The Tree Branch Diaries

Musings in nature

Dear Kula Diaries,

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been out of town several times, which feels odd to me. Why? Well, because I truthfully haven’t really gone anywhere since last October when we opened up the new Kula HQ. I’m not saying this as a complaint — but, rather, an observation. I feel pretty content being at home, and I love having a normal routine — but, it was really nice to be able to spend some time away. Aaron and I went on a motorcycle ride around the Olympic Peninsula in late August, then we returned to the Peninsula for a spontaneous camping trip… and last week, we spent a full week in Montana (more on that later!).

Fishing at Soda Butte Creek in Yellowstone National Park.

While I no longer feel the need for a traditional ‘escape’ from my life — I cherished these trips for a few reasons:

1. Getting away from our house forces me to take a break from working.

2. We are about to descend into the holiday season, and I am looking down the barrel of being very short-staffed, which means that I’m going to be working a bit more than normal.

3. I love seeing new places and meeting new people.

4. I was able to spend non-work related time with people that I love — including my husband and parents.

I am on a constant quest to mix up the content in The Kula Diaries, because I really feel like the ‘whole purpose’ of this project is to share my own journey — with Kula Cloth and beyond. I consider myself no more special than any other person on this planet — and I am constantly in the process of having a very imperfect, human experience. Ultimately, like all of us, I’m just trying my best.

On my two trips to the Peninsula, I found willing tree branches to hold my phone and I recorded spontaneous videos — just sharing what was on my mind in those moments. You can listen to these short videos like a podcast — just hit play, and you’ll hear the audio for them. I’ve edited the captions to the best of my ability, but please keep in mind that auto-captions often have errors, so I apologize for any that I missed. If I had a dollar for every single time that an auto caption wrote ‘cooler’ instead of ‘Kula’, I could retire. HA!

The first video was recorded in Moclips, Washington on the Pacific Ocean. I had just finished dancing on the beach and watching the sunrise. I woke up in our hotel room that morning at 4:30am, and I wandered down to the beach for a walk in the dark with my headlamp. When I visit a new place, I never miss out on the opportunity to witness a sunrise.

The following week, we rode our motorcycles to Lake Cushman for a moto-camping trip with my friend Denice, who is the founder of The Bronze Chapter. I had a horrific migraine all weekend long (which made riding the motorcycle …errr.. interesting) … but I still woke up in the dark so that I could wander around the campground and dance at sunrise on the shore of a very misty Lake Cushman. Lake Cushman holds a very special place in my heart, and it was a place that I hadn’t visited in almost 20 years. I wasn’t planning to record an emotional video… but, that’s what happened.

After a meditation, I propped up my phone in the nook of an exposed tree root and filmed this while sitting on the shore of Lake Cushman:

I know that I write a lot here… and I read most of the things that I write out loud for my voiceovers. But, I still think that there is something special about unscripted words — a collection of sentences, that somehow weave a thread of meaning through the seemingly infinite experiences of our lives. I definitely don’t have all of the answers, my greatest hope is this: that I can appreciate all of this along the way. That I can share that appreciation with others and that I can be honest about my own life experiences.

Many years ago, I went on a lot of vacations — and I don’t think I ever really stopped to appreciate what I had, when I had it. It was an endless quest for ‘whatever was next’ — the magical thing that was going to once and for all make my life better than it was. It’s hard for me to look back on some of those moments now, and to realize how much I had to be grateful for — and it’s difficult to be honest about my inability to feel gratitude during that time of my life. Nothing was ever ‘good enough’ for me — and I realize now that it had nothing to do with anything else, and everything to do with the reality that I had created in my own mind. I wanted so badly to escape a life that many people would have loved to have. No adventure was ever satisfying. No job was ever good enough. It was exhausting.

I’m getting better and better and I’m learning to stop and appreciate where I am — no matter where that is. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but I will try to greet it as a friend. I will appreciate this moment for what it is — and I will trust that, in some way, each moment is always as it is supposed to be. The next time I forget — I’ll look for a tree branch if I need a reminder: I can always talk to a tree, and it will give me the words to remember.

Friends, thank you so much for being here, and I hope you enjoyed these little video interludes! I’m so grateful for all of your support of The Kula Diaries — it means so much to me. If there is ever anything that you want me to include, please don’t hesitate to ask! As a reminder, you can always submit a question anonymously to The Kula Diaries Vault.

Sending you all so much love!