Hello Everyone!

I've been here just over two weeks now and have met such nice and interesting people. I thought it was time to introduce myself.

I came here with zero knowledge of Steem or other cryptocurrency. It was my friend @stormyowl who suggested this was much more fun than other social media sites. And she was so right! (Check out her beautiful photography!)

My main interests are gardening, herbs, and cooking. (Maybe not in that order!)
I come from a gardening family. I can't remember a time when I haven't had a garden, except for a short while when I lived in an apartment, and even then I grew potted plants and dreamed of a “real” garden. My parents met when they both worked at a large garden center. My father in the rose propagation area, my mother a lowly new-hire transplanting seedlings.

My parents.
(Married for over 60 years!)

Some of my earliest memories are of pulling weeds, watering the vegetables (getting totally muddy in the process), and shooing birds away from the strawberry patch.

Now I have lived in the same house for over 30 years and my garden is my joy. I still marvel at the miracle of nature where a single tomato seed can produce more fruit than my family can eat! But my special fascination is for herbs. I won't go into all the reasons why, we'd be here all day!

I was working at a job I hated and didn't like the person I was becoming. I was there for the money, the pay was great, but I felt that something inside me was dying. My garden was my refuge. I wished I could garden for a living, but that seemed unlikely.

Then I met a man who sold herb plants at our local farmer's market. I would hang around his booth and listen to him talking to customers, it was endlessly fascinating to me. After a while he decided to take a full-time job and asked if I'd like to take over his business. At that time I was seriously thinking about quitting my job. So my husband and I crunched the numbers and decided we could take that risk.

I spent a year selling herb plants at four farmer's markets a week and a few Renaissance Faires, hard work but loving every minute of it. I had been putting money in my “Freedom Fund” (a jar in my closet) and decided to use it to open an herb store. I could only afford a small space but I filled it with everything I loved and I was living my dream.

And then this happened...
I decided that as part of the herbal theme of the store that I'd carry the Herbal Tarot deck by Michael Tierra. That caused a ruckus in my conservative town. Rumors began that I was a WITCH!

And then this happened...

What to do? In a defiant mood I thought, well, if a deck of cards offended them, what would happen if I brought in some books on herbal magic? I ordered some but when they arrived I started having second thoughts and left the box unopened. A group of customers came in and spotted the box and asked if it was something new and could they be the first to see it?

I sold every one of those books right out of the box they came in. I never looked back and my herb shop evolved into a metaphysical bookstore!

Our meditation room.

I learned a big lesson. I had been trying not to make waves and not offend anyone by hiding who I was. I'm not Wiccan, I grew up as a metaphysical Christian, with a deep interest in nature religions as well as other faiths and practices. Gardening, herbs, plant legends and lore, nature magic, they all seemed to go together to me.

When I finally revealed myself everything changed. I started having interesting spiritual experiences. I started meeting Angels and Guides, I saw dead people! I started getting “messages” for people and that really freaked me out! I didn't want that, it was embarrassing. But when I gave the messages people often cried and said, "Thank you, I needed to hear that.” Still very awkward but I got used to it.

I was guided to write. I resisted doing that too. I can be very stubborn. But my guides were stubborn too and I started writing little one-page essays on a variety of spiritual topics. My customers loved them so I wrote more. I wrote enough to fill a book, but that's a story for another time.

Now I am semi-retired with more time for my garden. It is still my peaceful place.

I understand that it is appropriate to post a cute kitten or puppy as a thank-you for reading a long post. Here you go -

I hope to be meeting more of you here!
And now I leave you with my favorite quote -

"Everyone is someone else's weirdo."