Lack of employment often results in increases in illicit substance abuse, alcohol abuse, and addiction disorders which can pose increased risk for the community.
Hey everybody, I’m Chris.
I’m Portland’s Boxing Beekeeper and I’m an alcoholic and an addict. There’s no punchline there. It’s not said to any ironic effect. I am a person who experiences a sensation of craving after I have mood and mind altering substances in my body.
There are a ton of ideas why that happens. The one I’ve most closely come to believe is that there is a greater correlation between the experience of trauma and substance abuse than there is between obesity and diabetes. So one way I’ve come to understand my experience is that I was a traumatized person trying to cope in a world that maybe doesn’t understand trauma or addiction. But, I’m not a doctor or high level psychiatrist, and it’s just kinda been sort of most true to my experience.
Abandoned encampment in Portland, Maine
And I bring that up because while working with bees it’s impossible not to see the bigger picture...to kind of look around and see ecosystems. It’s hard to look at things and not see microcosms and community. That’s what a hive is...it’s a super organism, where the bee is the organism or the insect, but can’t sort of survive and thrive without not only the rest of the hive but becomes better in the community.
And that’s what helped me get better. It feels like there are a lot of parallels. While in early recovery, I was surrounded by strangers, I was surrounded by people who didn’t know me from Adam, who, said if they didn’t see me again they’d be worried about me. And they were like minded and like experienced people. And I’m talking about this because you are going to start to see a little bit of branching between our HWHftH site and the Honey Pantry.
During times of co-occuring homelessness and addiction, individuals generally lack insurance which can make support and recovery difficult to find. This can turn into a cycle that’s impossible to escape without intervention.
Whereas we have this wonderful opportunity, having had this experience of being able to recover, wanting to give back to that. I’ve had friends who’ve passed away from this process. I have had countless people I’ve supported pass away through this process, and, you know, I don’t want anyone to not live long enough to experience what I have. And so we are hoping, in the very near future, to become a nonprofit, 501c3, that will have substance abuse/mental health recovery aspects to it where Honey Pantry is going to continue to be a way of selling our honey and my wife’s wonderful bath and kitchen products, and we are starting to branch the Honey Pantry into homemade jewelry, from Maine artists. I hope you’ll check that out. But I also hope that you’ll stay in touch here at HWHftH. We will, in the immediate future, support three people in early recovery to take a beginners beekeeping class and going forward, we hope within the next 2-3 years, (that’s my timeline...I’m rushed, an impulse, hippy...as all) is to acquire land and start a farm program.
All of you who know me know that at the beginning of my recovery I was I was unemployable. I had about a year and a half where I was not able to manage having a job and be in recovery. So what we’d like to do, again I want no one to experience what I experienced. Our farm program will hire exclusively people in early recovery and help them maintain employment during that part of their life. My hope is, to be giving away our crops to families who are food insecure or otherwise low-income.
We will need a great deal of support (please click here to help out). More than anything I hope you will stay on board and give us your encouragement. To anyone who’s able to participate, anyone who wants to get involved, I hope the bees have as much of an impact on your growth and your recovery as it did for mine. And so thank you so much for all of your support, for all of you who have come back video to video and year to year so far. And again, I hope you’ll stick with us and help us continue to recover, and to be a part of our community
Thank you so much, and join us next time on HWHftH. I’m The Boxing Beekeeper.
I’m Portland’s Boxing Beekeeper and I’m an alcoholic and an addict. There’s no punchline there. It’s not said to any ironic effect. I am a person who experiences a sensation of craving after I have mood and mind altering substances in my body.