As we begin another year around the sun, one thing is certain for folks in the Gather & Grow community: we want to cultivate a less stressed and more nourished life in 2025. Ultimately, we want to live well - to live simple lives connected to the land, our food and medicine, as well as our community. We want to cultivate a life full of beautiful moments that feel slow and present through the seasons. The “wellness” industry in the United States does not want you to actually be well in 2025. Rather, those big businesses’s rely heavily on you staying unwell, stressed and disconnected from the sources that truly help you thrive. We all know this, and yet it’s still hard to resist the magic bullets we are sold every year in January. Our feeds and emails are clogged with product advertisements, gym memberships, bio-hacks, and magic injectables that promise a year of skinny, happy, agelessness, and healthy.

We cannot bio-hack our way into wellness, longevity, connection, or presence. There is no magic bullet to replace nourishment from the source, nor the knowledge, skillset and discipline required to cultivate a lifestyle that is truly well.

We are over complicating our health and lifestyles here in the United States and it’s burning a hole in our pockets to no effect while also depleting us. The solution to cultivating heirloom wellness is so simple it’s almost too good to be true. Living well is not about buying a magic pill, but rather about cultivating simple heirloom skills and a lifestyle full of habits that nourish us in more ways than one.

If we look outside the United States’ scope of wellbeing, to the healthiest, least-stressed and longest-living communities in the world we have our 2025 roadmap to living well. So, as we head into 2025, why not simplify life and save some money by taking a page from the Blue Zones playbook? Join me this year in adopting some of the core habits practiced by these long-lived communities so together we can cultivate a nourishing lifestyle that roots us into wellbeing, community, and the earth.

*deep breath* I’m postpartum (again) with nothing to hold in my arms but myself and my grief. After two miscarriages in 9 months, one of them gentle and early, the other late and traumatic, my knees are brought to the earth. As much as it’s been a heartbreaking and physically challenging experience to navigate, there’s wisdom I’ve gleaned. It has pulled me into the depths of a spiritual and physical voyage - the likes of which have enlightened me of the sacred understanding of what it means to be a woman and the gift it is to bear life - and the burden of losing it.

Pregnancy loss and miscarriage (through choice or not) is demanding on the body, mind, and soul. It is no easy task to grow life and then to lose it. Our bodies and souls are never the same after, which brings me to my offering to you today.

I’m sharing the ways I’m holistically nourishing myself during postpartum loss - from nutrition and herbs, to mental and spiritual health rituals, as well as physical recovery exercises. My protocol is guided by my natural midwife and my Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor as well as my own knowledge & experience in holistic wellness. Here’s what I’m doing to care for myself during postpartum loss.

In fall and winter in the Northern Hemisphere, we experience less hours of sunlight. In these seasons, our body requires certain routines for a healthy circadian rhythm. I’m exploring (and sharing with you) a nourishing daily routine that supports our circadian rhythm and general well being during Fall and Winter. This routine syncs our daily cycle with nature so we can optimize our energy levels, respect our physical needs, live more nourished and connected lives, and... as always build resilience against burnout.

After learning that common hydration powder packets contain many ingredients (such as pure cane sugar as the primary ingredient) that negatively impact our health and hormones, I began scheming ways to make my own herbal electrolyte drink. I crafted this refreshing and nourishing cold-water botanical infusion that is loaded with minerals and electrolytes for hydration.

Set on the wild beaches of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Kalaloch Beach, we gathered at the invitation of Leger Experiences for a wild dining overnight retreat we wont soon forget.

During the week of the Fall Equinox each year you can find me in my kitchen chopping up spicy garden-grown vegetables and adding them to a large glass jar. I’m making fire cider in preparation for the oncoming cold and flu season. Fire Cider is a spicy cold and flu tonic that boosts immunity, improves digestion, and warms the body. Discover the benefits of fire cider, how to make fire cider, and how to use fire cider in this simple recipe.

My car rumbles along a dirt road as I head inland from the bay and through a densely grown woodland on the island. The smell of the sea mingles with road dust and the resinous musk of old cedar trees. At the end of the road, a sharp turn down a gravel driveway reveals a clearing in the wood ahead. I can just make out the sight of a dome-top roof peeking from the canopy to enjoy a kiss from the mid-afternoon sun.

Inspiration for summer seasonal living as shared by a woman rewilding herself and land through gardening, foraging, and wildcrafting.