Affirmations

Sometimes in life you have to just trust the path that you are on is the right one. Let me rephrase that. I have to trust. What I am trusting, I call the universe, the creator energy, the force, or I just don’t know what it is but I feel it. Maybe it’s my intuition. Maybe it’s common sense.

The last weekend which coincided with International women’s day, I hosted 7 men at The Healing Path for a weekend of fun and fellowship. These guys came with an energy to help out, to get to know each other and to perhaps get some advice or counsel on where they are in life. They are good human beings, who showed a lot of affection care and respect for each other.

In return for my hosting them with a roof over their heads, meals and meditation , I recieved work that built 5 raised beds, put up a fence on the road side of the house, cut the grass on the flat part of the land and landscaped the front of the property. There was a lot of fellowship. I had the privledge of meditating and eating , breaking bread with these men from diverse backgrounds and cultures, 3 Englishmen, 1 Scot, 3 Americans. They shared about their problems in life, their experiences with Alcohol , drugs and depression and anxiety, and cracked a lot of jokes. At a high point of the weekend we planted a walnut tree, held hands, and placed special stones around the base of the tree.

They didn’t have to do any of the work they did. The didn’t have to show up. They came, with their fears and their anxieties. They shared these. I had been wondering how to frame the weekend. What should I provide by way of guidance and then I remembered my own Healing Path. In this house there is a program I try to follow. Meditation twice a day, a spiritual walk, a 12 step meeting, study, and talk with someone in a 12 step program. Surely this program was good enough for these men and so I trusted. I tried to be as hands off and allow the weekend to develop as it would. Any questions that anyone wanted would come up. Each of them had their own challenges. My own anxiety was about doing it right , getting it right, and then I remembered it’s not up to me. So I tried to get out of the way, and provide food and guidance when asked.

One of my challenges this weekend was to communicate the philosophy of slowing down. When people come from Western workaholic anxious and speedy cultures and habbits, it takes days, not minutes to slow down. Noticing people not finishing their meal and rushing out to work and trying to stop them was futile. It takes strength and courage , and a support team to do it in a compassionate way. Understanding the need to not sit still took patience. Believing the benefit of silence, sitting still, digesting, taking time, and how they can help us in our busy heads and minds is all part of what The Healing Path is about. While its wonderful that anyone would come for even 24 hours , I have to be patient and understand that switching off, slowing down , and enjoying the moment, takes some getting used to. It was noticeable I was in a minority of 1 as I tried to encourage some to slow down, others voiced the understanding that this was how they dealt with whatever they needed to deal with… as so I am challenged to persist. How do you stop a speeding avalanche? Not by standing in front of it. But if you hang around and wait, it does eventually stop. In other words, I can be the signpost and perhaps in time , if people come here frequently, they will find the benefit of what I believe in. Or perhaps they will teach me, I am not actually correct. I don’t know. I do know in this last year , it’s a philosophy that has saved me on more than one occasion. Trying to do only one thing a time and not worrying about how well it’s done, just that it’s in the doing.

For The Healing Path itself it was a major event. The first of it’s kind which I hope will be an annual event. It has inspired me to create a retreat during the week leading up to the 21 June. The date has significance in many ways, it’s the music festival in France, it’s the summer solstice, and its a time of the year where the weather is convienient to being outside.

I take this weekend past , the first week of my new second year in this house, as a significant contribution to the overall project of The Healing Path. This website needs work, the donation page needs work, the documents to explain what The Healing Path is should be available to everyone. I am also having a new Pathfinder arriving next month. All of this, the weekend, the pathfinders, happens without me searching it out, or trying to make it happen. It comes my way. So I learn to trust the process. I might not understand the power of the river or know where it’s going but I trust it will get me to where I am meant to be.

I am on the final module of my masters in Psychology and I am struggling with an offical diagnosis of clinical depression and ADHD with Autistic tendancies. I don’t know what any of these mean, but I have flashbacks and aha moments that explain the road I have walked and the experiences I have had. I try to stay detached. I notice things more and I try to accept this is the way I have always been and that it is ok.

I have many things I want to make happen in The Healing Path but I am still alone in my endeavours. A team mate, a more active committee, someone who can help with Pathfinders when they come and share the load. People who will make it worth having a horse or cow, or more chickens, or bees, or a hundred other ideas. I remember then my own philosophy. Slow. Gentle. Progress happens on a daily basis.

It’s been an interesting day as my last guest parted I have interactions with 5 different neighbours. One whose dog had to be put down, one who donated fencing that he was getting rid of and was cluttering his garden, one who had delivered a lot of cow manure and a good sized log to propagate mushrooms, one who brought salad plants and then her husband who came over looking for eggs, which I had mentioned I had way too many. There is this type of interchange, a sharing economy in the neighbourhood that is beginning to revolve around the house. It’s small, but it’s present. The man who gave me the fencing , got a lift back from town when we crossed each other ,the eggs were for the lettuce plants. I know the vegetables I grow will be given to the farmers. I know the woman who donated eggs and baked a cake for the men this weekend, did so in repayment for some services I had already rendered.

So here I am at the beginning of my new year , so many affirmations , the care economy is happening , the spiritual growth is happening, The Healing Path is happening. It’s happening in its own time, not mine.

If this story is of interest to you, share it with those who like permaculture, care economy, 12 steps, nature, vegetariansm, spirituality and if you are clean and sober and think you might want to contribute through your presence as I try to get out of the way and yet build something lasting, let me know in the comments or reach out in someway.. I need you and so too does The Healing Path.

Thank you for reading and thank you to all who have made this first year an amazing experience and kicked off this second year in a most powerful way.

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A review of a year

January 27, 2026