My roses, thorns and buds of 2024

The highlights, heartbreaks and hopes that emerged for me last year

Looking through the oodles of photos I took last year to create my highlight reel brought back a flood of memories—each one representing the roses, thorns, and buds of 2024. The roses symbolize the highlights and joyful moments of the year, the thorns reflect the challenges and difficulties faced, and the buds embody hopes, aspirations, and exciting possibilities for the future.

Roses

Embracing Hazel - Changing my name was a long time coming and continues to be a deeply meaningful gift that I get to unwrap every time I think about it or someone uses my name. We can change whatever and whenever we choose and those who truly love us will show up for these changes with so much love.

Time spent with my daughter and her boyfriend - They came to visit in March and we celebrated my 55th birthday with museum visits, tram rides, pub visits, and good food all around. It was such a joy to see them so happy together. Then I spent a week with them in Atlanta at their warm and wonderful home only a few miles from where she was born. We talked, ate, laughed, shopped, and ate some more. What a gift it was to see up close the good life she is living in Atlanta! This rose comes with the thorn of a mother’s worry. The generation of children are doing their very best to thrive in a crazy, capitalist world hell-bent on extracting every ounce of life out of them. How will they ever make enough to buy houses, pay off student loans and save for retirement?!? And yet these young people are creating deep pockets of resistance and living joyful lives despite the world we created for them.

Greenbelt - I was honored to be invited to the Purple Pastor’s team at Greenbelt Festival. The Purple Pastors are the chaplains to the volunteers at the festival. Being able to serve in that capacity felt like the culmination of so many threads in my life. The lasting friendships I made are treasures beyond measure.

Our Sacred Nature Retreat - With my dear friend and collaborator Rachel Pinto, I hosted a nature-centered retreat for LGBTQIA+ folx the weekend after the heartbreaking election. We grieved together, we laughed together, we walked together, and drummed together creating a magical, pop-up community in the woods just outside Little Rock, Arkansas. This was the culmination of a year of work and the work has already begun on year three of the retreat. SAVE THE DATE!! Next year's retreat will happen from Thursday, November 20, to Sunday, November 23, 2025, at the Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center in Little Rock. More info and early bird registration will be available soon!

My professional realm(s) - In my work tending digital landscapes, I left the ANFT and invested more time with wonderful clients such as The BTS Center, Sacred Echoes of Nature, Wild Rhythms and, Diane Pienta.

In April I guided forest bathing at Harvard Divinity School and spent time with an amazing human (and gifted nature therapy teacher/guide), Tam Willy. We walked and talked at Walden Pond and I touched a rock commemorating where Emerson once stood where a vibrating wave of energy passed through me that was ineffable and undeniable.

In June I went to Latvia and guided forest bathing at GATE. I had the honor of participating in summer solstice rituals of the region and, met some very smart, super fun people doing good work for and with young people through adventure therapy.

Our summer European road trip - Our 20-year-old car, towing our sweet little Eriba caravan, took us through Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. We camped, hiked, and explored in other people’s homelands with delight and gratitude. The sweetest rose of the summer bloomed when we spent an afternoon with the amazing Maria and her brilliant partner Johannes.

Oh, the places you will go! This year I have been lucky to visit France, Germany, Latvia, England, Denmark, Norway, Sweden - plus Cambridge, Atlanta, and Little Rock, back in the U.S.A.

Thorns

A loss - In October we lost our beloved Sookie to cancer. She had a tumor, twice removed, that came back with a vengeance causing her increasing, unmanageable pain, so we had to make the hard decision to allow her to cross the rainbow bridge. We miss her so much.

The freakin’ election - And the people who were either duped or wilfully voted for the regime that stepped into its full power in January. I have felt and witnessed so much grief, anger, and despair as a result of the American election. The far-reaching, bleak reality of this depraved reign is only just beginning to emerge.

New Year’s Eve in The Netherlands - I love, love, love The Netherlands 364 days of the year. Even when it is dark, rainy, cold, and a wee bit bureaucratic, we are happier, healthier, and more secure, than ever back in the U.S.

But damn, y’all, New Year’s Eve here is just bonkers. This is the night when it seems the country loses its collective mind and sets off nonstop fireworks, like professional-grade and carbide bombs, starting around 4 p.m. and tapering off around 3 a.m. It terrorizes pets, vets, and anyone who might have to venture out there in the projectile madness. This year the Dutch spent 118 million Euros on fireworks, most of them set off on NYE. The waste of money, the pollution and the danger (a 14-year-old child in Rotterdam was killed this year) are just mind-boggling in an otherwise extremely smart, sane, and safe country.

Buds

Our Sacred Nature was renamed to Wyld Belonging with the hopes of growing our sacred community to offer more opportunities to connect throughout the year as well as our annual fall retreat. There is so much potential in this growing community and I look forward to nurturing the bloom with my rock and visionary partner, Rachel.

This month I get to co-facilitate in two online learning opportunities. At The BTS Center, I am one of three guides for a multi-month Work That Reconnects learning and practice community. I am also honored to hold space with Diane Pienta in her Create in CommUNITY online circle of support. These buds are just the beginning of my offerings this year.

I am also offering a new Authentic Marketing for heart-centered wellpreneurs and a full calendar of forest bathing walks to be launched soon.

And on February 1st all are welcome to join me for a free, serene Imbolc Meditation Gathering as we honor the Celtic festival of light, renewal, and inspiration. This virtual event offers a sacred space to connect with the spirit of Imbolc, which is traditionally celebrated at the midpoint between winter and spring.

There are even some other professional opportunities on the horizon for 2025, so little buds of adventure may emerge soon

And finally, something that is all three

As I age, I am learning that I MUST be more mindful about what and how I eat, drink, sleep, and move. My body is less and less tolerant of indulgent shenanigans and if I want to continue to have an active, engaged body, then I have to listen when she tells me what she does and does not want. I’m experiencing my aging body as a rose, thorn, and bud all at once because I LOVE getting older, but aging comes with aches physical, mental, and spiritual to be sure. And all of this is also a bud because it is the beginning of a new segment of my life’s spiral - my crone years. I get to develop a more sacred relationship with my body, mind, and spirit through what I choose to consume and how I spend my time. There is so much wisdom ahead and so much more to be experienced!

What were some of your roses, thorns, and buds in 2024?

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More photos that you likely want to browse, but here’s the significantly thinned highlights :)