Proof of Life Post

Hello friends! It’s been a while since I’ve written and shared with y’all what I’m learning (sidenote: I’m trying to embrace the gender-inclusive “y’all” plural pronoun, but growing up distinctly (but not far) ABOVE the Mason-Dixon Line really makes this feel unnatural). 

Anyway, my absence and pause in writing and posting has been due to all good things. I just concluded my 352 hour Herbal Apprenticeship program with the Ojai School of Herbal Studies. Here are some lovely pics from that: 

And I recently attend my annual, week-long herbalism intensive with my Family and Community Herbalist program through the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism (VCIH). Here are some pics from that: 

And I’ve been working my tuchus off completing assignments for VCIH because I really want to be a skilled, knowledgeable, and wise herbalist. The plan is to move on to the Clinical Herbalist program next year. In order to do so, however, I really need a strong baseline and foundational level of mastery in Plant Chemistry, Herbal Energetics, Anatomy and Physiology, Botany, Herbal Therapeutics, and the Foundations of Medicine Making. That’s all in addition to our Justice in Herbalism and Relational Culture classes which are also a lot. It’s been absolutely so fulfilling, and also entirely consuming! Which I love. 

AND, it’s summer! Which means we’re out of our normally scheduled programming of Sen and Junes being at their school (The Manzanita School, here in Topanga), so we’re finding our groove in that domain as well. When Sen isn’t painting or drawing fantastic creations of whimsy, they have been regularly hiking all over the mountains on their own. I’m happy to report that they inherited Collin’s penchant for navigation and not mine as evidenced by the fact that they can hike from here, go about 6 miles, and return home! Without any glitches, meltdowns, panic attacks, or confusion. I’m SO HAPPY. I feel like Forrest Gump when he asks Jenny if little Forrest got the cognitive processing speed of papa Forrest or Jenny…and much to his relief he finds out that little Forrest is like Jenny in that regard. It’s just nice to know when our kids don’t have all the struggles we have had to carry. Thank goodness for that good luck and grace in genetic combinations. Sen and I try to make time to have tea together and often collaborate on the one hike I know how to navigate 🙂 (I guess now they can start leading me!).

Juniper has been either lying in bed lost in novels, writing a book, or attending surf camp. On Monday nights we watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer together (just her and me). It’s the only show I watch where I enjoy a running commentary. We talk the whole time—yelling at the characters when they make bad choices, calling Xander out when he’s incredibly sexist, and cheering as Willow comes out of the closet a little more episode by episode. So, I feel pretty great about that too. On the days Juni has surf camp, I’ve been doing my schoolwork at the beach. That’s been wonderful as long as I remember to hydrate, apply sunscreen, and bring enough snacks. 

Collin has been working and and supporting us all in various ways (introducing Senya to new hiking routes, successfully running his company and thus financially making the cash money to fund school programs and camps), and in his spare time he’s been running in the mountains again, getting our house and outside space up to fire safety code, and planning our upcoming summer family vacation. He and I have also been trying to wake up early and go for a 5 mile hike together each morning while we don’t have school drop off. That has been really restorative.

Honestly, this is the first summer that I’m really busy with a lot of work outside of just our family context, and it’s going well. As everybody is getting older, it’s been bittersweet. As I’ve written in other posts, I have a lot of grief about the early phase of our family being done. Collin and I were talking the other day about how you don’t realize sometimes that your spending your life until one day you look back and realize it’s spent. We spent the kids’ childhood, and we spent our thirties, and I’m now spending my early forties, and it’s wild to wake up and realize we’re here already. I didn’t want to admit it was spent for a while, but I feel like my kids gave me the hint to move on and find a new path (when they not so subtly each were like, “You need to find your own path and stop being too invested in mine.”).

So, the young years are over, and yet this phase of life is beautiful. I LOVE who Sen and Juniper are right now. I love that they still want to hang out with us, that they still live here, that they are looking forward to our family summer vacation. I love seeing their own interests really develop and take shape in a more estabilshed and mature way at this point in their lives. I love that they have other mentors who trulyl cherish them, see their gifts, and foster their development. It’s wonderful to share these beautiful treasures with the world and see how appreciated they are. And it’s awesome to see them succeed without me running along side them telling them what to do at each step. They’re learning through successes and also struggles, and it’s all ultimately good for growth.

Col and I also continue to grow and evolve through it all. We have remained compatible and dynamic together while continuing to really transform, evolve, and realize our own potential as individuals.

Anyway, at some point, I’ll write more juicy, thought provoking pieces, but for now, this is my update just to let you all know that I’m here, I’m alive, and I’m still writing (just mostly for school). 

In fact, if anyone is interested, I’ll post the piece I wrote about the Elemental Framework for understanding constitutions and how I applied that to our family system.

I’ll post that next 🙂