I first encountered Amanda Ritchie’s writing when she commented on a Wellness Almanac blog post. I followed her kind comment to her website and fell into a well of beautiful writing, full of words that made me lean in closer and hunger for more.

I’m so happy she gave permission to share this recent poem, what she calls “a little something I wrote as I was on my way home, getting into Whistler and seeing my Nation’s traditional territory.”

I have dreams of crawling through caves
Where I can’t see the end
I fear there isn’t enough air
I dream of climbing hills
Almost too steep to climb
It has never been easy
But I once dreamed of a guide
It’s a secret I will never tell again
They stood there with me on the hills
I dreamed once that I made it to the top
I looked in the mirror
My hair was green
And my eyes were green
A reflection of the life that surrounded me
Now I stand in the middle of a city
The air is not clean
The people don’t see the life that was in me
I am searching for that green girl
But she has to find herself at home
In the grass
In the trees
Drinking the water from the creek
Running through the trails
A wolf
It’s her
She still lives
She still sings
She is still a part of that Land

~ by Amanda Ritchie

I’m even happier to share that she is about to step into the role of guest editor for the Wellness Almanac for the next few weeks. She’ll be posting to the website and sharing things on instagram. And I will let her introduce herself to you all tomorrow. 

Please follow her journey over the coming weeks as she shares with us, and lift her up, as you have lifted me and our other contributors up.