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Torn

Artist: Amber Wood

Collage, June 2020
Without community, I often feel torn, frayed, and picked apart, often by my own hands. From a collage prompt using only torn papers for #WeRockPaperScissors

Artist/ Kichwa Photographer: Eli Farinango

Artist: Sobia Mahmood

A Place Far From Me

Poem

Artist: Sobia Mahmood

Artist: Sobia Mahmood

The Tree and the Shrubs

Poem

Artist: Sobia Mahmood

Icy Undertone

Artist: Rucha Patel

Light Fun

Artist: Rucha Patel

Stranger

Artist/Musician: Rafay Ahmad

"I focused on meshing different styles of beats and music together in this song, the transitions needed to be smooth enough so it doesn't feel like a cut and paste. I had a lot of fun creating this."

PRE PANDEMIC MONDAY MARCH 2nd 2020

"I Will Be Ok Here. Share by @sarahbarnhartthings ✨ This personal mantra found me during a Somatic Soul Coach call. When we began our work together my goals were to find ease and flow in my life. Sounds easy enough, right?! 🙃🤔 Well not so much for me at this stage and the idea of finding that state or searching for that state {or not finding it} felt like more striving for perfection and the inevitable failure that comes from this searching {perfectionism is a LIE but my Virgo self often forgets that}. Somewhere in our work I landed in a moment of ease in my body, in my soma, which is such a rare state for me in my day to day life, when I realized the words “I Will Be OK Here” could be a way of honouring perfection in the imperfection. I struggle with severe anxiety and the truth is that in some ways anxiety can serve us but not all situations are as scary as the anxious mind/body makes them out to be. For me, repeating the mantra I WILL BE OK HERE in situations that are inherently safe allows me to settle in {as much as I can} and do what I’m there to do. It’s how I keep going and keep showing up when so often things are the opposite of ease and flow, you know, like life. 🎢

MID PANDEMIC CREATION OF MIXED IN HAMILTON JULY 20th 2020

After years of emotions I couldn’t find words for and more recently through so many conversations finally realizing I have never been alone in my life long feelings of floating in the middle, never fitting in and never feeling like enough, I have created a new page. @mixedinhamilton A place to meet, connect, create community, share stories and for my own healing. I know pages like this exist and I am so grateful for having discovered them at this point in my life but I wish groups had existed locally when I was younger so I would have known I wasn’t alone. Growing up as a white presenting, Black biracial person in a very white city came with its own set of unique challenges and I didn’t know until the last few years that I could talk about these experiences or that anyone else around me could understand what I was feeling. We didn’t even talk about it in our own family. I didn’t know my own brother had experience similar things. Until last year I had never seen a family that looked like mine represented on television.

I don’t know where this will go. I would love to meet together in person when the world allows for group hangs again. Maybe we can connect over the interwebs. For now I would love it if anyone who would like to, mixed or not, would join me on this journey. Please share your stories and experiences, I would be honoured to post them and share them so we can further realize that we are not alone in the middle. "

Artist: Sarah Barnhart