Recovery Café, part of a national network of nonprofits, is about to open its doors on South Whidbey. Founded in Seattle, there are nearly 100 Cafés across North America, from Lopez Island to Boston, from Vancouver BC to the US Virgin Islands, and in many states in between. Each one is unique; each one grows up out of its own neighborhood and reflects the special needs and strengths of that neighborhood.
“We cannot fix ourselves or anyone else. We can only choose to show up or be present to our own lives and the lives of others.”.....Killian Noe, co-founder of Recovery Café
What happens at these Cafés is simple: people come together, share meals, and commit to being present for themselves and each other. Recovery Cafés are not drop-in centers – in a sense they’re the opposite of drop-in centers, which are understood to be places where people are welcome to come and go as often or as infrequently as they like. Cafés, on the other hand, are spaces where people come to form relationships that can last.
We live in a fractured culture, in a time when it’s easy to make connections online. The last twenty-odd years have demonstrated, though, that there is no substitute for routine, commonplace, real life connections. The Recovery Café model is built to foster bonds that grow from those connections.
The “Café” in the name means exactly what it sounds like: a comfortable, welcoming gathering place where people regularly share meals. What about the other part? What is the “Recovery” and who is doing the “recovering?” The answer is that each of us is recovering from something, because that’s the nature of being human. Some of us are facing illness. Some of us are living with loss of jobs, income, hope. Some of us are growing out of addictive behaviors. Some of us are simply lonely. The purpose of each Café is to create the conditions where, as Killian Noe said, we can show up for ourselves and one another.
The South Whidbey Recovery Café has a team, led by Bruce Hanson and Lem Putnam, that’s fired up, funded, and looking for a permanent home. While that search goes on, interested people will be gathering in temporary locations, sharing meals, and beginning the long-term project of showing up for one another.
Curious? Check out our website [www.southwhidbeyrecoverycafe.org]. Visit nearby Cafés at Port Townsend [www.dovehouserecoverycafe.org] or Everett [www.everettrecoverycafe.org]. Spend time on the Recovery Café Network website [www.recoverycafenetwork.org]. Reach out to Bruce or Lem [info@southwhidbeyrecoverycafe.org] and find out when the next gathering here on South Whidbey will be happening. Learn how to become part of this extraordinary movement.
