Both, Geanina and I have experienced firsthand the harrowing effects of mental health challenges through family members and friends whom we continue to care for. Many of us suffer in silence when our loved ones are hurting. We feel alone and ashamed to ask for support, afraid of being judged. Similarly, people experiencing mental health challenges also feel lonely and ashamed. 

We hurt together. The world hurts, too. We disconnect. We fall apart. We suffer together – parents and children, neighbors and friends, at home and in the world. Collectively, we feel no longer connected to our own bodies, to nature and to each other. 

But we can change this, together, by creating a community mental wellness response.

All art modalities and mind-body practices can improve our physical, emotional and mental health. They help us prevent, manage, or recover from illnesses. They cultivate joy and positive emotions and build more equitable, connected and diverse communities.

We all are born with innate abilities to create and make meaning out of our lived experiences. We paint, write, tell stories and move our bodies as ways to process emotions, release old patterns of suffering and reconnect to our bodies and our true nature.

Our vision is to create a beloved community – a safe space where everyone matters, and our pain, grief, and struggle become the pollen that nourishes the garden of life. We seek to enrich every life with the nectar of creativity and belonging, and the holiness of caring for each other.

We invite you to join us in making honey out of the heavy pollen of life. As the poet, Rumi puts it “Let everything happen to you/ Beauty and terror/ Just keep going/ No feeling is final.”

Like bees in a hive, each one of us contributes to the well-being of the whole. No bee alone can keep the colony thriving, nor the bee can survive without its hive. To fully flourish we need each other, working in unity, serving the highest good of all.