We are over the moon excited to welcome our Traverse City readers! We welcome you to the pages of Natural Awakening magazine, which is now being widely distributed in Michigan’s northwest lower peninsula, including Petoskey, Charlevoix and the M22 corridor. We also want to welcome all of you business owners and practitioners that are devoting themselves to the health and well-being of our community, and invite you to share your news, events, products and services in our pages.

John and I often comment to each other how similar the energy of these cities is and we are proud and honored to include them within the pages of this valuable resource for our holistic communities. Ann Arbor and Traverse City are a perfect fit for each other, as both are filled with inspiring people to meet, beautiful vistas and a sense of community that cares. We are not the only ones who think marrying these two cities is a great idea; check out A2TC.org and learn about our plans for a full-service train going from A2 to TC video. The best part is that the tracks are already laid.

To help highlight and celebrate Michigan’s breathtaking beauty, we’d like to introduce our brand-new Transformative Travels department, sharing excellent destinations for vacations and weekend getaways. With 3,288 miles of freshwater coastline and 11,000 inland lakes, it's no wonder Michigan is a favorite four-season destination.

Speaking of new departments, we are very excited to announce our new Plant Medicine department chock-full of culinary and medicinal benefits from the plant kingdom, the way Mother Nature intended healing to be. We even have recipes and tips to help you learn how to grow your own plant-based medicines.

July is truly the perfect time to slow down and smell the roses; we’ve been dreaming for months of its promise. With sunshiny hot days, open windows and an occasional cool lake and breeze to fill our sails, fireflies, crickets and no socks all help to recharge our batteries.

As a kid, some of my fondest memories are playing outside with everyone all day long… carefree. In “The Pure Joy of Play: Why Kids Need Unstructured Fun,” Ronica A. O’Hara reminisces about those bygone days and presents compelling evidence that free play is so important to children that pediatricians are actually writing prescriptions for it.

Get inspired and reconnect with what lives within you, step outside for five minutes and notice the angle and intensity of the sunshine, and feel the sun warm your skin, erasing the indoor chill. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Open your ears to the passing sounds of birds and wind and laughing kids.

The simple things in life often bring the greatest joy. The time is now to start enjoying what’s already right in front of us. May we all live simply, speak kindly, care deeply, live generously and enjoy life’s many wonders while we are able to.

 

Happy Summering!