"It's always something- if it's not one thing, it's another."- Roseanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radner on SNL)
I woke up this morning with a racing heart after a restless night filled with dreams of snakes! Yesterday, I dropped by the roOT house and noticed not one but three very large garter snakes slithering on the side of the house down into a small hole. My vivid imagination clearly went into overdrive in the night as I dreamt of heaps of snakes slithering in big balls all over the property. Naturally, I dived down a hole of my own (namely Reddit) trying to learn more about what the slithering stars in my dream could mean. The answer that I liked the most suggested that snakes often mean transformation. The answer I liked the least, suggested snake imagery in dreams symbolizes overwhelm from facing too many challenges at once. I guess both things are true in this case!
The roOT House has been coming together slowly. Between a full therapy schedule and the long “doodlebug” list that comes with wearing all the hats for both Whole Child Wellness and Root Wellness opening day feels far away. Turns out, sheer excitement and big dreams are only a small part of opening a wellness clinic. The roOT House is located in a unique part of Spearfish and is under both county and city jurisdiction. We are just one week away from the last Lawrence County Public Hearing that will hopefully give us the Change of Use Permit (CUP) that will allow this Highway Service-Commercial District property to officially provide retail/health/wellness services. This was the first snake, I mean step(!) to transforming (ohhhh, I’m getting it now) this space from a residential home to a commercial space. After the county gives us the CUP green light, the City of Spearfish takes the reigns and we will likely be required to make some changes to the interior of the building to ensure ADA accessibility for the certificate of occupancy process.
Meanwhile, we have made some great progress! We finalized the SBA paperwork so our lender receives their funds, custom built the rockwall in the sensory gym, started a “modern botanical” mural, gathered with friends and volunteers to put together furniture, placed temporary, upcycled parking stops in our “parking lot”, and importantly, found 2 potential wellness providers for the office rentals!
As always we love your enthusiasm and inquiries about the process and opening date. Unfortunately, we cannot give a firm date yet! But we will keep you in the loop.
If you are interested in helping us, we need volunteers to help with landscaping the therapy garden! We are accepting donations for lumber for a fence and/or garden beds and would LOVE some of your perennials when you divide your garden later this summer/fall. Most importantly, we could your precious time! We will be watching the temps to plan some outdoor work parties!! As always, let’s connect on social media or feel free to send a text to 605-388-2993 if you have some materials or garden goodies to share!!
In Wellness,
Carly OT & fam