Never before have I taken time after the spring workshop to get away from the internet, from people, and from modern life. And it did just what I said it would do - allowed me to take the time to process. Change is coming. Change is always coming, but this year, we have taken a special path and I want to share one lesson with you today. Saturday, June 27, 2pm: Caning basics, Pickles: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2020/06/22/canning-webinar-pickles/ Thursday Livestream from the Holler Neighborhood. Youtube Tales from the Prepper Pantry We had rain so I hope to do a batch of beets this week Added lamb to the freezer It is time to do the now quarterly freezer defrost and audit - a thing that has been keeping me honest on using stuff up Still drying herbs like mullein flower and bee balm Featured Forrage: Wild Raspberry For berry advice https://nicolesauce.com/2015/06/14/wild-raspberry-summer/ Herbal uses https://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/r/raspbe05.html Tea: high in calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, and vitamins B, C, and E. Excessive menstruation Antidiahrreal Reduces fevers Operation Independence This whole show is about this topic, really Main topic of the Show: Change It is always there under the surface. Ready to push you just a bit further. Ready to get in your way when you are in your stride. Ready to show you opportunities when you are least ready for them. Always there no matter how much you wish to cling to today and yesterday. Change happens. Many people fear it, hate it, resist it. But change is part of life and if you are living, change is simply something that you must learn to integrate into everything. Because it will happen whether you want it or not.  And yet we can guide change, we can shape it and shift it in ways that suit us. Yep. Change is hard but change is also good. I haven’t done our usual lftn spring workshop debrief episode this year. You know the one I speak of? Where I run through it session by session and talk about all the things we did and learned and how powerful the community is when we get together? A community of doers… I haven’t done this thing because this year was different. Now don’t get me wrong, the workshop was fantastic, fun, hard, good, educational, and the community is why this is.  But unlike former years where the best outcomes of the workshop were on the surface, this year was different. It was more subtle. The group was both quiet and social and sometimes raucous. The sessions were usually focused and thought provoking. The group had a comfortable companionship about it and conversations tended toward long and deep over surface and short. The whole time the event was happening I was worried that we would not meet the benchmark. You may wonder what the benchmark is. The benchmark for every lftn spring workshop is that at least 1 or 2 people figure things out. They find that it they have been missing. The thing that shows them a way forward toward building the kind of life they want. Usually, this happens quickly and obviously. But not this year. The day after the workshop, Jenni stopped by. You know who I mean. Jenny of Word of the Year Jenni - to get her stuff and she said - I think we turned a corner at the workshop. And she is right. There wasn’t one or two “aha” experiences, but rather a more subtle shift for most of us there.  Setting the stage for the workshop, we have seen the following in six short months: A strong financial environment to start out the year A scary pandemic illness that brought along with it the following: Population-wide acceptance of the top-down control of private lives. An awakening that people seem to want a crisis really badly - so they won’t let go when new information comes to light Acceptance of politically charged narrative on a topic that should not be at all political - both sides have shamelessly used this pandemic to desperately further their agendas with no consideration for the impact on real people A media melt