Let us tell a story

[wild-craft-ing] v.
the harvesting of herb, root, flower or inspiration from the wilds

[stew·ard·ship] noun
the activity or job of protecting and being responsible for something
an ethic that embodies the responsible planning and management of resources

I spent the last three days at the Wildcraft Forest just outside of Lumby. I connected with  Don (the lovely man who is a steward of the land there) last year through finding his website. We were meant to meet earlier and things didn't turn out. So I jumped at the chance to attend the second ever Wildcrafting Basics course, that leads one to the Wildcrafting Bioregional Studies Certificate (WBSC). Last week we were assigned homework to do a report on three plants - two that are native to the interior of BC and one that is "invasive"(what a terrible term). We were also tasked with looking back, like faaaar back into our ancestry, to 5000 years ago. To imagine the life we would have lead back then. Due to how busy I've been lately, I was a tad stressed. I guess I am a bit of a perfectionist in some ways and wanted to be fully prepared.

Nothing could have prepared me for the weekend (and yet everything in my life up to this point has been preparing me).  More on that later.

So from the beginning. My friend Lisa and I packed up her camper and took off, with no expectations of who or what this course would be like. We are both drawn to the woods, to sustainability, to philosophical conversations about what life really is about. It just felt right. We knew all of the above would happen. We arrived and immediately met two lovely women around our age, of the same like-minded ideas. It was an instant bond. As other class members arrived, it was apparent that we were indeed a clan of sorts. There was instantaneous connection and an awe and wonder for the Earth and all that her majesty has to offer us (and more, about what we can offer back).

After delightful conversation (where I actually exclaimed, "I love you," to Pam - one of the attendees there. Too soon? Haha) we dove right into spiral harvesting (over foraging) of wild strawberries and wild mint. Don was harvesting the leaves these for his wild teas, so we got to eat a few of the delightful miniature berries. Delicious. Until the roosters on the property came along and helped themselves to the whole field. Fair enough, these roosters (called Lord Voldemort and Panama) well they need to eat too. We also met Wizard, the spiritual dog and faithful companion of Don's. He became a constant for the weekend, as wherever we went, Wizard would follow.

We then learned about the ancient art of dowsing and were able to create our own dowsing sticks. Dowsing is a type of divination used to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, gravesites, and many other objects and materials, without the use of scientific apparatus. It is an ancient art and incredibly interesting. It lends itself to the idea of an ancient muscle memory. I won't spend too much time on this as it's something more to be experienced than explained. Following our first foray into the woods, we came back to camp and used Don's pendulum to ask a few questions. We got some interesting answers later that evening around the fire...

Hwy 6 -  if you ever get a chance,
drop in to this magical place

Spiral harvesting. No clear cutting / foraging.

Home for three days:
Forest.
Fire pit.
Medicine wheel.
Teepee being wrapped in wood.
All the essentials.

The wise eyes of Wizard.

Learning the ancient art of dowsing.

Later Friday night, we had a smudging ceremony, and had rich conversation about the reasons why we came around the medicine wheel and the Four Directions. This consisted sitting around a stone monument that's a symbol in North American indigenous culture. Where you sat mattered, as the Four Directions have symbolism in each. There is the deer to the west (gentle spirit), the coyote to the south (trickster), the bear to the west (leader) and the eagle/owl to the north (visionary). Without knowing, I sat between the bear and the eagle. During this ceremony, I had a major moment. I was sharing my story of what led me to that exact moment and as I gazed out over the Sleeping Coyote mountain in front of me, with the sun setting, and heart enriching conversation, something whispered to me that my leap of faith that had me pack up my belongings into a car and move to Kelowna without knowing a soul, was right. That my steps to move towards an agricultural based company was right. That my friendship with Lisa wasn't a coincidence. These were all steps on my journey to this place.

I struggled finding the words to describe this moment of the weekend, so I found this description of a medicine wheel and thought it too perfect to not include:

"a Medicine Wheel can best be described as a mirror within, which everything about the human condition is reflected back. It requires courage to look into the mirror and really see what is being reflected back about an individual's life. It helps us with our creative "Vision", to see exactly where we are in life and which areas we need to work on and develop in order to realize our full potential. It is a tool to be used for the upliftment and betterment of humankind, healing and connecting to the Infinite."

After all of this activity, we still had two days left. So we built a beautiful fire and shared further stories about lucid dreaming, pioneering ideas, about what life really means, about the broken system we find ourselves in. I fell asleep so utterly content and slept for eight hours for the first time in a long time.

Saturday started with enriching conversation based around terroir. Terroir can be loosely translated as "a sense of place," which is embodied in certain characteristic qualities, the sum of the effects that the local environment has had on the production of the product. This includes the soil, the geography, the climate, and best of all, the story of a product. Imagine the wine in France, where terroir comes from. It tells the story of the place where the grapes are grown and why that wine is so special. This lent itself to being a more business-minded conversation about becoming an artisan, or a product designer, and about how to contribute to the economy and tell the story of your products to the marketplace. This isn't all "hippie" stuff people! It's business that comes with a high level of spiritual ethics.

From there it seemed natural that we would jump to the career side of wildcrafting. The categories are loosely divided into six paths:

• Designers (product design, community planning)
• Healers (making medicine, plant knowledge, ancient arts, healing memory)
• Alchemists (transformation of dyes, fibers, medicines and plants into food)
• Guides (communicators, counselors, dreamwork, pilgrimage)
• Teachers (learning, sharing, mentoring, media, broadcasting, storytelling, communicating)
• Navigators (leadership, biosemiotics, negotiating, advocacy)

The vision that Don holds for wildcrafting is truly original and incredible. One of my favourite chats we had from the weekend was this:

"Wildcrafting is what the environmental movement should have become. It's not about going to lawmakers and petitioning them to make change for us. It's about making change in ourselves and the environment we are living in. If we each take that responsibility unto ourselves, we can create a movement bigger than anything that a law or government in it's current state could do."

It's about our obligation as dwellers on the earth, to take care of what we have for future generations. And, as you can see above, there is a way for this to be done, and to make a living from it. It's a new kind of economy, ruled by the nurturing Gaia. And he believes this will be a movement. That every health food store, or grocery store for that matter will need a wildcrafting practitioner. Every restaurant and hospital. It really will become the wave that drives the human race forward in a way that the earth can support.

We spoke this weekend about true permaculture and bioregionalism. About creating a design system which aims to create sustainable human habitats by following nature's patterns. And about creating ecological, political and cultural systems around naturally defined areas. What an inspirational time to be living here in the interior of BC.

The piece that came out of Saturday's morning conversations for me was the Aha moment of why I've spent the past ten years in marketing and communications. I'm here to tell a story. The world is a web of stories. The more we can find people to tell the right ones, the better off we will be.

Then we were off on a field trip to the Shuswap River.

The beautiful Shuswap River

Identifying horsetail & wild gooseberries

Known to keep away evil spirits...

Ferns! With markings underneath! Is it Bracken or Lady Fern?  

The oh so glorious and important forest underlayer

Learning about culturally modified trees. 

The Queen's Cup:
 - used as an eye medicine and to stop bleeding
 - berries used for a blue dye 

The very versatile Thimbleberry
 - berries eaten fresh with other wild berries
- young shoots can be peeled and eaten raw or cooked
- large, maple like leaves to be used as temporary containers
- the leaves can even be used as toilet tissue for hikers

Can't go into a forest and not sit
on a log & have a quick ponder can you? 

And once the enlightening field trip (where we also discovered beauts like the cottonwood trees, oregon grape, birch trees, streambank buttercup and wild ginger) it was time to head back to camp and collect items for dinner.

Gathering an oh so beautiful salad 

Puffball mushrooms! This was about the size of a soccer ball
and felt like a kneaded piece of dough.

Finding dinner in the sunshine.

And coming across a meadow of oxeye daisies.
Let's add those petals to our salad...

Pam & Jaime creating a delicious paste for the salmon.

Prepping for the burdock root pancakes

The aromatic woods. Nowhere I'd rather be.

Burdock root broth with chives & mint 

Campfire cooking...

and ever present stimulating conversation

And our final product, with sun tea
(and black currant wine for the girls) 

With full bellies and happy bodies, we then did our plant presentations over a crackling fire. With nine of us, it was amazing that there was not one overlapping plant that we chose. It was truly incredible learning about the characteristics, spiritual and medicinal values of over twenty different wild plants. To name a few, we had wild mint, skunk cabbage (a light shining in the swampy dark), mugwort (a great plant for women to get to know), wild honeysuckle, heart-leafed arnica and tall bluebells (all related to my favourite thing - LOVE), pine pollen (a testosterone booster for men), giant hogweed (instilling fear in parents everywhere), the tiger lily (to add a little pepper), and Japanese nutweed (the plant that doesn't seem to have much wrong with it - other than minor architectural issues - this guy will grow through walls...but that is so healing that it's perhaps natures way of forcing us to listen). There was great mullein plant (an aphrodisiac), the red columbine (a good luck charm), and skull cap (beware of giddiness and happiness).  What. an. education.

After a rich after-fire discussion of boycotts, the book of Enoch and our raison d'être, we retired to bed for another restful slumber.

Upon rising, I realized it was the last day. This created a stir of emotions. I was overwhelmed with information and needed to digest it. I was faced with aha moments of my own skills and talents that I need to share with the world. I was terribly sad to leave the no-cell-service-oh-so-peaceful woods and the clan that we created. But I was ready to face our last day, to soak in what I could, and to come home with a sense of purpose.

And then Robert MacDonald came to speak to us. Robert has a rich past, full of marketing (for great things like the Grateful Dead and household items like the decorated Kleenex box), publishing (worked for Random House - hello hero!) and consulting, all the while keeping his spiritual values and morals in tact. It quickly became clear to me that I am meant to study further under this man whose background has slight similarities to my own that I'm starting. However, the one story that Robert told struck me as something that needed to be told, and it is this:

When he was working for a typography company, he learned the story of the building he worked in. It was built by construction workers that were far ahead of their time. It was a huge, intricate building, built in stone and other sturdy materials. However, there were certain parts that needed the flexibility of wood. So the builders knew that this would have to be replaced about 300 years from then and built the wood in such a way that it would be easy to extract and replace. Then they took things a step further. They planted an oak tree forest surrounding the building, that would grow for 300 years, mature, and then the wood that was needed was right on site.

Do you see the sustainability in that?

Do you realize that that's how we need to be thinking - 300 years out?

We all want to leave a legacy. What can we do, that will be a story, that will inspire future generations, and that will leave them better off?

That's what we need to be thinking about.

I was captivated by his message and am starting to understand that I have to shift my thinking to this way. Not only this, but it's storytelling that will continue that message along. It's the story of Ogopogo (to potentially protect boaters from methane eruptions?) It's the story that we have heard from our parents about who we are and where we come from that shapes our lives.

We have to think about our story. Every generation and culture needs a story. And we have a moral and ethical obligation to set it up right now for 300 years from now.

Sunday afternoon we talked to a man named Matthew Stephens who studied permaculture from the grandfather of permaculture himself: Bill Mollison. Matt is now designing a food forest and community garden in inner city Chicago. He is a guerrilla gardener that is changing lives. These kinds of visionaries are who we need to step forward and blaze the path. We also got into a very animated conversation about the naysayers. Those who may need to see certification in this path in order for it to be credible. Or those that simply look at us and say that we're "hippies." But I ask you this:

And what if my buisness background allows me to understand the economy - and not to simply "check out" of society like many hippies are accused of doing. I think there's a true path that we can follow that takes that which we need to do and makes it accessible to all, still allowing lives of comfort (maybe not luxury like there is now, but comfort nonetheless) and rich conversations and rich spirits and delicious foods? It creates a world of community and rights some of the wrongs that are so clearly, blatantly happening right now around the world.

Deep deep down, somewhere, you must hear the whisper.

And there's tangible things that you can do. Grow your own food or support those that grow yours. Create community with multi-levels of skills that can build an intertwined group that compliments each other rather than berate each other. Choose a piece of land and become a true steward of it. Read about the resources we have at our fingertips. Learn. Act.

Our final assignment of the course was an ancestral mapping. To understand where our blood lines originated. And then to tell a story of what we could imagine of that life. I found this extremely enriching and was surprised to find so many synchronicities of what my life could have been like then and my life now. I found traits of what I believe to have been my indigenous diet that I am partial too today (German diet of dough, breads, cheeses, butters). I found ancient thought patterns like ahimsa (non violence to all living things) that popped up in my studies. I told a story of who I believe I was and it came out to sound exactly like the life that I am currently living.

I believe everyone should try digging back into their ancestry. Uncover the stories. Taste the foods. Who knows what you may find out about yourself.

It's funny, when you start to study a forest. You see how all of the layers and species of it work together to ensure a high-functioning ecosystem. Humans can really become connected like that and mimic nature.

Ultimately, I believe it all comes down to this:

"Do you believe in the good of many over the good of one, or the good of one over the good of many?"

If it's the former, I think we will be okay. If we include the earth as one of the many, we will learn to live within it. And often, if you look at communities, women are the community oriented nurturers. A new need for feminine leadership is happening. Women can blaze this path and right things, if we support each other and let the story of family and community be told through them. This is a very special time in history.

Let's make sure that our time here tells a story from our intertwined hearts.

Continue

Radically Thankful

"All else you may ever ask for, during the rest of your entire life and beyond, will still be far less than what you already have." - The Universe

What an incredible thought.

A fresh seafood feast, hikes to a waterfall, a kayak with my sis, sitting cross legged on the lake shore with my family throwing rocks, crazy little nephew dance parties, and a Riders game with my dad. What could I be thankful for?

This week my family came out to see me and we stayed at a cabin at Fintry Park overlooking the lake, with the hills rising in the distance. It's been pretty easy to be thankful...and so then I got thinking of life in general. What am I grateful for in my everyday? A word of caution, I've had this building in me all week and I tend to be radically grateful, so it's a long one.

Recently, a good friend of mine has begun to email me daily with five things she is grateful for. Because she lives in the Prairies, I get this email each morning before I get out of bed. I wake up and as I turn off my alarm, I'm able to read her five things. It positions me in a purely positive light for the rest of my day. How can you start on a bad foot when you're reading someone else making the best of their day? So for this gift that's been given to me, thank you. I am grateful for your commitment and accountability to ensuring you treat life as a beautiful adventure, every single day.

So that brings me to the first thing that I am thankful for.

To the amazing women in my life whom I'm lucky enough to call friends / soul sisters / makamaka / partners in crime. From my friends in the prairies, to the east coast, to Central America and overseas....each woman I've encountered and whom has remained in my life, through wine nights and travel, skype dates and snail mail, you have all played a special role for me. Whether we were childhood friends or volleyball teammates, college friends or colleagues, you have all helped me to see joy in life that can only come from sisterhood connections. Bonding, tears, laughter and incredible support.

Moving to Kelowna has been a huge adventure in remembering all of my friends with such nostalgia. Often, as I'm going about making a life here, their jokes, their voices and their advice will spring into my head. As Kahlil says, "For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain." I am so grateful for all of the sisterhood I've received in my life and look forward to each and every moment that I get to reunite with all the different ladies in my life. And I'm incredibly grateful for the new ladies I've met here, that have embraced me as if we grew up together. What would I do without you guys?!

It goes without saying that sometimes I am slightly bizarre and over the top, yet these women accept me for who I am and support me - even if my steps are scattered and my pattern is random. What I know for sure is that each of you leading your own incredible lives empowers me to blaze my own trail. So for my soul sisters, I am thankful.

Now, for the male friends and brothers and dad and uncles in my life. What would life be without them? They're my football friends and accountants. My go to guys for chilled out life talks. My business friends. My Mario kart and Call of Duty partners. And of course my "Yeah, buts" (I always joke that when I have an overactive idea, my dad will simply say, "yeah Tamara, but you have to remember this", or "Yeah, buuuut maybe that would work better like this." He is my "yeah, but" and he keeps me grounded.)

Whenever I get tunnel vision and/or emotional and passionate about certain things, these rational-minded men help to bring me back to see both sides, minus the over exaggeration or emotions. They make life more simple and pleasant, and my life wouldn't be the same without them. So for the amazing men in my life, I am thankful.

I also have to say that I'm utterly grateful for the husbands / fiances / boyfriends of all of the women I hold dear. I keep seeing real life love matches happen over and over within my circle of friends and I couldn't be more grateful to these men that are making my friends and sisters happy. Who are good men and stand by them. And who put up with me when I invade their space for dinners and sleepovers without a complaint. So for these guys, I am thankful.

Now, to my job. Thank you for challenging me in many facets of my life. Thank you for allowing me to work from Kelowna, but travel home often to see my family and friends and work colleagues, whom I have become so close too. I'm lucky to have found such a great company to work for and for them to allow me to travel so much, which is a goal at the root of all I do. For my job, I am super thankful.

For my new and old passions. I'm utterly astounded that I have the means to do most of things I want to try in life. After having seen many countries where this freedom isn't there, I have to scream at the top of my lungs (metaphorically of course) that I feel SHOCKED, LIBERATED & AMAZED that I get to try so many things that I love (and some that I don't love). I have been fortunate to travel around the world and this year held many important trips for me - to Guelph, Chicago, Halifax, Arizona, Vancouver, Whistler and San Fran. I now have a garden, skills in juicing, fermenting and brewing, a place to cook, to golf, to swim, to snowboard, and a kayak to get out on the water in. I am in the midst of starting my next International Development course and I am planning to study holistic nutrition next year and that's something I can't ever show more thanks for. Not only that, but I've been able to meet and create an ongoing volunteer relationship with I.W.E.N., Hope for the Nations and the Kelowna Women's Shelter. This freedom and ability to pursue my passions shocks me to my core and I hope I never lose that. All I can strive to do is make each moment that I'm in this life meaningful for someone else. To use this incredible blessing for the greater good. My eye is still on the ultimate goal. And although I take a step off the path every now and again, I'm committed to creating a well rounded life and social enterprise that incorporates a healthy holistic lifestyle and gives back outrageously. It is in progress...

Now, for the Kelowna community. I moved here not knowing what it was like and having some people tell me on my trip out that it was full of biker gangs, rattlesnakes and WASPS (and not the flying kind. "The least cultural city in Canada" was actually a term someone said to me.) Well. I have found this to be the farthest thing from the truth. I have taken Spanish classes and volunteered for organizations that are doing amazing things around the world. I have seen local ambition for helping in organizations like the women's shelter and Inn from the Cold. There is tons of culture here and people care. Just like people everywhere care. You just have to seek it and you shall find big hearts that reside everywhere. And, for the hills to hike and the waters to kayak, for the vineyards, cheese farms and farmers markets, I'm thankful to be a part of this unique Kelowna community.

Ooo, things are getting really deep now. I am utterly thankful (I guess to myself?) for my commitment to cultivating relationships on soul levels. One thing I value most about meeting new people and having old friends in my life is that I try to nourish these relationships way beneath the surface. To be cliché and quote Oriah Mountain Dreamer, "I don't care what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for." This is the truth of the matter. I want to have conversations about how you're really feeling or about things that matter in your life or about what is going on in the world, and I find as I get older that I need that as a quality in friendship. Life is short, but can be an incredible adventure if we focus on meaningful interactions and passionate and positive people. So I guess I'm thankful that I dig deep and that others around me do too.

The challenges. Oh am I ever grateful for the challenges. I have had many, but nothing compared to what others have gone through. I remind myself daily of that. Yet for the challenging situations I have met - and the challenging people that I have in my life - I am thankful because everyday they are making me learn. As my mom read me this week from Leonard Cohen, "There's a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." Yes, yes and YES! This (as many things) always brings me back to ubuntu. We are all human, we're all connected, and we're all in this together. So instead of seeing challenges as challenges, I like to think that everything is just a small detail of our own adventure. If we can see the forest and not just the trees, we will hopefully be able to sit back, take the lesson, and be grateful, even when the people and times of our lives get tough.

And, of course, my family. I AM SO THANKFUL FOR MY FAMILY. My mom, dad, sister, brothers, brother in law, nephews and all of my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. We are a clan of crazy, passionate, emotional and supportive people. As this week in Fintry reminded me, we are just like any other family. We argue and joke and cry and laugh. Because I'm the youngest, I get teased incessantly. But I don't have to doubt that they encourage and support me, even if not all of them quite understand me. I realize I'm a tricky person on a meandering path. But they see my light and remind me of it. They challenge me to think outside my own heart and head. And if it all falls apart, which it has before, they won't say "I told you so." Although the idea of "home" for me is ultimately fragmented, I do know that wherever they are is home. For my family, I'm utterly and overly thankful.

Finally, to the tripod. My mom, older sister and I email each other everyday and call them tripod emails. We group text and group skype. When we are together, there is sure to be laughing and sure to be crying. We are sure to dig right deep down into our souls and come out with an epiphany. These are the two women who know my every move from when I was an infant up to now. They know my heart and seem to know where I am going, even when I don't. I am over-the-moon-words-could-never-be-enough thankful for the silliness and support.

And duuuh, life just wouldn't be complete without the following: cheese, wine, chocolate, waterfalls, bookstores, delicious smelling books, fireplaces, cabins, wood-anything, incense, cozy lamps, cozy sweaters, the blues, jazz, folk, edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros, sam cooke, dance parties, garlic, lemons, gardens, movies, minions, board games, greeting cards, tall boots, cozy soups, plaid everything, harmonicas, bamboo, cozy blankets, fall, flowers, tin can phones, green juice, beet juice, and, of course, sauerkraut.

I hope this special day finds you all as cozy as possible and that the fall colours are as bright as ever. Thanksgiving, to me, is about being radically kind and over-the-top grateful for all the blessings in our lives. So love it up today people! Listen to music, dance, relax and be cozy! LOVE.

Continue

Wherever you go, there you are

Today marks my one year anniversary of moving to Kelowna.
I'm one week away from my 28th birthday.
And I'm here, in more ways than one.
Let me explain...

I look back on journals and blog posts from last year before I moved and I laugh. I was so excited-scared-nervous-anxious-exhilarated. I decided to move because the choice to stay was irrelevant. I could work from anywhere. I had no bonded ties holding me down. I grew up with many camping trips to the mountains and I wanted to reclaim the coziness and the awe-struck fantasy that I still had in my head about living near such majestic nature. I wanted organic farm markets that were on every roadside. I wanted to canoe on a lake or river close to my home. I wanted options for camping and hiking in my backyard. I had never been to Kelowna in my adult life, but I wanted IT. I have such a soft spot for the prairies and I want to make it clear that I know you can get many of the above there. It's just that for now, I wanted to try something new and the idea of BC tempted and drew me in.

I remember sitting in the kitchen at Aerins just before it was time to leave, with her and Ashley, thinking, "Will I have this sisterhood if I move away? Do I even know what I'm doing? I don't know anyone there. Maybe I'll hate it." I am pretty sure I cried. I knew I would miss my girls. I knew how painful it would be to leave my family. But I also knew that if I stayed somewhere for comfort alone, my spirit would suffer. So I took the leap and moved. Actually, I loaded up my car with only my cat and few belongings, and I drove the 26 hours from Winnipeg to Kelowna without ever having seen my room to rent or having met a soul that lived there.

This past year hasn't always been easy, that is for sure. I heard somewhere it takes about a year and a half before a place feels like home. But for whatever reason, this city and the country life just outside of it has swept me into it like a rushing river.

Fall and winter were undeniably cozy in front of a huge stone fireplace. I made friends, I re-connected with cooking and being alone with myself, and I deepened relationships with friends & family from afar. I made some mistakes and experienced broken hearts. But spring came early. I bought a kayak and started a garden...and somewhere in it all, I realized that when we make decisions to take a new job, or study something new, or move somewhere different, we aren't looking to find ourselves. We are trying to create ourselves. In each and every moment, we get to decide what the next will look like. Decisions such as having a bit more fun with your kids and worrying a bit less about the mess, or planting a garden, or applying for courses you always wanted to take - those are character building decisions. They shape who you can become. And you can continue to make new and different ones everyday.

I will also add that I probably could not have done this without the flexibility of the job I have, or the fact that I go home for work so often that I've seen my family and friends consistently throughout this whole adventure. So grateful.

So today I've lived here for exactly one year. Last night I went camping with two of my best friends here, two kids and two dogs. I left to go there after them so they had to leave me posters on the trees to guide my way. It was the best scavenger hunt I've ever been on because it led me through the woods to a lake, a fire, a campfire dinner, no cell service, and the moon - and it was thirty minutes from my house.

 We talked and ate delicious food, held hands around the fire and did yoga in the moonlight. We had some drinks and laughed so hard we couldn't breathe. We even thought we were going to get eaten by a bear at one point. As the sun set and there was a breathtaking pink sky, we talked about how quickly time passes. How vital it is to just soak it all up every moment. People always say that, but how many times do you actually sit back and really imprint a moment on your heart?

This morning, after coffee and kombucha, I embarked on a solo kayak journey to my favourite spot on Kalamalka. Once again, no cell service, just the sun and the waves and me. I brought four mind expanding, heart challenging books. I docked the kayak and napped and ate grapes and cheese fresh from a farm market on the road side. And then I swam in the crystal clear water. I made some new decisions for my next steps --- goals for my 28th year. On the way home, I stopped at my community garden, picked chard and cucumbers and tended to my other plants. A few people stopped me along the way to ask about my kayak or how much it was to get into the garden. I felt so at ease, so at home.

And tonight I hung out with a friend who I respect a ton and who has taught me a lot in the past year. As we sat out on my deck, overlooking the lights of Kelowna, I could feel myself back to last year - having just moved in - stepping out onto the deck and seeing the same sights, hoping to create a life here full of laughter and hope and growth. It's funny how these two moments have brought so much of that in between.

Let's just say that I'm physically exhausted and mentally and spiritually on fire.

I still don't know if it's the "right" move, per se. I'll never really know. But after a full year's reflection, I'm content. I'm right where I should be, for now. And I hope you know that you are too.

For wherever you go, there you are.

Continue