Branching Forward

It's been a year!

Wow! It has been one year since I started writing this Substack, It Starts With a Leaf. When I began, I committed to myself that I would publish my newsletter weekly for a year, and now I have! Perhaps unsurprisingly, the “me” who is posting today has changed a lot, and I find myself growing in a new direction.

My goal this year was to share my thoughts and knowledge about native plants, to practice my writing skills, and to build a content library that could potentially form the base for other future outputs. I also wanted to find out whether weekly posting would attract an audience or even provide some income.

I am happy to report that as of yesterday, this newsletter reached an audience of 200 subscribers, a select few of whom are paid subscribers. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey!

It’s interesting to look back over my library of posts to see the variety of topics and some of the metrics. For example, the most popular post by far has been “It’s All Too Mulch: How to Make Use of Groundcovers,” which struck a chord back in September.

My personal favorite piece is probably the one I wrote last summer about evolution, deep time, and moths. In that piece, I felt like I hit upon the essence of what fascinates me about ecological gardening, geological time scales, landscape change, and humanity in broad perspective.

And I might be most proud of the seven-part series I wrote as a primer on how to find the best native plants for your garden:

1. Right Place, Right Plant: What’s Your Ecoregion?

2. Finding What Fits: Your Native Plant Community

3. Is it Really Native? How to use BONAP to research native plants

4. Straight to the Source: Where to find Native Plants

5. Let Your Garden Be the Guide: Learning Your Site Conditions

6. Think Like a Plant: Understanding Plant Behavior and Why It Matters

7. Plein Air Planting: Designing Your Native Plant Garden

Writing weekly has been a valuable practice for me, because it has pushed me to stay consistent, to marshal my thoughts on each topic, and to explore issues that pique my curiosity. I’ve had the chance to be creative, and that feels good! I hope that some of you have enjoyed my posts and learned something new.

This year of posting has allowed me to develop my writing voice and to begin to get more comfortable sharing more of myself “in public.” It’s surprisingly hard to say personal things online, knowing that absolutely anyone on the globe with an internet connection could potentially find me here and learn about who I am as a person. It turns out, though, that the stakes are lower than I would have thought. There is a concept called the “spotlight effect” which describes the feeling that everything you do is in a bright spotlight catching broad attention, when in fact, most people mostly shine their own spotlight on themselves and aren’t paying very close attention to what others are doing. Kind of like we are all performing our own one-person plays with just a handful of partially attentive people in the audience, at least one of whom is one’s mom (hi Mom).

So now I am going to share a little more on the personal side, as it relates to what I’m doing here. This year has been one of adventures and stress and change. First of all, there has been the craziness of national and world events that I have hardly even referenced here but which we all know intimately well. The awful string of happenings and horrifyingly regular headlines of a dying democracy have taken their toll on all of us. In fact, I moved to France last summer thinking it would be one way to find a greater measure of sanity. Unfortunately, while France itself was absolutely lovely, my personal experience was not. After two months, I left France and also as it ultimately transpired, my marriage, returning to Northern Virginia to figure out what came next.

The past six months have been, needless to say, extremely difficult. I’ve leaned heavily on my family, friends, therapy, books, and nature itself to find solid ground again. Writing It Starts With a Leaf has provided a consistent through line and a weekly opportunity to shift my focus to something greater than myself.

Throughout this series of major life changes, I’ve reflected about what I’m doing, what I care about, and who I am.

Branching forward, I am seeing that many of the topics I’ve covered in this Substack, like nature connection, resilience, health, and change are not only garden questions but of course human ones too. I’ve decided to create something new that is more squarely at that intersection and that lets me naturally expand the conversation. Perhaps similar to the way that a forest regenerates after a disturbance, I am entering a new phase of growth. I’m composting this year’s experiences of writing, learning, and upheaval into a new venture, Wealth of Well-Being.

The concept behind this new project rests on the idea that well-being and a sense of flourishing are the foundation for success. I want to help others who are navigating disruptions to build a rooted and resilient future—and in doing so, simultaneously support my own flourishing journey. I believe that if more of us find ways to increase joy, fun, intentionality, meaning, and resilience in our own lives, we’ll be better equipped as individuals and members of a healthy society.

Of course, part of that for me and for many people includes tending gardens, spending time outdoors, observing nature, and feeling connected to the Earth. So I see this new effort as an expansion of It Starts With a Leaf, but with a broader focus.

It Starts With a Leaf isn’t disappearing! All the posts will remain here as a resource, and I’ll still write when a particular ecological topic calls to me, but I’m giving myself permission to relax the weekly posting commitment so I can channel that creative energy into Wealth of Well-Being. You might still see posts here from me on things like ‘What My Garden Taught Me About Resilience’ or ‘Composting Life’s Disappointments’ or any number of straight up ecological gardening or garden travel subjects, so do stay tuned and stay subscribed!

If you’re curious, I’m starting by building a community over on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube @wealthofwellbeingco.

I’m currently offering my first resource: “Reclaim Your Ground: The 30-Day Flourishing Foundation,” a PDF guide designed to help build daily practices that support genuine well-being during times of transition. It’s a do-with-me approach: I’m working through it myself as I offer it to you.

If you’re in a season of change or simply want to cultivate more intention in your daily life (as well as in your garden!), I’d love to have you join me. As a small thank you for being part of It Starts With a Leaf, I'm offering a discounted price ($17) to all my subscribers.

Thank you for being part of this first year of It Starts With a Leaf. Whether you've read every post or just stumbled upon one that caught your eye, I really truly appreciate it! You've been part of my audience, and however small that spotlight has been, it has helped me find my voice during a year when I needed it most. I'm grateful for your readership, and I hope some of you will continue the journey with me as I branch into new territory. Here's to growth, resilience, and the courage to keep evolving.