Find Your Path LLC

06/02/2026

TUESDAY TEACHINGS: Who am I to judge?

I was listening to the BirdNote Daily podcast on my way into work. There was a birder who loves watching American Herring Gulls (these are the ones everyone calls “seagulls” at the beach). The excitement in his voice was adorable as he spoke of these birds. I can’t stand gulls. They are annoying, sneaky, and they constantly try to steal my snacks. The birder said he is so disappointed when people refer to them as “rats with wings”.

I felt immediately guilty. I have called these birds rats with wings. That got me thinking. Who am I to judge which species are superior and which should be disparaged? Why do we as a society generally prefer the soft and cuddly over the rough and scaly? (disclaimer…I love snakes and lizards).

Animals that inconvenience or scare us are often disparaged. Sharks are feared based on a small number of attacks. Horses are loved by many because they are beautiful and majestic. Snakes are vilified in religious texts. Wasps are denigrated and seen as aggressive. Our human judgement is influenced by fear, appearance, or our own opinions rather than the importance of these creatures. I was stung multiple times in a bee swarm as a child. Because of that, I retreat or cower in fear every time I see one. Does that fat little bumblebee deserve my prejudice? No…he is likely just hanging around, pollinating and being cute. Humans also are tip-toeing very close to a dangerous line when we assign our own values to animals because all we have to do is look at history to see how easily this judgement can become cruelty. When humans decide that something is worthless or lowly, destruction can quickly follow. Think of the wolves in Yellowstone. That entire population was wiped out due to human fear of livestock attacks, and we all saw what happened there. Humans do not always have the wisdom or education to judge something’s value accurately.

Animals that we admire possess qualities that we would want for ourselves. Beauty, strength, elegance. This might show that we are incredibly short sighted and egocentric when assigning value. Nature herself shows us that a creature’s worth cannot be measured by beauty or usefulness. Flowers do not deny their pollen to a scary bee while waiting for a beautiful butterfly. Rivers do not hold back their waters from the prehistoric (and often algae covered) snapping turtle to favor, instead, the lovely little fawn gingerly coming forward to get a drink. Trees do not shake the buzzards off their branches while welcoming the eagles. To do so would reveal their arrogance rather than their wisdom.

We all deserve existence and acceptance. We all play an important role in our communities. The world is at her best when everyone, even the misunderstood, are allowed to shine. I will do my best to embrace the herring gulls from now on instead of calling them names. They deserve better.

I am attaching a link to the BirdNote Daily podcast if you are interested in 1-2 minute snippets on the wonders of birds. I find them quite entertaining on my drive in to work.

BirdNote Daily® is a two-minute radio show that combines rich sounds with engaging stories, to illustrate the amazing lives of birds and give listeners a momentary respite from the news of the day.

05/31/2026

I miss these moments on the deck up north with my dad. Find Your Path became a reality because this guy shared his love of the woods with me.

I stumbled across an old Instagram account I made while I was teaching in person (totally forgot about it!) and found this post from 9 years ago. Bittersweet.

05/27/2026

Looking for a fun group of gals to help you get outside and do some hiking and walking? Consider She Ascends - an inclusive hiking group for women!
Join me, Jodi, your SW Michigan hiking guide, for our first hike on June 23. This will be along the KRVT in Parchment at 5:30. Your first hike is free! Click the link below, scroll down, and sign up. If you can’t make this first hike, there will be more! When you join She Ascends, you can expect at least two hikes a month, even more occasional pop-up hikes, and other social events!
She Ascends is dedicated to providing women with a safe, inclusive and friendly environment to enjoy the outdoors year round! If you would like to check it out, join our first hike or reach out with questions. Membership is $40 a year and includes meet up hikes, Hike and Learn events, as well as Adventure and Retreat Weekends.
Click here to register for the first meet up hike, which is FREE!
https://www.sheascends.org/michigan.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawSD7YhleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe2Tj3YKGuZTKJgOCYvETEglcxJqO46_T5ELHwv19tCeVPsPFMobfwCl7MSpo_aem_tn82DNcX1GzSn60bv4ZWeA
You can also check out our main page at www.sheascends.org to see what you can expect once Michigan is up and fully running!

Member Meet-up Hikes ​ Members can choose to attend all meet-up hikes offered with no additional hiking fees. Not a member? You can drop in whenever it works, by registering as a drop...

05/27/2026

This was our "end of interview" attempt at doing an infomercial. 🤣🤣

05/26/2026

TUESDAY TEACHINGS: The Courage to Emerge

Moths crawl from their cocoons. Small ferns push through the soil and begin to unfurl. Bears surface from their hibernation dens. Spring is a time when life slowly emerges from the long winter slumber.

It is finally warming up enough to see life springing forth! As a kid I loved thinking about caterpillars transforming into beautiful butterflies. Last spring I was SO excited to see a monarch chrysalis underneath my deck rail. I checked it every day, waiting for the emergence of the beautiful insect. One morning I went out to discover, in horror, that something had made a snack of the bright green chrysalis.

I’ve been following the progress of the butterfly chrysalides at the Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum & Gardens on their page. One of the painted lady butterflies arrived with a torn wing. It was reported that she would remain in captivity so she could be properly cared for and have a nice life.

That got me thinking. We celebrate and revere the fully formed butterfly in all its beauty. But what about the monarch butterfly that never got to live, or this painted lady that may never fly? Butterflies mirror the human experience. Both are fragile, vulnerable to their surroundings, yet capable of great things. Both are transformative. The potential of both the unhatched monarch and the injured painted lady does not disappear because their journeys unfolded differently than expected.

Transformation is painful. The caterpillar basically liquifies before becoming something new. It surrenders its former self before emerging. Emerging requires courage. It leaves the safety of its protective casing for a completely foreign and unknown world, not knowing if its wings will carry it. There is something so brave about leaving what is comfortable in the quest for growth. Often the most difficult part of growth is not becoming something new, or trying something new, but finding the courage to simply step out on the path toward a better version of yourself. We celebrate those who are fully formed, strong, and confident. But how often do we overlook the quiet bravery it takes to even emerge in the first place?

Perhaps a deeper question is not whether those two butterflies met their potential, but whether we truly understand the meaning of potential. Potential might more accurately describe the fact that our worth is not dependent on perfection, transformation isn’t always pretty. Maybe we might not reach our fully formed self, like the eaten monarch, but even then it provided another living thing the opportunity to reach its own potential.

A butterfly with a broken wing may not be able to travel far, but it might still manage to pollinate. Its existence still matters. In the same way, people who struggle, who carry wounds, or have disabilities still possess immense value. Their lives can nurture others through compassion, wisdom, resilience, or simply their presence. Some of the kindest people are those who know what it feels like to emerge wounded and continue thriving anyway. Life does not have to be perfect or pretty to be meaningful. We just need to own our worth and fight to reach for the stars...no matter how rough the journey.

I love this photo from the museum's post. This beautiful little butterfly recently emerged from its protective case. I imagine her looking at her shadow, so large and imposing, and thinking, "Boy! I am so big and strong! I can conquer the world." I wish all of us could see our own potential like this. It may not be pretty. It may not be easy. But we are all on the path to reach our greatest potential. May we all embrace that journey like this delicate little insect sees her own shadow. She knows her worth!

Do you know yours?

Photo credit: Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum & Gardens.

05/24/2026

Everything you need to know about why YOU should try a forest session with me! Give this interview a watch.
You can walk a path with me this Thursday at 6:00 at the Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum and Gardens in South Haven called Taking Time to be Present. And.. you can always book privately with me for yourself or a small group.
Thanks to the Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum for this interview! Please share the interview on your page to help me spread the word about Find Your Path LLC !

05/22/2026

This dog understands the peace that forest bathing can provide.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Ct2zGx6Xz/

05/21/2026

Do you see what I see?
When you are forest bathing, you slow down and see things others may miss.

05/20/2026

I was asked recently where I got my love of nature. It was from my Dad. Some of my earliest memories are of being outside with him. This week I got to take back the nature themed books I bought him over the years, and what I wrote inside the covers made me smile and cry. I miss him. I wish he could've seen Find Your Path become a reality.

05/19/2026

TUESDAY TEACHINGS: Balance

A couple of summers ago I visited Yellowstone National Park. I was so excited to see the wildlife…elk, bears, bison. I went hiking and ended up in the middle of a bison herd as it slowly meandered while grazing. We saw a black bear running in a clearing. We saw elk everywhere. The only thing not spotted were grizzlies and wolves, and I had hoped most to see these apex predators on my hikes.

On our final day in Yellowstone we were driving through Hayden Valley as dawn was breaking. I noticed a bunch of photographers and people with huge spotting scopes on a hill, and curiosity got the best of me. We crawled up the hill and looked out over the vast valley stretching before us. I couldn’t see anything, so I asked someone what we were looking for. A man in a brown vest and matching hat turned to me and said, smiling, “Get up here and look!” I peered through the massive scope, searching for any signs of life. He said, “There. They are just coming out now.”

Two tiny black heads poked up from the brush. I squinted, trying to see what they were. They fully emerged…two small babies. I pulled back from the scope and looked at the man, my jaw dropped. “Are those…?” He excitedly pointed back out to the valley, and I looked back through the scope. “Look! Here come the adults!”

I watched as little wobbly pups climbed up out of their den, followed quickly by several adults. Tails were wagging, and submissive adults rolled on their backs as the alpha female entered my field of view. Several more adults arrived, and the tail wagging and playful jumps continued. I turned to the man, who was beaming, and I said, “I have never seen wolves in the wild!” I looked out over the scope, straining to see any trace of them in the distance. All I could see were tiny blobs of black and grey moving through the scrub. Tears began welling up in my eyes, and suddenly he called for everyone to be quiet. And then I heard it…the faint howling of the pack gathering in the distance. First it was one or two wolves, and then the rest joined the chorus. The mournful notes drifted across the valley as I cried actual tears of joy. This was a dream of mine…to see and hear wolves in the wild. I peered back through the scope and watched the pups tackle each other while the adults stood howling into the air. I stepped back to let others come up to have a turn looking.

I have taught about the wolves in Yellowstone for years, and to see them in their natural habitat was incredible. Their population inside the park has fallen to about 84 currently, down from over 100 in 2024. But there were many decades when not a single wolf could be found in Yellowstone. Hunting and trapping of wolves by fearful humans led to a 70 year absence. During this time, the impacts of their absence were significant. In Yellowstone, the absence of one key presence changed everything. Elk overgrazed, trees disappeared, waterways shifted as banks eroded when these trees and plants were stripped away, and many species declined or spiked away from balance. Nothing looked obviously broken at first, but over time, the whole system lost resilience.

In 1995 something incredible happened. A small group of wolves from Canada were introduced back into the park. Slowly, balance returned to Yellowstone. Elk populations decreased, and their behavior actually changed. Aspen and willows grew strong and fast, and the beavers used them to create dams. When wolves came back, they didn’t directly plant trees or rebuild rivers. They simply restored a necessary tension, and the system reorganized toward health. Yellowstone showed that a single keystone species can influence plants, waterways, birds, insects, and even the shape of rivers, simply by restoring balance in relationships that had been disrupted. You can watch the linked video for a more detailed description.
Human lives can work the same way, and that is what I want you to think about today.

Sometimes what’s missing isn’t dramatic. It may be rest, boundaries, solitude, community, purpose, grief, movement, connection, or time in nature. When one important force is removed, life may still function, but certain parts begin to overtake everything else. Work consumes all space. Stress crowds out joy. Being constantly busy strips away the opportunity for reflection. We may not notice the imbalance until the “riverbanks” of our life start eroding.
The wolves in this metaphor are those restoring forces, the things that create healthy limits and shape interactions. What has gone missing in your life that once helped create balance? Think not what needs to be added, but what relationship, habit, or presence needs to return so the rest can begin healing on its own?
When you need to restore yourself, your peace, what should you invite back? What is the one thing that is missing that can restore your balance? Think about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-P57Th_N80