Healing and Home for me (Heidi)

i've been through tough, undeniable times since i got sick. those with a chronic illness know how much you lose, autonomy, space to connect with yourself, accessibility to nature, and home for healing. there aren't the true resources needed for those of us who can't work tirelessly for most of the day or week or year, without seriously compromising our ability to walk, bike, or avoid debilitating pain.

my full intention is to move toward a world that's truly healing and reconnecting for me, for all of us. i don't have many resources, or much capacity, but i am fully mindful and giving all i have for an adjacent possibility of a society, a community, humankind focused on healing, connecting, and compassion, not profit, or hoarding resources and engaging in waste and subversive violence. a world that honors those that have been wronged, growing humanity; that finds relief in more roots in the soil and proliferation of animals; that revels in doing what you truly love, on canvas, in the garden, with others, kids in school and adults.

i have heard on the crucial importance of rest, and for those of us with autoimmune or chronic conditions, in the context of this unceasing culture, this is especially true. so i'm looking for any help, with the community of friends and family i do have, to find shelter, housing that will lend me space to truly rest, to heal, to reconnect with myself through art, art that will share more of this healing, compassionate, connecting possibility of a world i feel.

the old world is dying, make way for something magnanimous, meaningful, entirely possible together."

-Heidi

Heidi is a Santa Barbara local teacher who especially loves teaching for middle school and special ed. She uses her creativity and empathy to help her students grow, be liberated, and learn about the world and themselves as she grows and learns with them. She is an artist, using multimedia, found objects, collage, poetry and more to create beautiful art that shares her story, and our stories as she sees them. She is also an animal lover (especially insects, crows, skunks). She is powerfully loved in her community-- she volunteers for good causes and helps those in need. She is a good friend to many, giving her time and support to help many other vulnerable people in their struggles, while facing so many struggles of her own. 

Heidi has been living out of a vehicle for years. She faces endless challenges from being unhoused, both trying to survive day to day and trying to secure stable housing.  She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic illness, which affects her neurologically and physically. It can frequently make it difficult to walk distances without stumbling or falling. Her eyes are very sensitive to light, and since she doesn't have a house it takes a lot of her energy to just protect her eyes during the day. Sometimes she has flare ups which are worse, making it hard to move or think. This all makes it even more difficult to survive, having to constantly care for her own health by finding transportation to distant medical specialists, and go through long and arduous assessment and treatment. She has tried many ways to get housing, but with everything she balances and with such expensive housing it's become impossible without assistance.

Heidi deserves our support and care-- she has been doing so much to take care of herself and others, so much effort in a day to just get by with the little she has. She needs and deserves help to gain security and peace in her own life, so she can keep doing all the wonderful things she does with strength and health.

"what a beautiful moth i found a couple months ago, just resting 
one of my favorite, favorite things, to sit with a little insect, in its last moments of being alive, just to keep them safe, and warm company."

"a little poetic question i wrote and drew, that sticks with how i feel often in a culture of quick delivery and convenience stores and apps(a little cut off with these picture features);
It is convenient,
but is it p r o f o u n d ?"

"home isn't really a place, its a feeling; and for me, home is gentle, playful, sunrisey ocean, high desert horizon and so much sky, moonrise, bookish worming, abundant moth and beetle and potato bug company, ninos de la tierra, proliferating compassionate epiphany, healing, connecting through the dark.

home, at last"