Acrylic illustration of Catherine journaling in a garden beside a candle and flowers.

2024’s Tender Lessons: Grief, Growth, and Grace [Year in Review]

2024 was a mixed bag for my family, but it was generally a really good year. My husband spent New Year’s Eve in Italy to be near his mother before she transitioned. She passed on January 23rd, 2024. Nearly 2 years after my mother’s passing. This was a very hard experience for us, it has been a year and we are still grieving the loss. We didn’t have years to say goodbye like we did with my mom. They both died very you young, and our Moon Child does not have a lot of biological Grandmother. I am so grateful that my dad remarried an amazing woman, and Paolo’s Auntie is so involved in her life so she will grow up knowing wise matriarchal women on both sides of the family.

My mother’s birthday is today 1/19, I miss her Dearly. The mother wound is deep in our household, lots of aching for Moms who are not there. I try to channel my healing into becoming the Mother to my children that I wish I could have right now. I hope they feel loved, cherished, respected, and encouraged to be their best selves’.

In February I traveled to Mexico to run Anarchapulco. My dad and step mom came. I’m sure it was super intense for them between the heat and the content from our speakers! But they came! They KNOW what I do now and probably understand me a lot better. I felt so seen and loved having them there.

All spring my oldest, my Stara, was deep into dance competition season. That was the first year she preformed a solo on stage and it made my heart burst with pride. She is AMAZING. Her grace and strength and agility and poise all combine into this beautiful and wonderful stage presence. She won many showmanship awards and placed higher and higher in each competition as she gained confidence.

In March we went to Galveston for mine and my son’s birthdays. My Aunt Terry, Cousin Matt, dad and Step mom stayed in their respective RVs and I rented a house on the bay for my family and a close family we love. It was awesome EXCEPT I had a horrible headache during my birthday dinner. We went shell hounding, built sand castles, and generally spent time relaxing in the ocean breeze.

Books Read:

  1. The Hearing Trumpet
  2. Indestractable
  3. Women with ADHD
  4. The Woman in Me (Brittany Spears)
  5. Worthy (Jada Pickett Smith)
  6. The Fifth Agreement
  7. If You Would Have Told Me (John Stamos)
  8. Energy Follows Thought (Willie Nelson), I couldn’t finish this one
  9. Im Glad My Mom Died (Jeanette McCurdy)
  10. Will (Will Smith)
  11. Wildflower (Drew Barrymore)
  12. My Story (Marylin Monroe)
  13. Paris (Paris Hilton)
  14. The Four Agreement’s
  15. How To Keep House While Drowning
  16. Release
  17. The Pilgrimage

Author’s note: It is almost one year later (1/8/2026) that I came back to my pending post (everything typed above): it didn’t end up published. Instead of typing up the rest of the year, a year too late, I’m going to let it end here, abruptly. 2024 was an OK year. I also visited the butterfly preserve where the migrating monarchs land every year in Mexico. And we put on our first Liberpulco event in Serbia. It was a big year.

Some passages have been removed to protect my family’s privacy.

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