Beginning with gratitude

Beginnings are sacred.

And maybe that is in part true because they spring from somewhere and something. We grow and expand supporting others in their journey to do the same. Here I am today, blessing the beginning of my first real website and a new path, and there are so many to thank. The learning, the confidence, the love that fuels me daily in this expansion can be tracked to the very real energies that contribute to my being from all directions. Many of these friends have an electronic calling card too, which I’ve included in case you want to reach out to them for their services.

I am beyond grateful to my friend, Sat Hari, for holding space with me and creating a beautiful space in my home with her talents in design. Tess Burke has been a lively and loving companion on the many paths we share — NVC, joyful expansion, parenting, and natural living. Jane Happy, Andrea Watrud, Sherri Phillips, Lavinia Nitu (amazing family photographer) and Rachael Mueller, what enthusiasm and care you have shown me! I am deeply thankful for what we continue to share in texts, walks, talks, and FaceTime slumber parties. Amanda Broughton, Elisa Mason (a creative yoga instructor), Kerstin Kristen, Julie Staub (physical therapist and horse osteopath), and Camee Southey, your models of love and tenacity help me calibrate my compass.

Katka Novakova (gifted naturopathic doctor) and Maria Schaad, what would I have done without your clear-as-a-bell counsel? You saw my way forward before I could. Jack Hart, James Ashner, and Sam Pardhan, you listened and smiled — I heard it, even over the phone — as I expounded on my dreams. The ways you are there for me inform the ways I am there for others, and I’m so grateful. Licia Dallolio — Licia. Without you, my life would not have turned technicolor at age sixteen. You are the inspiration for my YouTube channel and so much more. New friends and old including and beyond these mentioned, I thank you for the unique ways that every one of you blesses my path and for my opportunity to bless yours.

I am holding with tenderness my precious family, companion plants whose roots intertwine with my own. My sister Robyn Miller offered her deadpan, almost eye-rolling, big picture assessments when they were most needed, as well as fashion advice and some great hand me downs. She helps others with this too, here. Sam and Trin, raising myself with you formed a container that shaped me as a person and my voice as a writer. Your love and belief in me I carry as love-armor (love in, love out) daily. And Seda, words cannot express my gratitude for the companionship we have shared ever since I sat down across the table from you at the Bear Lodge Writers meeting in Sundance, Wyoming, when I was eighteen. “Life” is always with you, defined by “us,”and I’m so grateful for that. It is an honor to bear witness to your unfolding.

Gratitude pours out to my beloved gardens where I find nourishment and delight, peacefulness, and beauty. To the semi-wild lands of the Ridgeline Trails, I bow with humility. The coyote, owl, and bear that I share (and sometimes cross) paths with daily are among the community I cherish. Fawn lily, trillium, snowberry, big leaf maple, cedar, and Douglas fir, your counsel, among others, is valued beyond measure. And to the crystal clear turquoise waters of Waldo Lake, I offer the gratitude of my soul. Your expansive views put me in a place of knowing, healing, and letting go.

And so now, I dare to open to the world, to serve and to risk all involved with casting seed broadly. May my love reach and reinforce your journey. I am in awe of you already, my readers, my audience, for I am with you in this journey. As we are, so it is.

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