The Everybody Band

Happy life day to my best friend, favorite human and my love Aja. Each day continues to be a glorious adventure, the magic in the mundane is ever present and yet, next thing you know we get dumped on with two feet of snow starting on my birthday and ending on yours, lose power with an infant for almost a full day while finding creative ways to cook and stay warm, and at the same time adopt goats last minute who lost their mom to an attack, all while laughing and loving the whole way through. Seeing you as a Mom, giving love to Amiya, blows me away every day. You are so patient and kind and sweet.

Best lifeday gift

What a year… As much as I am a “always present and forward” kind of person, I recognize that time is all illusion and “looking back” always amazes me. To see what has materialized out of thin air, what never was and has now become. This method of reflection seems to offer some perspective; how much can happen, change, be learned, in such a short amount of time. From seeing old and new friends as they are; in joy and pain alike, to collaborating with for a beautiful tour, to getting pregnant and preparing to bring a beautiful soul into the world, to raising chickens and rabbits, harvesting our first road kill deer, witnessing my sister get married and glorious times dancing with the fam, writing a book on fermentation, teaching so many people how to make sourdough, singing our souls out in song circles, hosting a bunch of sacred rest retreats, silly conversations about nothing, hikes with my love snuggles with our mountain lion Bigu, learning how to build a greenhouse and chicken coop, making mead and wild wine, curing all sorts of meats, homemade chickpea miso making, wild medicine crafting, and heck if I remember what else went down in such a glorious year.

The main gift I’m unwrapping this Christmas is the gift that keeps on giving. This chickpea miso has been aging for over six months and while it will continue to age in the fridge, it’s time we opened her up. When I tell people how long some ferments take they can hardly believe it. Six months, a year! Are you crazy, that’s forever! And yet, in the stillness, in the presence, in the patience, time fades back into illusion. It’s a funny dance, so many people talk about living in the present, but if time is an illusion, is the present not the future at a different moment? And thus I enjoy long projects like making miso, for one day, when the time comes, as it has, I get to unwrap this magical gift. A true present for the present. (P.s. Yes, you can make miso out of any bean, not to mention all sorts of things, I’ve even made miso from beans and sourdough. This miso is living, it makes a great marinade and tenderizer as well as magical umami blast of flavor in the pie hole).

Not a lot of people know this but I grew up with an abnormally large amount of exposure to feet. My dad, being a podiatrist, often looked at x rays and pictures of feet when he got home from work. I once went with him to “take your daughter to work day” (I know I know…) and I remember being greatly turned off by a plethora of gnarly feet I saw throughout the day—as my Dad likes to say when asked about his job, “it stinks!” Flash forward to 2020 and suddenly it all clicks, feet are part of my story, strange as that may sound. It’s a slow process to reawaken your feet, to take back the proper functioning of this magnificent thing often locked away in a foot prison, but as it starts to happen, more and more things begin to make sense. What else was I led to believe on blind faith? When I started to see how incredible my feet were I couldn’t help but obsessively love on them, work them out, massage them, care for them, for when I do, they take quite good care of me. I’m not saying you need to be barefoot, in a way it doesn’t matter, but rather develop a relationship with your feet, learn how they work, let them out of their cage for just a little bit and see how they respond. We’ve been told our feet need protection, and in some cases they might, but I’d rather slow life down drastically and be present with each step then mindlessly wander through the streets with a false sense of protection, with a rubber sole. Free the foot, if not only for a few moments, and see how it ripples through each and every step of your life.

The reason that I don’t ever work out anymore. As a kid I played a lot of sports- football, baseball, wrestling, basketball and such, and while I was never a great athlete and often for my arse handed to me, I always thought playing sports and training was the best way to stay in shape. Running laps around a field (in shoes mind you), lifting weights at the gym, using the treadmill, squats, push ups, all that jazz, I dreaded most of it, often had pain and injuries, but did it because I was told that was how one gets strong and stays in shape. But that all changed when I started getting into natural movement and being barefoot. Now I’m 37, feel the best I ever have, and I haven’t been inside of a gym in years. Life isn’t some isolated thing, nor is our body, we can’t just expect to work out one specific muscle over and over, or run circles on a a track and not have some sort of issue in the long term. Things have become so isolated in this way, but life is a whole thing and our bodies move throughout our day in many ways. Natural movement, play, dance, these things work the entire body, not in a way that overextends our being but that keeps us connected to the earth, to ourselves. I used to think I had to run ten miles to get a good workout, now I find myself hiking a few miles barefoot and feeling great, not to “try” and workout but simply to enjoy the time. The health benefits are sort of a natural side effect of these things I enjoy, not an arduous isolated task that happens once a day for a specific period. My whole day is movement, when I hike, when I dance, when I cook and carry groceries. Presence the body, be with the moments, and suddenly the idea of working out in the traditional sense doesn’t make as much sense anymore, just like wearing shoes 😂. I can hike barefoot up the side of a mountain, covered in cacti and pointy things, going about a tenth of the speed of a runner, and yet feel much better than when I used to run about a track. It’s not all about sweat and mileage, I feel every single step, each completely unique, moving all of me. If you want to learn more about natural movement and being barefoot, I’ve got a free ebook in my bio for you.

Colorado friends, with Arise canceling last minute we decided to put together our own experience this coming Sunday, 5-29 in Denver 6-1030pm. Breathwork, cacao, music with and all of the dancing vibes your being can handle. Link in my bio to learn more

Back in Boulder!

They call me the barefoot shoe salesman but… I’m not really selling anything, just an idea really. Yesterday I hiked up the side of a beautiful mountain on the Colombia Gorge with wild flowers as far as the eye could see. At one point I ran past a group on the way up, and on my way down I noticed they had taken their shoes off. As I ran by they said “you’ve inspired us!” So I stopped for a chat about, yep, feet. Recently Aja was reading a certain chart of mine when it basically said I was a walking advertisement, and in my case, a barefoot walking Ad for a certain type of life, a bare one if that. Being barefoot tends to attract a lot of attention and often confused looks—a little girl pointed to me yesterday and asked her Dad “Daddy, why isn’t he wearing shoes, what is wrong with him?” It is especially prevalent in the mountains on hikes, but to me the attention is worth it when it means inspiring a few people to consider their shoe choices and learn more about the gloriousness that is the foot. No matter what I’m doing I’m usually happy to stop and chat feet, as I would have been equally curious as someone just a few years ago to see a person walking barefoot on rough terrain. Being barefoot has become part of my life, but it’s odd, odd like how we have to call some produce organic as though it’s special when really it was once just the norm. We are born with the best shoe ever invented and while some situations may call for specific footwear, we can, at the very least learn to love on our feet and see what path that opens up in our life. If you are interested in learning more about being barefoot, I’ve got a great playlist on my YouTube channel as well as a book I wrote that is free to read. Link in my bio for both.

Welcome friends. Ready to unlock your musical gifts?
I deleted my page a long time ago but it seems I needed to create this page to share some of the things that I wanted to.

The Everybody Band updated their website address.