A Healing Mountain was born from my long and tumultuous relationship with the mountain, in short, I hated it for many years.

It gives me no pleasure saying that out loud, but it’s true. I grew up living in the city (many of them), so moving here at the age of 8 and I was a fish out of water for sure. No more playing outside til the streetlights came on, and no more trips to the shopping mall or roller rink (dating myself there, lol), I was in the forest and it was a shock to my core.

Since my childhood wasn’t the most stable, we moved on within the year, but the mountain kept bringing us back. Eventually it brought mom back to stay forever, and therefore it became home base. Whether it was a divorce I was going through, or just tough times that brought me back to family, this mountain has been a part of my life for more than forty years. And for more than 35 of those years, my only goal was getting out as soon as I got here. Plotting my next move as soon as finances allowed, even getting my CDL and driving coast to coast provided a solution to living on this ‘damn mountain.’ (as I lovingly referred to for years)

That said, I have my own issues for sure, and as the saying goes; sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees. When my addiction to alcohol brought me to my bottom in early 2012 I ended up at mom’s house, again – and divorced, again. Not only was I broken on the inside, of all places I seemed destined to live it was here, in the very place I had been fighting for decades.

The good news is I was ready to change, I just never realized how deep that change could go. One of my early support members shared the story of how she viewed this place as ‘a healing mountain’ and went on to share why. Although a good story, and one I clearly remembered…I had a lot of fight left in me and even moved back to Kansas city, Mo after a year or so of sobriety. For the record that lasted 92 days exactly, that same girlfriend offered up some friendly advice after I returned to my same mom, job, friends, etc. She said, “you know, some people just go back and visit.’ 😒 Couldn’t deny her words made sense, and I have been back ever since.

There wasn’t a profound moment where I just ‘fell in love’ with the idea of living here, it was gradual for sure. But in the interim, my only son moved here and married. They went on to have two beautiful children up here, and I realized this is my home…how blessed I am!

As I changed, my perception changed with it — and I realized that this ‘quiet peace’ is what I longed for all these years, I was just used to the noise of the city and insanity of addiction.

So when the idea came to ‘share the mountain’ with others, I knew A Healing Mountain was the brand…because it has certainly healed me.

Everything I do, gather, assemble and package is truly done with a strong intention to deliver a moment…a feeling that is just unique & special. My hope is that comes across to every customer, every time!