Self-Compassion & Belonging;
Real Food & Real Health, for real regeneration...
... in a world where everything is connected
Self-compassion & belonging
tend your inner world and develop self-leadership
so you can feel better inside and make a difference outside
Real food, health, & regeneration
tend your family sustainably and ethically
growing food with permaculture/regenerative principles
whole food preparation for optimum nutrition
home based healthcare instead of "quick fix" medicine
Everything is connected
understanding our inter-connectedness, in a way that empowers us to make a difference
insights and perspectives about reconnecting
how we live and care for ourselves and each other is a vote (conscious or not) for the world we're calling into being
Let your life be an offering to the kind of world you want your kids and grandkids to grow up in.
Hi. I'm Kate.
I write about self-compassion, belonging and self-leadership; and real food, natural health, and regeneration.
I believe everything is connected, so it doesn't matter where you start - caring for any part of the living Whole is caring for all of it. Whether you need to focus on sleeping better, becoming a calmer parent, homegrown food, health, or any other aspect of ethical/sustainable living, no action or choice is too small to make a difference.
My goal is to help you feel the difference inside yourself. Everything else ripples out from there.
Learn more about me here.
Read 9 ways to know if you're the kind of person who might enjoy my work.
Read what I mean by "a real green life," including how to dodge the eco-guilt.
Or keep scrolling for reader comments and recent posts 🙂
Readers say ...
Well researched, honest and inspiring
"Kate is a regular contributing author to Permaculture News and I always look forward to receiving her articles. They are always thought provoking, well researched, honest and inspiring.
Kate's articles present different perspectives on the world (Everything is Connected), and our place in it (Tend Yourself) or share valuable knowledge, hints and tips (Real Food, Real Health). I know the wider Permaculture community also appreciate Kate's contributions; many comments are shared on her posts.
Thanks Kate."
Anna
Your posts aid me in reviewing where I'm at in my life and how I can best contribute in my waning years
I do love your posts and am often re-inspired by them. At the moment I'm recovering from an accident that has made me pause and review where I'm at in my life and how I can best contribute in my waning years. I appreciate that your posts aid me in pondering all this.
Warmly,
Karen Sherwood
Karen Sherwood
No fluff
"So much interesting and important info, neatly packaged, no fluff. "
Gunter
Lucid insights
"Thank you Kate. You express your insights and understandings lucidly. I appreciate the broad perspective you share on subjects that are meaningful to you—social, spiritual, environmental, economical—and the research and reading you do to inform your writing."
Meg
Realizing how numb we are
"Dear Kate, Thank you for posting such deep and thought provoking blog posts. ... I think you are doing a great service to make us all aware of the consequences of our actions. It makes me realize how numb we are, and how comfortable it is to be numb, just doing what everyone else does and not questioning the real impacts of our lives."
Anonymous
Insightful ideas and concepts
"I love your stuff - you come up with very insightful ideas and concepts. For example, I never realized that Essential Oils had become such a big industry that it was impacting on the environment."
Cathy
Honest, genuine, thought provoking
"As a homeschooling Mum pursuing a more meaningful life for my family, ARealGreenLife supports me in questioning and expanding my existing world view."
Melita
Wisdom I can sit with
"Kate, I really like "When Nothing You Can Do Makes a Difference." It's wisdom I can sit with -- wisdom I've been looking for as I think about how to prioritize things going forward. I have it right next to my journal as a reminder."
Lorraine
Food for thought
"I subscribe to quite a few homestead/green lifestyle newsletters. Yours is so relatable, informative, and gives excellent food for thought; Get Off the Bus is a great example. Thanks so much for your work. Cheers from a Nova Scotia!"
Jessica
Posts on "Self-Compassion & Belonging"
March 8, 2026
Anxiety and overwhelm feel horrible. And a scattered, dis-regulated nervous system affects EVERYTHING, especially our relationships. Breathing can help. In this post I share how paying attention to your breath can help you calm your nervous system, bring you back to yourself, and even help ease the sense that there is never enough time.
August 18, 2025
Volition is a source of energy that informs our intentions and energizes our actions, but not all volition comes from the heart. When we’re swept away by clever, compelling messaging from outside of ourselves, we lose touch with our internal volition — with our values and our authentic desires.
August 6, 2025
If you grew up without learning that mistakes are ok you may have developed a strong inner critic who, like a 5 year old trying to prevent trouble, now controls your adult life to keep you from taking risks. The antidote is to give your self the compassionate leadership you missed out on when you were growing up.
April 11, 2025
Locating power outside of myself leads to me trying to create safety for myself by controlling the people and events around me. Conversely, locating power within myself liberates me to change my internal experience regardless of my outer relationships or circumstances — and that makes a difference to how satisfied and effective I can be both personally and in my efforts to make a difference in the world around me.
November 29, 2023
“REAL” – genuine, authentic, true (as opposed to performed, artificial, imitated, or virtual).
“GREEN” – regenerative/doing as little harm as possible.
“SELF-COMPASSION” – so we can ditch the shoulds, perfectionism, and eco-guilt while we’re being real and green.
Updated July 2026.
October 22, 2023
It’s uncomfortable to be around someone who is suffering because it wakes up all that’s untended to within our own selves. We can’t stand that, so we hurry to put a band aide over what-ever is hurting in the other person, to quiet things down again, so we can get back to pretending we’re fine.
November 14, 2022
Our physical and social environments have huge influence on our habits and behaviors. People who design supermarkets and sell products know this and take full advantage of it. This post will help you examine what’s shaping your shopping routines and your buying decisions, and learn how to change them.
August 7, 2022
Spring is the time to look at the “seeds” or intentions we’ve been gestating over winter, to choose those with the best chances of surviving and thriving, and to let go of the rest of them. As in the garden, so in our inner lives. Otherwise, your coming “growing season” may be filled with too much stuff, or with stuff that isn’t serving you. And if it isn’t serving you then it also won’t be serving your world, which is an extension of you.
June 26, 2022
Our “story,” of how the world works and who we are, is like a script that prompts our choices and actions. There is a new story available to us that prompts cooperative and life affirming behaviors rather than competitive and exploitative ones. Indigenous peoples and eastern spirituality have been indicating it, and the newest sciences are finally now “discovering” it. It’s a story that would put us on an entirely different trajectory.
May 25, 2022
Sometimes change asks more of us than we have to give, and we break. Sometimes we recover, but whether we recover or not, there is no going back to what we were before the change. We’re transformed us, forever, into something different than we were before. Here’s why I feel that this degree of change is upon us collectively now, and why I feel hopeful even in the midst of all that’s happening around the world.
March 28, 2022
The Equinoxes – the time of balanced light and dark at the midway point through Autumn and Spring – provide an opportunity to examine how we’re managing the balancing act between doing and resting. This short post shares an uncommon idea for our culture and our times: “It is safe to rest.”
January 31, 2022
What gardeners do is somewhere on a continuum from controlling the life (and death) cycles in the garden, to managing them, to interacting intelligently with them. We tend to default to control because of our culturally ingrained assumption that without control there will be chaos and anarchy.
This has implications far beyond the garden. How do our assumptions about the need for control shape our world?
November 15, 2021
The “bus” I’m talking about is entire populations of people all gabbling without listening to one another and without thinking clearly. The bus is hurtling toward a cliff, with no-one in the driver’s seat. The opinions, the conflict, the angst, are all fueling the bus. Here’s how to understand what’s going on, and how to disengage from the insanity.
November 1, 2021
We’re so in the habit of controlling each other or being controlled that we’ve forgotten how to think for ourselves. We’re so overwhelmed by the challenges we face that we assume there’s nothing we can do (and it’s all our fault). And we assume that controlling each other is necessary and failing was inevitable because humans are just basically bad.
Let’s explore how we might replace these habits and assumptions with more empowered ways of thinking.
October 2, 2021
The moon influences the ocean and its tides, the flow of sap and the life force in our gardens, and the behavior of many different birds, animals, and crustaceans. If we choose to pay attention, it can also indicate ways that we humans can align ourselves with the rhythms and cycles of life in our efforts to bring ourselves back into harmony with nature.
September 26, 2021
The Equinoxes mark the two points in the year round of the seasons where the number of hours of daylight and darkness are roughly equal, and so they are a good time to invite balance into our lives. This post introduces the Wheel of the Year and shares my Journaling practice for the Equinoxes.
August 30, 2021
21st century science now finally agrees with Eastern philosophy and Indigenous wisdom that we share a common field of consciousness. It’s hidden in plain site, all around us all the time. It’s even more under-appreciated and under-utilized than the other forms of “the commons” that we share.
July 25, 2021
Introducing the metaphorical “seasons” of birth/emergence, growth, full bloom, harvest, decay, death, and re-emergence. We misunderstand the seasons of decay and death, so we go to extraordinary lengths to avoid them – which means we miss out on the gifts of inner growth they have to offer.
November 1, 2020
The logical mind wants to muscle its way to the results we want; when muscle is inadequate to the task, we think we’ve failed and we’re out of options.
The heart, on the other hand, is not afraid to invoke the results we want by the quality of our attention and the power of our desire to give what we don’t physically have to give.
October 26, 2020
Logical, rational thinking understandably sees things as separate. ‘I am me; everything else is something “other” than me.’ There is another way to see things. Through a lens of interbeing, I am still me, but now I recognize that I’m closely related to everything that the mindset of separation calls “other.”
October 7, 2020
Why We Doubt Our Intrinsic Worth This is a super-short post; just a few seconds to readOur culture measures the worth of children in “good behavior” that reflects well on parents, caregivers, and teachers. We measure the worth of adults in terms of visible wealth, status, followers, beauty (defined by very narrow criteria), youth, and power. No
March 25, 2020
(10th in a Series) When you do the deep personal work necessary to give up conflict (internal and external), this invisible choice wields power out of all proportion to its humble appearance.
March 20, 2020
(9th in a Series) As within, so without. How we care for our innermost selves, each other, and our planet, are all linked. As urgent as it may seem to address those issues “out there,” it’s essential to begin “in here.”
March 9, 2020
(8th in a Series) In our make-it-happen culture, making a difference to anything means grunting and sweating, burning the candle at both ends, making herculean efforts. It’s an that approach keeps us in battle mode and sustains drama and conflict.
March 6, 2020
(7th in a Series) There are ways to set up your distractions on purpose so that they still lead you in the right direction.
February 28, 2020
(6th in a Series) The idea that you need motivation and will power to reach your goals is part of a story that says if we use enough of the right kind of force, we’ll get to the goal. There is an easier way.
February 21, 2020
(5th in a Series) By prioritizing what is important over what is urgent, you can live a more spacious, meaningful, satisfying life.
February 14, 2020
(4th in a Series) How your taking care of your “response-ability”—your ability to choose your own responses—increases your personal power and expands your influence.
February 8, 2020
(3rd in a Series) How to focus your energy where you can be most effective, rather than wasting it on things that you cannot make any difference to.
February 1, 2020
(2nd in a Series) Here is a way of looking at even the really big challenges that breaks them down to a manageable size.
January 29, 2020
(1st in a Series) Everything we need to create a more just, alive, abundant and beautiful world exists today. Why aren’t we using it?
December 31, 2017
“Independent” individuals and nuclear families are artificially sustained by a fossil fuel dependent, growth-at-all-costs system that cannot last. The only viable alternative is to return to living in direct relationship with each other and with the web of life that can sustain us indefinitely, if we care for it as the extension of ourselves that it really is.
Posts on "Real Food" (including homegrown), "Real Health," and "Regeneration"
April 15, 2025
I used to put off the task of rendering fat for cooking, soap making, and skin care – because it was time consuming, messy, and intimidating. After making every imaginable (and some un-imaginable) mistake, here’s the simple method I use now. Clean, odour-free rendered fat without the mess and stress.
February 27, 2023
Once you know how to tell a male pumpkin flower from a female one, it’s a simple matter to hand pollinate your female flowers and be sure of more pumpkins, especially in rainy weather when pollinating insects aren’t on the job. (Or your pollinator population has been decimated by pesticides.)
January 31, 2023
Whole foods require more planning and organization than processed convenience foods, but the pay-off is worth it. The benefits include: better nutrition, a feeling of empowerment and reconnection as you learn to engage with your food closer to its source, and the satisfaction in knowing you’re taking better care of the Earth just by how you eat.
August 22, 2022
In frost free areas we’re blessed to be able to grow tropical food plants in the summer and better known European style veggies in the winter. This time of year, spring, is especially abundant with its overlap between the cool weather and hot weather plants. This post shares pics and links to info for a small selection of food plants from our garden.
August 1, 2022
This post shares lots of pics and a few tips on growing and harvesting ginger, and making ginger honey to settle coughs and for colds, flu, and general immune support. There are also some pics and tips on arrowroot harvesting and replanting, since we sometimes grow these two plants together.
April 25, 2022
An earth-floor, deep-litter system has big benefits for the health and well-being of chickens, and it’s also the easiest way I know to build an ongoing compost creation system in which most of the work is done for you. This article shares what we’ve learned about deep-litter composting since we built our new earth floor chicken shed in 2019.
February 21, 2022
What is “happy meat?” Is meat-eating inherently destructive, or can we have “happy ecosystems” along with happy meat? What does meat-eating mean for human health on a more-than physical level? And what about avoiding eating animal products because you care about animals’ welfare?
February 14, 2022
This super-short post has some commentary on home-dairying, a tongue-in-cheek recipe for raw-milk banana milkshake, and something easy and useful to do with your egg whites when you only need the yolks. There are also a few links to related resources that I hope you’ll find helpful.
January 17, 2022
The best way to get more effective at growing your own food is to make it super easy to eat something directly from your garden on a daily basis. Here are 5 categories of low-maintenance food plants (or plant parts) you might have been overlooking, and strategies for using them to build more food sovereignty into your life.
September 13, 2021
The kids’ll be up soon and looking for breakfast. The cow needs milking and the calf pen needs cleaning. I just have time before all that starts, to show you some pics of the new calf, our recent veggie garden harvests, and the chickweed in the lawn that we’re putting into salads.
February 28, 2021
Switching from synthetic personal care products to simple, natural alternatives means giving up superficial attributes like foam, fragrance, and texture, which are achieved using toxic ingredients. This article explores how we got so dependent on these products and shares 3 ideas we can rely on in our efforts to get back to natural.
October 12, 2020
Real food is more expensive than supermarket food if you measure only in dollars. But to measure something you have to isolate it from the other things it relates to, which reduces it to a limp, disconnected copy of itself. Real food that’s still connected to the rest of life provides us with some kinds of nourishment that supermarket food can’t.
April 17, 2020
Queensland arrowroot (Cana edulis) provides food for us, food for chickens, pigs, cattle and goats, mulch and/or compost material, and shelter for other plants. It’s super easy to grow and to harvest and it self-propagates to a certain extent but is not weedy or invasive. And I think it looks beautiful. What more could a polyculture food grower ask?
May 4, 2019
Feeding the pigs, as they grow bigger, can easily degenerate into a full body contact sport in which the pig wins and the amateur pig-raiser gets discouraged and gives up on homegrown pork. Is there a way to keep pig-raising enjoyable when those cute little piglets are no longer cute?
March 11, 2018
At the supermarket you can get everything you need at one location and it’s cheaper than anywhere else. But when it seems too good to be true, there’s usually a catch. In this article we’ll explore the complex web of connections and consequences attached to the cheap convenience on the supermarket shelves.
Posts on "Healthier Supermarket Habits"
(aka, moving away from "zoo food" and towards "real food")
November 14, 2022
Our physical and social environments have huge influence on our habits and behaviors. People who design supermarkets and sell products know this and take full advantage of it. This post will help you examine what’s shaping your shopping routines and your buying decisions, and learn how to change them.
January 31, 2023
Whole foods require more planning and organization than processed convenience foods, but the pay-off is worth it. The benefits include: better nutrition, a feeling of empowerment and reconnection as you learn to engage with your food closer to its source, and the satisfaction in knowing you’re taking better care of the Earth just by how you eat.