I was born and mostly raised in Texas, but life has taken me on quite a journey since then. After graduating high school, I attended college in Southeast Missouri, where I began a seven-year career at TG USA, a factory specializing in car body parts. I started in Quality Control, but eventually transitioned to Mold Technician in the Injection Molding department. There, I was responsible for programming, troubleshooting, and maintaining the machines and robots used in production.
In pursuit of deeper understanding, I studied Anthropology at Southeast Missouri State University for three years. However, my path took an unexpected turn when I had to leave school to escape an abusive relationship. This led me to the west coast of Washington, where I sought refuge on Lopez Island. I spent several years living off the land, growing my own food, milking cows, and creating clothing from organic and repurposed fabrics. This period of my life taught me the value of simplicity and sustainability, and it became the foundation for my ongoing commitment to living harmoniously with nature.
In 2011, I began studying permaculture, which influenced not only my gardening practices but also the way I structure my life. I was deeply involved in a community garden from 2007-2013, where I helped organize meetings, lead work parties, and design physical improvements to the garden. Around this time, I also began studying herbs for wellness, diving into the art of growing and using herbs for both health and culinary purposes. This ongoing self-guided study has become an integral part of my life.
One of my most notable accomplishments was helping to make San Juan County, Washington, legally GMO-free in 2012. As part of a team, I educated locals at farmers markets, built a website, and shared resources to raise awareness about the dangers of genetically engineered crops. It was an incredibly rewarding experience to see our collective efforts lead to such a meaningful change.
In 2013, I purchased a home within the Lopez Community Land Trust, only to discover that it was riddled with mold due to poor construction. Despite the builders' legal safeguards, the homes were making people sick. After selling the house in 2015, my partner Peter, our son, and I set out on a journey across the Western United States. We traveled through Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, meeting fascinating people and gathering countless stories along the way.
In 2016, I began exploring the healing potential of frequency, and this study is still ongoing. I’ve also spent several years living in Nevada County, California, from 2018 to 2024, where I came to understand the weight of spiritual warfare and the importance of resilience. Those years were challenging, but they also deepened my personal and spiritual growth, and provided me with more stories to tell.
Through it all, my journey has been one of constant learning, self-discovery, and a commitment to living authentically. I continue to explore new ways of healing, of connecting with nature, and of sharing these experiences with others.
When 30% of households are economically extracted, 70% of businesses lose customer base. One underpaid family affects 8-15 businesses directly, 15-30 indirectly. Minimum wage should be $115/hour from 1938 standards. Skilled workers get $20/hour. This isn't market correction ~ it's mathematical countdown to collapse. Six phases. Historical parallels. 3-5 years to breaking point. Reform or upheaval.
Seven professional certifications. low wages when work comes. Lived without refrigerator access. Lured across country twice with false promises, now tens of thousands in debt. When minimum wage should be $115/hour based on 1938 standards, skilled workers earning 3-5% of fair value isn't market correction, it's systemic obliteration. This is what wage collapse looks like at the human level. Not statistics. Real breaking.
The Latin name says everything: Salvia, from salvare ~ to save. For two thousand years this plant was kept in monastery medicine rooms and given a species name that meant exactly that. Somewhere between there and your kitchen cabinet, it got reassigned to a spice jar. This article is about what was lost in that reassignment ~ and how to get it back, practically and immediately.
When someone's words cost you your livelihood and your place in a community, a quiet 'sorry' doesn't restore what was lost. I've lived this. What I've observed in "conscious communities" is a pattern that protects people with social capital while leaving the harmed to absorb the cost silently. This is about what accountability actually requires. And why good works don't cancel harm.
The Spring Equinox isn't the start of spring, it's the calibration point. This astronomical moment of equal day and night marks when what began stirring in late winter becomes undeniably visible. Rather than beginning new projects, use this threshold for mid-process assessment: What requires more energy? What requires thinning? What trajectory must be adjusted? Discover how cultures worldwide have honored this balance point and how to apply equinox wisdom to your own seasonal rhythms.
Most backyard chicken keepers are sitting on one of the most concentrated fertility sources available ~ and sending it nowhere useful. This is the pattern beneath the practical: your coop, your fruit trees, and your red clay soil are already part of the same loop. Here's how to connect them.
The equinox isn't just a date ~ it's a biological threshold your garden has been waiting for. Whether you're entering spring or moving into autumn, this is one of the most productive planting windows of the year. In this guide: the moon cycle timing that matters, all seven permaculture layers with specific plant suggestions, and how to run this system on any size of land ~ from acreage to windowsill.
We are in the quickening, even if snow still rests on the ground. This week marks the second new moon after Winter Solstice, a threshold long recognized across cultures as the true energetic beginning of the year. While January 1st serves administrative needs, early February aligns with biological reality. Discover why this timing matters for seasonal living, why January resolutions struggle, and how honoring this ancient threshold restores alignment between inner experience and ecological truth.
Discover why European New Year wasn't always January 1st. Before imperial standardization, Slavic and Northern European cultures marked renewal through spring thaw, agricultural cycles, and solar festivals. Learn why September through December are numbered wrong, how Russia's New Year moved three times, and what we lost when administrative convenience replaced ecological observation in European timekeeping traditions.
Discover how African cultures measure time through events, seasons, and relationships rather than dates and numbers. Explore event-based time, the Ethiopian calendar still in use today, and how ancient Egypt anchored precise calendars to ecological reality. Learn why colonial imposition of clock-time disrupted sophisticated Indigenous knowledge systems and what we can reclaim from relational timekeeping.
