We feel very deeply and want to be loud in life and bring joy to each other. Why stick to a white house when you could have bright yellow?”

Mariell left that world behind at the age of 10 when she moved to North Texas with her parents and two older siblings. “I had to learn a new language and completely adapt, and basically reinvent myself to try and fit in,” she remembers. “Growing up away from family is really weird.” She didn’t see some of her relatives for years, standing on the sidelines as her friends flitted away on the weekends to visit cousins and grandparents. When she did go back to Michoacán, it wasn’t quite the same. “I was forgetting Spanish. I had an accent that was not Mexican, and my family would make fun of me. I didn’t fit in there anymore either ... it was rough.”

[ O N E

T O

K N O W ]

33 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1 Photos by Linda Ho

[ O N E

Her Journey to Now

34

T O

Mariell was caught between two cultures, two languages, two homes. Feeling out of place and misunderstood, she struggled to make sense of her shifted existence. Questioning her identity became “a constant,” and she embarked on a search for answers in the deepest realms. “I grew up Catholic in Mexico and went to Catholic school until the fourth grade.

Everything I learned was always focused around God. And then when I moved to the U.S. and went to public school for the first time, nothing I learned went back to the idea of God. I was like, WHAT? I started getting really curious about other religions and philosophies when I was very young.”

K N O W ]

She explored Buddhism and dabbled in quantum theory, fascinated by the possibilities of alternate realities. She dove into the nothingness of “very depressing” existentialism, which affected her creative output. “All the art that I was making when I was a teenager was very dark … a lot of dark colors and quotes from what I was reading,” Mariell says. “I think when you’re learning about religion and philosophy, you’re trying to find what gives you purpose.”

Her quest would soon pay off. “Through all that searching and staying up all night thinking about life, I realized: Art was the one thing that gave me purpose.

It made me feel at peace, or in this meditative state, which I feel like is a goal that every human is always searching for.” At the time, she was unaware that her art was also helping her deal with the challenges of adapting to her new home. “It was something I didn’t really process until later in life, in terms of why I was so obsessed with making art every day — especially when I started getting into more abstract art.”

Abstract art captivated Mariell but confounded others, including those close to her. “I’m the only one in my family that branched out into abstract. My mom, my sister and my brother are all also artists.

My brother does more surrealistic art, my sister does

[ O N E

K N O W ]

35 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

more impressionistic, and my mom does realistic — and then I just went full-out,” she laughs. “It was like — what happened to her? Why? I don’t understand.

But abstract is what drew me in. I became obsessed.”

Empowered by the no-limits freedom of the genre, Mariell used color, shape and form to create a new world for herself — finally, a place where she belonged. “I felt the most comfortable whenever I was painting, like I could just be myself. It was my own form of therapy, where I could find peace and find my own identity. People — my parents and everyone — would say they didn’t understand it, but it didn’t matter because this was my language. This is where I felt safe.”

It wasn’t long until the others came around.

Mariell’s world made them feel safe and happy, too. “I didn’t know that I could actually do that for other people, because my art was just for me,” she says. Spreading joy through her work began as a pleasant side effect, but now it drives her — and has launched her career like a rocket ship.

Being a professional painter wasn’t a childhood dream. “I love science and actually wanted to be a doctor,” she says. “I didn’t even think that you could be an artist. I just knew I loved to draw and had this creative side.” She filled notebooks with doodles, tried dance and pottery lessons, and excelled in art classes at Allen High School. Realizing her potential to have a creative career, Mariell enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin for studio art, a move questioned by her parents (who still hoped for a doctor in the family). “They were not thrilled,” she admits. “But they were just kind of scared, like: ‘You can’t make a living painting. Maybe if you came from a really wealthy family with all the connections, and they could just fund you. But you can’t do that. That’s for privileged people.’”

Even her brother, a successful motion graphic designer, wasn’t convinced. “He’d tell me that digital art was the future, and that’s where the money is.

T O

He’s right; there’s a lot of demand for that. When I was in college, he would say, ‘Why are you still going to school for painting? You’re wasting your time.’ But in a very loving, caring way,” she smiles. Despite their misgivings, Mariell’s family always supported her.

“They know that I’m a very hard worker, and they trusted me. And I was going to do it, no matter what.

I had to pay for my own school, so I was going to do what I wanted. If I failed, great — but I was the one investing in myself. I just needed to go for it.”

Above: Two of Mariell’s favorite photos of her and her mom painting murals.

Mariell Guzman photos

[ O N E

Her Journey to Now

36

T O

K N O W ]

[ O N E

T O

K N O W ]

37 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2018, she landed a plum paid internship in Fort Worth at M2G Ventures.

The commercial real estate company commissions large murals for its development projects, and they chose Mariell to make her mark on their home neighborhood of The Foundry District. Using spray paint as her primary medium, she created a massive mural at the Grand Berry Theater — her first. It covers an entire side of the building and has since become an icon of the city’s flourishing public art scene.

“Mariell is a true creative genius,” says Katie Murray, Chief Creative at M2G Ventures. “I was first drawn to Mariell through her smaller scale printmaking portfolio. Her compositional skills and ability to work with so many bright and rich colors in an abstract format is unmatched.”

She didn’t just find a wall to paint in Fort Worth; she found a community. “That’s so vital to an artist,” she says. “It’s helped me to keep going. You believe in each other. Everyone has a show, and everyone goes and supports. Now things are finally getting more stable for me, but for the first two and a half years after I graduated, it was constant chaos. I was always worried about money or thinking I couldn’t do something.” But her newfound tribe was there to remind her that she has everything it takes to be successful. “It definitely helped me to be stronger and more fearless, and to not let anxiety or self-doubt get in the way.” Fort Worth also gave Mariell space to grow. “There’s plenty of room for anybody to come and succeed. I just had a feeling as soon as I started hanging out — I love it here, the people and everything. I knew it was where I could start to develop my career.”

She’s had a studio in downtown Fort Worth for the last three years, splitting her time between her space there and her home in Dallas — and living in both. “I spend the night in my studio all the time. I used to literally sleep on the floor. I have all these foam sculptures that I make, so I would just use them as pillows,” Mariell laughs. “But now I have a little futon, so it’s much better.” The nocturnal artist often works until 4 a.m., powered by coffee and music. “I always listen to music. I was in an orchestra growing up — I played the viola. I want to get back into it, that whole other form of expression and escape has always been amazing.” She prefers instrumental music: classical, chill electronic or ambient. “I don’t like to listen to lyrics when I’m painting because I get distracted.”

Photo by Linda Ho; Digital Illustration by Mariell Guzman

[ O N E

Her Journey to Now

38

T O

K N O W ]

[ O N E

T O

K N O W ]

39 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

But Mariell no longer has to bounce back and forth across the DFW metroplex; she moved to Fort Worth in September to focus on her studio work. “I’m really excited,” she says. “I’ve been mostly doing mural stuff nonstop, and I haven’t had much time to do my smaller work. It’s just so nice to go to the studio. I don’t have a deadline; I can just play around. I don’t have to show clients my work and ask them what they think.” She’s learned to be patient with her studio art. “It’s not a product. It’s almost like a pet or a child. You have to find the right people who are going to adopt it and take it in and nurture it forever.”

For now, the young artist is taking a deep breath — and giving thanks. “It’s been the craziest last couple of months … I’m honestly still processing all of this. I feel very lucky that I’ve had a lot of brands and clients and people believe in my work. I feel like this is one of the best times ever for artists, especially women artists and artists of color. In the history of art, our work hasn’t really been represented in museums or galleries or collected and seen as of value. I feel like if I were doing this maybe even 10 years ago, my experience would be very different. But I just happened to be here at a time when everyone is like: You bring value to the world.”

Fate may be smiling on Mariell Guzman, but she certainly didn’t stumble upon success. Her upended childhood and turbulent teen years provided plenty of paths to explore as she searched for her true purpose and identity. In the end, she never did find herself — she created herself. And she continues to do so with every splash of color she paints and every joyful moment she inspires. “I feel complete because I can leave some kind of positive impact on the world,” she says. “I want to do this every single day.”

Photo by Linda Ho; Art by Mariell Guzman

[ O N E

Electric Potential

40

T O

W A T C H ]

PEGGY CARR At 15 years old, Peggy Carr is blazing a trail for the future of females in electrical engineering.

Fifteenyear-old Peggy Carr ranks No. 1 in discus among freshmen athletes in the state and made history as the first Young Women’s Leadership Academy athlete to compete beyond the district level in UIL sports. “This year will be my third year going to nationals. I plan on picking up the hammer and javelin in the future,” she says. She also plays volleyball and competes in shot put. But that’s not all.

By Jennifer Casseday-Blair Photos by Amber Shumake

With her mom, dad and grandfather all being engineers, it seemed like a natural path for Peggy to follow. Math has always been a subject she loves. “I just took precalculus through the OnRamps program at UT Austin, which helps prepare you for college courses.

I am also involved in robotics, which I think will help me as an electrical engineer,” she says.

[ O N E

T O

W A T C H ]

I wouldn’t describe Peggy as a rising star.

I’d say she’s a star already.

41

TAMARA ALBURY, principal at Fort Worth ISD’s YWLA

OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

Despite efforts being made to increase the number of females working in STEM fields, only 14% of all of those working in the engineering field are women, according to a 2019 report from the Department of Labor. Fort Worth ISD freshman student Peggy Carr has her sights set on changing those statistics.

During the pandemic, many students struggled to keep up and adapt to virtual learning, but Peggy stayed the course. “Peggy was able to maintain nearly perfect academic standing,” Tamara Albury, principal at Fort Worth ISD’s YWLA says. “She didn’t just get all A’s, she got 100s.”

Peggy credits her ability to handle the pressures of being a student athlete and balance her time between her family, relationships with friends and community service to a higher power. “I have faith in God, so I really trust him to get me through the difficult things that may come. The scripture Philippians 4:13 means a lot to me. ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,’” Peggy says.

With those grades, she has her eyes on Princeton, Texas Tech, North Carolina Agricultural, Technical State University and schools with top engineering programs. “Right now, I am focused on making good grades, becoming valedictorian and being able to get scholarships to go to a good college through hard work. And win state in track and field,” she says.

“I wouldn’t describe Peggy as a rising star. I’d say she’s a star already. Not only does she get great grades, but she is an accomplished athlete, really involved with community service and a chess whiz. All her teachers are impressed by her leadership in the classroom amongst her peers and how driven she is. Peggy is just a well-rounded kid,” Tamara says.

But Peggy is still a typical teenager — she loves pepperoni pizza and M&M’s. “Peggy won’t go anywhere without her headphones and cell phone. They are truly extensions of her body,” her father Louis Carr says.

[ O N E

Advocate on the Rise Women of Fort Worth who Inspire

42

T O

W A T C H ]

Blaize L a F l e u r

By Jill Bold

Photo by Amber Shumake

Blaize LaFleur, 21-yearold political science junior at the University of Texas at Arlington, stood before a committee, calm and determined on the outside, strong but uncertain on the inside.

Would this administration trust her leadership and consider her request or turn their backs on her? She presented ample and compelling research to support her call for change, and all she needed was for the people in charge to act with her in collaboration.

LaFleur was serving as student body president in 2020, the first Black president elected in 34 years, carrying out the last of her duties and the final chapter of her mission to provide a more inclusive environment for her fellow students by passing Resolution 1825, a bill that recognizes the needs of marginalized women and children.

Its passing would require the name of Davis Hall at the university to be changed, removing the namesake of the controversial figure E.E. Davis from the building. This resolution was introduced in 2018 and worked on by LaFleur when she was a senator for the university in 2019, seeing it through later as a committee chair and finally as student body president in 2021.

LaFleur presented evidence that Davis espoused racist beliefs and said she knew changing the building’s name would be a positive step toward a more inclusive campus. The committee agreed, and she finished her term as president with a victory. She said she felt energized by listening to the needs and desires of the community and acting to serve them.

“It kind of just fueled my fire,” LaFleur says.

Her term was characterized by her willingness to listen to the people she served and uphold their interests. During her presidency, when she called upon the university administration to implement a pass/fail option at the behest of her

[ O N E

T O

W A T C H ]

fellow students, she put in the work to make the case.

This time, the committee considering her request did not go forth with her suggestion, and she reflected on how she could use this experience to find ways to serve more effectively, to take setbacks in stride and to maintain persistence and focus.

LaFleur grew up with her mother and grandmother, and both emphasized the importance of getting an education. Her drive for education led her to the Fort Worth area, where she continues her studies and wants to draw upon her experiences in student government to advocate for her community in a grassroots way.

“I’m trying to figure out what I’m best at so that I could be of service to my community,” she says. “I want to give back to the community. I want to impact people’s lives.

Real people. Not through performative legislation. I want to talk to real community members and say, ‘Oh yeah, you want to know how to do XYZ’ or get these resources or your kid through college? Or figure out how to cope with housing and security? Whatever it is they need.”

LaFleur is a young woman who is always seeking growth opportunities and certainly is one to watch.

43 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

I’m trying to figure out what I’m best at so that I could be of service to my community”

[ P R O F I L E ]

The Women Who

Women of Fort Worth Who Inspire

44

Run the Show

With 80% of the leadership roles at the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra held by women, the organization maintained its balance while riding the unpredictable wave of the global pandemic, and it recently passed the baton to a new music director.

By Jennifer Casseday-Blair

Azucena Torres Photo

[ P R O F I L E ]

Becky Tobin acts as FWSO’s vice president of Artist Operations and chief operating officer.

Her job entails overseeing concert production, which includes everything from how the stage looks to hiring guest artists. “Two words I would use to describe our team are comradery and collaboration. Our president and CEO Keith Cerney is a huge proponent for hiring females for these roles and is 100% open to listening to everyone’s different perspectives. I think that’s why we are so successful,” she says.

For the last year and a half, the FWSO’s greatest objective has been on how to keep the music playing in a time when many performing arts organizations closed their doors, and they did. “We were able to keep the orchestra and staff fully employed throughout the pandemic. My main concern was how to keep the orchestra safe. I had to figure out how to have them on stage socially distanced in a safe configuration, which is especially difficult for the musicians because they rely heavily on their hearing to perform together,” Tobin says.

Passing the Baton “MRS. BASS WANTS TO TAKE THE FWSO TO THE NEXT LEVEL AND LOVES STRONG FEMALE EXECUTIVES AND BRINGING THEIR STYLE OF COMMUNICATION TO THE TABLE TO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN,” ADAMIAN SAYS.

FWSO intensified its efforts during the last 18 months to name a new conductor and music director following Miguel Harth-Bedoya stepping down and concluding his 20th year as the organization’s artistic leader. Robert Spano became music director designate April 1, 2021, and served in this capacity until he assumes the title of music director on Aug. 1, 2022. Spano is the 10th music director in the history of the FWSO. “We are thrilled that Robert Spano is at our artistic helm. It’s a major coup for the orchestra. Now that we are back in Bass Hall, he can deliver on a season that we’ve planned for post-pandemic audiences,” Tobin says.

45 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

espite making up a majority of audiences and the largest percentage of employees in the arts, female presence as artistic leaders remains low or nonexistent, according to research published in Women in Arts Leadership in 2018. Conventional wisdom says that as women advance, they eventually hit a glass ceiling in the performing arts that prevents them from reaching senior leadership positions, says Mercedes T. Bass, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra board chair.

“This is not the case at the FWSO. We have had strong, intelligent women in top leadership positions going back at least 40 years … The fact that 80% of our senior staff are women represents our president’s and my commitment to leveling the playing field on the stage, podium and the administration offices,” Mercedes says. FWSO’s team of women plays a role as important as each note in a symphony, which creates a sophisticated melody.

Chief marketing officer Carrie Ellen Adamian is responsible for all FWSO communications and overall branding. She also handles ticket sales and marketing as it relates to education, public events and new programming.

“Mrs. Bass wants to take the FWSO to the next level and loves strong female executives and bringing their style of communication to the table to make things happen,” Adamian says.

[ P R O F I L E ]

Leveling the Playing Field on the Stage

46

Vice President of Development, Julie Baker , works with FWSO donors and helps their gifts come to life through directly impacting concerts, programs and initiatives. She believes that the organization’s resilience following the pandemic can partially be attributed to its transparency and openness with donors. “These three simple tips are what have helped me be the most successful in my career: Be Truthful. Be Humble. Solve problems, don’t create them,” Baker says.

Jacque Carpenter , vice president of Human Resources, says that flexibility has been paramount in keeping tempo within the organization. “Early in my education, I became interested in understanding every person’s point of view and how they interact together. As a human resource executive, this has enabled me to lead change in office environments and help teams

evolve. In the last 18 months, change and flexibility have been paramount to our organization’s success and will continue to be our new normal,” she says.

Looking ahead, the FWSO leading ladies say they will carefully consider the current and potential role it can play in engaging a community that is socially polarized. The purpose of leadership, in many ways, is not to hold an organization in place but to constantly nurture it toward what it can and should be.

“FWSO’s five-year vision involves setting diversity initiatives in place. We will be bringing in living composers, new works and new voices of all backgrounds of music. Life is more beautiful with music. It has played for centuries as a unifier, a universal language,” Adamian says. And that is what the arts have always done for civilization — led the charge in social change through beauty, and this team of women is doing just that.

Lasting Legacy

In June the FWSO received heartbreaking news about the death of Ann Koonsman, longtime president and CEO. “Her passion, hard work and devotion to FWSO and music was unwavering.

Ann will always remain in our hearts, and she will always be a part of the FWSO family,” Bass says.

Koonsman was beloved by everyone from the musicians to the core patron base. “We wanted to honor her for her dedication and her part in the cultural fabric of the organization. Our orchestra played at her memorial service,” Adamian says.

[ P R O F I L E ]

Working Smarter

FWSO female leaders share their professional secrets for success and productivity.

“As a solo mom who is raising 14-year-old twin daughters, I have to compartmentalize. When I walk into my office, my personal life is checked at the door. Well, unless it’s one of the three B’s – bleeding, broken, or not breathing. The inverse is true as well. In the evening, unless it’s an emergency at work, I give all focus to my family.”

— CARRIE ELLEN ADAMIAN, Chief Marketing Officer

— MARIANNE AULD , Board Member and Executive Committee Member

OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

“Act with integrity, work hard, be fair, say thank you, keep an open mind, listen to others, and take responsibility. If you make a mistake, own it, and if someone deserves praise, freely give it.”

47

“Early in my education, I became interested in understanding every person’s point of view and how they interact together. As a human resource executive, this has enabled me to lead change in office environments and help teams evolve. In the last 18 months, change and flexibility have been paramount to an organization’s success and will continue to be in our new normal.”

—JACQUE CARPENTER, VP of Human Resources

“These three simple tips are what have helped me be the most successful in my career: Be Truthful. Be Humble. Solve problems; don’t create them.”

— JULIE BAKER, VP of Development

“I’ve learned in my career that multitasking isn’t a thing I can do well. I know it sounds weird, but I try not to multitask. It makes me less efficient and more likely to make a mistake. When I do something, I give it my full attention. I also make checklists.”

—BECKY TOBIN, VP of Artistic Operations and Chief Operating Office

Karen Almond Photos

[ S H O R T

S T O R Y ]

Realistic Fiction

48

A Short Story by Rebecca Balcárcel Illustrations by Amber Davis

[ S H O R T

wanted the sledgehammer.

Twelve pounds of steel on the end of a thick, hickory rod.

I ran my fingers over the brand name burned into the handle in the Tools section of the home improvement store. I watched light strike the flat planes of its dull silver head. I even hefted it just to feel its weight, its power. My power.

But the YouTube video said no.

The ponytailed couple in “Remove a Wall Like a Pro!” showed how crashing through a wall with a sledgehammer could snag electrical wires or burst a pipe. So much for those reckless demolition scenes on “Property Brothers” or “Flip or Flop.” It turns out you have to be careful.

And careful is something I know about. I’m the person who never paints over a hinge, always measures twice (OK, three times), and definitely turns off the power, even to change a light bulb. My husband calls me thorough; my daughter calls me an uptight, worrywart perfectionist. Being 14, she doesn’t believe in sugar-coating these things. And she’s not entirely wrong.

For example, I’m also this kind of careful: Two days ago, the letter came. The moment I saw the return address, Guatemala, my stomach seized. I dropped the envelope as if battery acid rimmed the edges instead of red, white and blue express stripes. I almost put on dish gloves to lift it to the counter and scootch a corner of it under the wooden fruit bowl. For a while, all I could see was the letter, the letter, the letter until my eyes skittered away, scanned the ceiling, and then fixed on two apples, dented and bruised, in the bowl. Somehow, they annoyed me, maybe because I had bought them Sunday and it was only Wednesday, maybe because everything looks like a symbol when bad news is about to smash through your afternoon and maybe your life. I haven’t touched the letter.

So, I listened with care to the ponytails. I took notes on “Remove a Wall Like a Pro!” I put a big star next to “Clobber a line of load-bearing studs, and your roof could fall in.”

49 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

I

S T O R Y ]

[ S H O R T

S T O R Y ]

Realistic Fiction

50

That’s how I found myself perched on the top step of a pull-down ladder, shining a flashlight into the attic, looking at trusses. Step one was to see whether any of these giant triangles were resting on my wall — the wall I wanted to sledgehammer.

Through dustmotes and between gauzy mounds of blown-in insulation, I could make out the floor plan of the house below. That must be the kitchen.

That must be a bedroom. My wall had to be … yes, between trusses and not under one. Little victory No. 1.

“When are you going to open that letter?” my husband asked, sipping his coffee and scrolling on his phone.

I answered by setting the flashlight gently in a drawer and opening the fridge.

“Isn’t it better to know?”

Michael’s a good guy. Great, in fact. But even he has trouble understanding what it’s like to have family that’s not truly family, to be related to people who know nothing about you, to wish for a bond that DNA doesn’t quite deliver.

I told him early on that I was adopted from Guatemala. It’s a topic that comes up pretty fast

when you look “not from here” and when your Spanish comes out with an American accent. His journalist’s instinct was to ask a dozen questions.

“Were you a baby when you left? Have you ever been to Guatemala? Are your American parents Latino?

When did they tell you, you were adopted?” Soon he laughed at himself. “Sorry. My boss at the paper says curiosity is my superpower, but my friends say it’s my most annoying trait.”

It was slightly amazing that he hadn’t torn into the letter himself.

“Not ready,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow at me but didn’t push.

I flipped the breaker to cut off power to my wall and pulled the cardboard cover off my new drywall saw. I admit it was fun to buy a new tool. Checking out with an item called a Shark 10-2206 Rockeater would make anyone’s day. A 6-inch, diamond-cut blade was almost as good as a sledgehammer.

My next step was to cut through the sheetrock without cutting into any studs or wires coming from outlets and switches. Not too hard. I also needed to cut along the ceiling so that pulling off a piece of drywall wouldn’t pull off the ceiling texture.

[ S H O R T

“I’m going to Ariana’s.”

“Have a good time. Tell her hi from us.” I pulled a pencil from my pocket and marked the location of a stud.

“Mom.” I pretended to concentrate on my pencil mark.

“You have to open it.”

“I will.”

“You’re avoiding it.”

I faced her and found myself surprised again that her height equals mine now. “Yes.” “Well, stop. Your birth mom has something to say.

Don’t you want to hear it?”

51 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

I was on a ladder when Morgan almost phonewalked into it.

“Oh! What’s this doing here?” Her thumb still hovered over the screen.

“This wall is outta here!” I smiled down at her and let my satisfaction glow around the words. I don’t think she noticed this.

“But you always loved disappearing in there.”

“Well, I’m tired of disappearing.”

“But where’s all your stuff going to go?” She pronounced “stuff” like she was itching to say something stronger.

“I have a plan.”

“Of course, you do.” This wasn’t a compliment.

It was true, though. I planned for my craft stuff to relocate to a few places around the house. A glassfront cabinet, a bookshelf, a space I cleared out in the pantry. Instead of being confined, I would spread out. Instead of me fitting in an 8-by-6 rectangle, me would fill the house. Not to crowd out Morgan or Michael, but to include myself in my own home.

When we moved in, I loved the cramped space that my husband called The Her Hall. It let me scrapbook without a toddler underfoot. Lately, though, it felt more like a Her Hole, too dark and narrow. Craft supplies lined one wall, and a worktable set against the other. One end was open, and the other was floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with how-to books, histories of old houses, and a decade of Country Living magazine. OK, so we’d never lived in the country, but those pages inspired. That entire shelf I would turn 90 degrees. Facing out.

“So, what’s with the letter?” Morgan gave me the honor of her full face and not just the top of her head. She’s actually pretty awesome, a word that’s too dated for her, but it’s true. “It’s from Guatemala.”

“Yeah.” I climbed down the ladder. “Want to help out?” I offered her the Rockeater. She managed to resist it and shook her head.

S T O R Y ]

[ S H O R T

Realistic Fiction

52

“It’s complicated.” I didn’t mean this as a cop-out, though I guess it sounded like one. I meant that of course I want to hear it. I meant that I always wanted nothing in the world more than one deep, long conversation with my biological mother. I meant that when I traveled from Dallas to the shores of Lake Atitlán at Morgan’s age, I took every hope of hearing words I’d never heard, in a voice I’d never heard, from a face that looked like mine. But when dreams and reality crash, it makes a sound that echoes for decades. “You go have fun.”

Morgan hugged me goodbye. She hadn’t been as huggy lately, so it surprised me for a second.

“Love you, Mom.” Like I said, she’s actually awesome.

I put on gloves and goggles, then plunged the drywall saw through a wide-open space between studs. I made a line, turned a corner, made a line, turned a corner. The square started to sag. I gave it a tug, and it pulled away with a satisfying crack.

First section of sheetrock off. Little victory No. 2.

It wasn’t that the woman in Guatemala wasn’t nice. She was gentle, kind. She reached out to hold me. But mostly she was sad. Mostly her eyes filled with memories of cruelty. My body was a living scar, proof of pain. Breathing evidence that the rich man whose house she’d worked in had not only taken her body, but her baby. And lied.

S T O R Y ]

Through an interpreter, she’d cried out the story.

My Spanish lessons useless, I’d tried to open my ears wide enough to understand even a phrase of Kaqchikel. He’d raped her and kept her from returning home during pregnancy. She had missed her husband and her other children terribly. When I was born, I was whisked away. They told her I died. She’d asked to hold me, but they’d refused. Until my American parents looked for her a decade later, she’d never heard anything about me. She’d been allowed to return home, was not “charged” for prenatal care, and restarted her regular life. A life without me.

It took the whole afternoon and most of the next day to pull off all the sheetrock on both sides of the wall. Michael offered to help, but I needed to work.

I needed to saw and heft and wipe sweat off my forehead with my glove. The sound of the Rockeater drowned out the sound of my not reading the letter.

I loved the clean look of bare studs.

“Where did you get that?” Michael was openly admiring the thing of beauty in my hands. A reciprocating saw with a 10-inch demolition blade.

Or maybe it was I who was doing the admiring. He was mainly curious, as usual.

“Too bad we can’t keep it, right?”

“Are we talking about a saw or a kitten?” He gave a half-laugh before picking up his book, a biography of a president, it looked like.

[ S H O R T

S T O R Y ]

53 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

“I borrowed it,” I said. “It’s just the thing for cutting through these studs. After they’re down, I’ll pry up the bottom plate. That’ll be it.”

“You go, girl!” Michael winked.

For a moment I thought about pulling off my gloves and teasing him toward the bedroom, but Morgan was due home soon. And the wall was almost gone.

The letter wasn’t.

Studs turn out to be heavy, especially when you are slicing through the bottom or top of one. Michael kept them from falling while I worked the saw. With only one water break and a handful of grapes each, we soon had a stack of two-by-fours. I went to work with a crowbar on the bottom plate, the strip of wood that had held the studs.

No more wall. I bet the ponytails would be proud.

Victory No. 3.

“I love the space, honey,” Michael said. “This was a great idea you had.”

There was plenty left to do — cleaning up, moving the bookshelf, returning the saw — but there it was.

Or there it wasn’t. I found it fun to walk through the line in the air where the wall had stood. I crossed back and forth, feeling like the temperature was cooler or the ceiling was higher. I planted myself on the line between Her Hall and the whole house and spread my arms wide. I looked from one side of the

room all the way to the other. I took up space.

We ate a rare together-supper and talked about how to use the new space and whether to paint the entire living-dining-den area, and if so, what color.

Morgan had opinions and even asked if she could paint her room. She knows how to use a brush. And a hammer. I made sure of that.

She and Michael cleared the table, and I knew what my next project would be.

The letter.

Victory No. 4.

[L I F E] F I N A N C I A L A D V I C E

Fascinating Facts behind Finance: What you know can save you a lot of money

By Gina Lopez

Take Back Control of Your Finances

54

Did you gain the COVID-19 pounds? Better yet,

DID YOU GAIN THE COVID POUNDS IN DEBT? If so, you’re not alone. Everyone was at home with kids eating 10 times a day, and Amazon Prime became our best friend. Or maybe you decided to renovate your home with different DIY projects Pinterest suggested. Guilty. I shopped at Dollar Tree thinking I was “saving” our family money but spent more than $100 each time. Other times, we would drive to the farthest In-N-Out Burger to avoid going home. Regardless of how you coped, our financial household probably needs to be revisited. So where do you start?

Money. That word quickly brings different emotions. It brings excitement and possibilities. Or, for most of us, it brings stress, headaches and avoidance. Growing up, my mom worked multiple jobs to care for my brother and me. During the day she worked at a factory, and at night she’d clean offices.

Payday consisted of watching my mom stash her checks in her sock drawer. Other times we’d be rolling coins to cash at the bank or selling any oddities that can produce some income. When she met my dad, our financial situation changed a bit. Yet the frustration of not having enough remained.

Fast-forward 25 years. I’m teaching people about money with the same challenges as my parents. The truth is, money is a complicated topic, but my mission is to make money fun.

1.

Take a serious look at what subscriptions need to be canceled and don’t justify.

(Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Fortnite bucks, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Audible, to name a few.

That’s about $100

IN

SAVINGS monthly.

L e t ’s Ta l k

Brands

Generic:

ways to save a little money here and there, and she did. Yet many people avoid generic brands. Why? We feel we are sacrificing taste, value or quality to save a few cents.

Which couldn’t be further from the truth. Actually, did you know that the same manufacturing company that makes the mouthwatering Chick-fil-A sauce also makes the Walmart Great Value dressings?

Did you know Great Value peanut butter is made by Peter Pan? Peter Pan peanut butter sells for $4.64 while the Great Value sells

for $2.26. And Great Value white bread is actually made in the same bakery as Sara Lee Bread — 88 cents versus $2.48. That’s over 50% in savings. Yes. Many store brands are actually manufactured under a private label by big-brand companies. You might be thinking, it’s only a few dollars. But over a course of a year, that’s hundreds of dollars. This doesn’t mean you should change everything in your pantry, but maybe start slow and figure out what generic brands you enjoy.

My favorite place to shop is Aldi. The packaging looks the same as the popular brands without the cost.

2.

Check your insurance company for better and updated coverage or pricing (health, car, phone and life). It’s estimated YOU

CAN SAVE $75 that way. Do the same with your phone bill and make sure it matches any new deals they are running.

3.

And my favorite, cut your grocery bill by $100 or more (if you can). Families of

two or four are spending a minimum of $1,000 monthly on groceries, not including eating out.

That’s $1,200 in a year!

THIS LEADS TO A GRAND TOTAL OF

$3,100 IN SAVINGS A YEAR.

55 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

Growing up with a single mom, we rarely bought name brands, whether it was food or clothes. I remember going to my neighbor’s house and being mesmerized by all the yummy name brand chips, dips, Cokes and Little Debbie brownies. Our house had RC Cola or the Shasta brand of soda, and occasionally we had 7UP. We didn’t even go to McDonald’s. Instead, we went next door to get the 99cent burger. Imagine not knowing McDonald’s in today’s world.

Clearly, my mom was finding

Ve r s u s

[L I F E] H U M O R E S S A Y

Normalcy Is Overrated — and Awkward

By Shilo Urban

Illustrations by Amber Davis

Returning to Normal Your Way

56

To my fellow introverts and homebodies, the socially anxious and the uncomfortable-at-parties: Your reprieve is over. It’s time to turn in your hall pass — you know, the COVID-issued carte blanche you’ve been using for the last 18 months to skip events, avoid family get-togethers, and stay home on the weekends. Your get-out-of-jail-free card has expired, and we will now return to our regular programming of stressful holiday gatherings and endless birthday parties — dear God, all the birthday parties.

Buckle up.

Last spring when the world slammed shut, I noticed an odd emotion intertwined with the crippling uncertainty over my capsized income and the gnarling fear of a deadly virus on the loose. I felt relieved.

The lockdown had released me from all of my social obligations. Suddenly, staying in was the new going out. Chilling at home and reading a book on Friday night didn’t make you lame or weird; it made you a hero. While extroverts suffered loudly and scheduled one damn video chat after another, I silently treasured the low-key lifestyle and pretended to have tech issues.

But the quarantine wasn’t just a muchneeded break from a busy schedule — it was total liberation from my social

anxiety. I hadn’t realized how much pressure I put on myself to go out until doing so was no longer an option. I should be more social.

I should ask my friends to hang out more. I should put more effort into dating. I should show up to support good causes and go to church and see my relatives.

57 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

“Suddenly, staying in was the new going out. Chilling at home and reading a book on Friday night didn’t make you lame or weird; it made you a hero.”

Like many introverts in America, I’ve adapted to a culture dominated by extroverts.

In childhood I became aware that my reserved nature and disinclination for group activities were seen as less than ideal— undesirable, even. So, I learned to be more outgoing, more gregarious, more of a team player. But COVID flipped the world on its head. The lockdown gave me permission to be that quiet child again, to free myself from social hangovers and the constant need to recharge my batteries.

Alas, “normalcy” has returned. The extroverts are back in charge, and the calendar is filling up.

Don’t get me wrong, the virus needs to GTFO and stay out. I think we can all agree that no one

ever wants to hear the words “pivot” or “these challenging times” again — or the worst of all, “stay strong.” Might as well live, laugh, love while you’re at it.

[L I F E] H U M O R E S S A Y

Returning to Normal Your Way

58

As we’ve learned how to manage the virus a bit, we now have to make it through a brutal reentry to public life after an extended era of isolation. My social skills are out of practice, and I’m more unsure of myself than ever. I’m not one of those people who toned up their abs and learned how to speak Italian during the pandemic; I’m one of those people who ate shredded cheese straight from the bag and taught myself Roku. Will I even remember how to hold a conversation? What about hugging and handshaking? Are we going to be stuck doing the stupid elbow bump forever? Are we introducing ourselves with pronouns now? Does this hat make me look like a psychopath?

Small talk will be more nightmarish than ever because no one has been doing anything but working and/or trying to survive. People didn’t go on trips; they moved in with their parents. They didn’t get a great promotion; they accepted a pay cut. They didn’t meet any

interesting new people; they conducted 95% of their conversations with their wiener dogs (OK, that was me). After you agree how “crazy” and “weird” things have been, what else is there to say? You can share your vaccine status (Pfizer!) and relay your progression toward normalcy (I’m eating indoors at restaurants, but no concerts yet) — and then do it all again with the next person you haven’t seen in a year.

But I confess: I’m looking forward to it. I’ve missed you. I’m ready to awkwardly reconnect with the people that I care about, to fidget at parties, and hide in the bathroom and leave early. Because all those COVID-y nights at home have given me a new acceptance of my socially anxious, introverted nature: It’s OK — daresay, even heroic at times. So, I’ll write my own hall pass with permission to stay in when I feel like it, to go out when I truly care, and to give the quiet little girl inside of me plenty of time to dream.

Find us every SATURDAY at the Clearfork Farmer’s Market

NOT YOUR AVERAGE GRANOLA! N EW B LEN D

TRINITY TRAIL MIX

ORIGINAL (pecans and walnuts)

OR

ALMOND

Both blends available in Gluten Free/Vegan

crunchygirlgranola.com Selling locally at NEIGHBOR’S HOUSE GROCERY in downtown and THE TABLE in the Near Southside area.

SEASONAL BLENDS:

Chocolate, Pumpkin Spice, Butterscotch & Gingersnap.

For all your real estate needs.

Voted 360West B est Real E state Agent 2020

Molly Taylor, Realtor | 225.571.4775 | molly.taylor@williamstrew.com

OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

We offer 2 standard blends

59

Gluten Free/Vegan Low in sugar High in protein

[BE W EL L] M I N D F U L N E S S

Slowing Down Slow Down and Enjoy Life

60

The gift of time

By Jocelyn Tatum Illustrations by Amber Davis

W

e eat fast, move fast, breathe fast, type fast and drive fast. We even view art fast — more on that in a bit.

Society tends to get lost in all the momentum.

Yes, even yoga instructors like Kila Renneker at Fort Worth’s Indigo Yoga get in a rush, and when she does she may spill her coffee or break a glass. She forgets things. Her mind races. But when she slows down, she observes and feels prepared. She remembers to breathe, something even the Apple Watch has started encouraging us to do several times a day.

Even before the world was forced to slow down in 2020, it seems organizations all over Fort Worth were already taking notes of this frenzied pace and responding with movements such as Slow Yoga, Slow Art, Slow Food, and now, the Slow Garden experience at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. Their aligned hope is that it will encourage guests to pause, breathe and bring intention and awareness to their experience whether it is art viewing, eating or experiencing nature.

61 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

The slowing down senseis at the Indigo Yoga studio echo this with their emphasis on slow yet powerful movements in the slow flow classes. They still promote vigorous exercise, but slowing the body makes the mind more focused and calmer.

Outside the yoga studio, when Kila slows down to reach for that coffee cup, chances are it won’t spill, and she will enjoy it that much more. So when the pace of life slows down, Kila says she feels it becomes more purposeful.

“Slow flow yoga allows you the gift of time, as does slowing down in life. It’s as if time stands still, and that feels really, really good.”

Slowing down outside the studio is also necessary for Taylor Matus. Like Kila, she’s one of Indigo Yoga’s longtime teachers and began to notice that just outside the studio walls her hurried thoughts could lead to hurried and distracted actions. Slowing down her body slows down her mind and vice versa. But in order to save time, she notices people haul ass all over town because they’re overbooked, or multitasking while on their phones, which research shows isn’t actually possible, she says. “For what? When? Life is right now, and it’s steadily passing. Wonderful things are

[BE W EL L] M I N D F U L N E S S

Slow Down and Enjoy Life

62

happening all around us all the time, so [slowing down] is a worthy goal to pursue,” Taylor says.

Parallel to practice in the studio, she says engaging in a slower asana practice helps people move from intention versus hurried momentum, which allows the opportunity to reset that tendency for habitual speed. “We start to breathe deeper, notice more and regain a sense of ease,” Taylor says.

Fort Worth Modern Art Museum tour programs coordinator Michael Moore says research shows that the average visitor views art in museums for 17 seconds, so museums around the world are finding ways to ask their visitors to slow down with something called “Slow Art.” The Modern’s Slow Art takes the form of a monthly, 30-minute appointment with a significant work from the collection. After silently and closely examining the work, a volunteer docent guides a group discussion about the artist’s background, aims and methods. But the primary emphasis is the effect on the viewer, he says. “Slow Art helps return us

“Slow flow yoga allows you the gift of time, as does slowing down in life. It’s as if time stands still, and that feels really, really good.”

— yoga instructor Kila Renneker

to a time before easy answers, when we can be surprised by something unexpected.”

At places like The Modern or the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens, first-time visitors can find the experience overwhelming with so much to do and see. But by slowing down, they can have a calm experience while also getting the most impact. “With its close focus on a single work, ‘Slow Art’ offers visitors permission to develop a personal reaction,” he says.

Kila would also encourage her yogis to take pause and see other places in their lives where slowing down could make a difference, to enhance it in a positive way, whether it is eating, cooking, driving, lovemaking or conversations.

“I love the quote by Nanette Mathews: ‘If you’re always racing to the next moment, what happens to the one you’re in.’”

SCAN THE QR CODE to to LEARN more about slow art at the Modern.

63 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

[BE W EL L] G R A T I T U D E

Why Gratitude Works How being thankful helps you focus on what’s real and keeps you in the present.

By Jade Emerson Hebbert Illustrations by Amber Davis

Happiness, Balance, Simplicity, Freedom

64

I

n a modern world filled with constant comparison, instant gratification and success seeking, gratitude has lost its place in the collective consciousness. And yet, our modern existence of burnout and the it’s-never-enough mentality require a return to gratitude even more. Bringing gratitude back into everyday practice, whether it is through gratitude lists, journaling or leaving index cards with one thing you’re grateful for written on it, brings people into the present. And that is a good place to be.

“Gratitude begins as an internal state in our heart and overflows into the way we interact with others, our environment, and perspective on the way we live,” Allison Dillard of Fort Worth Counseling and Intervention says.

“With gratitude we are able to overlook small frustrations and treat bigger problems in a more gracious way because we are taking in the difficult problems with a balanced perspective.”

Thoughts have a way of creating our reality; thus, choosing positive thinking leads toward

65 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

forward movement. Gratitude works in twofold, by both accepting the responsibility of recognizing our own perspective while also releasing the self-placed pressure to control every situation.

“We often have a false sense of guilt in holding responsibility that isn’t ours to hold. Gratitude doesn’t mean a chipper attitude all of the time or having to smile at everyone who walks by.

Instead, gratitude can be the path we choose to walk in the midst of grief and suffering, the hope we cling to in continuing to live though we have lost what’s important to us, and the guide for the intentional path we walk as we move through life,” she says.

Grateful living is not something that follows the achievement of a goal, success or happiness — it is the catalyst for mindful, positive thinking that begins by accepting and appreciating the present, she says. But this is not the same as delusional positivity. It is based on what actually is. When people list their blessings, they are listing things that are true.

When people list their worries and fears, they are listing events that have never happened and probably never will.

“I have often heard people say they feel guilty for acknowledging their pain because they have

so much or there are other people in the world that are suffering more,” Allison says. “Each individual’s pain and traumas are different, but all are valid and deserve attention to be addressed. To ignore pain and wounds just to be positive moves us into toxic positivity, not true gratitude. If we are noticing pain, negativity, wounds, or traumas, it’s important to stop and process them.”

Over the past year, whether knowingly or not, people have had the opportunity to reevaluate their perspective through the things once taken for granted. As we begin to move back into a new sense of normalcy, we have the chance to bring gratitude into our daily lives, she says.

[BE W EL L] G R A T I T U D E

Happiness, Balance, Simplicity, Freedom

66

“I think we can practice gratitude daily by identifying three things we are grateful for, choosing to see each new day as a gift in which we have a purpose to fulfill, and choosing to not wish we were anywhere else,” she says. “I encourage individuals to identify two positives for every one negative they see, whether that is in relation to self or others. It’s important to keep a balanced perspective in the way we approach ourselves and our surroundings.”

Even in the pain, in the disappointment, and in the ingratitude, gratitude is present. As soon as we let grace replace the hold guilt once had on gratitude, grateful living becomes a real, possible and accessible transformation.

“Life is about balance. No one is perfect or is supposed to be perfect. I encourage gratitude to be an overall perspective that brings you peace and contentment as you walk through life, not judge yourself for one more thing you aren’t doing. Living in gratitude should bring freedom, not guilt, dismissal of self, or a false presentation of who we are or what we feel,” she says.

This is what it means to live in gratitude: happiness, balance, simplicity, freedom. This is what it takes to begin: a conscious shift toward being mindful of blessings no matter how few you think you have. This is when you should start a life of gratitude: now.

LIVING IN GRATITUDE SHOULD BRING FREEDOM, NOT GUILT, DISMISSAL OF SELF, OR A FALSE PRESENTATION OF WHO WE ARE OR WHAT WE FEEL.”

67 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

Benefits of Massage T h e ra py I n c l u d e : • Blood pressure reduction • Improved circulation • Pain management • Relieve and break up of tension spots • Improved flexibility • Enhanced athletic performance • Better sleep • Strengthening of the immune system • Stress-relief • Relaxation

Fort Worth Massage Therapy Center www.fwmassagetherapy.com 817.732.3156 3309 Winthrop Avenue, Suite 86 | Fort Worth, Texas 76116 CALL AND BOOK YOUR APPOINTMENT TODAY

[BE W EL L] A D V I C E

Back to Life Local experts weigh in on how to manage lingering anxieties as we return to “normal.”

Tips From Local Experts

68

By Jessica Strange Illustration by Amber Davis

A

dapting to life after COVID-19 will be different for everyone. Some may jump right back into “normal” with no problem. But if you enjoyed the slower pace of life or you still feel anxious about your family returning to work and school, here are some tips from local experts to help with the transition.

69

If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that there’s beauty in the slowdown. With fewer social commitments, we had time to enjoy our families, focus on what’s important, and find peace in the simpler aspects of life. Just because we’re not confined to our homes anymore doesn’t mean we have to go back to prepandemic busyness. Fort Worth Country Day School’s health and wellness counselor Theresa Fuss, LPC, agrees.

“As we think about going back and reentering, it’s good to reflect on where we’ve come from and the things that we’ve let go,” she says. “As a society, we feel like to be a hardworking, productive individual, we have to be busy all the time.”

Rather than overcommitting to activities that don’t serve you, she recommends focusing on what matters and to spend energy wisely.

REESTABLISH A ROUTINE The endless days of lounging around the house in athleisure wear and bingeing Netflix are over. Sure, it was comfortable, but after a while, it wasn’t good for us. Fuss says if we are always comfortable, it makes us stagnant in a lot of ways. And well-known organizational psychologist and Wharton professor Adam Grant tweeted this last summer: “A Netflix binge is a temporary escape from languishing, not a cure. Passive engagement in a fictional world doesn’t offer a lasting sense of meaning, mastery or mattering. Flourishing depends on active participation in the real world: creating, connecting and contributing.”

Getting adequate sleep, regular exercise and staying hydrated will help regain the stamina needed to restart anyone’s routine. And for children, Fuss recommends getting a head start on a daily schedule so that the in-person transition isn’t a shock. That means limiting screen time, setting a consistent bedtime, and incorporating some sort of learning into each day.

OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

PRIORITIZE YOUR COMMITMENTS

[BE W EL L] A D V I C E

A study by Pew Research Published December 2020 found that

64% of

employees working from home do not feel comfortable returning to the office.

COMMUNICATE CONCERNS

Tips From Local Experts

70

Does your employer want you to return to the office, but you’d prefer a hybrid schedule? LiveBeyond counselor Risper Ngumba, LPC-A, says it’s important to be able to communicate these issues to the proper people. To Ngumba, this time is an invitation to check in with yourself and find the deeper reasons behind your emotions. Ask yourself, “Is this time for a change? Do I need more flexibility?” and then voice your needs.

“I hope that most employers will be open to having that conversation,” she says. “They need to recognize that the employee who left the job is probably not the same employee who’s coming back to work.”

But a survey of 350 CEOs conducted

by LaSalle Network Published March 19, 2021

70%

found that of employers plan to have workers return this fall.

During the pandemic,

one in three

the Kaiser Family Foundation reported in May 2021

BE KIND TO YOURSELF AND OTHERS Everyone experienced the pandemic differently, Ngumba says. Some people never left in-person work or school and are very comfortable being in public, while others lost loved ones and are still scared about contracting the virus. Being respectful and empathetic to everyone’s situation and comfort level is key. Treating yourself with the same kindness is important, she says.

“We want to be gentle with one another, maybe more than we have been,” Ngumba says. “We’re still in the same boat together.”

She also notes that mental health professionals are seeing an overwhelming number of people seeking help with pandemic-related stress. She recommends checking if your employer has an Employee Assistance Program and, if so, reaching out to them.

adult Texans reported feeling anxious or depressed.

A study by the American Psychological Association Published February 2021 found that

48% of parents

reported increased stress levels during the pandemic compared to

31% of adults overall.

The same APA study

Published February 2021

found that communities of color

(57% Black, 50% Hispanic,

51%

Asian)

were more concerned about adjusting to in-person interactions after the pandemic than white

respondents (47%).

GREAT FAMILY DENTAL CARE

Dr. Kent and Dr. Jake (father-son) have created a “family” practice in every sense. Our office feels like home and our patients love the warm, hospitable environment. We are a full service practice and ready to welcome your family!

71 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

Your beautiful healthy smile is just a phone call away.

4004 White Settlement Road

817. 625.1548

Monticello/Crestwood Neighborhood

BrownFD.com

[FO OD] E S S A Y

Stop Food-Shaming Me! Taking Judgment Out of Food

By Jade Emerson Hebbert

Illustrations by Amber Davis

Taking Time to Understand

72

A

t 13 years old, I decided to stop eating meat. And if there’s one question I’ve been asked the most since that time, it’s “Why?” Some who ask are cautious enough to begin the question with a polite “no offense” or “just out of curiosity” while still others strip it of any cushion. Instead, it becomes an accusation. A butt of a joke. A cause for shame. And every time in the past seven years that I have been asked why?, a small, and sometimes not so small, wave of judgment rolls over me.

As casually and unbothered as I can, I try to talk about the environment, the factory farm industry and my personal ethics with as much nonchalance I can muster. I’d like to feel that with age and experience, I have learned my own ways to soften the question or, when necessary, avoid it altogether. And the unfortunate truth is that most of the people who ask honestly don’t

Don’t

judge my

care to listen to my response. Yet sometimes the question still catches me off guard. Sometimes I am really quite bothered. Sometimes I’m left without the words to explain what shouldn’t have to be explained.

Although numerous, varied, and the occasional punchline by a distant family member, old coworker, or almost stranger, my personal reasons for eating the way I choose are not the subject of this piece. Rather, the very point I’m attempting to make is that neither I, nor you, owe an explanation.

We live in an era where there are at least as many types of milk as there are days of the week. Diets are as varied and unique as each individual. We are seeing a positive, conscious shift to healthier living and eating. And more presently, we have rediscovered the joy of socializing over food while dining in for the first time in over a year.

if you don’t

understand my 73

answers. I am asking for empathy on behalf of that 13-year-old middle schooler who is tired of answering the same question to closed ears, on behalf of the person who finds ordering at restaurants challenging, on behalf of the person who is constantly asked why they’re not drinking, on behalf of the person who is struggling to navigate the complexities of personal health and weight loss, on behalf of the person who is judged for having different foods from different cultures, on behalf of the person who is made fun of for not eating dessert — and the person who does — and on behalf of the person who is exhausted from constantly being judged on their body, let alone what they decide to put into it.

It’s time for us to take the judgment out of food and strip away the stereotypes and assumptions we determine based on how a person eats. It’s time to see a person for more than their diet. Food is a basic human need, a cause for social gathering and a form of art. Yet food is also self-expression. And we deserve the freedom to express ourselves however we see fit — on and off the plate.

OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

Food has become a world of diversity. Yet that diversity has to be met with acceptance.

You can have your cake and eat it too. Or you cannot. Or you can eat it later. Or only on the weekends. And it’s OK to answer questions about it, and it’s OK to not. What’s not OK? Judgment in any form, fashion or facade toward your decision.

Yes, we need to ask questions. Yes, we need to continue learning and valuing different perspectives. But we must evaluate both the how and why behind our questions. Before questioning someone about their eating choices, we need to understand if we are coming from a genuine, accepting place of interest. We need to understand that there are some situations that are better than others for this conversation to take place. We need to understand that this one decision, although a part of someone, does not make up the whole of their identity. We need to value a person’s well-being more than we value what they are or are not eating.

At the right time and right situation, let’s have meaningful conversations, ask genuine questions and not be afraid to give honest

[PHI L A NTH ROPY] T H E G A T E H O U S E

This Time It’s for Good A Program That Empowers Women Overcoming Crisis

74

By Jocelyn Tatum

Today, she sees someone totally different in the mirror than she did just three years ago when she was battered and bruised in her bathroom — again — shooting up drugs with her kids outside the door wondering why she spends so much time locked behind that ominous door.

“I saw a broken, malnourished, lost, sad soul. Someone that didn’t even know what love felt like anymore cause she had pushed everyone away. Including the children. There was one time I was laying on the floor, and my oldest grabbed my youngest hand and said, ‘Come on Eli; she is sleeping again; I will take care of you.’ No child should have to go through that.

I did with my mom, and there I was again doing it to my kids,” Gatehouse graduate Melissa Wilson says.

She was in her second abusive relationship but had no idea how to even begin getting out of it. She says that toward the end, her abuser didn’t allow her to work in an attempt to control her in all ways. But that all changed when she decided to give her four children a chance at a better life. She soon moved in with her aunt in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. A few days later at church someone she trusted mentioned The Gatehouse, a nonprofit community for women to escape the prison of abusive relationships or poverty, providing them with “a hand up, not a hand out.” And no, it is not a shelter; it is a community, the staff would say. Melissa applied as soon as she could and never looked back.

“Oh my! Now I see an incredible person. I see a

strong, courageous

woman who has grit.

I am too big a gift to the world and to my family to waste my

time on self-pity and

sadness. I am a child of the one true King.

Not going to lie, do

struggle sometimes.

Not every day is full of rainbows and

sunshine, but that

is what my toolbox

is for. To look at the problem and find a solution.”

MELISSA WILSON

The Gatehouse

75 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

The village-like, 67-acre campus is serene, almost too quiet. After you pull into the secured gate equipped with license plate readers, you pass the education center on the left and a small sanctuary in the form of a chapel with stainedglass windows depicting butterflies on your right.

The stained-glass artist’s mother was a victim of abuse, so this was his way to pay it forward.

Few cars line the manicured lawns, and not a single apartment porch is in use in the middle of the day because women like Melissa are at work in jobs they earned outside the gates learning how to start a new life on their own without the hindrances government assistance can create.

The campus has 96 apartments grouped into four neighborhoods. Each neighborhood has its own advising program equipped with a social worker. “Members” meet with their licensed social worker once a week for the duration of their suggested two-year stay. While Melissa says some members complained this is too long, the founders and administrators say this is not a quick-fix issue — they are there to rebuild lives, learning new tools along the way. The licensed social worker starts this by setting up parenting solutions, one-on-one weekly counseling and debt solutions, to name a few services provided. A health clinic near the apartments provides checkups, sick visits, vaccines and more, and all of this is paid for by a Texas Health Resources grant, Lindsay Kinzie says, who is the founder of the legal program, general counsel and legal director of The Gatehouse.

Photo by Amber Shumake

[PHI L A NTH ROPY] T H E G A T E H O U S E

A Program That Empowers Women Overcoming Crisis

76

Lindsay would say the second biggest resource after health care is the Legacy Early Learning Center. Members of The Gatehouse have access to this child care and education facility that has a “top-notch” curriculum for the kiddos, Lindsay says. “We aren’t just working with the moms; we work with the kiddos too.”

They have assessments to make sure the children are kindergarten-ready and provide tutors. “Most single mothers, their second highest expense besides rent, is child care, and child care is so expensive to the point that it can be prohibitive of getting a job sometimes,” she says. And it can be one of the biggest barriers to getting out of a bad situation, especially moms who have two or three

children. Having early education experts at the academy working with their child is a huge relief, she says.

They also help them find ways to raise their credit scores and get rid of debt so they can qualify for an apartment or house when they leave. Education and career coordinators help with resume building, interviewing skills and networking. “Because we are privately funded, we work with a lot of big companies,” Lindsay says. “We try to use our vast network of donors to also help recruit and find employment for our women in career tracks that will offer them a livable salary.” These companies also donate things like unused designer clothes, paper products and diapers.

a hand up for permanent change.

The Gatehouse Program empowers women and children overcoming crisis to become permanently self-sustainable.

THEY SERVE WOMEN WHO ARE: • Alone, with or without children • Attempting to recover from an at-risk situation such as abuse, divorce or underemployment • At least 21 years old • Of any ethnicity, race and socioeconomic status • Willing and able to work for permanent, positive change

Several aspects of the program set The Gatehouse apart, but its legal program that Lindsay started stands out above all. It first identifies any legal gaps that would keep the women from being selfsupportive so they don’t carry that with them into their new life, Lindsay says. She processes some 80 cases a year. “These women could not move forward without her,” founder of The Gatehouse Lisa Rose says.

Lindsay first addresses safety needs, especially if members are coming in on the tail end of domestic violence, and puts a safety plan in place such as protective orders. She may then apply for address confidentiality with the attorney general’s office, another layer of safety to keep members’ addresses hidden, which allows them to get a driver’s license with an obscure P.O. Box on it. She helps resolve any family law issues possible like custody and child support payments.

Photo Above: “In that photo I was filled with so much joy. I accomplished graduating The Gatehouse. I was so happy that Lindsay was there to experience that with me. She has always been my rock. The amount of love and selflessness that was felt that day is something I will always remember,” Melissa Wilson says.

Melissa Wilson Photo

77 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

The Legal Program

A lot of women who were stay-at-home moms do not have the financial means to advocate to get what they are legally entitled from the spouse. “We aggressively advocate for them to get every dime of what they are owed through the community estate, so that they can prepare for their future with their kids,” Lindsay says. They outsource their court litigation to a partnered firm, again, so nothing is tied back to the program.

If they have outstanding medical bills resulting from abuse, Lindsay applies for financial aid from programs such as the Crime Victim’s Compensation Program, a program paid for by offenders from their court and probation fees. It provides assistance for relocation costs and covers services like 60 sessions of prepaid counseling after they graduate from the program.

All counseling while in the program is paid for

by The Gatehouse, which Melissa says had a profound impact on her starting over.

If the women have crimes from bad coping skills, like DUIs or shoplifting, where they were trying to just get by, Lindsay helps resolve their warrants and issues that keep their driver’s license intact as transportation can be the biggest hindrance to getting a job and escaping negative or generational cycles. She cleans up their records from anything caused by criminal charges, evictions, debt and financial records so their background checks show up as clean as possible, and they can move forward. And these are just a few examples of legal aid Lindsay provides for these women.

[PHI L A NTH ROPY] T H E G A T E H O U S E

A nongovernment supported program

A Program That Empowers Women Overcoming Crisis

78

The Gatehouse does not take any government funding from programs like the Victims of Crime Act and other federal and state grants in order to operate. “We want to offer them much more than what they would be allowed under some of these funds because they would have to stay within a certain level of poverty to receive them. We want them to become permanently self-sufficient,” Lindsay says.

The goal is that while the women are there, Lindsay and other program staff remove any impediments that would keep them from becoming self-sufficient from their abuser, in hopes that they leave a taxpayer and be fully supportive regardless of relationship.

This is what Lisa had in mind when she put this program together in 2015. She used to volunteer reading in area prisons, among many other ways she gave back, and noticed that handing out canned food, clothes, and serving hot meals one day wasn’t creating lasting change. But spending time with the women and teaching them all the aforementioned tools is creating lasting change.

“It is worth it because you see people change in real time. It is unlike feeding people on a Saturday, and then they are hungry on Sunday. Their change is permanent,” Lisa says.

While immediate assistance is important for most to get a start, Lisa says people with mental illness, disabilities or experiencing economic hardships may need those government and charitable handouts, but so many on assistance just need a “hand up,” and The Gatehouse is a program that provides women the tools so they are empowered through their own selfsufficiency. She is a big believer in Maslow’s

Hierarchy of Needs, which has food and clothing at its base, then safety, which could mean anything from job security to respite from abuse.

Next is love and friendship or belonging, then esteem and a feeling of accomplishment, and finally reaching their full, creative potential — the person they were meant to be before the heavy cloak of abuse covered them.

“We have helped over 600 women in six years,” Lisa says. “The long-term goal is that we won’t need it anymore,” she laughs at having a goal to end the program she started. “We are trademarking the program so that it can be used across the country.”

With women being stuck at home with their abusers during the pandemic, it has become harder for them to sneak away to find resources like The Gatehouse, leaving many vacancies.

SCAN THE QR CODE BELOW to hear a list of major things someone needs in order to leave an abuser.

As told by legal adviser for The Gatehouse Lindsay Kinzie

When Melissa looks in the mirror today, she sees a strong, courageous woman with grit. “I am too big a gift to the world and to my family to waste my time on self-pity and sadness.” She now sober and has a job as a loan officer associate. She has legal custody of all four of her children and says she finally has a boyfriend she is in love with. She gets to look in the mirror with compassion and has hope for a better future.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines resilience as (1) “the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress (2) an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” Melissa has done just that.

79 OneToKnowMagazine.com | ISSUE 1

About Lindsay Kinzie: She has the sincerest eyes that somehow always look concerned, like she genuinely cares about the person in front of her at all times. And she does — her work history proves it. Lindsay graduated from Texas Tech Law School in 2008 and was a commercial litigator for two years at a big law firm. Soon she decided her passion was with the criminal or victim mentality. “I wanted to give back to the community and wanted to be more of a public servant, so I went to the DA’s office and was a prosecutor,” she says.

Then she gave criminal defense a try. “I realized how systemic a lot of problems with crime become; they are very generational.” She wanted to help women get out of that cyclical trap and sometimes unfair justice system. She then worked with the nonprofit called Valiant Hearts for several years, helping women coming out of sex-trafficking. In 2017, she started at The Gatehouse, creating the legal program .

She processes some 80 cases a year for women whether it is helping them get the money owed to them, getting the children back, fighting for child support, or all of the above. “Legal can be very expensive and can be very emotionally taxing on women, especially women leaving a marriage,” she says. Lindsay was promoted over the summer to general counsel and legal program director of The Gatehouse. She also became an associate judge for Southlake over the summer, something she worked for to add to ways she can help women get out of tough situations. And she is a mother to three beautiful daughters.

Photo by Amber Shumake

[P ON DER] U N T I L N E X T I S S U E

TO NEW BEGINNINGS

Women of Fort Worth who Inspire

80

When you’re given the opportunity to start anew.

PLANTS CAN REDUCE STRESS

We are Romy and Abby of Urban Plantology, a Mother-daughter owned plant shop in Fort Worth, Texas. We are beyond grateful to share our passion for plants with all plant lovers.

We have something for everyone, even if you don’t have a green thumb (yet).

URBAN PLANTOLOGY | 817.879.3341 308 N Main St. | Fort Worth, TX 76102 @urbanplantology1

@urban_plantology

“I like finding ways to make all these different forms coexist together in harmony, to create an experience that can take someone to another place and make them feel happier.”

– M A R I E L L

G U Z M A N