Freezing cold and happy as hell.
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This winter here has been pretty crappy in Southern Ohio. Only 2 dustings of snow and a whole bunch of rain and too warm weather. I know some are excited but for a winter adventure lover like me- it's been rather depressing..
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This past weekend was the annual Hocking Hills Winter Hike that my mom and I always take part in. She ended up having to work and heavy rain and 50 degree temperatures weren't screaming Winter to me so I sat this year out as well. It felt weird but it just sounded like muddy misery with 1700+ people. 😳
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I'll earn my 2020 Winter Hike patch on my own, hopefully when winter actually arrives. However, what a difference a day makes. The temperature plummeted and flurries flew around all day Sunday so I couldn't help but hit the trail. .
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Waterfalls raging from the rains with just enough ice to add a little extra touch. Barely any other cars in the main lot. It was just what I needed. .
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After thousands of people were at the winter hike, I was utterly amazed that I found less than a pound of trash! High five to the clean-up crew from the hike! .
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Getting out in the winter, especially when there is no snow, is helping me stay caught up before spring! Leaving it better doesn't have an off- season! .
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Add that extra bag for trash to your essential items on all your adventures all year long and #GetOutGrabOne! The #11thessential is definitely an all-season necessity! .
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This is the land of the Shawnee, Wyandot, Osage and other Hopewell cultures.
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#britanyinwanderland #britanysadventuresinwanderland #thegroundskeepers #2020GroundsKeepers #leaveitbetter #GetOutGrabOne #seekthetrails
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
Poem by Mary Oliver
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This beautiful sky deserved to live beyond my story and highlights and to be accompanied by my favorite poem. The colors of the sky truly are the fuel to my soul. I thank my grandpa for instilling the love of his favorite color - sky-blue pink- in me. 💞
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This is the land of the Shawnee, Miami and possibly Adena. .
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#britanyinwanderland #britanysadventuresinwanderland #seekthetrails #sunrise
A lot of people like to move into the New Year with a fresh start, leave the past year behind. In years past, this has been me. However, this year, I find myself bringing so many things into 2020 and celebrating all of them.
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The last year saw so many beautiful things happening on so many levels for me. I want to carry those things and the momentum they have into this year. I want to build on the foundations created in 2019. This year, there is no need to start over.
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One of those things is the momentum of the @11thessential moving towards 501c3 status. At the end of the year, our state non-profit application was approved and we have been working hard to get everything together for federal. Taking our time to make sure everything is exactly how we want it to be and how it should be. Our goals for 2020 are big and I cannot wait to see all the words on paper and screen turn into real life programs.
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In 2019, I was also blessed to be one of 30 amazing stewards who were honored to call themselves one @granitegear @thegroundskeepers 🚮🌲 Collectively, we cleaned up 5,407 lbs of trash from our trails and waterways. It was one of the most amazing experiences and I wished the year wouldn’t come to an end. .
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Well – my wish was granted. I am very excited to announce that I will be staying with @thegroundskeepers as a part of their new Legacy Team. To say I am STOKED is the understatement of the year.
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This year, 11 former rock star GKs are back as a part of the Legacy team where we will continue our clean-up efforts as well as mentor the 19 new GKs on this year’s roster. Please head to @thegroundskeepers and give it a follow as well as follow along with all the members of the 2020 team. I cannot wait to see the impact we create in 2020!
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Even if you aren't a part of the GKs, that doesn't mean you can't take part with us. We encourage everyone to pack their #11thessential and leave it better because #WeAreAllGroundsKeepers 🚮🌲
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What are you taking with you into the new year? .
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📍Land of the Shawnee, Wyandot, and Hopwell Cultures. .
#britanyinwanderland
#britanysadventuresinwanderland #thegroundskeepers #2020GroundsKeepers #groundskeepers4ife
It is hard for me to wrap my head around the last decade of my life. I’ve written and rewritten my feelings at least 3 times. It is hard because I feel like 3 different people lived most of those years. Sometimes I look back and I cannot put myself in those scenarios. I see pictures of those people and they look like me, but I don’t know them anymore. Sometimes I just don’t look back because those are closed chapters.
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I brought in 2010 in such a different place in my life, literally and figuratively. I was in California, married, and was obsessed with dying my hair black. I had sacrificed a lot for what I truly thought was my dream. I didn’t know it that night, but that would be my last full year in California. It would also be the year everything started to truly change. (black hair included).
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The end of that marriage would bring me closer to myself, who I knew I really was, but it would take me away from people who were staples of my life. It would strain relationships, even ruin some. It would shape and change so many pieces of my puzzle, I thought they would never go back together the same way or even go together at all. I thought I was destined to have missing pieces in my masterpiece.
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5 years in that span, I was a mess. Partially by my own doing, partially others. I experienced more great love and great loss. Things that would continue to reshape my thoughts and my puzzle pieces. But all of that turmoil was really doing something remarkable – it wasn’t reshaping pieces to my puzzle, my entire puzzle had changed. .
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Those pieces were being remastered to help me create my real masterpiece. The life I didn’t know I had wanted. It was a life I couldn’t have ever dreamed about because the person I am today wasn’t around to dream them.
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This puzzle wasn’t like the other. It was freeform. No box with a photo of how it should be, just random pieces that kept connecting as life moved. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it had become once I stopped searching for the pieces. The pieces find me, and I decide where they should fit.
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It's taken a while but my puzzle is finally looking like a MY masterpiece.
