| Dear beloved,
When I’m called to go to the inner depths where my own voice is strong and clear, it is stillness that I seek. Midcoast Maine, unlike any place I have traveled, delivers a quality of stillness that is unique to this land. On this land, my heart and breath settles. The cues of safety received allow me to explore the deepest yearnings of my soul, the longing to create something lasting that will give for generations to come.
I’ve spent the last seven days just outside Waldoboro, Maine. Residing in a refurbished barn with soaring ceilings, exposed beams, and windows open to the stand of trees that protectively circle the property. A walk across the hayfield and I am at the rocky shore. It was an idyllic spot to put words to big dreams and consider necessary steps to bring them to life.
Joining me were two dear Gemmo companions, women who were among a small group that physically held space as I taught my very first Gemmo class, nearly a decade ago. Today they tenderly hold that space again as we organically unfold this next Gemmo chapter.
Do you have a dream you have carried close to your heart? If so, you know just how scary it can be to reveal it to others. Because once it is released it it becomes vulnerable to thoughts and opinions that may not be in alignment with yours. So in its earliest stages I have been a protective mother, yet I know that sharing will give it the wings to take flight and evolve.
At the heart of my dream is a physical place, a home, for a Gemmo Foundation. A not-for-profit center for on-site training, research, and community outreach to support the sustainable growth of Gemmotherapy in the United States. Accompanying that will be a cooperative of growers in different regions allowing for the production of the widest range of extracts possible.
No small dream, but it is the next natural step for my work and at 62 I know with the help of this community there will be the energy to bring it all to reality in my lifetime.
When I set out to import Gemmos to the U.S. years ago it was simply the next step needed for my clients. I had built a private practice in which Gemmos were an integral piece. And so I got on a plane to Europe and returned with an agreement with Plant Extrakt. It took another six months to get them across a US border— learning more about regulations than I ever dreamed—but we did it and here we are.
I have accepted the shifts in how business must be done in years to come and local production is the responsible direction to take. It is a large undertaking that may take years to accomplish, but cooperatively it is within reach.
And so now in spring as the buds of the trees begin to open, unfurling leaves to collect sunlight, I will begin the process of collecting what I will need to build my hoped-for future and share the progress as it occurs.
I am grateful to include you in my dream and grateful for the stillness of this great land of the Wabanaki confederacy, People of the Dawnland, that we have renamed Maine.
Dream big,
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