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I grew up in a war.  I also trained as a fiction writer.   What both experiences have in common is they nourish an impulse to park the mind in a different place than the body and live with some inner distance or disconnect.  With war it’s basic survival.  Fiction writers just feel compelled to apprehend or explore or comprehend experience—which leaves some part of their brains observing at a distance.  Great for being reflective.  Not so great for being in-the-moment. 

One reason I’ve been drawn to building a social venture is because it invites us past the 6:30 news.  If you feel concerned about refugees, then you can do something concrete.  It might be as small as buying a granola bar, but it’s something that connects you personally.  And something positive.  I can enjoy eating something made by someone who enjoyed making it, in part because it was a step towards greater belonging in a new community.  And the connections come along the way. That’s why farmers’ markets work so well for us.  Or home deliveries.

I’ve heard start-up entrepreneurs describe their job as trying to build an airplane while it’s in flight.   Yeah, that feels about right too.  Maybe airborne vehicle.  Capable of crashing.  It would have been nice to design and build this thing on the ground first—but that would have taken the backing of a well-funded non-profit.  Or a functioning business could have shifted its mission from primarily making money to primarily training.  But these two sectors [small business manufacturing and non-profit adult ed agency] don’t typically cross paths.  They don’t think alike.  So they don’t tend to fund big initiatives that might be outside their primary mission.  Yet the only way I could imagine us being effective in our mission [to jumpstart refugees into the job market] was at their intersection.  So we’re a hybrid and we’re building and we’re in flight.

At Beautiful Day, we are sold on the importance of refugee resettlement in Rhode Island—not as charity, but as vital to the health, growth, compassion, diversity and joy of our community.  Sure, resettlement is expensive on the front end.  Ultimately, as refugees get jobs and get organized and integrate and eventually start businesses, it can be a sweet deal—a black Friday kind of deal for our state.  But only if they actually settle here.  And unless they see opportunities to contribute economically, refugees will not want to stay in Rhode Island.  This, of course, is one reason Beautiful Day exists.

Beautiful Bar ingredients are:  oats (gluten free), honey (local), cranberries (Cape Cod cranberries, sugar, sunflower oil), almonds, canola oil (org), sunflower seeds (org), coconut (org), sesame seeds (org), walnuts, pecans, dehydrated cane juice, flax seeds (org), vanilla extract, sea salt, cinnamon, almond extract, nutmeg. 

One of my fundamental beliefs is that each person is as valuable as another.  That’s a positive statement!  I’m thankful for the reminder that refugees coming to Providence are no less important than Marc Chagall.  Their emotions are no less deep or meaningful even if they lack the skill (or education or vision or money or English language) to communicate them to others