March 23, 2026

Dear Kindred Traveler,

How are you?

Spring has arrived here in California and the blooms abound, and the heat is arriving too early for my spirit. I am therefore learning to pay attention in the small windows of sweetness, a theme extended beyond just the temperature.

It’s been a few weeks since I have written an article, a practice or a field note. My attention has been invested in the local women’s community, celebrating the first of what I hope to be many, celebrations of our midlife transition. While you may not have been able to attend, maybe you can be inspired as a woman, or in celebrating the women you love in this special life season.

The quick recap. On March 14^th Katie Flinn, ERYT500 and Me facilitated a workshop called “Balancing Midlife Hormonal Health for Women.” We gathered, 20 women, to learn, celebrate and move through our transition. Women from many walks of life, some familiar with “yoga” and some that braved an introduction. Together we created sacred space through an altar of vessels and personal items, naming intentions, and most sacred of all, laughter.

Together we acknowledged each other, no longer invisible, or in the dark about the ways our bodies and out lives shift and change through these years. We removed the veil of secrecy and shame that surrounds this time, educating ourselves and witnessing the joy we are still here, strong women - valued. Most of us shocked by how little our mothers, other women, or practitioners have been able to support us

A community together unmasking midlife. In some cultures, this time is called a Second Spring.

Since we are welcoming Spring, can you imagine what would happen if we did not appreciate her beauty, her opportunity, her blooms and blossoms bearing the fruit to come? If we ignored her sweetness - ignored the birdsong, the skies, and the scented air? How would life change if Spring were invisible.

Yes, this is the invisible weight of women in this second spring season. The matured and wise human plantings that long to bloom with their deep soil roots of the ecology of community around them. This is the lack of shared wisdom, if only immature plantings are celebrated, only the novel and new. Life demands more of us, and we are missing out.

In this first full week of Spring, you can begin that change by giving gratitude to not only your fresh planting this year, but also giving thanks for the mature landscapes, the mature canopies, and the wise roots. And as earlier, by celebrating your vessel body, and all the women around you.

xo

Julie

PS. If you have not subscribed and want to continue, please do so - even as a free subscriber as that will aid building community together.

(Above) The Invitation Altar, nature in vessels. Celebrating Midlife Transition.

(Below) Note the additions to this space, how voices start to enter and express community voice