Hello Nature-led friends!

It’s January 2026 already and there’s a lot going on in the world! While I have many concerns about the fate of humanity and the fate of the planet itself, I’m still hopeful and excited about the year to come! There will always be opposing forces at work because of physics, but also because ideologically there is no one-sizes-fits-all utopia. A dog’s heaven is a squirrel’s hell. I will always be a voice for nature and the unseen. I hope you will too! Only 1/8 of my thoughts and ideas ever make it to this space but if it ignites even a fraction of passion in you to be part of the living world and lead with empathy beyond yourself. That’s good enough for me. We should all strive to remain slightly feral.

In 2024, I didn’t know how to tell you I had cancer or that I was fighting to get my mom out of a terrible rehabilitation center that she was involuntarily sent to by the hospital mafia in my hometown. So, I’m telling you now. Those things happened and I fought like hell and I’m missing a few spare parts, but I’m still here and I’m cancer-free and my mom is still here and in a much better place. I couldn’t have made it through either of those things without the support of my friends and family and the community at large. I’ve never been the kind of person who likes to do things by phone, but I called and called anyone and everyone that could help me. I wore out the pavement on a four-hour drive to and from my hometown and my home. I made new friends and allies. I was forced to learn, grow, adapt and innovate when all I wanted to do was sleep.

In 2025, I had to continue strengthening my body and mind to new realities. No one wants to talk about how long recovery because it’s boring and it can sound a lot like whining. It’s hard to give our bodies time to adjust to the slow process of healing when our brains are living in societies that offer next day delivery and 24-hour conveniences. In short, I messed up my feet trying to do a lot of walking for exercise and then I had that to also recover from. Sigh.

All these pictures of fall tree colors I took in November. It had been raining a lot like it always does this time of year, but then it started raining harder for longer. By the second week of December, we got hit with two back-to-back and one smaller atmospheric river hit that caused multiple rivers to surpass flood stage in Western Washington. Several valleys flooded including the Skagit valley, Snoqualmie valley, and the Fraser River valley in southern British Columbia. Levees failed and over 100,000 people had to evacuate throughout the region. One person died after driving into flood waters in Snohomish and around 1,000 water rescues were performed.

We experienced flooding in the region before, so people are really good at coming together for those in need. When the Everett Animal shelter was in threat of being flooded people were quick to show up and take all 120 animals to their homes to be safe. I’d like to hope that a few adoptions happened as a result of the awareness that so many animals are available for adoption at just one shelter.

Below are pictures of the Snoqualmie Valley flooding that cutoff the city of Duvall from Redmond and Woodinville.

I’m thankful that the casualty number for this disaster as it currently stands is one person as far as we know. My heart goes out to the people who have lost their homes and cherished possessions to the flood waters. Some of the people recently flooded were flooded back in 2021 and the lack of funding and affordable housing means that people cannot “just move” out of harm’s way. No one can predict that a 100-year flood event is going to happen twice in five years while the government argues what they will and won’t pay for and when.

One of the things that bothered me most is the amount of AI videos and pictures I saw that quickly popped up on Facebook and other social media sites that callously exploited the disaster for peoples’ own amusement and greedy dopamine hits that had nothing to do with what was actually going on. Really people and animals were affected and when other people start to question what’s true and what’s not true, it can impact disaster response and the amount of aid and donations that people and organizations could receive for recovery.

I’m currently volunteering four hours a week at a youth shelter and advocacy organization because I believe that when you don’t know what else to do with yourself and you want to help others, you should start with the people closest to you. Show up for your community in a way that works for you. It can be one-time, it can be once a month, or it can be once or twice a week. The level of commitment is up to you. Just reach out to organizations that support causes you care about and see how you can help. I find it fun and rewarding because I know I’m doing something that matters. It’s cathartic to help others even when I feel like a walking disaster on the inside.

Now, go play outside and/or go read a book to shelter animals!

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Stay Tuned….

Next Sunday January 11th I’ll be posting the resulting taste test of the Dandelion wine I bottled back on Jan 10, 2022! (See post: https://nature-led.org/2021/04/22/happy-earth-day-2021-may-hope-persist-like-dandelions/ )