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CERI’s work is rooted in love, across generations, across cultures, and across differences. This month marks the Lunar New Year and Black History Month, and we are re-committing to the work of building Beloved Community, honoring the legacies of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thích Nhất Hạnh. Part of this work is pausing to celebrate the powerful ways that love changes us. We want to share a few of those love stories, from the community we serve, with you today. A love potion “The first time I came to CERI, I just felt this was the right place for me. It’s a love potion. Prior to that I was 90 pounds and I was thinking about suicide and feeling hopeless. A doctor suggested I go to CERI. In the second meeting with my therapist I poured everything out and we both were crying and talking and I don’t know I just started to enjoy it. I just started laughing. All my life I’ve been so serious and I never got to laugh, but joining CERI I started to laugh. Look at me now, I love to dance, I’m funny, and I love to laugh. So thank you for having me at CERI, it helped change my life. I feel so much care and love.” - A participant in CERI’s Khmer women’s group Aha moments A participant in Wellness in Action, our workforce education and training program, shared, “It was the first time in my life outside my country and community where I felt supported by the group. I felt real. There were no people pretending to care. I would say it's a great tool if you want to offer something to a community that can help them to keep this life as immigrants.” Another participant reflected, “There's one aha moment in every session. I felt like we were all waking up. We are okay to be vulnerable. Everything is welcome, and it’s really compassionate leadership and we need that, the wounded people, many of the refugee communities.” Working together “Yesterday really made me proud to be a part of our team!” This is what one of our staff members shared after a successful psychiatric clinic recently, where our volunteer psychiatrist, Dr. Gracer, provided care to 23 clients. He took his time with the clients who needed it, and wrote prescriptions to those who had no issues with their medication and just needed a refill and to say "hello." Our multilingual staff made sure interpretation was available and our elders prepared food to feed everyone. At the end, everyone was cheering for a successful clinic! We hope that you all feel the love this month, beyond a commercialized Valentine’s Day version, and towards a deeper, perhaps more complicated, expansion of the heart.
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