I stopped making New Year’s Resolutions a long time ago. Instead, I prefer to journey back through the year, celebrating what brought me joy and seeking understanding in the harder experiences of the year. 2019 was challenging with my 7 year cycle in numerology…a time of contemplation and creativity. A year of going inward and seeking answers to a steady stream of questions about life and finding a direction that feels right for me; becoming aware that the status quo is simply not good enough any more. And, although I have been busy in my community, growing my farm and business, and exploring new spiritual paths, I have also created space to be introspective, releasing parts of myself that no longer serve me, and trusting my intuition to take me into my year of Harvest in 2020. Here are some of the gifts from 2019:

I began my second year working through The Invisible Garment with Connie Kaplan and have a wonderful group of inspiring women from all over the world who consistently meet and share their spiritual journey through the wonders of video communication. This work has led me on a growing spiritual path into her Color Work and Dreaming Wisdom classes; it will be a growing journey as I enter 2020. It is my dream to share this empowering work with the women in my local area this year, so stay tuned. I also completed my 3rd Degree in Reiki and am offering Reiki sessions in my home.

I continue to study herbalism and enjoy spending time with the plant devas. Two of my favorite teachers in 2019 were Sajah Popham from Evolutionary Herbalism and Tammi Sweet from Heartstone Center. I will continue in their studies through 2020 and will be starting an Herbal Healing Circle to share my love of plants. This will be a monthly meeting to learn about medicinal plants, sustainability, and medicine making. If you are interested in plants, I hope you will join in. I will be sharing more soon in a newsletter so, if you aren’t on the list, be sure to sign up!

And, of course, animals have been and will always be the foundation of my experiences and learning in this lifetime. Many of you know that I adopted three cats in January 2019 who had never been outside of an apartment bedroom. It has been a year of joy and tears as they have transitioned from apartment dwellers to tree climbers. CeCe, the youngest of the three sisters had the most health challenges and after being spayed the end of June, became very ill. The week of July 4th, we made an appointment to have her euthanized....however, because she had a temp, we opted to give her a round of antibiotics and ran multiple tests for infectious diseases that all came back negative. She started doing better after a few days of antibiotics and is now a robust, sassy eight pound kitty.

Sequoia Mountain BP Here Comes the Sun, our Nigerian Dwarf kid from California joined our farm family early Summer and has brought lots of sunshine into our lives. She is learning to walk on a leash with me and the cats and is in training to be our farm mascot at markets and special events. We hosted a day of goat yoga introducing our seventeen babies to twenty one people on mats...it was somewhere between a yoga class and a zoo. We may need to rethink next year and just have an open house to introduce our kids.

And finally, the day before Thanksgiving, we lost our sweet Cassie Cat to old age. Bonfires and gardening were some of her favorite activities in her nearly twenty years on our farm. Our laps are empty and her daily presence in our life is deeply missed. Letting go of the things that bring us comfort are sometimes the hardest lessons life teaches. And, as I say goodbye to 2019 I feel the tug....letting go of what feels known and trusting that the new chapter in 2020 will bring new love, good lessons and joy. Here’s to the Harvest!