Nine months later.

As many of you know, we lost my younger sibling and best friend, Austin, last summer. Austin was a vibrant soul, a warm companion, and a passionate advocate for the world.

If you’d like to help continue Austin’s vital work for our natural world, here’s a link: linktr.ee/austinkcgegel

If you can’t donate (I know times are hard), then now, as spring arrives, is a wonderful time to help local bees, butterflies, and other pollinators thrive by planting local flowers for them. Seeing these get planted all over the world in Austin’s memory and in continued support of Austin’s work has been so inspiring and uplifting during these tremendously difficult times.

As for me - I’m doing okay. Grief is a friend I sip tea with. We sit in the quiet and know each other.

In this season of rebirth, I’m hyper aware that some things end. There’s a lingering chill to this season that reminds me how lucky I was to stand in Austin’s sun. Spring comes anyway.

I miss you, bub.