When he was alive, Zennon and I spent long, quiet hours dreaming aloud about a place where people could come to heal. Those conversations were never abstract — they were rooted in the small, practical things he loved: the patient work of soil and seed, the rhythms of life lived close to the land, and a belief that reconnecting with spirit and community could change how we live on the planet.
In 2020 he went to New Zealand to learn farming. That year deepened something in him — a conviction that living off-grid, growing your own food, and tending the earth were not escapes but medicines. Back on the Big Island he continued that work, laboring on several farms, learning the local soils and rhythms, and carrying home ideas about self-sufficiency, simple structures of community, and ceremonial care.
Out of those years of practice and conversation came the seed of a shared vision: creating a healing Sanctuary on the Big Island. The Sanctuary is meant to be more than a retreat or an eco-farm. It is intended to be a living tribute to what he believed — a place where people are taught how to grow food and live gently on the land, where ritual and silence are honored, and where a compassionate community gathers to hold one another.
Following Zennon's transition, it became clear to me what this Sanctuary would manifest as, while still carrying our original dream -- the Zen Divine Sanctuary expand upon this dream to also specialize in grief support for parents and siblings who have lost a child or a sibling. That vision imagines quiet and peaceful Bungalows and gardens, guided practices for processing sorrow, peer support and family-centered counseling, practical skills for returning to daily life, and compassionate teachers who know how to listen and teach. It’s a place to learn how to navigate grief without hurry, to find tools for continuing, and to be held by a community that understands loss.
We are committed to bringing that vision into being — not to erase the ache of loss, but to make a home where people can come, rest, sow, remember, and gradually learn how to live with what remains. Zennon's hands in the soil and his conversations with me are the roots of the Sanctuary; what grows from them will be carried forward in his name and in service to those who are in need of healing.
