My Outdoor Educator Certification Community Action Project- January through March 2025

Welcome to my first ever blog where I post updates about my community action projects and adventures advocating for the preservation of my beautiful home state, California! Plays TUPAC's CALIFORNIA LOVE 🎶 But, I bet you are wondering how I got here....

I didn't plan on being able to have the opportunity to create the jobs (yes plural) I have always wanted, but the fates have other plans it seems.

Since I have a busy mind, my body may have been out of commission, but I am determined to find purpose given my current medical condition and my inability to work full time as a teacher.

I got my single subject English credential in 2010 from California Commission on Teacher Credentialing,(cue YAY but it was not enough) and I spent 14 years building my career including mentoring teachers, serving on accreditation and literacy councils, building district curriculum, running literacy workshops, leading professional development, getting masters degrees and collapsing before being told by my doctor that the stress and exposure to virus is going to kill me if I don't stop, slow down, and give my body time to recover. My entire world collapsed overnight. Every fear I spent years avoiding was running aflame at me-full force- *wasting my degrees, becoming financially unstable, and not being able to care for my son as a SINGLE-single mom....

I was on track for collision and destruction- and there was nothing I could do but lay in bed in the dark and watch.

The funny thing about the ashes is that after you clear them away and spend some time nursing your wounds, you look around and start noticing the world in a way you never knew. Nature loves to nurture us in this way. I chose to embrace my crisis, to fully feel it, to finally fall into the mental breakdown I feared my entire life- the one I told myself I wasn't allowed to feel when the world let me down over and over again. Cue the part in the movie where the sickly maiden is sent to the country estate to rest in the salty ocean air. The one people write books and movie screenplays on, that win awards and we think- must be nice to go crazy---maybe one day I will...

(as if I had a choice in the matter).

I found myself in physical collapse, with my mind showing signs of cracking. I knew my relationship with my spiritual path was taking center stage, and despite my best efforts to mentally lock in to this experience, my mind continued to cast doubt on my abilities after my injury. I had to find the light, I was desperately searching and I was exhausted. As I lay in bed, I decided I wanted to be a volunteer for nature conservancy once I got better physically (a girl can have goals okay), I had always relied on nature to mentally reset and in my greivous moment, I felt compelled to open up the outdoors to people living with chronic illness. So I got to work finding community and doing research on my own.

By shifting the algorithm, I shifted my fate, and stumbled into a scholarship for the California Environmental Educator Certification Program (EECP). They don't care that I'm disabled (a liability), can't get out of bed yet (a liability), broken in need of repair (a liability)- nature never does amiright? This certification requires me to create a community action project based on an environmental need I see in my community. I can do it in as little or many hours a day that I have in me which is basically my way of saying F. YOU. to my body for trying to take me out. My goal is to keep this in perspective and not live to work.

***Well heh, luckily FOR ME, I'm obsessed with stories, postulations, and patterns ~so OF COURSE your girl has been seeing *some* patterns after 40 years of look-seeing, it is my second nature if you will.***

So here I am, embarking on this journey! My plan for this project is to open my literacy skills (and love for volunteering in nature) and partner with my community in creating a space safe for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC students. Providing opportunities to explore nature in new and safe ways, ways I grew up communing in nature, and ways I have inspired a love of nature in my own son, teachings and relationships. My goal is to remind people WE ARE NATURE, not a participant in it. I can't wait to get into it yuh!

Stay tuned for opportunities to get involved in this community we are building! See you in 2025...

-Michelle

Founder of California Herbology Apothecary