When I'm asked about bloom+honey, why I do the work I do, how I do it amidst many other things, I get stuck. The "why's are so many... Sometimes I talk about my Bajan and Guyanese parents, their histories back home and their migrations to the UK and the US. Other times I talk about my frustrations with society's ill-wills and wrong-doings. And still, other times, I talk about our potential for greatness, clear purpose and life fulfillment. Regardless of where I begin or end, there are a few things for me that remain consistent...
bloom+honey is a very personal journey - and a space that I hope can offer support and community to others.
In 2014, I found myself feeling stuck, disenchanted with my gentrifying new Brooklyn neighborhood, its disregard for history and legacy. I wasn't as confused by how my "only 1 year in New York City" turned into 11 because it was a historic, fun-filled, and also challenging experience that made me in many ways. But I was extremely disheartened by the political systems that were cyclically oppressing and harming people with whose values and visions I could relate. I sought out places where these conversations were relevant and realized I was also in search for a new space that felt like “home”.
A lot of what I was looking for was the vulnerability to ask more and deeper questions, and explore my own capacity and responsibility to myself - physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. bloom+honey is the space where I have been finding these answers.
By the time I started bloom+honey in 2019, I began holding myself accountable for my greatest health. Throughout my life, I maintained a very active and frequent exercise regimen, and ate considerably well and healthy. Despite this, I had experienced 3 surgeries with top physicians related to “my body’s tendency towards fibrous tissues” - the first, at the age of 18, to remove lumps I found in the lymph and breast areas, and two myomectomies to remove uterine fibroids.
I later realized I was seldom invited into deep discussion with my medical providers to better understand how and why my body functions as it does and the relevant impacts of my habits and environment. A casual mention by my final surgeon of a potentially harmful food-product led me to look closely at my body’s relationship to nutrition and nature's products. I became an avid (over-)sharer of the knowledge I was gaining as I better understood how significant a role my habits and well-meaning traditions played into my current wellness.
A series of very inspiring experiences - watching a friend give birth, releasing a third set of fibroids naturally through better eating, movement exercises and nurturing, and witnessing these same desires in friend and community circles - led me to train as a doula and herbal artist.
I found more opportunities to actively work to address some of those cyclical systems that trouble me and contribute to my society in a way that centers the human experience and legacy. I hope through bloom+honey to keep bringing questions and answers of light and hope to others in the same search for themselves and their own futures.
And though I’ve spent years studying, consulting experts, and testing various “-isms”, I continue to be driven by my curiosities to experience motherhood, my compassion towards healthy living, and my commitment to the interconnectedness of humanity and nature.
Why?
Because my story is not singular.
Highest love and gratitude to Herbal Bush House, Inner Circle Midwifery, Mama Glow + Ancient Song Doula Services for sharing their wisdom, experiences and communities to provide me with skills, education and training, better inform my practice and my advocacy, and who continue to guide and inspire my path to date and into what’s to come.
Stay bloomin' and honeyin',
Melissa