dear farmily,

travel back with me into 2025 and move through the land and practices that SUSU channeled. i want to share with you what this year required, and what held us together.

maybe you can relate to this: there were many moments when the world felt uncertain or isolating. In those moments, SUSU continued to come through because it has been intentionally created as a living homeplace. in 2025, SUSU served as place where our community could breathe again, where the land could hold us, and where we could remember that sanctuary is something we practice under any circumstances - and especially when circumstances are challenging us the most.

so, we chose to go deep, not wide.

that choice was not small. it meant centering the relationships, values, and care practices that make SUSU what it is. tending what is already here. strengthening and replanting our roots. and building a strong foundation in ways we cannot always measure quickly, but we can feel over time.

because of your partnership, we were able to do real things with and for real people. i’m proud to share the highlights below. i see them as evidence of something deeper, that SUSU is meeting a real need, drawing on real strength, and that our community is building something durable and generational. our ancestors have been walking with us, and our descendants are getting ready to receive the gifts we are creating.

i keep thinking about how sanctuary is made. i’m thinking of sanctuary as presence. shared meals. fingers and toes in the soil. sanctuary that makes learning more possible. making ritual and rest more possible. making the impossible possible. it feels most important to name sanctuary as the quiet labor and joy of returning to each other again and again.

the land teaches us about seasons for expansion and seasons for preparation. even seasons that are fallow and resting. in this winter season, i feel the land inviting us to honor the fullness of every act of care offered and received. i also feel the land inviting us, so strongly, into radical imagination so that our dreams can become futures we can actually live inside. sanctuary is our birthright, for our safety more than as some kind of escape.

as i look toward what comes next, i see SUSU holding a few clear directions, taught to us by our community and by the land:

to expand free and low-cost access to retreats, healing programs, and medicinal and ritual herbs for BIPOC and queer community members locally and beyond, while building the partnerships and infrastructure that make that access sustainable. we are committed to creating space that is rooted in place, for ready practice and building belonging.

nothing happens without community. this will happen with the support of people (like you) who believe in the work enough to help carry it.

with gratitude, i honor what we have built together, and i thank you for being part of this growing and evolving sanctuary and homeplace.

with love and deep appreciation,

amber arnold

SUSU commUNITY farm

2025 year in review

in 2025, SUSU oriented the year toward deepening over expansion, making space to strengthen practices, relationships, and values without overextending ourselves or our community. in so many moments when the world felt uncertain or isolating, SUSU came into existence as a homeplace and sanctuary where community could breathe again. with you by our sides, we nourished hundreds, inspired thousands, and cultivated trust, shoulder-to-shoulder and hand-to-hand.