[00:00:00] Kelsey: Welcome to Planet Spoonie, the podcast for lymies and spoonies healing themselves and the world. I'm your host, Kelsey, clinical herbalist, holistic nutritionist, student of chronic Lyme and lover of all things outdoors. This is the very first episode of the show, so I am beyond excited and so, so grateful that you are here with me collaborating on this journey to find healing for both ourselves and our communities.
[00:00:31] I know that when we work together, we can make big magic happen. So without further ado, let's dig in. Here's what you can expect from today's episode. I'm gonna start out by sharing with you a little bit of my story and how I got to where I am. Then we're gonna talk about the concept of planet spoonie and what that actually means.
[00:00:53] Ultimately, the reason behind this podcast and the reason why I do what I do in my business and in my life. Is that it took me over 20 years to realize the intimate link between my chronic illness and the climate crisis between the illness and dysbiosis, or disruption of my body, and the disruption of our ecosystems and the ecology of the entire planet.
[00:01:26] This is important to everyone, and this is ultimately why I'm doing this work. What you can expect to hear on the show is all about the three holistic foundations that I feel have most impacted me and helped me to take my power back, return to my body, return to a sense of belonging and connection with.
[00:01:51] My heritage, my culture, and the living world at large. And these include holistic and traditional nutrition, herbal medicine and nature connection. These are huge topics and areas of discussion. You can expect to hear from a variety of guests who will share their own healing journeys, the kinds of healing modalities they practice and offer in their work and their life, and ultimately, As many different voices as I can possibly gather and collect to contribute to this fundamentally important issue of our time.
[00:02:30] So over the course of all the episodes we're gonna do together, you will begin to learn about these foundations so that you can feel empowered, you can feel reconnected to your body, to your culture, to the living world around you, and ultimately to find your shine again.
[00:02:48] On that note, I would love to hear from you. I'm going to be posting a variety of prompts and questions so that I can include anything that you want to share in this show. So if you haven't already subscribed to my newsletter, go ahead and head to the show notes to do that. And you can find me also on Instagram at Kelsey the Herbalist, all one word.
[00:03:15] No additions. And I really hope you do so because I would love to hear from you and I would love to share your voices on the show. So, first thing, I feel like it's important to explain what the terms liney and spoonie mean, because if you don't know, you're probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about.
[00:03:34] AME is simply anyone who is living with Lyme disease or chronic Lyme. And any of the co-infections or conditions that go along with Lyme. I think in a way this kind of soft and fuzzy, cute little nickname is a way of befriending the beast. It's a way of making something that really can be quite terrifying and scary and painful, isolating and horrific to go through and experience if you know, you know A little bit less scary.
[00:04:06] It is a little bit more endearing of a way of referring to yourself and referring to all of the friends and people in this community who know exactly what it's like to live through. In the same vein, a spoonie is a nickname that comes from this idea of spoon theory. Spoon theory is basically a way of describing what it's like to live with chronic illness to all the people who maybe don't know what that's like.
[00:04:33] Though nowadays a lot of us are experiencing chronic illness more on that and a little bit. So a spoonie is simply someone who's living with chronic illness. No matter how big or small, chronic illness, chronic conditions, you can call yourself a spoonie and spoon theory essentially looks at it. Like having a, a bunch of spoons as your usable energy in a day.
[00:04:59] So someone who's not a spoonie, let's say they have like 10 spoons that they can use throughout the day to get all of the things done they need to get done right. For a spoonie, they might only have four spoons, or three spoons or two spoons to get through a day. And for them it takes more spoons to do simple things like getting groceries, cooking, dinner, taking a shower, or even getting dressed, maybe even just standing up for longer than two minutes at a time.
[00:05:32] So spoonie are functioning with a lot less spoons, a lot less energies, a lot less energy, and that's essentially what this is referring to. So ay is anyone who's living with chronic Lyme and a spoonie is anyone who's living with chronic illness. Now that we're on the same page there, I think it's time that I share a little bit of my story with you.
[00:05:56] It's hard to obviously fit it all into a quick episode, but I think it's a story that you probably know pretty well or at least relate to in a lot of ways. For me, it has been decades since I first began experiencing symptoms of Lyme and some of the co-infections and other chronic conditions I've been diagnosed with.
[00:06:21] I grew up experiencing So many different symptoms all the time, struggling to do really basic things that I, I didn't understand. I didn't know it wasn't normal to have these issues with eating and sleeping and kind of doing every everyday simple things. I missed a lot of school, a lot of birthday parties, a lot of You know, travel and really important events that matter to me, weddings and funerals.
[00:06:55] And it made it tough. It made it really tough because I didn't have any explanation. My healthcare practitioners had no explanation. And oftentimes the response I received in the environment from the people in my life was, One of dismissal or at times really a punitive response, right? Like, I needed to toughen up, I needed to stop being sensitive.
[00:07:25] I was just trying to get attention or to get out of class or you know, whatever it was, I am sure so many of you can relate to this and. I will just say, I think it kind of goes without questioning when someone's struggling, especially a child, we really ought to be responding with compassion, curiosity, and caring.
[00:07:48] It's not our place to tell anyone how they ought to be living, acting, behaving, or performing in their everyday life, especially a child. So this was really tough for me because I experienced symptoms for years and for decades, and I went through all kinds of, you know, invasive lab tests and procedures at the doctor's offices trying to figure everything out.
[00:08:15] This is actually an immense privilege that I even got to do this because a lot of people don't even have access to these healthcare modalities. However, unfortunately, Nothing ever came back with definitive answers. And I think this is probably something that you understand, right? Getting these weird diagnoses like, oh, a spider bite, or, you know, a series of viruses or whatever.
[00:08:40] Some, an entire paragraph of potential diagnoses or ideas that different practitioners have. And it, for me, it wasn't until I was 28. That I finally got diagnosed with chronic Lyme. It wasn't until it had really impacted my ability to do much of anything. I thankfully am a pretty headstrong and determined person.
[00:09:08] And I wasn't incapacitated enough by this condition to be. You know, like essentially entirely home bound or bedbound. So by the time I graduated high school, which was probably the toughest time in my life I think puberty and middle school and high school were by far you know, just absolute low points in my health.
[00:09:35] Missed so much school. I had teachers threatened to fail me. The school threatened to fail me. I, it was just, it was a horror show. Looking back, I just have so much compassion for what I went through, the amount of pain I was constantly in. But I never would've said I was in pain because, I think when you kind of get one when you're sick from a really young age, that feels normal to you.
[00:10:05] You think it's normal to feel that way. You think it's normal to not be able to really exert yourself without them needing to spend several days in bed or not being able to exert yourself at all or to get sick every single time you travel when it's really not normal. So I would've said, and I definitely shut down at doctor's offices.
[00:10:25] 'cause I remember at a young age, you know, describing certain symptoms to my healthcare practitioner and them laughing like them thinking I was, you know, pulling a. Ferris Bueller like that I was pulling some kind of scheme or scan to get out of school to get more attention, which I'm pretty sure no kid wants to miss so much school that their peers then resent them.
[00:10:50] They're struggling to keep up with their friendships. Like I, you know, I don't think it's normal for a kid to want to spend the entire day in bed watching Scooby Doo or Tom and Jerry, which was what I spent so much time doing. And just because, and you know this, if you're a spoonie or a lymie, just 'cause you're able to do something one day doesn't mean you're healed.
[00:11:11] Just 'cause you're smiling doesn't mean you're not in pain, right? Pretty basic. But I think a lot of people who are able bodied to do not get these things, and you probably know this. So anyways, by the time I graduated high school I had already been through so much, so many like procedures and lab tests, so many blood draws.
[00:11:32] Oh my gosh, that I was just really fed up. And I honestly felt really resentful at this point because as much as I was still dismissing myself and honestly still kind of gaslighting myself in my own experience, I still knew that something wasn't right, something was wrong. I. So at that point I decided that you know, I'm 18 and I need to pick a career, right?
[00:11:58] 'cause that's what we're told. We need to like choose our life at 18. But I decided that I was going to dig into health and medicine and really try to learn everything I could. So it really started with me with nutrition. I picked up a couple of books I wanted to, we're gonna talk about this in a future episode and more in depth, so I'm not gonna go into too much detail on each of these things, but I just wanna talk about how each of these pillars kind of came into my life.
[00:12:29] So I started out with these cookbooks. I had been told I needed to be gluten-free when I was like 16. So by this time of 18, having all of these health issues, being in horrendous pain all the time. Blacking out having just, yeah. All, all kinds of issues that we don't even need to go into. I knew something wasn't right and that no one was gonna solve this for me.
[00:12:54] So thankfully, I was able bodied enough and capable mentally enough to dig in. So I picked up some cookbooks and I really started getting into cooking and nutrition and trying to learn everything I could. So it started with nutrition and cooking, and it kind of snowballed from there. I started realizing like, oh my goodness, all the body products I'm using are toxic and contain, you know, endocrine disruptors and carcinogens and whatever other compounds, house cleaning supplies. Like the, the foods I'm eating, the drinks I'm drinking. Oh my goodness, the water I'm drinking is an even clean. And it just kind of kept snowballing from there.
[00:13:34] Right. And it's a really overwhelming thing to realize how. Unhealthy modern life is how widespread pollution is. It's, it's quite disconcerting and really anxiety inducing to be honest. And again, I think you probably relate to this, right? When you realize that the, the water, the air, and the soil have all been polluted, what are you left with when, when you recognize that your furniture, your clothing You know, your computer, your cell phone, all of the inputs in your life have some level of toxicity.
[00:14:11] What are you supposed to do? So I was so overwhelmed, but I was really determined to figure this out, right? Because I was in a lot of pain and I knew I knew that it was up to me. So, Things kind of kept snowballing from there. I was in college and taking classes, but I couldn't figure out a major that really fit for me.
[00:14:32] So I felt this calling to move to the Redwoods. I really had zero explanation for this. Looking back, I think it's just part of the beauty of youth and being kind of carefree and young. You can do these wild and crazy things. So I moved to the Redwoods. And as soon as I moved there, I still was taking classes, but I saw this little flyer at, I don't wanna go too into it, so I'm not even gonna say.
[00:15:04] But essentially I. I started Herb School when I was living in the redwoods, and I ended up moving onto my herb teacher's property, and it just completely transformed my life. I began learning about how to use plants as medicine, which was something that previously I thought only happened in fantasy novels.
[00:15:24] So. I was, you know, learning how to cook my own food. I was driving a long way every week to get local produce and local foods fresh, just like fresh food and fresh produce. And that was so colorful. I was learning the names of my farmers. Had friends who would come over with fish that they had just caught from the ocean, you know, 10 minutes away.
[00:15:52] I was walking in the woods every day, starting to moon gaze at night, and just my entire perspective of life in the world and my body, everything transformed. And it was there in the We Redwoods that I began to realize that. My chronic illness was, was intimately linked to the climate crisis, that these two things are not separate issues.
[00:16:24] That they're the same issue and. I became really fascinated by this idea, and I knew that I wanted to finish my undergraduate degree somewhere that I could really explore this. And do, you know, kind of a, a big thesis exploring this idea and this concept. So I somehow found Naropa University, which is in Boulder, and if you know Naropa Naropa is just.
[00:16:51] One of the most incredible schools. I am so privileged to be an alumni of this school. I, I adore Naropa. And the tagline of this show is actually a nod to Naropa because Naropa iss tagline or slogan is Transform Yourself, transform the World. And. That drew me right in. Naropa also has just, I got to take all the most amazing courses there, learning about Chinese medicine and ECOS psychology, and I really was able to take everything I had been learning about herbal medicine and Ayurveda and all of these other traditional lineages and I was able to go.
[00:17:34] Study them as part of my undergraduate degree and actually able to pursue something I wanted to do. So I ended up writing this thesis over the course of my time at Naropa that turned into this extremely long handbook, and I, I titled it Healing Heritage, the Handbook for Personal and Planetary Wellbeing.
[00:17:57] And this is several years ago, but you can see how these really were the seeds for. This business so. Over the course of this time as I began incorporating nutrition and herbalism and nature connection, I was really learning how to manage my chronic condition. I still had no diagnosis yet, but I was doing really well.
[00:18:22] I was able to go to school. As soon as I moved to Colorado. I got hired at a local family farm. I started there as a volunteer, but ended up working as a manager of the farm. And it really helped me to just continue everything that I had been learning and doing because now I was getting firsthand to learn about what it was like to actually grow the food, how to take care of the soil, how to start seeds, and really, really go from soil to stomach, like how to close that loop and create this intimate connection with nature.
[00:19:03] So my time in Colorado was so special to me, and it really enabled me to further this experience that I had. But over the years, my health continued to be a problem. I was doing everything I could to manage it, and I was absolutely in the best health I'd ever been in, but. Things weren't right. Still, I still knew something was off.
[00:19:28] And certain symptoms, particularly my pot symptoms, which I did not know I had POTS at at the time. If you know what POTS is, it's spelled, it's P O T Ss, it stands for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. You can look it up. It's a chronic condition that is really pretty common, especially amongst women and especially amongst.
[00:19:49] Folks with chronic Lyme and Lyme disease. So these things continued to be an issue. It was making it really hard for me to stand on my feet for hours and hours a day, but I didn't understand why. And so ultimately I knew that I wanted to go back to school for a graduate degree and that I also needed to get a diagnosis.
[00:20:11] I needed to figure out what was going on. So I ended up. Moving back to my hometown in southwest coastal California, and I finally got the diagnosis at age 28 of chronic Lyme, multiple other chronic infections. And this is what I really don't want to happen to anyone else because the amount of money. And resources and years that it took me to get this diagnosis is unacceptable.
[00:20:51] It's unacceptable if someone had just believed me when I reported my symptoms as a child, instead of laughing at me telling me I was too sensitive or that I needed to toughen up. Or whatever other BSS they said, which you'll hear from the other guests on this show. It's a common thread. This is what a lot of us hear, and this is why a lot of us take a long time to get diagnosed if we ever even get diagnosed, because diag being diagnosed, frankly, is a privilege and it takes privilege to get to that point.
[00:21:28] I was fortunate enough that my lab work all came back positive, highly positive for Lyme, for Bartonella, for some of these other infections. But for a lot of people, not only do they not have access to practitioners who know what these tests are and how to run them, but their tests don't come back normal because these tests aren't perfect.
[00:21:50] And so, Yeah, ultimately it took me 28 years to get to that point, and unfortunately what happened was around that same time that I got diagnosed, I was prescribed a couple of rounds of antibiotics, just two weeks. But these antibiotics essentially caused hers reactions, which left me entirely incapacitated.
[00:22:17] Mostly bedbound and I lost a huge amount of my mobility. If you don't know what hercs reactions are, we are going to talk so much more about this, but in essence, a hercs reaction is a die off reaction specific to people with chronic Lyme. Hers is short for jish herser reactions. Essentially what happens is you take either like an oral or intravenous antibiotic.
[00:22:45] It could be a pharmaceutical synthetic, or it could be an herbal. It could be some other kind of treatment like gosh, ozone or oxygen therapy, and essentially these antibiotics or antimicrobials. Kill the bacteria, right? And what happens is these bacteria, without getting too science, see these bacteria within their cells contain all kinds of substances that are toxic to our body and.
[00:23:16] When these bacteria are killed, they rupture. And all of those toxins that were contained within the bacterial cell are now released into our blood and tissues. And when the bacteria are alive, think of it as like a slow drip. They're slow dripping out these toxins in a way that is, is what's causing our symptoms, what causes our discomfort?
[00:23:43] But when we take an antimicrobial and the bacterial cell completely ruptures and all the toxins come out at once, you guessed it, all of your symptoms come up all at once, like at a hundred x strength and it's unbearable. It is the most unbearable, horrifying experience. And. It. I am still struggling, even though it's been over two years to find the words for what that was like for me.
[00:24:14] I went from struggling with my health, but still able to keep a job. I. Go take classes, ride my horse strength train travel a little bit. There were, there were repercussions to doing all of these things, but I was still able to do them. I was able to hike and ride and strength train to go kayak, to go bouldering, whatever.
[00:24:34] But it, it, it. Was a whole new level of disability that I've never experienced in my life after I took these antibiotics. I, like I said, was often unable to leave my bed. There was a period of time where I could no longer use my hands. These things kind of waxed and waned, so they might change, they would change over the course of a day or over weeks and months.
[00:24:59] So it, it was. Horrifying. For a while I couldn't walk to my garden because I tried that and a couple of times I blacked out in my garden because walking from my back door to the garden was too far. I began having little blackouts when I would be riding my horse. Not a loss of consciousness, but just like my vision going black I completely trusted him, which is why I continued, despite all the physical pain I was in.
[00:25:27] And despite the fact that my vision would go out sometimes because I trusted him and I didn't wanna stop, it made me happier than anything. There were times, many times, I, I couldn't stand long enough to cook dinner, so I had to sit on the floor and then stand up, cook, sit back down. I. Stand up, stir the pot, sit back down.
[00:25:48] And this went on for a long time. And like I said, prior, prior to this hercs reaction, I, I was able to do a lot. I was, you know, got my undergrad degree, I managed to farm. I worked in the most amazing apothecary. These symptoms were sneaking in, they were making those things a lot harder, and I really didn't understand why.
[00:26:15] Because at that point in my mid, you know, mid twenties, I was pushing my body to do things I wasn't capable of. So now looking back, I can see. You know how standing for eight hours a shift at the apothecary would just like completely decimate me by the end of the day. And I would be having pain in my hips and my knees and my ankles, and my blood was all pooling in my lower legs because of pots.
[00:26:40] And I was dizzy and nauseous, but like, As I think you probably know, I didn't, I didn't even realize this was like not normal. I just thought I needed to tough it out. I, you know, was constantly on this edge of like, is there something wrong with me, Kelsey, or is there something wrong with my body? And I think this is what a lot of us experience as both lymies and spoonies because, Especially when we don't have a diagnosis, it just leaves us with so many questions of why, why are we feeling the way we're feeling?
[00:27:19] What is the explanation here? What's wrong with us? Right? When the truth is there's nothing really wrong with us there, there's something underlying, there's a health condition underlying that is impacting our quality of life, that is impacting our everyday experience and causing pain, causing these symptoms.
[00:27:38] But unfortunately, it becomes so normalized to us that we, we often can end up dismissing ourselves, which is a really tough place to be. So, because I was so desperate to get diagnosed, I was really trying to be a, a good patient for this healthcare team that I was seeing and. It was a MD paired with an nd, so like a, a conventional medical doctor, paired with a naturopathic doctor.
[00:28:06] And I thought, right, like, because it was this perfect blend of someone who was more, you know, supposedly like nature-based and someone who was more conventional, that they would really cover the whole spectrum of medicine and that I could trust them and that I, you know, Needed to prove that I believed in modern medicine and that I was a really good patient.
[00:28:28] I was essentially being a people pleaser and ignoring my own tuition, right. 'cause antibiotics are pure, pure like magic. They are miraculous. They save lives every single day. I am a huge fan of modern medicine, so please don't ever think that. This is something again that we're going to talk about because I don't believe in this story that it's one versus the other.
[00:28:52] I believe we all deserve access to both. Let me repeat. We all deserve access to all forms of medicine, both conventional modern medicine and traditional and holistic medicine. We deserve it all, and I think ultimately every healthcare practitioner knows that all of us know this because. I believe that we're basically good and we want the best for all of us, so we deserve access to it all.
[00:29:21] But I was really stuck in this like people pleasing mode. So despite my gut telling me that this wasn't right, despite after the first round of antibiotics, me getting significantly more ill. Becoming like a wholly different person, losing most of my mobility, all of my lab work coming back so much significantly worse.
[00:29:43] All kinds of new symptoms popping up when they said that I had Lyme and I would need to do another round of antibiotics to prep for the three to five years of intravenous antibiotics that treatment would require. I said, sure, right, because they said the second round is gonna fix everything and then, then you'll be ready to go for treatment.
[00:30:05] My gut said no, but I, I just wanted to feel better. I wanted to be a good patient and trust 'em. So, unfortunately, I did the second round and got a whole lot worse since then. It has been a little over two years, and thankfully I decided. Once again, it was time to get back to my intuition, to get empowered and to figure out what I needed to do to get healthy.
[00:30:32] Now, thankfully at this point, I had already spent close to 10 years learning about natural medicine and herbalism. I had already worked as a clinical herbalist and nutritionist, so I had a fair bit of knowledge and understanding under my belt. So at this point, I decided I was gonna take a step back from that and I was gonna go at it my own way and my own approach.
[00:30:54] And thankfully since doing that, since working with an extraordinary herbalist who has just been an amazingly valuable teacher in my life. And building out kind of a healthcare team using the modalities and therapies that I thought were most effective for me, and taking an approach towards my chronic health condition that felt holistic and empowering and true to me, that ultimately was rooted in an intuitive feeling of what felt right for me.
[00:31:30] I'm feeling the best I have felt in years. And that's not to say you know, that there is some like. Miracle Cure out there, and I've got it and I'm gonna tell you absolutely not. If you have followed me on Instagram for any length of time, you know that I will always say You are the best judge of what's right for you.
[00:31:53] I don't care how many degrees or certifications, how many years of practice, how many followers, how many podcast episodes someone has done. No one knows what's right for you, better than you. And I simply needed to step back into that place of empowered, embodied knowing. So here I am. I am finishing up my.
[00:32:20] Graduate degree a MS. In clinical herbal medicine, I am feeling the best I have felt in years. I am currently seeing clients with chronic Lyme and complex chronic illness and helping them to find their shine again too. I know that it is a hundred percent possible to heal with chronic Lyme and chronic illness.
[00:32:45] How we do this is by reconnecting to ourselves, our heritage, and to the living world around us. Like I said, I was able to manage my health for years without this diagnosis, but. It took a lot to get to where I'm at now. I know that the story probably sounds so familiar that you have probably received like the paragraph of diagnoses or maybe no diagnosis at all.
[00:33:15] I know that it feels like finding an approach that actually works and fits into your lifestyle can feel impossible. I know that you have probably experienced the ups and downs of different medications, different diets, different protocols, different lab tests, different treatments, and hopefully not, but probably those dreaded herx reactions.
[00:33:37] All of these approaches have their place, like I said, modern medicine, holistic medicine, natural medicine. They all are important, but the most important thing. Is that you learn how to build a healthy foundation and to trust your intuition. I don't want anyone to go through the same struggles I did when there's clearly a better way.
[00:34:02] And here's the thing, like many other Lyme warriors and Lyme literate practitioners, I know firsthand that you can heal without her saying. You can heal without hers saying, I think it's really easy for someone to say, you've gotta push through the pain. You have to fight your way through. When they don't know what a hers feels like, I think it is.
[00:34:28] It's not something that I want any of my clients to feel. When we get a hers reaction, that's a great sign that this medicine is working and that this is going to kill the infection. But it's also a sign that we need to slow down and back off that we need to do something else, like open up our detox pathways and reduce inflammation and support the body in other ways.
[00:34:54] Because hering isn't something that we want to go on for several days, weeks, or months. Right. We really don't. And it and I, we will be talking about this more so I don't wanna get too into it, but the point is, You can heal and actually when we begin to work with the body and with nature, healing becomes inevitable.
[00:35:19] Healing isn't something that should feel like rocket science. It isn't something that should feel like you have to push through the pain and fight your way through it. It just doesn't. With the right tools, the journey to healing with a chronic condition can be deeply nourishing. Graceful and transformative healing doesn't mean that we reach this like perfect, endless, you know, destination or end point.
[00:35:49] Healing is a state of being. Healing is about finding a new level of quality of life, of self-love, self-acceptance and a new way of being in your body and experiencing the world. So when we began to work with the body and with nature, truly, truly healing becomes inevitable. You're not alone. We're in this together and healing is possible.
[00:36:20] So how does this tie into the Planet Spoonie podcast? And why did I pick the honeybee as the logo? So this ties into this podcast because this is why I'm here. I wanted to create a space that is free, that is accessible. Where we can gather and we can talk about the different resources and tools that you can utilize and incorporate into your life to find that healing, to find relief from the chronic pain, the chronic discomfort, and the chronic conditions that you're living with.
[00:37:00] And I think the honeybee is the perfect symbol and spirit animal for us to anchor into and to call upon as we embark on this journey together. I. Because to me, honeybees are the ultimate spoonie. The truth is, so I've been a beekeeper for about seven years now. I wasn't able to do a whole lot of beekeeping in the last couple of years because of these health conditions that I mentioned.
[00:37:29] If you have ever done beekeeping, you may know that the best time of day to get into your hive to do inspection or honey harvesting or whatever it is you need to do, is when the sun is at its highest, right? So like, Let's say between noon and 2:00 PM when the sun is up, that it's really hot and all the bees are out of the hive working to gather nectar and pollen.
[00:37:53] So this is kind of the easiest way for you to disrupt them as little as possible. Now, I mentioned before I have a condition called pots. Thankfully it is at this point much, much milder than it has been in the last several years, thanks to actually going through effective holistic treatment for chronic Lyme.
[00:38:13] But pots made it really difficult to beekeep the last couple of summers because one, I couldn't stand for long periods without all of these symptoms kind of cropping up. And two, I couldn't be out in the heat and despite having a really nice ventilated bee suit that I love. It was just too much for me.
[00:38:33] I couldn't handle it except to do like a minor check, just peeking at a couple of frames or maybe cleaning up some crazy comb, which is when the honeybees make, make honeycomb outside of their frames. But besides having health conditions, that made me keeping difficult for the last two summers. The truth is I haven't taken any honey from my girls in a while because I just love hanging out with them and giving them the opportunity to thrive.
[00:39:01] I have a. Big medicinal herb garden that I absolutely just love planting out with medicinal plants and flowers that I know both honeybees and native pollinators will enjoy. And there is just a special kind of magic and a deep sense of fulfillment that comes with watching them. Just like thrive and enjoy these flowers and enjoy this environment and being able to make space for both this non-native bee species as well as all these native pollinator species at the same time, if you know anything about pollinators and about honeybees, you know that they faced a lot of obstacles in the modern world.
[00:39:46] These obstacles have negatively impacted their health in huge ways. If there's one thing I've learned since becoming a beekeeper, it's that a lot of colonies die every year. Nowadays. It's not uncommon for us to lose close to half of all honeybee colonies and the United States annually. And like I said, while honeybees are not native to North America, like so many of us, which is another reason why I picked them as the logo, as a descendant of settlers, which I feel is really important to acknowledge, our agricultural system relies on honeybees heavily for food production.
[00:40:27] And clearly the ways that we're doing so are not sustainable for the health of the honeybee. Or us or the plants or the earth. Because the same things poisoning our bodies like chemical and E M F pollutants are poisoning their bodies. I have seen firsthand what Sikh honeybee hives look like and what s sick honeybees look like, how they might stagger around drunkenly and their behavior changes and how they may even show physical signs of illness, like their wings not tucking in correctly.
[00:41:02] It is. Really heartbreaking to watch. I have felt in my body the same chronic illness that comes from living in this world of endless waste and pollution. I know you have too. I've seen it in my friends and in my family. I'm sure you have too. One in three with cancer, one in two with chronic illness. One, four in 10, excuse me, with multiple chronic illnesses.
[00:41:34] Four in 10 with multiple chronic illnesses. These stats come from the C, d, C. This is our reality, and it's not normal and even scarier, I think many of us are beginning to forget or perhaps never even know what it feels like to be a vital, radiant, connected, and energized human being. We have been dismissed and disconnected for so long that we think our crunchy joint pain or relentless insomnia or fertility struggles or indigestion, is something that's just part of the human experience.
[00:42:12] And to some extent they are. They really are. But what if they're also part of the bigger picture? What if our bodies are a direct reflection of the ecosystems we inhabit? What we do to the earth, we do to ourselves, and these are solvable problems. I have seen firsthand how the human capacity for creativity, innovation, connection, and collaboration is limitless instead of competition, which is a very outdated model and a complete misperception of.
[00:42:53] Frankly, the way ecosystems work connection and collaboration is everything. We are wired to connect. We evolved to collaborate. We thrive when we allow for a myriad of diversity, of diverse viewpoints, diverse voices. And when we awaken to the urgency of the climate, crisis, and chronic disease, when we remember and we connect to ourselves, to our bodies, our cultures, our ecosystems and each other, we will heal.
[00:43:28] It's inevitable. This is why I started the Planet's Boon Podcast. To create a safe space and a free virtual platform where we can collectively gather to learn about how we can actually make this kind of change happen. To learn how to incorporate these three foundations of nutrition, herbalism, and nature connection to help us transform these belong to everyone.
[00:43:58] These are our birthright and our heritage. This podcast is a way for me to contribute to the community so that our bodies can heal and so the body of the earth can heal. Healing is possible for people and planet.