Random Facts from my Nature Led Life

I live on a flower and citrus farm with an unconditionally loving man, Jim, and the funniest dog, Charlie Murphy. We are the last residence at the edge of thousands of acres of wilderness. Besides the phenomenal farmers, our neighbors are bears, mountain lions, grey and red foxes, bobcats, rattlesnakes, scorpions, deer, and various resident and passing songbirds in our “yard.”

My two grown daughters each live in “tiny” homes they built themselves. One is a yellow bus on wheels, called Bug the Bus. Jim’s daughter, my bonus daughter swims and frolics in the wild Pacific Ocean without a wetsuit (brrrr!)

My previous partner and love, Mac, died of Melanoma at the age of 42. He left me with another bonus daughter who is now a brilliant and kind mother to a delicious little cherub named “Ellie.”

My favorite flower is the Dandelion. I drink coffee and tea. I have sat to watch over 8,000 sunrises.

In 2003, when I couldn’t find a program or school I believed in for my own young children, I created one—co-founding a non-profit organization called, The Central Coast Village Center (DBA-Outside Now!). My younger daughter spent several years carried on the hips and shoulders of teenagers on trails in those programs.

I left mainstream occupational therapy practice behind years ago when I became frustrated with the paradigms of disconnection, and insurance-driven approaches therapists are trained to perpetuate. Living outside the box and asking critical questions often leads to unexpected adventures, which you can read about in some of my blogs.

I’ve learned from and collaborated with some extraordinary people, and through those experiences have created the Nature-Led Approach training.

My writing life has evolved organically, beginning with a little yellow diary and a golden key when I was in first grade. I have learned to write with the help of my brother, Peter, who has an MFA and is a well-known broadway lead actor with the voice and heart of an angel. And with the help of a writing coach, Laura Munson, who is a New York Times bestselling author, and my juicy Haven Maven’s writing group, but mostly by reading and writing many, many “sh!##y first drafts.”

My life is a series of synchronicities and you can often hear me saying, “I just can’t make this sh*t up!” I have found myself in a string of shenanigans with several NYT best selling authors—laughing wildly into the winds off the cliffs of Connemara, Ireland, drinking cheap whiskey in a dark backroads bar in Montana, crying and laughing till I peed my pants in numerous hotel lobbies, and sharing a stage sandwiched between two well-known writers and speakers in front of a crowd of thousands (who had no idea who I was.)

When I was twenty-one and living in Connecticut, I wanted to skydive so I drove six hours to the only place in the Northeast that would allow me to make the first jump on my own from a plane 11,000 feet in the sky.

I thought I would have three biological children but after one kicked my ass, I settled on two. Thank god because I have more kids that call me “Mama K” than I can count, and I adore them all. Children make me laugh, cry, and believe in the future. Kids say the most profound things, behave in the most ridiculous and hysterical ways, and are more honest and capable than they are given credit for. Teens especially. Children fill me with hope and when given the opportunity they can solve problems I can’t even get my head around (ever been handed a container that says childproof to a kid?)

And nature. What can I say about nature? I am enraptured by wind, ecstatic at the sun rising, joyful with birdsong, enraged and humbled when I witness predation, and bliss-full with the verdant spring.

Nature has never stopped being itself. Beautiful. Raw. Fierce. Gentle. Soft. Prickly. Forgiving. Unforgiving. It has never stopped extending its hand to us. Nature is us. We are nature.

We are here because our ancestors built a relationship with nature. It’s time we rebuild and re-member that relationship. I teach the Nature-Led Approach to help others re-connect their neurology with nature for a thriving future. I hope you will join me on this journey.

In love and connection
Kathleen