Life & Death

In all honesty, patience is hard, especially in the northeast. Even when the calendar says spring, green shoots from the bulbs are barely able push their way through the hard, cold ground. Seeking color, we resorted to the grocery store garden store and filled vases with tulips & iris. As you can see, the tulips bloomed beautifully, began to respond to their surroundings, explore, stretch. The iris barely made it out of the spathes & secondary buds, never got to fully express themselves. And, this made me think of our work with youth & young adults in the midst of a massive opioid epidemic, with “leaders” of all stripes at a complete loss. Some are lucky enough to be tulips, but too many have become irises. Dying before they’ve ever had a chance to live. 

We’re tired of patiently waiting for the politicians & clinicians to figure out a solution. We hope to offer meaningful tools & resources for young people, their families and communities so we can all enjoy the delicious produce of our shared garden.