Silent Night and Holiday Hype

Another holiday season is ramping up towards the frenzied, shop-til-ya-drop, crash into the new year, and hope we all survive it… season we know and love (sorta). I often feel very anxious this time of year as a "creative business person", because I sense the need to "take advantage" of the opportunity to sell. I am admittedly not very good at this part, and I can get stuck beating myself up for not being better. So today, I am taking a time out. To simply enjoy the love I have for creating.

Last year I recorded a simple version of the song Silent Night that I have been singing for a few years. Perhaps you can use it as back ground for your own time out. This is a season of darkness, and the opportunity for quiet reflection. Winter is getting ready to settle in, and hold our deeper thoughts. There are things to hold ourselves accountable/responsible for, and there are the gifts we can give ourselves (and others) of being loving, gentle… letting go. I have much to be grateful in this season. Today I am going to sit and soak that gratitude up. I am going to do what I can in my studio, and share as much of it as possible… whether it is during this holiday season, or perhaps in the new year. 

It is my hope you find your own space of quiet reflection during the hustle and bustle of this season… and that what ever lights you up, you find more of in the new year!

Whispers of Wild Noise

Occasionally in life there are events where everything in our fragmented day to day, intersects…  a focus where the world appears crystal clear, and all the blur melts away. It is in these moments where we catch a glimpse of how it all connects. In these spaces we feel perfect with all the crazy imperfections we normally run from. When we breath in this air… we understand our tangled breath as the beautiful weaving of everything.

Last year at this time I stumbled into one of these moments. It was called Wild Noise. I spent these days in the magic shadows of the Santa Cruz redwoods… creating, singing, playing, eating (delicious food), growing. It was this week that I received my mastered tracks back for my first CD (Bag of Simple), reconnected to art that lights me up (Andy Goldsworthy), talked permaculture/used tools from Ecology of Leadership, and caught a glimpse of all of these things making up who I am.

Sadly… Wild Noise will not be happening this year. We couldn't inspire enough people to carve out this space in their life. Why is that? How do we invite people to find these gifts in their lives? I do not know the answer to these questions, but perhaps this is how Wild Noise is providing me focus this year… by giving me questions to be curious about, and the challenge of creating/manifesting what is important in my life.

Coffee & Slow Living Radio

I was recently invited to be a guest on Slow Living Radio, and talk about my experience traveling with Ritual Coffee Roasters down to Honduras. One of the hosts, Sally James, is a long time customer at our store in Napa (in the Oxbow Public Market), and asked me to come share about my experience visiting several of the farms that we source coffee from.

It was a great time to reflect a bit on how amazing this trip was, and what a special relationship we get to have with our producers at Ritual. I talked about picking coffee cherries at Los Manos, and about how the cherries are processed. I tried my best to convey the impact that this beautiful journey had in my work life, and beyond.

We rarely get to track the things that we consume back to the source. To touch that land, the process and to share with those people… is unique, and powerful. So many images stick in my mind, as well as all the laughs that I shared with my co-workers/friends.



Life feels like it is unfolding… and I am finally catching glimpses of how it is all connected. TreeBed Design is rooted in all of these connections, and I am excited to watch as it pushes up through the soil to see the light of these days.