#SeasonOfBecoming #HealingInRealTime #GrowthUnderTheSurface #MetamorphosisJourney #TruthAndTransformation
🌱 When the Ground Is Alive: Healing, Becoming, and the Courage to Emerge
While walking Sheba, my German Shepherd, I notice something that immediately makes me slow down. Scattered throughout the grass are clusters of mushrooms, like the ones shown in the photo above. They appear quietly, almost overnight, but once you notice them, you can’t stop seeing them.
The very next day, while cleaning the dog run, I find even more mushrooms growing directly out of a tree trunk.
That’s when it clicks.
Spring is showing itself early this year.
Mushrooms don’t grow randomly. They aren’t weeds. They aren’t accidents. They are the visible sign of an entire underground system doing exactly what it’s meant to do. Fungi live beneath the surface most of the time, breaking down what no longer serves life, redistributing nutrients, restoring balance, and preparing the ground for what comes next.
You only see mushrooms when the soil is alive and active.
A new year has just begun, yet the signs of renewal are already everywhere — and that mirrors my life more accurately than anything else I could have planned.
🌸 Transformation Is Happening Right Now
This year is not a waiting year.
This is not a placeholder season.
This is a year of becoming.
I am actively stepping into being a wife.
I am actively finishing my high school diploma, earning it with a 3.5 GPA, and I refuse to minimize that accomplishment.
I am actively choosing growth over survival.
I apply for jobs. I attend interviews. When things don’t align, I don’t spiral the way I once did. Instead, I listen. I reassess. I choose not to force paths that feel unstable or misaligned.
Right now, my focus is on completing my diploma first — not because I’m giving up, but because I understand timing. I understand foundation. I understand that forcing something out of fear does not create long-term stability.
For the first time in my life, I trust that pausing does not mean stagnation.
It means strengthening the ground underneath me.
💪 Rebuilding My Body With Intention, Not Punishment
I am recommitting to my body — not through extremes, guilt, or punishment, but through structure, consistency, and respect.
My days include:
- Morning yoga to regulate my nervous system before the world demands anything from me
- Walking Phoenix, grounding myself through movement and routine
- HIIT, strength training, and core workouts to rebuild power, stamina, and confidence
This is not about chasing an old version of myself.
This is about building a stronger one — deliberately.
The same intention applies to my skincare. I use a facial tool paired with targeted serum to help reduce acne scarring, and more importantly, I stay consistent. Not for perfection — but because I deserve to feel confident, radiant, and comfortable in my own skin as I move closer to my wedding day.
🌿 Supporting a Body That Carries Chronic Illness
I also stay consistent with my vitamins and supplements — not as a trend, but as part of managing real, lifelong conditions.
I live with PCOS.
I am in remission from endometriosis.
I manage anxiety, depression, and cPTSD daily.
My current regimen includes:
- Grüns gummy vitamins (available at Walmart — they also have kids versions)
- ProEstro (Amazon) to naturally support estrogen levels
- Genius Mushrooms
- Selenium
- Vitamin C
- Collagen
- Vitamin D
- Cranberry
- Magnesium
- Vitamin B complex
- Evening primrose oil
These supplements support hormone balance, cognition, focus, gut health, skin, sleep, and emotional regulation. This isn’t about chasing wellness perfection. It’s about keeping my body out of survival mode so I can function, create, and live fully.
If this helps even one person feel less alone in managing their health, then it’s worth sharing.
🐾 Vaccines, Immune Systems, and What People Get Wrong
Speaking of health and misunderstood topics, I want to address something that comes up often — vaccines in pets that appear to “fail.”
When a pet becomes sick or passes away shortly after receiving a vaccine, many people assume the vaccine itself is the cause. In most cases, that is not what is happening.
What’s actually happening is that the animal already has a compromised immune system or an underlying disease before they ever walk into the veterinary office. The vaccine does not create the illness — it reveals what was already present.
This is why it is so important for pets, especially those coming from shelters or unknown backgrounds, to receive a full exam before vaccination. Stress, malnutrition, parasites, or undiagnosed illness can significantly weaken an immune system.
There is also an important distinction between vaccine types.
Some vaccines are MLV (Modified Live Virus) vaccines. These contain a weakened but live form of the virus. In healthy animals, this is usually safe. However, animals with compromised immune systems — or animals that are pregnant — can become ill from exposure to these vaccines.
In rare cases, a compromised animal can even contract disease from close contact with another animal that was recently vaccinated with an MLV vaccine.
Because of this risk:
- Animals with compromised immune systems
- Pregnant animals
should only receive killed (inactivated) vaccines, which cannot replicate in the body.
This is not about being anti-vaccine.
This is about understanding immune status, timing, and choosing the correct vaccine type.
Education saves lives — panic does not.
🐾 Chaos, Humor, and Real Life
Because life is never just heavy, here’s something real and ridiculous.
I have two cats — Artemis and Zella — bottle babies I raise who are now fully grown and fully convinced they run the house. For reasons that defy logic, they despise the dogs. The dogs do nothing. They exist peacefully. And the cats are offended by that alone.
Recently, Zella follows me into the kitchen while I’m making food. She hops up onto the dining table, like she owns the place. When I finish up, I walk toward the hallway and hold the baby gate wide open, calmly calling her to come with me.
That’s when Phoenix notices her.
Zella launches herself from the dining table, flies through the air, hits the baby gate just long enough to use it as leverage, and then springs off it at full speed, disappearing down the hallway.
It happens so fast it doesn’t even feel real.
All I can do is stay calm and be incredibly grateful I’m holding the gate open — because if I wasn’t, at that speed she absolutely would have launched directly into me. 😂
Lesson learned:
The cats hate the dogs.
The dogs are innocent.
And I apparently live inside a cartoon.
🧠 Healing Makes You Visible — Especially to Narcissists
Now let’s talk about something people avoid talking about honestly.
Narcissists notice you when you start healing and succeeding. Especially when you are the only ex, friend, or family member who does not self-destruct — but instead rebuilds.
They know it.
They feel it.
They just refuse to admit it.
So they rewrite history.
They claim you are the crazy one.
They label you as dramatic.
They deny or minimize the unforgivable things they do and expect you to “get over it.”
They never admit fault. Ever.
Instead, they justify their behavior by making you the problem. When you speak the truth, they accuse you of running their name through the mud or starting a smear campaign — when the reality is simple: they don’t like that the truth exists.
They lie.
They isolate.
They drain your energy until you are depressed, confused, and exhausted.
They are energy vampires.
I deal with narcissists of every kind — friends, partners, family members, male and female — and the pattern is always the same.
With me, they now do one of two things:
- They suddenly claim they “have nothing but good things to say about me” — a lie meant to rewrite the past.
- Or they attempt to belittle me until they realize it no longer works — and then they disappear.
And that disappearance is not loss.
It is relief.
It is clarity.
It is peace.
💌 Staying Connected + Exclusive Offers
As part of this new season, I launch my SMS Text & Email Newsletter — a more intentional way to stay connected with the people who actually want to be here.
Anyone who signs up receives 10% off services automatically.
✨ Wedding Planning Special ✨
I am offering 25% off my normal wedding planning package rate if you:
- Follow me on Instagram
- Sign up for the SMS + Email newsletter
- Comment on the Instagram post featuring the mushroom photo
This is my way of saying thank you for supporting my journey — personally, creatively, and professionally.
🌱 Final Truth
Mushrooms remind me that growth happens quietly first. That decay is not failure — it is transformation. That life does not rush, but it always responds when the conditions are right.
Right now, the ground beneath me is alive.
And I am not waiting anymore.
The newsletter sign up form is below!
PS here is a couple images from the night Beau proposed at the top of the Mickey Mouse ferris wheel at California Adventure! And my 2025 recap video!
Love,
Sammy 🦋
A Metamorphosis Addiction 