Thank you loves,

Thank you for walking with me this step by step by step by step by step by step by step author journey.

Would I prefer to leap? Yeah, you bet I do.
And I tried. I leapt so many times.
I took my sweet time loving on these books I wrote. Two and a half years for "Crazy Free" and three and a half for "Once, When I Was Tree." - the juiciest of times.

But the moment I hit the "publish" button, the mood quickly turned to "Com'on, com'on, come ON!"

Why doesn't every person rush to read my stories? Don't they want to know about the sentience of plants? Don't they care about Coyote? Aren't they even a little curious how I became Tree?

I never figured out where those impatient thoughts sit between ego and genuine puzzlement. But it turns out people have lives that do not revolve necessarily around the themes most important to me.

Then I came to India.

Because I love it soooo much here, the book fell into its proper place. No longer was I pushing it to grow faster than it was growing. No longer was I so eager to get to the next phase - which will likely be writing another book, as one has been knocking hard at the door. But not yet. Here, there were times when I simply soaked my feet in the Ganga, or walked up to the waterfall for no reason at all, walked 45 minutes across town to get a samosa, or simply stared at Tapovan from above. My nervous system settled.

And do you know what happened next?

The steps actually moved forward because I was no longer pushing.

Crazy Free got a new cover.
Once, When I Was Tree is now an audiobook on Spotify, Audible, and iBooks.

And the fire kept growing. I began The Wyld Ways Podcast. Wise plant lovers gathered around the idea, and the guest list keeps growing. Suddenly it's not just my story. It's everyone's story. Plant intelligence, plant alliance, plant lovers, friends, teachers, healers - all met one by one, and introduced by those who love them most.

The podcast will debut on May 17th. That's also the day I will leave India - 10 days from now. I have a 9-hour layover, and that will be when episode 1 airs.

And from there ... who knows what the next step will be. I am not who I was when I began that journey, and I am not sure I still hold to the original destination.

I will let each phase guide me.

Thank you for walking it with me.

Much love,

Maya

P.S. If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast, click on the Podcast link in the menu above. I would LOVE to have you.

P.P.S. And if you want a bedtime story while you wait for the podcast, Once, When I Was Tree is now a real audiobook, click on the Books link above

P.P.P.S. A man in the distance is playing the theme from Harry Potter on a traditional Indian flute as I type this. It feels like the appropriate soundtrack to this message.

P.P.P.P.S. And yes, I wrote this. Down with the AI generated mass mails. Ha ha!