Roots That Go Back Years
The Village Collective didn’t appear out of nowhere.
It grew out of the Heyyy Pretty Momma! - a Facebook community where thousands of local moms first found each other online. For a while, it was exactly what we needed: a place to share stories, swap advice, and know we weren’t alone in the chaos of motherhood. But eventually we realized something was missing. We wanted to take that connection offline - to sit across the table, share a meal, laugh, cry, and build friendships that don’t just live in comment threads. That’s where The Village Collective was born.
And for me, it isn’t just about building new friendships - it’s about honoring the ones that have carried me through.
Take Natalie and me. We met in middle school - years of marching band, shared friendships, school dances, and so many memories. Life pulled us in different directions for a while, but we stayed in touch on Facebook. Then came kids.
Natalie brought her little ones to the very first Harmony Garden Sprouts classes.
I got to watch her babies grow through music from birth to age five, and she got to see me doing the work I love. Our friendship deepened in those years, but it didn’t stop there. When I started having kids, Natalie became my babysitter. She watched all three of my children at least one day a week - sometimes three - for over a decade. My kids absolutely love Natalie and her family. She was woven into their childhood.
And then, when my kids all hit school age, Natalie came to work for Harmony Garden as our office administrator.
Now, she’s invaluable to the business and just as invaluable to me as a friend. You’ll even see her forward-facing in the community - not only representing Harmony Garden, but also as part of these Village Collective meetups.
Those are our roots. They run deep. They’ve grown and changed and adapted through different seasons of life. And they remind me that community isn’t built in a day or in a Facebook thread - it’s built in years of showing up for each other, through work and music and motherhood and everything in between.
The Village Collective is built on friendships like that - friendships that last, that bend but don’t break, that grow right alongside you. And the best part? There’s room for more.
This isn’t just about me and Natalie.
