I am a recovering perfectionist, productivity chaser, and people pleaser, coaching women to disrupt old thought patterns, let go of behaviors that keep them stuck, and make their joy an everyday priority.
🦩 how are you celebrating wild women's history? 🦩
|
Guten Tag, Reader, For centuries, women have gathered in wild places—not just for chores that kept their families alive (water and firewood hauling, food gathering, medicine making…) but for insight, renewal, and the kinds of conversations that change everything. Women played a crucial role in maintaining and protecting these spaces, often forming informal networks of support, knowledge-sharing, and resistance. From the women of the commons to modern-day river guides who read water like poetry, we have always known public lands were not just about resources but about maintaining a sense of communal identity and interdependence. As we celebrate Women’s History Month, think about honoring this legacy, not just by reading about it but by stepping into it.
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” ~ Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder wildHER Rogue River Adventure: Flow, Resilience & ReconnectionImagine this: You. A river. A circle of brilliant, adventurous women. Floating through Oregon’s wilderness, surrounded by deep greens, rushing water, and the kind of quiet that lets you actually hear yourself think. Or not think for a moment. This isn’t about proving anything. It’s about remembering something. Last week, six months after participants returned from the Salmon River Slowdown, I sent them the cards they had written to themselves on the final day. Insights, moments, whatever they wanted to remember. When I put those cards in envelopes, I saw their faces in front of me, that last morning on the beach: wild hair, clear eyes, radiating newfound remembered strength. I was in awe then. I am in awe now. They were in awe of themselves and each other. Many of them will return this year. If you want to join this badass sisterhood and write your own story in the history of outdoor women, go Rogue with us in September. The website is here, but please reach out if you have questions or concerns. If wildHER is currently out of reach, here are five other ways to honor women, wildness, and your true Nature:
Whether I will see you on the river or not, I will see you back here in two weeks. If you liked this letter, please forward it to a friend. Always on your side, truly, p.s. If you got something from today's letter, why not buy me a coffee? I am keeping my writing AI-free, which means a lot of creative goes into it. You can leave me a tip here. |
Welcome to my Joy Letters
I am a recovering perfectionist, productivity chaser, and people pleaser, coaching women to disrupt old thought patterns, let go of behaviors that keep them stuck, and make their joy an everyday priority.
Guten Tag, Reader, One of us walks like a cartoon thief—knee high, toe first, then heel. Of course, he might also practice a Qi Gong movement. Called The Heron, perhaps? Another walks with a sway while swinging a flappy spruce branch. “I watched my nephew do this last week,” she will share later, “and he looked so connected with his body that I wanted to try.” Me? I walk as slowly as my brain will allow. Stopping to pull a fresh leaf to my cheek, smell each wild onion in a patch, and caress...
Guten Tag, Reader, “Die hat doch einen Vogel,” they say in Germany, “She has a bird,” when someone talks or acts a little off. As if that’s a bad thing. The bird. Or the off-ness. Not in my book. The one that I am writing in my head. Where the birds live. And where they peep. Peep. Peep. Peep. April also has a bird. "April, April, does what it will," the Germans say. Sometimes, the Germans are specific about the kind of bird—a chickadee (‘ne Meise). And those have been chickad-ing and dee-ing...
My mom accompanied me to Helena on one of my biggest adventures: becoming a US citizen in 2015. Guten Tag, Reader, I knew the words were going to come out of my mother’s mouth eventually. Not in every conversation, but certainly in every conversation about any of my adventures: Going to the island of Corse on a motorcycle with my boyfriend when I was 17 Studying abroad for a year Traveling to any place outside of Western Europe Eating sushi Hiking the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim Rafting the...