2024 → '25

Reflecting back and looking forward

Jan 10, 2025

2024 was a year of transitions, transformations, and healing.

Below, I share and reflect briefly on the most significant shifts in my life and offer a summary of insights at the end. I’ll explore several of them more deeply in future newsletters, so stick around for more thoughtful and detailed reflections.

Lastly, I offer my forward-looking perspective on 2025.

2024 Wrapped

On the medicine path

In February, I began Life as Medicine Way — a nine-month educational and experiential journey. My work in the course was, in short, transformative.

I reconnected with ancestors and my inherited ancestral contracts, learned Indigenous traditions and codes for living harmoniously, gained skills for communicating in relationships, started dreaming again and established a dreamwork practice, remembered what it means to be embodied, made ritual a regular part of life, and more.

LAMW also led me to several side quests, where I learned and grew even more. A major highlight was a 10-day medicine immersion in the Amazon jungle in Peru.

These experiences catalyzed me to walk with both feet on the medicine path.

Life as Medicine Way 2024 cohort — graduation day!

Uncoupled (aka, divorced)

In February, the state of California legally confirmed the dissolution of my marriage. This followed six months of paperwork and waiting and ~18 total months of separation and uncoupling.

My five-plus years as a husband were abundant with love, learning, self-discovery, effective communication practice, compassion cultivation (for self and others), co-creation, and adventure. They offered countless moments of fun, joy, beauty, and bliss, and, of course, plenty of confusion, sadness, disappointment, doubt, and grief.

I’m grateful for all of it. I’m proud of us for navigating it with loving care for each other and ourselves. I’m grateful we preserved our friendship, which we continue carrying together today.

Out of pain and into strength

Six+ years of chronic pain ended in February 2024. The path to healing meandered and backtracked, eventually bringing me back to comfort in my body and the freedom to return to activities I’d been avoiding and missing dearly.

This experience renewed my gratitude for living in a well-functioning body. I now know more about maintaining physical health (especially in aging) and have a new understanding of the powerful connection between mind and body.

With newfound mobility, I got back into strength training. Building on a foundation of daily walks, I reconditioned muscles from head to toe and regained a physique that reminded me of my college wrestling days.

My chiropractor, Chad, summed it up well when he said, “You’ve come a long way this year. I’m proud of you.” I’m grateful to Chad and everyone who’s supported my healing journey, and I’m proud of me, too.

Committed to sobriety

If it wasn’t already obvious, February was BIG — that’s also when I got sober.

I started using and misusing recreational drugs and alcohol when I was 14. I’ve turned to them to have fun, socialize, escape, medicate, etc.

From 2022-24, in the shadows of a dissolving marriage, a pain-ridden body, and bouts of anxiety and depression, I dialed my substance use up to new levels. My therapist brought my attention to a pattern of unhealthy choices I was making and suggested group therapy for addiction recovery. I took his advice.

Seven months later, I stopped using all substances. Four months after that, I “graduated” as a recovered success story. I still drop into the group’s sessions every 3-4 months to share my progress and support group members.

I’m excited to celebrate one full year of sobriety next month. In my 2025 recap, I intend to report that the streak is still alive.

Laid off (again)

In September, I was laid off from my job — the third time in my career. Like the previous two, #3 was sudden, unexpected, inconvenient, and financially stressful. But it came with upsides:

Thanks to the good-hearted people I worked with, it happened in a thoughtful, caring, and generous way.
It allowed me to pause, rest, and reassess what matters to me in my work.
It made space for me to revive creative projects—like this newsletter.

I’m still looking for what’s next. I want to contribute to environmental and social justice movements — addressing climate change, protecting and preserving nature, and/or returning land to Indigenous people from whom it was stolen (#LANDBACK).

I have two decades of experience building companies, leading teams, devising business strategies, and fostering healthy organizational cultures.

I’m open to ideas, opportunities, and introductions!

Moved

In November, I moved across town from one home to another.

I’d been nesting in the same abode for 3.5 years - the longest I’d spent in one place since my childhood home. My new spot is much smaller, so I downsized and minimized. Beyond purging material items, the move also represented an energetic reset.

I’m still living quietly among Redwood trees close to the coast in Sonoma County, California. If you’re in the area, maybe we can meet for a walk and talk!

Made music

Throughout 2024, I deepened into my musical practice.

I continued guitar lessons with Scott (most of the year). I sang more and wrote my first song. I played my flute in front of people more than ever before. I learned how to make hand drums, made one for myself, and drummed a lot. I acquired a Shruti box and practiced vocal toning and singing over its mesmerizing and meditative sounds.

Learning one of my favorite Jason Isbell tunes.

Smiled more

In November, I got my braces off.

It was a long two years of metal mouth, and it was totally worth it. Before, I was embarrassed by my crooked teeth. Now, happily smile wide with more confidence. This reinforced the importance of investing in health.

Found love

I was lucky to meet an incredibly special person in the Spring, begin exploring partnership in the Summer, and fall in love.

Again, I’m learning about myself while getting to know someone else. Thanks to past experiences, I’m better equipped to show up with maturity, self-awareness, humility, and patience. I’m grateful for the opportunity to grow alongside someone within a container of mutual trust, respect, appreciation, and understanding. I’m excited to see how our relationship evolves and supports our growth as individuals and partners.

Sunset on the Northern California coast - Jan 3, 2025.

2024 Insights

The year was full of beginnings and endings, deaths and rebirths. Each resulted from clear intentions, deliberate decisions, and a willingness to let go. Letting go is really hard; I need to increase my capacity to do so.
The growth I experienced was possible because of seeds planted in the previous year(s). Seeds take time to sprout and require sustained nourishment.
Many of my decisions were motivated by the potential of healing myself and my ancestors — past, present, and future — and the hope of disrupting unhealthy patterns that have been passed through generations of my lineage.
Uncertainty is an inevitable part of the process. Finding comfort in uncertainty is vitally important and completely possible through practices that ground me and bring me back to center.
When I'm in circumstances, I tend to label them “good” or “bad.” In the end, however, they’re all good because they empower expansion and resilience.
By remembering and believing that “things don’t happen to me; they happen for me,” I can liberate myself from victimhood and reframe problems as opportunities.
“The only lasting truth is change.” (Octavia E. Butler) is very true.

2025 preview

More shifts - large and small - will happen.
I’ll continue sitting with uncertainty (certainly).
With the support of my community, I will find work that provides purpose, fulfillment, and financial safety. Thank you, community.
I’ll write more about the topics above and others that emerge, offering relevant and relatable stories and insights.
I’ll stay on the medicine path. In February, I start a year-long apprenticeship with Plant Spirit Talk. Building on Life as Medicine Way’s foundation and with continued guidance and support from Francisca (the founder of PST), I’ll remain a student of plants and other more than human teachers and connect more deeply with my medicine.
2025 could be the craziest, most challenging year of our lifetimes - especially given the political situation in America. It won’t be easy.
- Each of us is meant to be here at this time. We all belong.
- We each play an important role in finding our collective way forward. We have work to do.
- We need each other. Community is as critical now as ever before.

Phew 😮‍💨

There you have it—a reflection of the just-set sun and a glimpse of what may rise next.

I’d love to hear how your 2024 went and what you envision for 2025. Please reply, comment, or message me.