…I needed to make a decision, but my mind was already made up… One year, no matter what. So I played the slow game, endured some hardships, developed some grit and some character, and landed myself on the island of Kodiak.

Long before everyone had a GPS in their phone, you could buy a road atlas at almost any gas station, it had every highway mapped out in detail, I bought one of the United States and one for Canada and would spend hours studying the road, how highways connected, where they led, and a little bit about each small town and city that seemed to tickle my imagination.

This time last year, Mike and I had just returned from a month long backpacking trip across the lands of the beautiful country of Mexico in search of indigenous knowledge, deeper relational awareness, and moments of reverence for the medicines we share with the western world that originate in the mountains of Latin America. This time last year, I thought I knew what integration was. Conceptually, and intellectually, I did; but somatically, was still very much an infant in many ways. So this time, I chose to wander to Mexico solo.

We are building our own sanctuary!

Life seems short, especially when we begin to grasp the finite nature of our being as human. With all the learning opportunities, pains, victories, and transitions through endings to new beginnings, life always seems to offer what we need, especially when we are open and present to all that is being offered in each moment. When the two of us (Mike and Ash) came together a year and a half ago we found deeply resonate values about our time here on this planet and how we expand into new versions of ourselves in one moment to the next. We deeply agree that direct experience is the greatest teacher, and so we seek that.