It has been an incredibly challenging, stimulating, and inspiring experience here for me. First of all, I am immensely grateful for the space, time and energy that this family has given me. They have provided an unbelievably welcoming environment for me and I am so impressed and inspired by their generosity and sincere devotion to teaching people about their life and the things they do to sustain and enrich their experience on earth. They have taught me to listen directly to my body. I have never been able to take clear moments throughout the day to sit with myself and think about how i'm feeling and be my own caretaker. In no way do they discourage seeing a doctor when you've broken a bone or have some other severe injury or pain that you cannot help yourself with in the moment. Although I think it is so valuable to learn how to take care of yourself in little ways that add up to preventing the bigger problems from occurring. I am completely spoiled here with amazing and fresh food, healing energy, and healing materials such as oils and tea that I know make my body so much happier. This trip has been a really crucial step for me in mental and physical health. I love being outdoors but I know that simply going for a walk everyday is not enough medicine and not enough for my brain to be aware of. I need to be constantly aware of what is entering my body and what is fueling me and what feels right and what doesn't. When we open up a hive and look inside at whats going on and how successful and healthy it is, we have to look and think very deeply about every little detail. Nothing can be missed. If you look through a hive and miss one frame, there could be a mite infestation on some of those larvae that we eventually spread and destroy the colony. When we are thinking about our health we have to think about every factor that could be helping or hurting us. Even living in Vermont, a state with supposedly clean air and resources. We now face a huge issue with contaminated water that is now going into our systems every day. There is also a huge problem with skin cancer in Vermont because people spend all winter inside and then finally go out in the sun in the summer when their bodies aren't used to it. There are so many miniscule factors that go into our health that we rarely think about or even do anything about. We also forget that the health of ourselves directly correlates with the health of the Environment. If there are high pollution rates in your area, or if there aren't a lot of trees and thriving wildlife around where you live then that means you are missing out on all of these natural resources that make your body happy and healthy. If you don't see any birds eating the berries on a tree, that means they are poisonous to yourself as well. If you don't see a lot of happy animals and plants in an area, that means there is something wrong and you are suffering from it. I want to use what I have learned on this trip to show people that we cannot be healthy if our surroundings aren’t. Taking care of yourself is 100% worth your while and we need to stop thinking that there are so many things like work and money that come before our health.
Photography was a really important tool for me on this trip because it allowed me to capture my thoughts and feelings instantly. There are words and feelings that go with every picture I took and even if they aren't physically there to other people, they will always be there for me and I strongly believe that if I have real passion and feelings in my photography, that they will come out and be felt by my viewers.
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