I was born into a life free of packaged food and a packaged lifestyle. It wasn’t always the easiest path but it’s given me a vibrancy and a lust for life. 

I believe we are so much more than before we take our first breath. Something unseen and unknown that guides and informs our lives. How else do I explain my preference for tropical polyrhythmic beats over the downbeat that defines Western music or the thrill I feel navigating things like Mexico City’s subway alone?

Psychologist James Hillman calls it the acorn theory: in which each life is formed by a unique image, an image that is the essence of that life and calls it to a destiny, just as the mighty oak’s destiny is written in the tiny acorn.

This little acorn was born to parents who had a passion for bucking the system, living in accordance with the earth, and growing organic food.

My family didn’t outsource our well-being to doctors. I was raised with a macrobiotic diet, essentially plant-based, local, and with building chi in mind. This foundation has carried me. 

I went to massage school. I sold nutritional supplements and worked in the natural products industry for over twenty years. I’ve lived in San Francisco, Seattle, and Mexico and I haven’t owned a car since 2006.  I’ve had unconventional relationships, and unconventional spirituality and prioritized my quest for knowledge and experience over security. I’ve always worked for myself or small independent companies that were providing something unique and different to the world.

And even with this awareness, like most human beings I’ve suffered blows and struggles in my life that I never anticipated that led me to a spiritual path and even a deeper leaning to the vibrancy constantly present and available to us.

And so, I still keep my eye on the needle of what works for people in living a life free from disease or struggle. I think about what living powerfully in accordance with the earth could look like in this year 2023 on pretty much a daily basis. I’m going to call it returning to our roots. I can’t help it. It’s who I am.

I’m lucky. Many people come to a holistic lifestyle as a result of allopathic medicine failing them or often don’t think about any sort of earth wisdom until they are an adulthood.

I’m lucky that being home-schooled and being surrounded by adults at a young age and working in retail made me an excellent communicator and enabled me to learn from life in front of me. Taking care of my siblings and cooking natural food for my family at age ten gave me the innate ability to manage projects and people (or at least led to jobs that allowed me to hone this skill). My parents being busy running a farm and taking me to sell organic vegetables in New York City at thirteen gave me the drive to take care of myself and be comfortable in a variety environments. Being different gave me courage. A lot of courage. 

Or was it my acorn?

And so I am sharing who I am and my gifts with the world. That’s what Brave Tonic is all about. Oh yeah, and I dance. A lot.