February 2023

Newsletter

“Sometimes there are no words to help one’s courage. Sometimes you just have to jump.” – Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés

We’ve been busy rooting down and rising up – assembling our board of directors, applying for grants, and finalizing our application to become a 501c3 tax-exempt non-profit. . . all the while, doing what we love best – co-creating opportunity and space for mental health wellness. Thank you for continuing to follow us.
 

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Nature & Art as Therapy

January was journal-making – with 4 different groups! Journals were crafted from fabric scraps and repurposed hardcover books. From experienced journalers to those who’ve never had a journal before, each person created and bound a unique and functional book for self-expression.

This month, we created affirmation and emotion cards. Participants wrote quotes of positivity, expressed feeling through abstract paint-splattering and color combinations, and spent time together in a peaceful, supportive atmosphere. We were thrilled to share this workshop with The Kona Paradise Club, a psychosocial rehabilitation day program for adults with mental illness. 

Collaborative Creation

The sun. Humility. Authentic me. Thinking about bees. Love. Our creator. Peace. My husband, wife, son, daughter. Music. Mālama my grandma. Purpose.

 

These are the words of our community when asked, “What gives you strength?” Check out a bold, visual representation of this strength: an amazing collaborative art project created by many at Ka‘ū’s Resilience Fair in January. The mural will be displayed at the Nā‘ālehu Hongwanji/Hub. Mahalo Vibrant Hawai‘i for this opportunity.

Projects at ‘Ehunui

Students at ʻEhunuikaimalino, a K-12 Hawaiian immersion school in Kealakekua, explored emotion with pastels and concepts of self with collage. Grades 5 and 6 sculpted nature-inspired pieces from air dry clay.

 

It has been a joy and honor to work with these students and teachers.

We need YOU!

Many of our participants are under-resourced – some are experiencing houselessness; overcoming a mental health crisis; living rurally, in isolation, or in transition; lacking access to integrative therapeutic support; or are low-income. 

 

Together, we need YOU to help create opportunities for healing. Here are 3 ways to make an impact:

  1. Join The Seed Circle: Make a donation of your choice MONTHLY.

 
Join The Seed Circle
  1. Make a one-time gift: Contribute what you can TODAY.

 
Make a Gift
  1. Offer supplies: We currently need a whiteboard, large canvases, and planting trays (mailed to PO Box 377425, Ocean View, HI 96737). If you’re on the island, we humbly and gratefully accept any gently used craft material! Email info@rootandrisehawaii.org to make arrangements.

 
Learn more about giving here

And a HUGE mahalo to:

  • K’s Greenhouse in Ocean View for selling native plants grown by Root & Rise! You can find maile, ʻalaʻala wai nui, ‘uki‘uki, māmaki and more at her lush nursery amidst the lava rock landscape. 

  • Brianna in Boston, who utilized her company’s matching gift program to DOUBLE her $500 donation to Root & Rise! Does your company have a matching gift program? If so, email info@rootandrisehawaii.org to find out how. 

  • Society for Kona’s Education & Art for providing steadfast support and opportunity to put our vision into practice! 

  • Lindy for supplying water color and paints for our program (and of course, inspiration), and Ed of Colors of Hawai‘i Printing for a wonderful paper donation.

Hope Is a Woman Who Has Lost Her Fear by Alice Walker

 

In our despair that justice is slow

we sit with heads bowed

 

wondering

how

even whether

we will ever be healed.

 

Perhaps it is a question

only the ravaged

the violated

seriously ask.

And is that not now

almost all of us?

 

But hope is on the way.

 

As usual Hope is a woman

herding her children

around her

all she retains of who

she was; as usual

except for her kids

 

she has lost almost everything.

 

Hope is a woman who has lost her fear.

 

Along with her home, her employment, her parents, her olive trees, her grapes.  The peace of independence; the reassuring noises of ordinary

neighbors.

 

Hope rises, She always does,

did we fail to notice this in all the stories

they’ve tried to suppress?

 

Hope rises,

and she puts on her same

unfashionable threadbare cloak

and, penniless, she  flings herself

against the cold, polished, protective chain mail

of the very powerful

the very rich – chain mail that mimics

suspiciously silver coins

and lizard scales –

and all she has to fight with is the reality of what was done to her;

to her country; her people; her children;

her home.

All she has as armor is what she has learned

must never be done.  

Not in the name of War

and especially never in the

name of Peace.

 

Hope is always the teacher

with the toughest homework.

 

Our assignment: to grasp

what has never been breathed in our stolen

Empire

on the hill:

 

Without justice, we will never

be healed.

617-543-8065

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