This year at Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF), we will reach a milestone of investing more than $50 million in our communities through grantmaking since our start in 1986. While these grants support a wide range of projects — from providing books to young children to supporting small town growth — they each have had transformative and long-term impact on the future of southern Minnesota.

Minnesotans have a tendency to get a little complacent this time of year if the weather takes a moderate turn. After the (relatively) warm weather we had been experiencing in February last week sent us back to reality.

Sometime in my educational process, either a science or art teacher discussed the color white. They told me white light is a combination of all colors in the color spectrum. It has all the colors of the rainbow. In this model of color theory, the combination of all colors creates the perception of white So, when I look outside today, in theory I’m seeing all the colors of the rainbow, but to me it is just white.

 “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” — Genesis 3:19, NRSV Bible
 
This year, the dust of Ash Wednesday got buried in snow. Many churches cancelled the worship service marking the beginning of Lent because the weather made it unsafe for folks to be out.
But I miss the dust. I miss the ashes.

To the Editor:
Quarter-section housing density numbers in Mantorville Township need to change. Allow non-tillable land owners the option to divide their land for housing. SOME landowners may choose to divide/develop their property, SOME may not. Give them a choice.

Despite my plea to “embrace winter” a couple of weeks ago, winters can seem long in Minnesota. That is especially true since we have some friends that are wintering in Hawaii, another in Gulf Shores and yet another couple in Arizona. Whenever I hear of someone escaping for a while to warmer areas, I wonder, why do we live here?