Do you ever find yourself making friends in unexpected places and unexpected ways? I think when we are seeking to find like minds, we are willing to look, or find those people meant to be in our lives, no matter the distance, no matter the source of introduction, and no matter the differences. It truly is the common things that pull us together, establishing connection and friendships.

Long story short, Bill bought me a Christmas gift from someone in Australia a few years ago. I started following that person on Instagram and struck up a friendship with them. One day they started mentioning their friend’s work that they deeply resonated with, and so I followed along and found myself meeting another like mind. That has turned from a following, into another cherished friendship that I am blessed with. So, who’s your friend, Erin?

His name is Rafal Durka, he is a an intuitive, a medium, a mystic, and much more. I have had the pleasure of watching Rafal move beyond the quieting of his gift, to finding his voice and living out loud with his energy, his voice and his abilities. I love to watch people come into themselves, and I have a feeling this is just the beginning for Rafal.

Rafal recently started his podcast, The Progressive Human, and let me tell you, I was amazed by it. There is much I cannot articulate in this life, but my friend not only puts it in words, he speaks it so beautifully, so powerfully, and goes beyond what we not only can’t say, but can’t put in to words or organization of what we think. Mind blowing!

Please give Rafal a listen, expand your mind, hear a message, and learn from a truly great source! His intro podcast is below, followed by his first official podcast. I am not much of a podcast person, but be assured, I will be listening every week to hear what my dear friend has to say, The Progressive Human!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Ktf5oN6uUBJJujMqyJ7k5?si=NpiZRa9bSDuWusG5bXGibQ

First podcast from The Progressive Human:

https://open.spotify.com/show/5iEgFZiAA60txtALeUT4WW?si=TPImI4_HQ-OsenXlOwqC8w

The things purchased at Hobby Lobby:

• Pumpkins, orange and white
• Golden Turkey
• Sunflowers
• Raccoon
• Red and green leaf greenery
• Orange placemats
• White table runner
• orange glixia
• Orange plaid tea towel
• Green table runner
• Brown plaid table runner
• Light up house

I sourced all feathers and eucalyptus from Amazon. And my antlers came from Chillicothe Antique Emporium.

Yes, we do have a third dog, Berrie. She is a golden oldie at almost 12. Berrie is a bit camera shy, but doesn’t ever fall picture need a hound somewhere in it?

Check out all of those roses! Two fresh bouquets drying naturally! I love dried roses, and when the petals fall off, I just throw them in the dough bowl with the antlers.

In my dining room, I made the dresser a place of honor for our dogs who’ve passed, they are awaiting pictures to go on the urns.

I don’t like buying new things, so these items will be cared for, put away after their season and used time and time again. I love curating, I am not a collector, and I don’t like randomly buying things, especially expensive full price items. The most expensive item shown here is my boxwood wreath, I think I paid $75 for that, but I really wanted it, and I believe I bought it 8 years ago. So this is what fall will look like until the day after Thanksgiving, oh, and I put up new curtains in my living room…I also do seasonal curtains, lol. It is the small things that make you happy!

Drop me a line, let me know if you are up for some Hobby Lobby nature, and if you collect or curate!

I would like to say this is all I got at Hobby Lobby, but I don’t want to lie to you, so I won’t. Tomorrow I will show what I did get, and what I did do. Plus I will show you what I did with all of those roses.

At the beginning of our marriage, I decorated our mantle, changing it as I saw fit or seasonally. Bill was a huge disliker of things changing, so I stopped doing our mantles, and thus a part of me dried up. He has realized how badly I need creative outlets(notice it is multiples), and how fostering that is great for all areas of my life, and his too. He even got on the seasonal decor change here at home! Here is what the mantle looked like from May to September…

I like change…Bill is starting to as well. Lol! Drop me a line, let me know if you like changing things up for holidays or seasonally, maybe both?

Apparently I miscounted somewhere along the way…I missed a few days recently…and well, I am still dealing with some vertigo, and have added a lot of new things to my plate. While this would have been too much a few months ago, it seems to be doable and achievable at this point! I am so thankful for that!!!

Today, I would like to talk about answers, for you, for me, and for everyone in between. Maybe I should tell you that I am no expert? I may have 10,000 hours of time put in to this or that, but despite my time, skill or knowledge, I am no expert, no authority, no go to source.

When being present for someone, I simply am asking you, listening to you, and observing your words, subjectively, and objectively, for the purpose of meeting you where you are at. When I speak to you, I am relaying where I too am standing at, that day, that month, that season, that chapter of my life. I am not looking for answers from someone else’s life, but I may listen to their experience to see how it could relate to mine, or how they navigated a situation in their life that I could use parts of for mine…but this is all dependent upon whether there is relevancy there or not. And I would recommend you do the same. Ultimately, you have to live your life, based on decisions that are best for you, and no one else’s expertise can negate what you know is not relevant to your experience.

We often discuss why I write this blog, and I tell you that it is for you. What I can tell you that I exert on you is this: I don’t want you to ever feel alone. I want you to know that we are all flawed, and I am willing to show you my flaws, my failures, my struggles, but also my growth, my success and my healing. Not one of us is perfect, or has ourselves together completely, but, that doesn’t mean we aren’t capable of living in the duality of flawed, and unblemished. We are all works in progress and none of us at the same place, at the same time. However, like I mentioned, I believe in meeting others where they stand, and I hope you meet me there where I stand too! See you all tomorrow!

Eh, we all have butter knife moments, we also have rusty knife moments, but let those be moments and not permanent positions.

And it was the first regular post in a very long time. It honestly felt weird, and a bit saturated in that the likes flowed, but it was about Brooke, so that was a given, but it reminded me of the instant gratification that I long to escape from. The praise was well deserved of Brooke, and it showed me we probably don’t praise her enough, as she is pretty awesome. Anyhow, there is lots to reflect on with that post today, and that is what I will do!

It is hard to believe that there is a little over 3 weeks until the Autumn Equinox, just a handful of days until September, and dare I say, but a few months until the end of the year! Wow! This year has really gone quickly in so many ways! I don’t know about you, but I cannot wait until the leaves change, oops, too soon yet?

Today, Avery said some things to me, observations she has made, really grown up thoughts she is having, and it made me think about the release of things. I thought about it when I spoke with her, then put it to the side while I was working. Later, after work, I was in the shower and I thought of fall leaves and how those are tied to her thoughts, in my opinion.

Autumn leaves falling tie their literal release, to the release of things in my brain. I love those sorts of connections, and how we humans get clues from our environment, if we only look. Anyhow, I was thinking of some things I am holding on to, the things Ave is holding on to, and how that isn’t serving me or her, but it once did. Kinda like the leaves, they no longer serve the tree anymore, and so the leaves are beautifully and majestically dropped, let go of, released. Have you ever considered that you releasing something can be beautiful and majestic? I have not, until I wrote that, huh-epiphany!

Since you know how long we have until Autumn/Fall, do you think there are some things you can work on releasing, and in that, find yourself looking forward to a rest, the downward slide of Fall? I know I love living seasonally, my body and mind crave it, it is so natural for me and I do things like count down to my favorite season, to pay homage to it. Drop me a line, what are your thoughts on the metaphor/analogy of leaves falling from the tree, symbolizing our own need for release of what no longer serves us, I would love to know!

Just wanted to check in with you all, I am still alive, just super busy with work and vertigo, still. CoCo’s face is a good representation of my face today, she nailed the expression. I will make a return this week, maybe we’ll talk about something interesting, or it could be something uncomfortable, you all seem to like those posts a lot. Aight then, I shall rest now. Good evening to you all!

I totally forgot to tell you something cool that happened yesterday! I had a senior shoot at 9 am at a creek, I left there at 11, went and ran some errands, and around 11:45, this butterfly made it’s presence known by hopping on my steering wheel! This lovely is called a Tawny Emperor, and I realized that the only way this got in my car was while I had the back open loading up gear at the creek.

I felt bad for taking this little guy so far from his home. I had more errands to run, and I wasn’t going back near the creek anytime soon, so I decided to take this cutie somewhere close by.

So I decided to drive down Bridge Street, from Shawnee Lanes to Triple Crown, with the Tawny Emperor on my finger. We had a good vibe flowing, me telling it that I would get it back to a more normal habitat near trees and water, it staying and listening, trusting what I had to say. So, me, Bill and the Emperor went on down the road.

I had to have Bill put the car in park for me, and release my seatbelt, as my right hand was occupied with the butterfly. We got our of the car, and I went to put my new friend on a lovely tree. At first, it was hesitant and didn’t want to go, but once it did, I started to walk away and then the butterfly flew crazy around my head for a a few seconds before flying away.

Ironically, almost 5 years ago today I had a Monarch butterfly stay on my hand for several minutes too. I rescued it from the cat, and while it wasn’t injured, it seemed content to stay on my hand while I shared a vibe with it too. So what’s the point of this post? Find the spark of life in everything, and the sparks will find you.