2017, Thank you for every opportunity

2017 draws to an end and although this year has been quite challenging, there are still beautiful memories to look back on.

My personal wish is always that each year brings with it, people and events that help me to grow spiritually, helping me to grow, evolve and come closer to Source and the light of my soul. As always, the universe says, “your wish is my command”.

In January I was super excited for the first ever international holiday I would take, to a land far away. Having the opportunity to experience nature from a different country, different landscape, different waters. It is my belief, that nothing you have can ever be lost, and if your love for someone were true, you would never say they hurt you. You would accept what is, thank them for their part in your journey and leave only love and light for the experience and energy they shared with you.

Again, I learned that love is so much more than just nice words that sound good at the time.

In February I achieved a great feat, whereby I managed (with the help of kind helpers) to help a company get first time ISO 9001:2015 certification. Let’s just say, I was hoping we could pull it off, the auditor, on the other hand, was blown away, and kept on asking if I had hidden some of the stuff at our meeting in December. No prior experience and WOW, what a feather in my cap.

In March, I spend some time at Breton-on-Sea. There is so much peace and tranquillity for my in the Western Cape, it is truly as if nature asks us to interact to help us heal our wounds. Clean beaches, beautiful forests, and a walk with Elephants all added to much-needed relaxation and healing.

I have the greatest desire to live in woods, living off the land, harvesting, and wildcrafting, making my own medicines, soaps, foods, and household items. Foraging and learning of the hidden values in the treasures called greens.

Having already some experience to making herbal tinctures, this year saw me even closer to nature where either friends provided the opportunity to harvest from their lands, or the parks showed me the abundant gifts only known to those who care to explore.

April was such a rewarding experience as I stumbled upon Yellow Dock and had a comical experience harvesting the roots for medicine. I almost live in two worlds at once; following the Northern Hemisphere’s Herbalists and making note of what to harvest and when always make me smile.

Learning Man saw me teaching a class on how to make your own soap with tallow. I am such a homesteader in the making. Loving every moment of the journey.

If you read up on the “About Me” part of my page, you may know that I am aligned with nature and blessed to hear trees talking to me. In May, I started a 6-week course on Intuitive Plant Medicine and I am in awe how much nature communicates to us if we open our hearts to listen. Before this course, a few trees, Plantain (my ally), Dandelions, and a cheeky Fern spoke to me. After this course, so many flowers have something beautiful to share and to me, this is a gift far greater than words can convey.

June and July saw me updating information on my website, and let me just say, after so many hours, I can now add WordPress to my cv for software I am familiar with. Truth be told, it is great to be able to say, I manage my site on my own and have the ability to update anything anytime.

August I took a leap and transformed my lounge into a walk-in shop for I’naturals. If it was not for the before and after photos, it would have been hard to believe the transformation. My friend Dewet took my roughly drawn sketches and transformed my dream into a reality. Sometimes I think he knows me better than I know myself as the end result could not have been more perfect, even if my sketches were more detailed. While he did all the building, the layers upon layers of painting were done by me, paint, sand, paint sand, age, sand, age, varnish. What a process!

I also took some tiles generously donated from my friend Hanneke and transformed my plain entrance steps into a beautiful mosaic piece of art. Yes, every single tile was cut and placed by me, and if you happen to spot a tile placed upside down, smile knowing that I sat on that porch in the cold some nights up to 11 o’clock.

My little shop officially opened on the 1^st of September and I have met wonderful new people with whom I could share the healing created with nature. Thank you so much to all those customers who repeatedly come back to top up their herbal healing remedies, buy healing balms and are in love with my natural soaps.

I also learned that blogging is a great platform to share information, another first for me. Short informative videos are well received and that the process of creating content takes time. I feel that I much rather the spontaneous writing of an article when I am inspired as opposed to pushing them out like a sausage making machine. Sometimes life gets busy and when that happens, I prefer not to feel guilty for not having posted any content. Most notably, I really am not so much into spam in my own mailbox and I would much rather have my audience look forward to what I have to share as opposed to marking my content with a little star to read later, and then never actually getting down to it. More importantly, I want to expand my writing into all the things that add joy and happiness to my life, and those are not limited to herbs, although the herbs is a big part of that.

In October I learned that when you forget about your Kombucha it turns to vinegar and how wonderful to have so much vinegar for other creative processes. Honestly, falling in love with the simplicity of it all has been most rewarding.

November and December saw me at markets where I met amazing people, customers, and vendors alike.

My small and simple container garden has been producing medicine and food all year long, I am just so amazed at how are achieved with love and care. I added some pumpkin seeds to my front garden and have been blessed by a completely new experience of witnessing pumpkins grow day by day.

Yes, my year had its challenging moments. I choose to sit down and count all the amazing ones instead. Thanking the universe once again, for helping me grow emotionally and spiritually.

May your 2018 be filled with new and amazing opportunities, and if you do not see any, create your own. May your hearts learn to love at a level far deeper than you currently understand, enriching your human experience of the sentience of all, and may your empathy and understanding for yourself and your own actions help you to be more compassionate towards others and their actions.

I thank you for being part of my journey, sending you love and light wherever you may find yourself.