Leisha We did it!
Seven days of intensity, observation, learning, questioning, and remembering.
The intention of this workshop was never simply to teach people how to look at blood. It was to invite each participant to see health through a different lens. To step outside of the germ theory paradigm and into one that recognizes the incredible intelligence of the human body. A perspective rooted in faith, trust, and the body’s innate capacity to heal when we create the conditions for it to do so.
Over these seven days we immersed ourselves in live blood analysis, dried blood analysis, pH, physiology, terrain, the microbiome, the soil food web, nature, doshas, and the Seven Pathway Analysis. We explored how every observation in the blood is part of a larger story, not something to fear, but something to understand.
By the end of the workshop, every participant was confidently preparing and examining their own blood and beginning to interpret what they were seeing. That, to me, is incredibly empowering. They were no longer looking for “markers” or “indicators” of disease. They were learning to listen. The blood became a messenger, a guidepost, and a reflection of the body’s ongoing conversation with its environment.
Again and again, we returned to the same truth. We cannot truly understand human health without understanding the living world around us. The microbiome within us is inseparable from the microbiome beneath our feet. The health of our soil, our food, our plants, our water, and our communities all become part of the story written in a single drop of blood. When we begin to understand nature outside of us, we begin to understand nature within us.
Tomorrow we share one final breakfast together before everyone returns home. We will choose herbs based on each person’s dosha qualities and their Seven Pathway Analysis, bringing everything we have learned back into daily practice in a simple, practical, and deeply personal way.
This was our very first workshop of this kind, and there will be many more. I truly feel that something shifted this week. The tipping point has tipped, and I can now see the Project Site becoming something far greater than I had imagined. It is evolving into a place of self-reliance, learning, observation, and hope. A place where people can reconnect with nature, understand their own biology, and discover what is possible when we support the body’s natural wisdom instead of fighting against it.
I could not be more proud of our team. Their endurance, kindness, attention to detail, willingness to learn, and genuine care for every participant created an environment where this work could flourish. They poured themselves into every meal, every conversation, every task, and every long day. Living Ground is becoming what it is because of all of us.
As for me, I finish this week feeling blessed, exhausted, humbled, and more motivated than ever. There is still so much to build, so much to share, and so much to learn. If this first workshop is any indication of what lies ahead, then I believe we are only at the beginning of something very special.
One of the unexpected gifts of the week was welcoming two new members to the Living Ground family. Oliver came to us needing a home, while the other simply appeared one day, skinny, abandoned, and clearly in need of some food, kindness, and a safe place to rest. We couldn’t have planned it any better. They spent the entire week wandering among the gardens, visiting the workshop, greeting participants, accepting endless pats, and reminding us that healing isn’t just about people. It’s about creating a place where every living being feels safe enough to belong. Funny Face and Oliver have already made themselves at home, and I have a feeling they knew exactly where they were meant to end up.
