Our Story

The Journey
We didn’t build The Integration Grove overnight. This was an intentional dream, one that evolved over time. It was built one step at a time. Each tree we planted, each path we cleared, and every challenge we faced all came together to be a part of our journey.

Our Story

The Dream That Became Integrating With Love & The Integration Grove

It began as a dream… one that started many years ago.
Both Philomene and I had reached a point in life where something deeper was calling. A quiet whisper inside said there was more to understand not just about ourselves, but about the nature of healing, presence, and love. That whisper eventually became Integrating With Love.

The Purpose

What began as small conversations with others who were seeking truth and peace turned into a space where people could share openly and without judgment. Over time, we came to see that integration was not about fixing or striving, but remembering. Remembering who we really are beneath all the stories. Remembering that we’re already whole.

The Power of Intention

I’ve come to believe that when a dream is born, it lives first in the realm of the unmanifested. To bring it into being, we must act on it, take that unseen spark and give it form. That begins by making our intention known.

We started telling people, “We intend to build a spiritual retreat in Costa Rica.”
Those words mattered. I believe there’s power in saying I intend or I am doing instead of I want. The world is full of wants, and when the universe hears another want, it simply says, “Ah… another want… how beautiful.”

But when the universe hears I am doing, and you begin to act in alignment with that intention, everything starts to move. Circumstances shift. Doors open. The right people and resources begin to find you.

Finding the Place

When we first decided this was what we were going to do, we didn’t have the money to build it, but we had enough to visit Costa Rica and begin the search. For two years, we traveled there, exploring and listening, until we found the perfect place.

It’s about eight miles from Panama you can see the mountains of Panama in the distance. The weather is perfect… sixty to eighty-two degrees year-round. No need for heat or air conditioning.

When I first stepped onto the property, I knew. It was the place.

Building Step by Step

We still didn’t have the money to build everything, but that same year Philomene received her first real bonus from her employer. That blessing allowed us to purchase the seven and a half acres that would become The Integration Grove. Now we had the land… but not yet the means to build. So we did what we could do. We cleaned up the property. The first year, we planted over four hundred trees. We built gates and fencing. We created trails and pathways that wound through the land and led down to the waterfall. Another year, we brought in electricity and water. In 2019, we built the caretaker’s house. We still don’t have everything finished, but we have the plans. We know what our home will look like, where it will sit, and even the tiles that will line the floor. Each step brings us closer to what we first envisioned.

Building Without Debt

It’s been important to us to build without debt. We never wanted to create something that depended on profit or financial pressure. We wanted it to grow slowly and naturally, as life does, so it could remain true to its purpose, helping people without condition.

The Integration Grove

Over the years, we’ve met countless people who go through profound healing experiences, whether through plant medicine or other forms of deep work. Many return home inspired, but they often struggle to integrate what they’ve learned once they’re back in the same environment that sent them searching in the first place.

That’s why The Integration Grove exists to create a safe, grounded space where people can come afterward to process, to reflect, and to remember. It’s not a treatment center. It’s a sanctuary… a place to rest and reconnect with the deeper truth that’s always been within them

Future Vision

When our intention is fully realized, the Integration Grove will offer yoga, meditation, organic farming, and permaculture, and above all, the freedom to simply be.

For us, this is not just a project. It’s the unfolding of something that began long ago, a dream, a calling, a quiet promise to serve in whatever way we can.

The Journey

We didn’t build this by striving. We built it by listening, by trusting, and by taking one step at a time. Each tree we planted, each path we cleared, each moment of doubt we turned into faith, all of it became part of the story.

And as we look around today, we see how every step, even the slow ones, has brought us closer to what we first spoke aloud:
“We intend to build a spiritual retreat in Costa Rica.”

That intention is now alive in the land itself in the sound of the river, in the trees that reach for light, and in the quiet presence that fills the air.

Our hope is that when someone steps onto this ground, they’ll feel it too…
That sense of stillness… of possibility… of coming home.