2025 Holiday Card Photos & Opportunities to Connect

Below are the explanations of the photos and a couple bonus photos/updates. Scroll down to learn about the upcoming rituals and programs to connect to yourself and the sacredness of this season - embracing Wintering: slowness, inward connection and intentionality.

Some of the magic, beauty and connection in my year

  1. This fall, I began a weekly ritual of cold water dipping in the ocean around sunrise. The beauty of the mornings and power of the ocean has been a balm for my soul.

  2. I found the perfect place to host a monthly connection and movement practice I’ve been visioning for years: SOUL Dance. It has been so wonderful. You can learn more about that here.

  3. I designed and hosted the first Sacred January Journey - a month-long sacred and slow journey of connecting with our inner soul wisdom, reflecting on the year past, setting sacred intentions for the year ahead, and then align our lives around our intentions and vision for the year. I am offering the Journey again for January 2026 and would love for you to join me. You can learn more & sign up here.

  4. I was gifted the profound honor and responsibility of designing and leading three Celebrations of Life for absolutely beautiful souls, two of whom were gone far too soon and far too young. It is the most important work I’ve ever done to support these souls and their families in this transition. I also designed and officiated three beautiful weddings all over Maine.

  5. After our MultiFaith prayer service, I marched in the Pride Parade with my MultiFaith Organizing group and other affirming clergy and faith communities. I gave out a lot of free hugs wearing a shirt that says “Free Hugs” on the front and “You Are Loved.” on the back. With the Portland Community Sing, I sang/chanted at No Kings Rallies. And with the MultiFaith Organizing Community, I have protested Avelo’s contract with ICE, spoken out at both Susan Collins and Angus King’s offices and have organized/let weekly MultiFaith prayer vigils at the Cumberland County Jail - praying for all caught up in the system of injustice (including ICE detainees, all detained, guards, agents, etc.). We pray, share the stories of detainees shared with us, sing and share love with the community. You can learn more about that here if you’d like to join us - all are welcome!

6. Gardening continues to bring me joy. I am no expert but I love the vibrance, colors and joy flowers bring to my life including this Slawa tulips I now love!

7. After some garden shifting, I built my first ever raised beds to house a veggie garden that brought me such joy to plant and tend to throughout the growing season! The sun gold cherry tomatoes, pole beans, snap peas, lettuces, spinach and scallions grew the best this year.

8. Sadly, this will likely be the last time you see Taco on one of my holiday cards. Together, we took one last car ride to his new forever home - his absolute perfect new family and property that truly feels is where he is meant to be. I miss him every day but because of the magical and divinely-guided way it all came about, I trust it is absolutely right. If you weren’t aware of this change, you can learn more about it in this blog post I shared on Thanksgiving.

9. Of course, the dahlias! I added four large raised beds for them and they thrived more so than ever this year. Pictured are most (but not all) of the varieties I had this year - these are actually photos from my garden. They brought me arguably the most joy this year. And I actually created a different version of the holiday card that was all dahlias - I’ve included that here. :)

10. This summer, due to the gracious invitation of friends, I visited Vinalhaven for the first time and got to experience its incredible magic and beauty. One of my highlights of my year is kayaking in The Basin - feeling so connected to nature and awed by the beauty of the ocean, the Maine shoreline, the trees and the history of our beautiful earth. I also realized how much I miss kayaking. And I later got to go with another friend in Damariscotta - another magical moment of connection with a friend, the water and the world.

BONUS UPDATES

In November, I organized two community events that were both very meaningful for me. The first was a Community Screening of the documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light” about poet Andrea Gibson and their wife Megan Falley’s journey navigating Andrea’s terminal cancer diagnosis. Following Andrea’s tragic passing this summer, there were community readings and gatherings that meant a lot to me. So, I decided to organize a screening of the documentary when it started streaming on Apple TV (watch it here). We sold out and hosted 120+ people at the Equality Community Center in Portland, raising over $1,345 for MaineTrans.net.

The next day, I co-facilitated a workshop with a new friend, Olivia Friday Loneman who is an enrolled tribal citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, an AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator, and a dedicated advocate for anti-oppressive, trauma-informed education. Together, we led a workshop called Thanksgiving… it’s Complicated - Confronting the Impacts of White Supremacy Culture and Colonialism on Native People and White People - yes both. It was an enlivening discussion with a great group of people and all the $900 in profits went to Olivia and Wabanaki Food Banks. If you’d like to learn more about the workshop, click here.

REMEMBERING THE GREATS

So many incredible people passed away this year. Of the public figures lost, these three hit me the most:

Jane Goodall: what a legend and what a legacy she has left our world! there is a great docuseries called Famous Last Words: Jane Goodall about her on Netflix. Her quote that really sticks with me: “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

Diane Keaton: I love Diane Keaton. So much so that I dressed as her on halloween this year to honor her memory. I grew up watching her movies and falling in love with all of her characters. What a loss.

Andrea Gibson: an absolutely astonishing poet and voice of our times. I have never resonated with poetry as much as I have Andrea Gibson’s because it is real, raw and direct - it’s for everyone. They said in the documentary “Why write a poem that's over somebody's head? Even then: over somebody's heart?” You can get any of Andrea’s books or find their spoken word poetry online and their wife Megan is sharing on their substack. Here are a few quotes/poems from Andrea that I absolutely love:

“A doctor once told me I feel too much. I said, so does god. that’s why you can see the grand canyon from the moon.” - Andrea Gibson

“I imagine what the flower wanted to say to the first human trying to name half its petals love me nots: ‘No. That is not how anything grows.’” - Andrea Gibson

“I said to the sun, ‘Tell me about the big bang.’ The sun said, ‘it hurts to become.” - Andrea Gibson

“Before I die, I want to be somebody’s favorite hiding place, the place they can put everything they know they need to survive, every secret, every solitude, every nervous prayer, and be absolutely certain I will keep it safe. I will keep it safe.” - Andrea Gibson

Let’s Connect!

If you want to lean into and embrace the Sacredness and Slowness that Wintering invites, please join me for any of the below!

Winter SOULstice Gatherings

Winter SOULstice events honor my favorite holiday of the sacred season. Each Solstice/Equinox, I host Sacred Transitions Gatherings to connect with and harness the energy of the season. There are two gatherings: online and in-person in Portland, Maine - take time to honor the Sacred Season & your Sacred Soul. You can learn more and sign up here.

A Sacred January Journey

The Sacred January Journey is a 4-week Journey to help you ease into 2026. Each week you will receive videos (20-40 mins) with prompts, exercises and considerations related to the weekly theme (Connect, Reflect Intend, Align) to help you connect with your inner wisdom, reflect on and honor your 2025, set Sacred Intentions for your 2026 and align your life with those intentions. There are optional integration calls with the community on Mondays. Learn more and sign up here.

Essential Reconnection Toolkit

This FREE Toolkit offers 7 simple yet powerful practices you can lean on daily to nurture your inner balance or turn to whenever life feels especially challenging. Think of it as your personal Connection Toolkit, designed to help you reconnect with yourself and the deeper spiritual grounding you need to navigate this season with grace and ease.

Even in the darkest of times, may you encounter unexplainable magic, beauty and connection - it is what supports us in the darkness. Sending you love as you move through the Holidays and into the New Year.