Wild Haven Sanctuary

03/17/2026

Dear Friends of Wild Haven Sanctuary 💜

As I’ve been sitting with this season, I’ve felt a quiet invitation… not to push harder, but to go deeper.

So for the REST of this 7th year anniversary (or 7th Inning Stretch) of Wild Haven, I’ll be stepping back from ALL social media.... except a FEW of my FB small groups where I provide and receive support like .

Not because the work is stopping—but because it’s taking deeper root.

Like mycelium beneath the forest floor, Wild Haven is still growing… just hidden for a while. Quiet. Unseen. Strengthening what truly matters.

This season has held a lot—layers of life, loss, rebuilding, transitioning, and becoming. And in it, I’ve sensed God gently calling me to come away… to tend to what’s sacred, and to build slowly, organically, honestly, and with great care.

While things may seem quiet here, a few intentional rhythms will continue:

• **Hiking to Heal Cohort** — a small circle of 8–12 women committed to simply hiking (together or on their own) at least monthly, and gathering face-to-face once a month—in person or online via zoom—to be a safe, steady, encouraging presence for one another as we journey through hard and holy valleys and mountains - literally and metaphorically.

And for those who feel connected to Wild Haven in this season, but unable to hike with us, here are a few meaningful ways to stay a vital part of our journey together:

• **Give** — We’re prayerfully working towards a $10,000 goal for 2026 to strengthen the foundation, restore weathered spaces, provide more accessible spaces, and continue creating space for healing. (Yoga props, ADA compliant structures, construction supplies)

• **Volunteer** — Quiet, behind-the-scenes help as we prepare and improve online, land, infrastructure, and studio spaces: construction crews, marketing, website/video editor, bookkeeper, legal advisory board member or legal advisory committee member, Christ-centered instructors - who can also teach secular sessions (arts of all kinds, movement, speakers, etc) and hiking guides to help co-create/co-lead our retreats and add resources to our accessible "Growing Resource Hub" (Free On-demand Library)

• **Participate** — Our 2026 Labor Day Weekend Fall "Restore to ROAR Retreat" will be shared in The NuTRISHional Nugget next month in April. These gatherings are a powerful way to step into healing while also helping sustain and grow the heart of Wild Haven.

***Every-body also has free access to our "Growing Resource Hub" (on-demand library) where you can begin your own wholly hope and healing journey at your own pace and timing from anywhere and for any body.

As I step away from social media, all future updates and invitations will be shared through *The NuTRISHional Nugget*, website announcements on our event and store page (🔗 in comments), and through simple word of mouth—keeping this season grounded, intentional, and deeply human.

This isn’t a retreat out of fear or exhaustion… it’s a return to alignment. A choosing of depth over noise. Roots over rushing.

If Wild Haven lives in your heart, too, your prayers mean more than you know in this quiet, hidden season.

And when the time is right, we’ll emerge— even more grounded, ready, and full of life.

Until then… we grow in the quiet 🌱

With love,
Wild Haven Sanctuary BODy
Text or Email if you miss us!
Sign Up for The NuTRISHional Nugget if you want to know what's going on or get involved.

03/09/2026

Ohhh 😯

03/08/2026

May I encourage you this week. Please create a safe space in your home (or outdoors as it warms up) that you can retreat to when the world hurts you, gets too heavy, or loud, demanding, and crazy.

A creative, but inviting, soft space where beauty surrounds you that reMINDs you that you are seen, loved, and cared for - EVEN IF you may not feel those facts in the hard circumstances of life.

And, hopefully, you have a safe person (even if it’s not family, even if it’s someone you pay to do so) that you can share ALL your thoughts, feelings, dreams, - and even nightmares - with who will simply listen. Without judgement. Without fixing. And, hopefully, you have a person - or small community even - who will pray FOR you, (and for those who have hurt you), who will stand in the gap on your behalf when you don’t have the words to even pray.

So thankful right now, that when I was feeling stronger, I created this space with gifts and messages from loved ones (art, cards, plants, blankets, pillows, coffee mug, rugs, and butterflies 🦋) that reMIND me I am loved and God is good, and is working ALL things for my good and His glory, and He has a master plan to give us hope and a future, and will restore what the locusts have stolen - even when I cannot YET see it and that my feelings are real, AND at the same time, are not the final word of this story.

I am thankful for REAL and RAW friends who can handle my -ish … even if they can’t fully understand it. They stay when things - or I - fall apart. Heal-ING is hard and holy work. It’s layered.

If I’m honest, I’m almost certain it’s never finished this side of heaven … BUT it gets better — moving from glory to glory. Better and better.

If it ain’t good, He’s not done!


Reflecting right now on this … I can’t be a good if I don’t experience my own WilderMesses to build stamina, strength, endurance and learn how to navigate the challenging trails, weather, and WILD life with the appropriate resources — SO THAT I can more assuredly help others in theirs. And remind them as well … sometimes, along the trails, rest is VITAL to progress.

03/04/2026

So … who’s ready to start sparking joy!? Me. I am.

02/26/2026

If only I were a college student, or hubby and I were retired!

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1TmYGnm4c2/?mibextid=wwXIfr

02/24/2026

I was listening to a video that friend of mine - an AntiTrafficking Advocate - was part of.

Something I truly regret, and did not fight more for (or I should say against) was having electronics with access to the world in the kids - even as teens - bedrooms, or private spaces.

She made a comment similar to “we wouldn’t allow strangers in our children’s bedrooms, yet we allow smart phones, ipads, computers (electronic) that allow hundreds, if not thousands, of strangers into their bedrooms.”

This was a battle that I had multiple times in my home. When I wanted to pull the school laptops and computers out of my kids bedrooms. Saying they could do their homework/research in the living room or in common areas. I acquiesced to “keep the peace.”

I don’t reflect to wallow in regret, reflection should always have a purpose - to move forward better … it’s not anything I can go back and change for my own family. But maybe, I can pass it on to other families.

It’s a hill I should’ve continued to fight on instead of fearing upsetting my marriage and my relationships with my kids. I feel I would’ve rather fought that battle, taken the chance that my kids would’ve hated me for a long time, than to allow strangers (hurt, confused, broken, sometimes even evil people) access to my children without my knowing who they were and what they did.

Heres my PSA for this Testimony Tuesday.

Some “comfort zones” NEED to be protected - even if they are uncomfortable for others!

02/24/2026

💜

02/23/2026

This is to give you permission to rest, as I struggle to give myself some grace on this Monday, too. I have a long list of things I’d hoped to do today!

Its ok - even if health care is your specialty - to take a mental health day when we don’t feel “enough,” when we can’t seem to muster the brain energy to pull our thoughts together cohesively, and our body just wants to lay in bed in our pjs … sometimes we need our own safe space to land and reflect - to flip through our photos even - to see that we are already enough and we’ve already done enough.

Maybe we showed up when it counted most BUT maybe we have nothing to show for it.

Thats the thing about providing soul to sole health care. It’s hard to measure and quantify, but love is spelled T.I.M.E and PRESENCE in my field of work.

We may hike miles or simply sit in nature as we work through hard things. We hold sacred space to share vulnerabilities and emotions that take a LOT of courage, energy, and self control. We help people carry or release their burdens … and sometimes we may carry little more of them - a little longer - than we thought we would … and it requires more self-soul care than we’d planned.

Maybe that’s why God unexpectedly sent the cold winds🥶 and snow ❄️ to slow me down … and to remind me whose got me - and you - in His loving, and more than capable, hands to carry those burdens and me, too. ❤️‍🩹💜

02/23/2026

Duly noted. As we got outside this past weekend in the Ashe County mountains of western NC! Be aware, be prepared, so you don’t live scared.

Check the comments for links to the products we use that the wilderness survivalist/biologist I trained under recommended that are more stream/nature friendly … and more skin friendly for my sensitive skin (I get blisters from Deet … so I had to find another alternative).

THE TICK YOU DON’T FEEL.
You take advantage of a mild, 55-degree day in late February to clear some dormant brush at the edge of the woods. You don't bother with bug spray; after all, the calendar says it’s still winter.
But as you pull off your boots, you find a dark, flat shape anchored to your ankle. You never felt a thing.

The Myth of the "Winter Freeze"
When it comes to vector-borne diseases, we comfort ourselves with the myth of the killing frost. We assume that freezing temperatures eradicate tick populations, and that we are safe until the deep, humid days of late May.
The Biological Reality: Winter does not kill ticks; it merely pauses them.
Ticks survive the cold by sheltering under the insulating layer of leaf litter in a state of suspended animation called diapause. They are essentially waiting for a thermal trigger. While the tiny Black-legged (Deer) tick is famous for waking up on any winter day above freezing, a larger, more aggressive villain is now shifting its timeline: the Lone Star Tick (Amblyomma americanum).

The Scientific Reality: The Biochemical Scalpel
Why didn't you feel a tick the size of an apple seed biting into your leg?
Because a tick bite is not a mechanical puncture; it is a highly evolved biochemical procedure. According to entomological research from institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a tick’s saliva is a cocktail of pharmacologically active compounds.
Before it even begins to draw blood, the tick secretes anesthetics (to numb the skin), antihistamines (to prevent itching and swelling), and anticoagulants (to keep the blood pooling). It essentially locally paralyzes your immune system’s alarm bells so you remain completely unaware of its presence for days.

What is Happening Right Now (February)
We are currently witnessing a massive phenological shift—a change in the timing of biological events.
Due to milder late-winter weather patterns across the southern, central, and increasingly the northeastern United States, the thermal trigger is being pulled months earlier than historical averages.

Community Insight 1 (The "Early" Arrival): As a hiker recently noted: "I was walking through dead, dry grass last weekend and found a huge tick with a white dot on its back on my jeans. I thought it was way too early in the year for the big ones."
That white dot is the identifying mark of an adult female Lone Star tick. Unlike other ticks that wait passively, Lone Star ticks are active hunters. If the ambient temperature breaks 50°F (10°C), they break diapause. They will actively crawl across the February leaf litter toward the carbon dioxide of your breath.

Community Insight 2 (The "Itchless" Attachment): Another observer commented: "I found one attached to my waist after doing yard work. It wasn't itchy, it wasn't red. I only found it because my hand brushed against it."
This is the anesthetic saliva at work. You cannot rely on an itch or a stinging sensation to alert you to a late-winter tick. Visual inspection is the only defense.

Why This Matters Ecologically
The Lone Star tick was historically confined to the southeastern United States. Today, it has aggressively expanded its range as far north as Maine and the Great Lakes.
With this expansion comes a unique pathological footprint. While they do not carry Lyme disease, Lone Star ticks transmit Ehrlichiosis and are the primary vector for Alpha-gal Syndrome—a severe, newly recognized condition where the tick's saliva triggers a lifelong, sometimes life-threatening allergic reaction to mammalian meat (beef, pork, lamb).

Practical Action: The "50-Degree Rule"

Change Your Baseline: Stop looking at the calendar and start looking at the thermometer. If the ground is not covered in snow and the temperature hits 50°F, you are in active tick territory.

The Permethrin Shield: Do not rely solely on skin repellents. Treat your hiking boots and work pants with Permethrin. Once dried, this chemical bonds to the fabric and physically kills ticks on contact, neutralizing the "active hunter" strategy of the Lone Star tick.

The Leaf Litter Boundary: Rake the damp, dead leaves away from the edges of your lawn. Ticks cannot survive the desiccation of dry, open grass. Creating a three-foot barrier of dry woodchips between your yard and the woods drops tick migration into your space by up to 80%.

The Verdict
Not all spring ticks are tiny, and spring is arriving earlier every year.
The cold doesn't kill them; it just teaches them to wait.
The tick you don't feel is already awake.

Scientific References & Evidence
Phenology & Range Expansion: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "Geographic distribution of ticks that bite humans." (Documents the aggressive northward expansion of Amblyomma americanum and its changing seasonal activity patterns).

Tick Saliva Biochemistry: Francischetti, I. M., et al. (2009). "The role of saliva in tick feeding." Frontiers in Bioscience. (The foundational biochemical breakdown of the anesthetic, anti-inflammatory, and immunosuppressive compounds injected during a tick bite).

Alpha-gal Syndrome: Commins, S. P., et al. (2011). "The relevance of tick bites to the production of IgE antibodies to the mammalian oligosaccharide galactose-α-1,3-galactose." Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. (Links the Lone Star tick bite directly to the development of mammalian meat allergies).

02/22/2026

Worth a share. Definitely not just for middle school girls. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14Uv3Arkm7s/?mibextid=wwXIfr

02/19/2026

Giving up caffeine or coffee and want a yummy alternative that’s actually good for you, too?

I also put my “whoohoo” heaping scoop of collagen in it, too! (I dont go a day without this collagen+ … I’ve tried SO many, even the ones my health practitioners have suggested! None have done what this one can do!)

For a little treat (bc we do NOT cheat) - just a swirl of whip cream and cocoa powder sprinkled on top to make it feel fancy. 🥰

Let me know if you tried it (or want to know more about my “woohoo”collagen)!

02/19/2026

Happy 7th Birthday to Wild Haven
🥳🎉