We're on this blue rock together

2025 was a hard year for everyone on this blue rock. We witnessed apocalyptic levels of greed, murder in cold blood, and the complete abandonment of our most vulnerable. It has been hard to navigate what the point of existence is amid the chaos. For me personally, the only way to persevere was to dig my heels into something deeper — forming roots into a better future past all of this current noise. Don't get me wrong, I have been working with my community on the present just as much as the future. But planning those roots is what gives me the energy to push back.

Watching Artemis II launch and travel around the earth and moon this past month instilled even more resolve in me about building those roots. Technology has given us this remarkable 24/7 view of people all over the world reacting in real time. We don't have to take our leaders at their word anymore — we can look directly to citizens for information, for reactions, for their own accounts.

Watching the people of Iran form a human wall in direct defiance of Trump's threats to their country reminded me that resistance to cruelty is not radical. It is human. Americans have been standing up to those same threats on their own people. The people of Iran are not so different from us — they are us. We are all just people on the same blue rock, trying to protect the ones we love from the same forces of greed and fear. The new images of Earth from Artemis II make that undeniable. From out there, there are no borders. Just one small, fragile, breathtaking planet full of people who want the same things: peace, safety, a life worth living instead of living to work.

The Tower of Babel may have separated us in speech. But we are united in everything that actually matters.

When I started The BirdHive, it was a way to crawl out of the rocky hole I had fallen into. I didn't have a bigger vision for it at the time — just a way to use my own skills to survive without dying inside. I have not only surpassed that goal, but gone farther than I had dreamed possible. What keeps tugging at me is how many people seem left behind in this chaotic, fast-paced society. I would not be here today without the support of my family and friends, and they continue to show up for me. But there are so many people who lack that support. The question that drives everything now is: how do I help them without burning out again?

The answer is: I will need to hire people. And when I do, I refuse to put them through the same trauma I have been through. I am also very aware that my general knowledge only goes so far — I need to surround myself with experts and mentors who can guide my decisions toward building a wholesome, healing business culture. Not just a business. A community.

Which brings me to the roots I want to nurture.

The New BirdHive Mission Statement

The BirdHive exists because the workplace was never designed for neurodivergent nervous systems — and we're building the proof that it can be.

Right now, it's Addy's art designed by someone who gets it, printed on blanks carefully chosen for how they actually feel to wear. The team is small — one full-time artist and the volunteers who show up because they believe in what this is becoming.

That's not a disclaimer. That's the point. We're building this slowly and deliberately, because we've seen what happens when you rush.

The long-term vision is a Print-on-Demand manufacturing warehouse and artist platform designed from the ground up for disabled and neurodivergent workers and creators — living wages, flexible hours, sensory-friendly workspaces, and fair margins for ND, LGBTQIA+, and disabled artists. Not retrofitted. Built that way from the beginning.

We're actively pursuing grants and competitions — including this year's MN Cup — to get serious about that infrastructure. Every purchase, every convention, every person who shares the art is part of making that possible.

Not retrofitted. Built that way from the beginning. And we're not there yet — but we know exactly where we're going.

These roots are now live. The full mission statement and updated story of The BirdHive have their own page on the site — you can find it under Our Mission in the nav. The website itself also got some updates this month, including a switch to Atkinson Hyperlegible, a font specifically designed for low vision readers, because this site should be as thoughtfully built as the clothing.

Currently I am writing grant applications and pursuing opportunities like MN Cup to pool the resources needed to create a solid foundation for hiring — so The BirdHive can grow slowly and deliberately, with culture as the most important thing we build.

We're all on this blue rock together. That's not nothing. That's everything.

— Addy