Living Storytelling Garden

"In the end, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices." - Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, pray, love.

This paragraph really resonated with me as I reflected on writing a blog post after the last two weeks of receiving the most incredible support with I Am Somebody! This organisation, which was once simply an idea, has now become its own entity and that this entity is so beautifully held by the community. So it is with awe that I "surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity." Thank you so much.

I don't want to clump all of the incredible gifts together and risk that one might be missed, so I will write this blog post about an incredible graphic gifted by Sonja Niederhumer.

As part of our mentorship programme, we are partnering with the Novalis Ubuntu Institute to build a Living Storytelling Garden filled with the stories of our community and of the youth in our programme. On a beautiful, large wire tree youth will hang beautiful bags that hold the story of their life dreams and of the ways they have grown within themselves. Within the garden, among indigenous plants, along pathways, on stepping stones... everywhere will be written the stories of community members. A shared space, the garden will represent creating and acknowledging the community we all desire.

We are exploring building this garden to the left of the entrance at the Novalis Institute Centre.  Although the scope of the garden will depend on funding, the aim of the space is to witness the growth of the youth in our programme and the programmes of our partner organisations. We look forward to this garden being used by anyone and everyone for work gatherings and for rest and reflection.

Here is an image of the concept of the garden, created by Sonja Niederhumer, an incredible gift of her creativity and time:

Photo of entire image

Photo of the sign post and bench.

The work that Sonja does is truly incredible. As our thank you, we do want to mention that she is available as a graphic harvesting consultant. She can be contacted at: sonja.niederhumer@gmail.com