The fertile In-Between Spaces
learning, noticing, being...
Hello dear readers. Thank you for being here. I am writing to you from a very sweet little coffee shop in West Asheville. My husband and I traveled down for the weekend, me for my herbalism class, him to work in person with his supervisor who lives down this way. It’s windy and bright outside, all sunshine and blue skies and everyone feels familiar and friendly.
While we have settled into a new home for the past few weeks in the mountains of Highland County, VA, I’ve also been hopping around quite a bit, and it seems life will continue to have me hopping. I’ll travel up north to Kingston, NY, next weekend to participate in the Field and Supply Spring Market. In June, I go to Richmond for a couple of weeks to get our house ready for our next set of renters, then visit with family and celebrate my Dad’s 80th! birthday in Maryland. My husband goes to San Francisco for work, and I return down here to Asheville yet again for another herbalism class. So far, 2025 has been a year of movement.
I participated in a beautiful plant medicine ceremony this past weekend and I went into the time feeling very lost and sticky. All of this untethered-ness and not knowing where I will end up is very challenging to that pretty large part of me that just loves to have everything figured out. All ducks in a row- clean, neat, tidy, life figured out (virgo rising over here). What I was shown during our ceremony time is that this is a moment in life where I need to be lost. I need to not know the way. I need to surrender into being and let some unseen force of magic guide me, beyond what my imagination can even dream. The only true way that something new can come through is for me to let go of trying to make it a certain way. And so, onward I go on this ever evolving journey of letting go and being with the unknown.
I was also shown the ways that I have always known how to anchor, and can continue to tend to those rituals, even amongst the changing tides. I write my morning pages every single morning, no matter where I happen to be. I spend time outside, say hello to the trees and plants around me, I sing to the earth. I cook for loved ones. I remember my body and listen to her needs. What foods feel nourishing, what acts of rest feel replenishing, what stretches and movements expand me and release me. And most importantly of all, I lean into my pleasure. I lean into what makes me feel good just for the sake of feeling good, even if for only a little bit of time every single day. This alone feels like such an act of reclamation in a time that seeks to destroy and separate us from our inherent goodness and joy. When I fill myself up, I have more capacity to tend to others. I remember that this goodness and love is inherent to being alive. I have more capacity to offer my smile, my laughter, my hand. I can offer more care. For me, it is constantly working to undo the oppressor that lives inside of me, that tells me I am not worthy or do not deserve to live in beauty, and in unraveling and rebelling against that internal lie, my hope is that it gives power to undo the oppressive forces that live outside of me as well.
I am staying at a new friend’s home while I am here in Asheville. She bought a painting from me earlier this year, and also attended the workshop that I hosted with
last month. She offered for me and my husband to stay in her beautiful brand new home while she is away having a serious surgery done in Boston. The level of generosity to let someone you don’t know very well not only into your home, but also during a time that is incredibly destabilizing on a personal and physical level, is immense. I have been offered so many beautiful homes to be in throughout this untethered year. Our first home in the mountains of Highland with beautiful views and access to incredible caves. The old farmhouse we are renting now, with the whippoorwill that sings outside our windows every night, harking from tree to tree around the house, spinning some kind of protective charm over us. The other kind new friend that hosted me last month when I was here for my herbalism class. The note she left for me saying to treat her house like my own home and help myself to anything. And now, in arriving to this new home, with all of its beautiful pottery, art and happy house plants, I had the realization that maybe this is all meant to be. Maybe I am being shown all of these many different homes of generosity so I can know how to build and offer my own.
I am in two herbalism programs and my creative work is changing shape. I have been diving deeper than ever into my dream life and asking for signs and receiving them. It is a time for me to be learning, noticing and exploring. Listening to what lights me up, what draws me in, what makes me cry with awe. THESE moments of pleasure and love are the breadcrumbs leading my way. And as long as I am committed to the listening, the beauty, the gratitude, the more I arrive right where I need to be.
The other night as I lay awake before bed feeling very lost (because life is a yo-yo of ups and downs and as I write from an optimistic tone right now, I don’t always feel that way), to comfort myself, I imagined myself laying inside a dark wood canoe, floating on a big expanse of water. Maybe the ocean, but she was still, and there was an incredible luminous night sky of stars above my head. A glowing star was attached to my heart and out of that star rising from my chest was a single thin thread, as strong and thin as a spider’s silk…this thread held a sail that was blowing and open in the night sky, and above the sail was an eagle and a flock of starlings, all flying in one direction that I was heading, leading the way. This image still brings me so much comfort and peace, and a depth of knowing that goes beyond this moment in time. As long as my heart is that sail, and as long as the water on this earth is holding me, and as long as I have my bird friends joining for the ride, well then, I do not need to worry, I know the way.
Thank you for being here. While so much in my life changes shape, this space is changing a bit as well. I find myself listening to when I want to write rather than forcing myself to write on some kind of timed schedule. I am incredibly grateful to all of you who subscribe and read my words. I have felt there are so many words being shared in the world right now, and oftentimes I wonder if mine are needed. For now, for today, I felt very called to say hello and connect with you all over this portal of screen and space.
I’d love to hear your own visions, dreams, pleasures, creative ways that you are pursuing as acts of resistance. I’d love to hear the ways you are allowing the open fertile in-between spaces into your own life. What is coming through that couldn’t have come before? What is bringing you a sense of peace and beauty?
These are the tools I am adding into my belt as I move forward. These are the ways that I will say no to the oppressor, both inside and out.
Thank you, thank you.
Current musings and inspirations….
I loved reading this reflection around liminal spaces and vision quests by Kat. I’m heading on an ancestral retreat to Scotland with Kat in September and I am so looking forward to it.
Martha Beck’s work always speaks to me, and this podcast episode on feeling lost felt incredibly resonant.
I have a new painting out that was created for Summer Supper Somm- a beautiful event happening up and down the east coast this summer featuring different chefs, vineyards and tomatoes! All in support of RVASCAN. Check out the lineup of events here, and the print available in my webshop here.
I am a proud affiliate for Anima Mundi Herbals, and truly love their products. They put so much intention and creativity into their blends and formulas. You can take 15% off any purchase with the code MOLLY15 at check out. See one of my favorite products here!
Everything Mara June offers/creates/puts out in the world. I am currently enrolled in their Tears of the Gods herbalism class AND in their self paced Grief magic course.
And because we all need a bit more lightness and laughter, this made me chuckle.
Your words are needed, your words are cherished and appreciated. Thank you for this newsletter, connected to it on so many levels.
This is so comforting. Nourishing/ nourishment is a word that’s really speaking to me as if late. 💕