Why I Created Sacred Rhythms: A Year of Nature's Wisdom

Spirit leads the way to more grace, ease, and joy, even in difficult times.

In March 2025, the world seemed to be going insane. Fascism was rising around the globe, giving many people "permission" to be the most awful version of themselves. Hate and division were literally flying through the air. Climate change was making an impact around the world. Everything felt so heavy.

I was feeling this push to create something to help people to ground, to reconnect with nature and with their own spiritual guidance. I wanted something that was accessible to anyone, regardless of where they were in the world, their spirituality, or their shamanic experience. That meant something online, but I wasn't sure what or how yet. Then I got a call from my friend Rose De Dan, and she had the idea for a year long, on demand program collaboration and I knew it was the right thing.

On the surface, it looks very light, even frivolous. It seems irresponsible to spend time reading a story about urban nature, or watching videos of the local wildlife when the world is burning. It might feel difficult to find focus to do a shamanic journey to meet with Chickadee, and it might even feel irrelevant.

The truth is different though. We have kept it ligh in ways. That was intentional. It's meant to be a soft space to land when the world feels too hard. This is a place to decompress, to come back to center, to soothe and relax your nervous system. This is a place to replenish your energy, restore your faith, to remember there's still beauty in the world. That's worth a lot in this world right now, but that's just the beginning.

There are layers to Sacred Rhythms. Yes, you can come and listen to the music and do the puzzle to release the stress of life. But there's more here, too. At first glance, the wildlife story may seem just as light. But our animal friends have lessons for us, too. These are given in story form, that makes it fun and easy to digest. They have lessons to help us live with more grace and ease. To help us navigate life with more finesse. We have much to learn from our animal neighbors.

The monthly shamanic journey is where you receive personal guidance, direct from Spirit. Each month, I ask Spirit which Nature Being wants to be our guide. They come to me, and tell me how they want to work with us each month, what wisdom they want to give. I create the journey to take you to meet your Guide, to ask them for wisdom that you can apply to YOUR life, RIGHT NOW. You can repeat the journey again later, and it will be different. You will meet the same Guide, but you'll receive different guidance because your life will be different and so will your needs. The wisdom gained in these journeys can be life changing. They can give you an entirely new perspective on life. They are also very practical, and yet they are very beautiful and fun at the same time. Shamanic journey is literally transformative, and also very healing. It is where my passion is in life, and I love empowering people to receive their own personal guidance directly from Spirit.

As we journeyed through the year creating this program, every month has met the needs of the times we are in exactly. This was designed by Spirit. The March edition is a good example. As we are watching world leaders bomb others and attack human rights, we work to safeguard the future, to prepare the next generation and give them what they need.

Chickadee, too, is preparing for the next generation, gathering what is needed to support and raise their babies and carry on the family line. The monthly story gives advice on preparation. The journey takes you to meet Chickadee and receive personal guidance on singing your song even through the difficulties. Especially through the difficulties. Right now, joy is so important. Joy makes life worth living. Song and music are also energy, and Chickadee can help you find the right one to bring in the energy you need in your life right now. This song can shift the way life is going for you. It sounds wild, but it is all about the energy we're attaching to our life, and how that effects what we do and how we do it.

Sacred Rhythms is a place to remember who you are. Underneath all the stress and obligations of life. We are connected to the Earth and the nature beings around us. We are nature. Life is so busy, it is very easy to forget this. We are pulled in so many directions. We created Sacred Rhythms to help you remember. To see the beauty, to find the joy, to sing your own beautiful and joyful song.

When we reconnect to our joy, we can find our own way to share that joy with the world. And that is how we will build a world and society that works for all of us. I created Sacred Rhythms for that, to spread these ripples of connection and joy until they become the foundation of society.

What song are you singing now?

The Power of CranioSacral Therapy

CranioSacral is a very gentle and relaxing treatment, yet it can achieve powerful results.

Mr. Gir

In summer of 2023, my 11 year old cat Mr. Gir suddenly lost his balance. Not just a little bit, either. He was sitting on the floor, waiting for dinner. As I came near, he looked up at me. The act of looking up caused him to fall over onto his side. This was not remotely normal for him, and it was honestly terrifying.

I checked in with him, he said "I'm okay but please fix it." So I immediately took him to the emergency vet. They asked me all the typical questions, did you get any new plants he may have eaten? Did you change any cleaning products? Did he get into any marijuana? The answer to all these questions was no, but they refused to believe the last one for some reason. Maybe it was my tie dye shirt, I don't know. Finally I got them to stop asking about that, so we could try to figure out what DID happen and fix it.

They gave him a physical exam and did blood work, all of which came back normal. I kept asking about his inner ear, because that's where I felt the problem was. They kept saying it's fine. They told me the next step was "a very expensive MRI, and it's going to be a brain tumor." I checked in with my shamanic guides and felt very strongly it's not a tumor, and said so. They kept returning to it, and I felt like the guy in Kindergarten Cop saying "it's not a tumor!!"

I spent over $500 that night, and left with no answers or help for my boy, who is my heart. I gave him Reiki and I did shamanic work for him, but they weren't the right treatment. He was still very dizzy and unbalanced.

So I took him to his regular vet. They said his bloodwork was so normal it was boring. They checked his eyes and his ears. Said it was all normal. They said the next step is "a very expensive MRI and it's going to be a brain tumor." And we were right back to Kindergarten Cop again. Another $200 with no answers and no help for my boy.

As I checked in shamanically, it felt to me like the bones of his skull were all being squeezed together. I felt so much pressure in his head, it felt so constricted, like being squeezed in a vice. That's when I remembered CranioSacral Therapy.

In massage school I had an introductory course in CranioSacral. I loved it and always said that I wanted to do training in it once I graduated. But life happened, and I had never done it. When I was working in resort spas they never offered that service, so it had always been a "one day" dream that was put on the back burner.

I got Mr Gir scheduled for a CranioSacral appointment. I had no idea what to expect, all I knew was that my guides insisted it would help. It did.

That day, he was about 50% improved in his balance. We rescheduled for the next week. The practitioner told me she had been able to create more space in his head (she, too, had felt that compression) but that if it was a tumor, then it would again take that space up over the next week.

The next week, he was maintaining his balance the same from my perspective. Checking in shamanically, I did feel much less compression in his head. His appointment came, and the practitioner agreed, he had held the healing she'd given him the weak before. She gave him another session, and he improved again.

Gradually we spread his healings to once a month, and he improved to 95% normal balance. He seemed to hold here, not gaining any further improvement, but not losing any either.

That's when I decided to take CranioSacral training off the back burner and finally make it happen. And I'm so glad I did!

I have seen CranioSacral work erase daily migraines my client had suffered for decades, restore proper function in limbs, realign bodies and restore balance in people and animals. All while being very relaxing and gentle to receive. And it can be done over distance, which is ideal for animals as they can relax in their own home while receiving treatment. Distance work is also very convenient for people who may not have a CranioSacral therapist nearby.

In summer of 2025, Mr. Gir suddenly lost his hearing. He slept straight through the vacuum. He then escaped the house as I came in the door. I brought the treat jug outside, shaking it noisily because that always makes him come runnng. He did not come running, though. I found him in the back yard, and came up behind him shaking the jug. No reaction. As I was coming up to him he finally turned around, and promptly jumped back in surprise. He had not heard me at all.

We went to a new vet (I had other issues with the old one) and I explained about his hearing and also his balance issue and told them I thought they were related and that the problem was in the inner ear. But it was a repeat of the previous visits. This time, I told them if it was a tumor, he would be dead by now. It's been 2 years. They say it could be vascular or neural. There is one nerve that carries the information for both hearing and balance from the inner ear into the brain, so this makes sense to me.

At that point it had been a few months since Gir had received a Cranio treatment, so I gave him one. His hearing came back immediately.

One of the main focuses of CranioSacral is to free up the nerves from any pinching or other impingements so that they can function properly. This is as close to a diagnosis as we're likely to get for Mr. Gir. But CranioSacral doesn't require a diagnosis to work, it just works. And that's good enough for us.

Today, Mr. Gir is still doing well. He has good quality of life, his balance is near normal, his hearing is good, and we get lots of snuggles in daily. And he gets his CranioSacral sessions.

The Gift of Crochet

Learning Crochet was a big gift for me, one that enabled me to create many more gifts both for myself and others. It also taught me important lessons about gifts, love, and true connection.

The other day I got the urge to crochet something new. It's been a while, typically now I only crochet in the cooler months. So I found myself a new project. Looking at the pattern and yarn possibilities, I thought about how I learned crochet in the first place.

When I was about 9 or 10 years old, my grandpa and step grandma were watching me one evening. I was restless and bored, nothing was interesting me. My step grandma, in an effort to entertain me, decided to teach me to crochet. She taught me chain stitch, single crochet, and how to end off the yarn. I was fascinated.

I took that and taught my mom. Together we made countless afghans, using only those stitches. We bought loads of inexpensive yarn of all different colors and made our afghans in rainbows. All single crochet stitch, fringes at each end. We started off with a chain stitch, making it however long looked good to us in the moment. Then we added row by row until the size looked good. The only pattern was created by the colors we used. It was something fun for us to do together, and we usually worked as we watched tv.

Soon we had them in every room of the house, and then began making them as gifts and giving them away. As we made a gift, we would use colors that the person who was to receive the finished afghan would like, and make the size to fit them. People loved them because we put our heart, thought, and effort into them, and because they were soft and warm.

We did get bored with that eventually. I set my hook aside for years.

Then, my mom had my first little sister. I wanted to make her a baby blanket, and I wanted to make it nicer than the ones we'd made before. I asked my step grandma to teach me how to read a pattern. Her response was "Just do exactly what the pattern says." So I tried that, and it didn't go very well. Mostly because I didn't actually know how to do many of the stitches, or the basics like "turn". That first baby blanket came out very crooked, and I couldn't figure out the border. But I did figure many other things out, which I went on to use in many more projects. And my sister LOVED the blanket! She loved it so much, that she wouldn't drink her bottle without it. As she grew, she carried it everywhere. My mother was much annoyed by that, because she had to keep track of it.

My second sister was born 2 years later, and the baby blanket I made her turned out much better. It was quite pretty. I had figured out the basics and how to read a pattern by then. My littlest sister loved it, too. And then, as my sisters grew, they outgrew their baby blankets. They asked me for new ones, big enough to fit them. So I made them new ones, which they loved.

The next year, they asked for another new blanket each, because they've grown more. Again, I made them. Repeat the next year. Each blanket was a new pattern, new colors. Something that I thought they would like, that would be fun to make.

Then one day I was visiting my mom (I lived 8 hours away now) and we decided spur of the moment to visit my grandpa and step grandma. As soon as we walked in, I saw it there on the back of her couch. The blanket I'd made last year for my littlest sister. It wasn't put there for my benefit, she didn't know we were coming. It was obviously there because she liked ti. But that wasn't my first thought.

I was hurt. I put so much heart into that blanket for my sister, and then my mother just gave it away like it meant nothing. She hadn't even told me. My sisters were asking for new blankets again, but mom was saying "they have enough, they don't need any more" and then I found not only that, but she'd given at least one away.

After we left, my mom said she hoped I didn't mind that she'd given it to step grandma. She said that step grandma was always gushing over my work, saying how beautiful it was, how even my stitches, etc. and that she hoped one day I would make something for her. But so far, I had not. Mom thought my sisters have plenty, they won't even notice, but step grandma would love it and appreciate it. She was right.

I had never given step grandma anything because I thought since she taught me, she can make anything she wants. What could I make that she would want more?

That day I realized several things. First, don't give your time, effort, and skill to those who don't appreciate it. It's a waste of time and energy.

Also, those who do appreciate you, and your skill, will treasure your gifts, even if they have, or seem to have, the same skill. They treasure your effort, the thought and the heart you put into it for them. They feel the love in it, and that is everything!

After this, I went on to make other things for my grandpa and my step grandma. She treasured them all. I made a cross stitch picture, she hung it on the living room wall. I made my grandpa slippers, they were his favorite.

The best gifts come from the heart. Sometimes, they are gifts of skills, like when my step grandma taught me crochet. Sometimes the gift is the connections and relationships made and nourished.

As the holidays are coming up, I want to encourage you to give gifts thoughtfully. Consider what would be more meaningful, and what is going to nourish connections and relationships more. Somtimes this makes for unusual, but treasured and cherished gifts.

And don't forget yourself! You deserve gifts too. Maybe consider giving yourself the gift of learning a new skill, or making a new connection.

Sacred Rhythms: A Year of Nature's Wisdom is now available as a gift option, for one idea if you'd like to give a gift of deeper connection.

I hope this has sparked some ideas for you, and helps you navigate the holidays with more connection and joy.