The name
Why a loon.
Gavia is the genus of the common loon — a bird that has shaped how we think about IBD navigation.
Loons are extraordinary divers. They go deep beneath the surface to see what others cannot. They navigate vast distances across changing conditions — open water in summer, coastal ice in winter, weather they cannot predict. They are quiet on the still water but they are present. They make their home in places others have written off as too cold, too remote, too hostile.
That is what it looks like to live with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. You learn to navigate changing conditions. You learn to see beneath the surface of your own body. You make a home of a condition that the rest of the world doesn't want to talk about.
The loon, in flight, is the symbol of that resilience. And of the long, patient distance you cover, one day at a time.