Help Me Keep My Family Moving Forward with Purpose and Grace

Hi to my friends, family, and the beautifully random souls this post might reach through you.

I’m writing from a place of clarity, strength, and humble need.

Earlier this year, I survived a near-death car crash that changed everything. I blacked out behind the wheel, due to a surprise seizure (and had a second gran mal in the ER which I was unconscious for but remember what the nurses were saying, so yeah, unconscious people CAN hear you!), then woke up in the ICU, cuffed to the bed, being treated not as a patient, but as a criminal. During the hospital stay that followed, I endured trauma and isolation I can’t talk about yet due to legal reasons, and was then held for five days in jail (again, more trauma and isolation), again can’t say much at this time about the details. My daughter had to rush to my remote home in NM, scared and alone, to save and care for our animals and fight for my release without knowing if I would even make it.

And she succeeded. Because she’s a damn radical hero warrior! And because of her, I’m here, free, alive, healing, and fighting for a life of peace, presence, and purpose! (And doing everything I can to be a stable, grounded presence in her life.) She’s back to thriving after having to carry a lot through an incredibly difficult time.

To the heroes who stepped in during that time (my amazing family, friends, and the many others advocating and supporting quietly behind the scenes) I see you and appreciate you so much! Thank you for carrying us through one of the hardest passages of our lives.

In the process of trying to get on course for recovery and rebuild, I lost my home, a quiet 10-acre place I shared with my animals, and relocated to California, chasing walk-ability (unable to drive due to my back), stability, safety, and healing…and just a quiet foundation from which to begin rebuilding after catching my breath.

I had support for the relocation and I’m so grateful for that amazing help. But the support I expected for bridging the transition and allowing for that breathing/recovery ramp, has ended unexpectedly and abruptly, and I’m left with urgent needs I was counting on having covered and will need to also kick my recovery into high gear lol and get my biz going asap!

Recovery has been steep. But my spirit is vibrant. My body? Still healing. My back is broken. My brain concussed. I konk out mid-sentence sometimes but I’m here. Still kicking, still grinning, still deeply grateful.

And now I’m opening a new portal! One grounded in integrity, clarity, and real momentum

And that brings me here, to you.

I’m asking for help. Not forever. Not aimlessly. Just enough to finish this transition with dignity intact, and my momentum strong, so I can rebuild from a place of truth and calm.

I’m aiming to raise at least $7,500 to:

Cover the final month of pet care I already committed to.

Create a bridge to secure foster or extended sitting solutions until I can situate where my whole little family can live together again.

Cover housing and essentials while I rebuild from my current limitations (concussed brains don’t budget time or energy the way non-concussed ones do!).

Replace the laptop destroyed in the crash so I can begin rebuilding my business.

Sustain myself for the next few months as I re-launch with financial autonomy and grace.

Even small contributions make a real impact. And if you can’t give, sharing this means so much too.

I keep moving forward with joy. Not because things are easy. But because I’m grateful! Grateful to be alive, grateful for those still walking with me, and grateful for a second chance to live out loud and unashamed.

To my supporters, old and new: THANK YOU.

What you get in return is me. Fully alive. Fully rebuilding. Fully offering my fiercest love, wildest creativity, and deepest joy.

And I’ll leave you with this:

Invictus, carried author William Ernest Henley after he lost his leg to illness. It later became a source of strength for Nelson Mandela during his long imprisonment. For me, it’s been a lighthouse after the wreckage, as I can imagine it may have been and will be for many of you. I offer it humbly.

…

Invictus by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

…

With all my grit, grace, fire, and thanks!

John Westbrook