Today is my one year anniversary as a blogger.  This post is a reflection about my first year of blogging through prose, quotes, poetry & images.  Enjoy!

A year of blogging. A year of shifting, of change and questions – many questions – all driven by a year of healing from Lyme Disease. I took up Yoga and am learning gluten free cooking and have learned to trust my instincts more than ever.

 This journey of healing has taken me to surprising places. I am very close to remission. I could say that I am done and return back to the way things were. But I a not the same person that I was when I started this journey. The flame that was fanned by this battle to heal is a desire toward more balance, joy, vitality and peace. That means I cannot go back to the way things were with my job taking all of my best energy and so on August 2^nd I will be saying goodbye to my job and joining my husband in our family business.

 Over this year I have learned to accept that the road to healing can mean that things can get much worse before they get better and that walking through the discomfort is an essential part of the journey. I have also learned just how sensitive I am. I am a canary in the coal-mine of this modern world, so to speak with my body saying no to more chemicals, unhealthy processed food and the stressful, hurried pace of the typical work world. I have come to understand why even though I find great moments of joy and satisfaction when my work in the community shifts something forward, it comes at a great cost to my own energy and well-being – though I truly love people and facilitating a group to discover what they can accomplish together, I am at my core a sensitive introvert so this work can tip me out of balance, particularly if all the additional peripheral tasks create additional layers of pressure.

 And so it is that I find myself walking out of my career path and jumping off into a new adventure working alongside my husband in our family business. I am trusting that this step is the next right step for me. I may find this is a resting and healing place with another turn down the road out of sight from where I stand now. Or it may be that this is where I’m meant to be. Half the fun will be finding out.

 In the meantime, I am looking forward to more unhurried moments, of feeling like I can take the time to watch a sunset or to walk my old dog at her old dog pace. 

Here is a poem that I wrote about my experiences of the past year:

Me on a recent mountain hike to pick blueberries looking lots healthier than last year.  How do you like my stylish tick defense outfit?  Pants tucked into socks and sprayed with DEET.