I encourage you to write to me whether I know you or not. I will post commentaries and updates to the newsletter. Yes, the same thing is on my blog on my website, but I want more than anything a relationship with you. You may read one of the newsletters when you can or even more. The point here is TRUST. I don’t want to slam duck you with sales pitches, sales funnel or all the marketing “tricks” that get us to click and subscribe, buy or attend. I want a relationship with you, so I don’t mind taking the time this requires.

I met Yolanda in February 2012 in Florida. She came over from England to attend a Quantum Wave Laser Workshop. I had bought one too and was there for the same reason.  I met her friend who was initially from New York, married an Englishman and stayed in England. But it is Yolanda and me that are continuing our friendship.

Back then, she was talking about a piece of property, she and her husband, Dean, had just purchased. It was in Galicia, Spain. I was intrigued because I knew I was going to walk The Camino de Santiago someday and her property was not too far from Sarria, one of the towns on The Camino.

I stayed with her husband and her for a few days in Spring, 2015. Hard-to-believe it’s been that long, but it has.  Today, I wanted to share what she wrote regarding my last blog – “Make Your Dreams Happen.”   And, when she is ready to tell her story, I’ll be there to see if she wants me to record her voice, or put her pen and ink into a softbound book. Our stories matter and they are worth telling and placing into books. ~ Beth

Yolanda Dolling.

“I’ve been thinking about you lately, and this message prompted me to get in touch.  As you know, I’ve been living my dream here in Galicia for a few years now.  We now have a beautiful cob house, and we are off-grid and grow much of our own food. We’ve talked a little about me sharing my story, and I’ve been kind of reticent as I wonder why anyone would want to know about my life, but then I remembered that it’s not my dream I’m living here really – it’s the dream of the land.  The story I want to share is the story of this land, but I’m not able to tell it yet.

In the ancient world, before the Roman conquest, Galicia was known as Ophiusus, the Land of Serpents.  The people who lived here were the Ophiusi and the Dragoni, the snake people and the dragon people.  There is nothing sinister about this, and it is unlikely that they worshipped snakes or reptiles.  It is much more likely that they know something about the telluric currents of the earth and the geomagnetic lines that run through here, that are lost to us today.  But not completely lost.  One rainy day, I discovered that the unusual rocks, greenish in the rain, with white veins, were serpentinite. I then found that we live on what is known as the eastern Galicia magnetic anomaly.  The petroglyphs all around here depict spirals and serpent-like forms – how did the ancients know this?  They had no written language, yet were they trying to tell us something?

I felt a deep calling to this place, perhaps like you are feeling to the San Juan Islands and I’ve never felt so at home in all my life, even though I have no known history here and I don’t even speak the language.  Not long after moving here I set up a non-profit organization, going under the name of Permaculture and Alchemy of Galicia, to run retreats centered on healing and regeneration – I had no idea why I decided to use the word alchemy at the time.  Now, five years on (to the day, as I write this) I’m learning how to use my senses and imagination as the ancient alchemists would have done, to learn the story of the land and retell it, so we can get back into balance with nature to regenerate ourselves and our environment.  That’s what I’m teaching in retreats here now and slowly, but surely the story of this place is coming to life.

If you’d like to share this, please do.  Here is a link to the retreat program on my site, which would be great if you’d like to include it: Permaculture-Alchemy Retreats in Spain.

Love always,

Yolanda “