In this video, join me on a journey through my first year in Western North Carolina. If I were to ask you about your year, what would be your honest response? A few days ago, I would have said that it was nice, but difficult and very stressful. However, after putting together this video, I have a new response - it was great! With breathtakingly beautiful experiences including dogs and chickens, ducks and wild birds, forests and foraging, and all the seasons, this past year has been a magical adventure. Discover the lessons I've learned, including one all-encompassing lesson shared towards the end of the video. Get ready to be inspired by the beauty of North Carolina and my journey of exploration.

We had our first snow of the season this past weekend. It wasn't much more than a dusting at my house, but I was inspired to drive to one of my favorite forest spots to see how much snow had fallen there.

The modern day human is so disconnected from what it truly means to be a human -- and I'm including myself in this as well, because I unfortunately spend most of my day working in front of a computer. We have activities like hiking, camping and forest bathing that we participate in to mimic our natural state of living. And then we study the health benefits of these activities and are absolutely blown away by the results. It shouldn't be surprising that putting a creature in its natural habitat improves its mental and physical health - haha.

In today's video I share some footage of a recent hike I took through the rain. It's been gloomy and rainy for most of December so far. Usually too much gloom and rain can get me a little depressed, but I've been doing so much work on managing my internal state, that I've done a pretty good job feeling neutral about the amount of rain and gloom we've had. They say that happiness comes from within, so I've been doing my best to cultivate happiness within myself. Getting out into nature helps too.

Life is pretty rushed and crazy once we become adults. We don’t often take the time to slowly walk around and notice things, like we may have done as children. This is a story about slowing down.

I found myself in a joyless place recently. While looking back on my past, at times where I felt more joy, I realized where I had gone wrong recently, and what I needed to change, and this is that story.

I'd forgotten how good it feels to be out in the forest, surrounded only by the sounds of nature. The fall leaves were magically bright--yellow, orange and red all around me. Living in the city for almost three months now, I've begun to tune out the noises that seemed so loud in the beginning. I felt this deep sense of peace settle into my body, when I stopped and opened my ears and listened, and took in all the beauty of the fall foliage. I could hear the breeze blowing through the trees and the sounds of the creek, and the crunching fall leaves under my feet, but no human noise pollution. It was amazing.

It’s fall and the season doesn’t last very long - or at least, the leaves don’t stay on the trees for long, so I’ve been doing my best to get out and soak in the colorful fall foliage before it’s gone. I had never lived in a place like this before, so experiencing fall colors is something that’s so special to me and something I know I’ll never tire of.

In today's video I share about a trip to a local lake that I took with my parents at the end of the summer. I also share some final footage from my summer and then footage from the beginning of fall, with all the beautiful fall foliage. I have more footage of the fall leaves to share in an upcoming video, but this was a beautiful introduction. I love autumn!

I've been in a bit of a funk lately, that's had me very creatively blocked. I can't even tell you how many times I've tried to make this video, and how many versions of it there are floating through space. But although the creative block hasn't magically disappeared, I've decided it was time to force myself through it. Because I've learned over the years, that sometimes, creativity must be forced.

What is your vision for the future? If you take the time to look, there's so much magic and so much beauty all around us in the natural world. We're taught to see the artificial, man-made version of reality as progress and evolution, but this "evolved" way of living causes so much stress, drama and destruction that it makes me question how evolved it actually is.

In today’s video I’m going to take you on a journey with me as I forage for plantain and make a plantain salve for bug bite relief and to help heal scratches. I start by making a plantain infused oil (which is a two day process) and then melt it together with beeswax to create a salve. I’ve been using this along with my Bug Bite Thing, which I discovered this year (I’ve written a review on it, I love it so much.

The beauty of nature in spring is absolutely magical. We’re currently getting close to summer, as berries are starting to come out and the flowers are changing. It’s wild to see how quickly things can change in a week’s time. This week I did some filming of nature, but all of it was from right around the house, as I had to be home with my little dog, Maggie, who was having some health issues. She’s fine now—back to her normal little nutty self—but it was a tough week.

It’s been a beautiful week full of tons of spring rain. I’ve gone on two rainforest hikes this past week—one when my friend Michele visited and the second with the doggies. It’s pretty magical living so close to the rainforest—colorful butterflies and bugs and other critters all around, and gorgeous waterfalls to stumble upon, all within 20 minutes of my house.

Spring is here! It’s been so exciting to see and smell the new blooms, and I’ve been foraging and getting to know new wild edible and medicinal foods. This is a story about that.

If you’re anything like me, you’re a mosquito magnet when the weather warms up. I discovered an amazing tool for bug bites this year and I love it so much that I needed to share. This is a review of The Bug Bite Thing.

Ramps have become my favorite foraged food. I love their tender leaves and pungent flavor. This year I was inspired to create my own butter recipe, because most recipes called for way more ramps than I have available to me. It’s simple and easy and only requires 1 ounce of ramps.

Spring feels like the actual beginning of the year for me, and not January 1st. Because of this, I decided to set my goals for the year in springtime, and I held a little ritual, to celebrate the process.

It was time to expand my worm compost bin! My poor worms had been living in a small 5 gallon bucket for too long, and so I decided to make them a new house! This will also allow me to compost more!

The modern day human only has one speed all throughout the year—rushing! With our modern technologies and the pressures we put on ourselves to always keep up the pace, we no longer pay attention to what each season is asking us to do. Winter is for slowing down.