Hello Friends,

I think today’s episode of Welcome to the Garden is so, so lovely because I’m chatting with one of my very favorite people in the whole wide world. Tanya O’Debra has been one of my dearest friends for two-and-a-half decades now (!), and we’ve seen each other through so very many joys; and some of the worst, most terrible heartbreaks.

Through it all, we’ve chosen to be family, and we’ve learned so much about love — especially the fact that love is a choice, and we get to choose how we want to love. We have and will always continue to help each other become the people we want to be.

So, we talk a lot in this episode about love and what we’ve learned together over the years.

Tanya also talks about her 25-year career as an independent artist in the New York City theater scene, how the institutions have changed, and why that played a part in her branching off into independent filmmaking. I’m especially excited for you to hear all about the movie she’s getting ready to make.

“It’s called half-pint,” Tanya tells us, “and it’s the story of an 11-year-old dork who pretends to be a vampire in order to scare the neighborhood bullies. And it’s very, very tender.”

It is. So tender! I got to read the script before our chat, and I had to just hug my phone when I finished because I love the story, and Tanya, and her main character, Darla, so much.

We talk a lot about other choices, too. What we choose to do in life, and the reasons it’s so important to make choices right now — in this current political landscape — even when none of the choices available seem like good ones.

Tanya reminds us of the importance of art, and storytelling, and why creation, in all its many forms, is vital right now. As I listened to our conversation over again, I felt inspired and hopeful, and I think you will too. And my goodness, hope sure is at a premium right now, isn’t it?

You’ll also hear about how you can help Tanya get this movie made!

“There is a crowdfunding campaign that people could donate to, if they so choose,” Tanya says.

“It feels weird to be asking people for money in this political landscape,” she adds, “but I also feel like, if we don’t have art and we don’t have stories, what do we have? I’m just not going to give this administration my whole life, you know what I mean? I’m going to keep living my life. They can’t have it.”

Hooray!

The link to Tanya’s crowdfunding campaign is here: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/tanya-o-debra/campaigns/7010?fbclid=IwY2xjawJsoZFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHq2Qm_cBtIVr9MTkxDV-OjNzcO2uiBohnrHpuZG6agHV-ML_R8Br63URvxlL_aem_y9MYre2WcwpBc3yEdPAzuw

And once you hear more about the script, I know you’re going to want to be a part of this project. Personally, I’ve never wanted to see a movie more in my entire life!

The story of this misfit girl standing up to bullies resonates so strongly right now, and is an empowering reminder that we who are different — who will be othered by those who are trying to force the world to be remade in this weird, creepy image — we are inherently in community with each other now. And we do have power over our own lives. We get to make choices. And we get to make art, and create things. And we get to keep loving each other.

So, friends, I hope you enjoy this conversation with my very dear friend Tanya, and I hope you leave this space feeling the same hope and inspiration I felt talking about all these many things.

I’m sending you all tons of love from here,

Jodie

p.s. Here’s the rest of the links we talked about:

✨ Tanya’s website is: http://tanyaodebra.com, where you can read all about her adventures in life and, under the Upcoming tab, read more about her film, half-pint. Be sure to sign up for her email newsletter while you’re there! Tanya is a prolific creator, and I’m sure you’ll want to keep up to date on everything she’s got planned.

🌱 In the episode, we mention another recent episode I did with my friend, Ade. You can listen to that episode here: https://jodiefletcher.substack.com/p/balancing-instead-of-bypassing-with

🐝 If you want to hear from me regularly, you can subscribe at: jodiefletcher.substack.com and you’ll receive each new episode of Welcome to the Garden, and each new issue of the companion newsletter, Notes from the Garden, right in your email inbox.

🦋 And if you’re interested in booking a reading with me or purchasing one of my books, you can find both those things on my website at www.thedevicconnection.com.

Thank you so much for listening, and I’m so glad you’re here!

💚 Did you know that on Substack you can comment on podcast episodes?! I’d love to hear if anything about my chat with Tanya really resonated for you! Feel free to comment and let me know!

Hello Friends,

In today’s episode of Welcome to the Garden, I’m chatting with my dear friend Ade, who is also known as Maid4luv, about balancing instead of bypassing, a topic we both happen to be realizing new depths of right now.

For various reasons, Ade and I have both been in hermit mode for a long, LONG time, and being isolated and doing spiritual work has allowed us to ignore the reality of the physical world and the needs of our physical bodies. Together, we traversed depths of our own, bringing pieces of our subconscious into the light, and coming to new understandings about our coping mechanisms, how they’ve hidden in our behaviors, manifested at different times, and kept us trapped in our own trauma.

ABOUT MAID4LUV: Ade is such a gifted healer and has a number of ways she serves her community. On her amazing YouTube channel, she does really in-depth and insightful tarot readings about love connections, brought through with such deep compassion. And in the meantime, she’s working as a holistic therapist, psychic medium, teacher, student and psychic surgeon. She’s also a therapist and trainer under the International Practioners of Holistic Medicine, a certified spirit release therapist, a Reiki Master and Munay Ki practitioner. And, on top of all of that, she has a PhD in human and social services with a specialty in online mental health interventions.

“I think the challenge for us now, especially those who have been in hermit mode for a long time, where you can really get lost in your head, is to practice being in your body and being present and not just for other people, but for yourself.” — Ade, aka Maid4luv

We talk about why boundaries are so important, for everyone, but especially if you have trauma, and how boundaries are an act of self love. And so, I want to include a gentle content warning about some of the topics we discuss, because we talk about the effects of physical and sexual trauma and assault, the ways trauma can make us feel as if our body is not our home, how that manifests in our discomfort with our bodies when doing everyday tasks such as bathing, and trauma in relationships that involves infidelity and miscarriage.

If any of these topics are triggering for you, practice boundaries and self love around this and give yourself whatever space you need. Perhaps this isn’t something you can hear right now, or maybe it’s something you need to listen to in short bits. Or maybe, it’s just what you need right now and, like it was for us, you’ll find yourself doing deep healing work as you listen. Pay attention to your body as you listen, because it will give you the cues to know how to proceed.

I hope you enjoy this conversation, and find it as healing to listen to as it was for us to speak out loud.

Sending wishes for a peaceful and harmonious season wherever you are in the world,

Jodie

p.s. Here are the links!

💕 Check out Ade’s website at: https://www.maid4luv.com/, where you can learn more about her work, book readings and healings, sign up for classes, purchase her beautiful oracle decks and find the perfect guided meditations for your own practice in balance! And while you’re there, be sure to sign up for her email list so you can find out about any new offerings she has available.

❤️ And of course, visit her on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@Maid4luv where she’s constantly uploading new lovingly-created and compassionate tarot readings for anyone seeking guidance on a love connection.

🐝 If you want to hear from me regularly, you can subscribe at: jodiefletcher.substack.com and you’ll receive each new episode of Welcome to the Garden, and each new issue of the companion newsletter, Notes from the Garden, right in your email inbox.

🦋 If you’re interested in booking a reading with me or purchasing one of my books, you can find both those things on my website at www.thedevicconnection.com.

Thank you so much for listening, and I’m so glad you’re here!

💚 Did you know that on Substack you can comment on podcast episodes?! I’d love to hear if anything about my chat with Ade really resonated for you! Feel free to comment and let me know!

Hello Friends,

Something new is happening on Welcome to the Garden, and I couldn’t be more excited to share it with you now! Sometime at the end of last year, I started thinking about how grateful I am for all the wonderful conversations I get to have with people whose thoughts and stories and lives never cease to inspire me.

And then I remembered, I have a podcast! Wouldn’t it be great to share some of these chats with you here?

And so, here we are, with the first-ever interview episode of Welcome to the Garden, where my friend Charlotte of Happy Souls 11:11 talks about all things happiness and healing. Charlotte is a psychic medium, Reiki Master, healing practitioner and spiritual teacher, so her credentials for this conversation are really top-notch! But I think it’s the candor and generosity of heart with which she shares her own experiences that make this an episode you won’t want to miss.

“If you have to boil down our life mission to one thing, surely being happy and at peace with yourself, whatever your circumstances, has to be the big ticket deal that we’re all seeking, ultimately,” Charlotte says. “And happiness looks different for all of us, but I think really it’s just a feeling within yourself of peace and contentment. If we had to define it, it’s just feeling good. Just waking up and not being bogged down by the heaviness of dread, terror, misery that may have, like me, stalked you throughout much of your life.”

At age 39, Charlotte had a spiritual awakening experience that catalyzed the healing work she’s done for herself and others ever since. But before that, Charlotte had a long history with depression and anxiety, suicidal thoughts and attempts, post-natal depression and what she describes as the “crushing burden” of parental guilt. After her awakening, Charlotte found herself delving into the realms of spiritual healing, following her inner guidance and studying several different modalities, and finally finding peace and healing around some of the issues that had deeply challenged her for most of her life.

“That first year I couldn’t get enough,” she says. “I dug into it all.”

Though she continues to have experiences of suffering — and, of course, don’t we all? — Charlotte says she has never again been truly unhappy, and wants others to know that even as we face the things that challenge us to our core, we can still really, truly find happiness through it all.

Join us as Charlotte describes how her journey of studying and practicing healing has changed every aspect of her life, and how it’s led her to her current work where she helps others cultivate happiness in their own lives!

Sending healing light from these snowy shores,

Jodie

p.s. Here’s some links:

🦋 Be sure to check out Charlotte’s website at www.happysouls1111.com, and don’t forget to sign up for her mailing list while you’re there. She regularly announces when she’s available for readings, offering new services, teaching classes and workshops, hosting monthly meditations and more.

🐝 If Charlotte’s story about past-life regression and Quantum Healing Hypnosis Therapy sparked your interest, here’s the link for Lorna Wilson’s website: https://lornawilsonqhhthealing.co.uk/

🌳 I wrote a bit about the podcast’s new direction in the recent issue of Notes from the Garden. In case you missed it, you can find out more in the section titled “A brief bit of housekeeping”: https://jodiefletcher.substack.com/p/my-very-bad-case-of-the-januaries

🌱 In case you’re finding yourself here for the first time, my name is Jodie Fletcher and I’m a writer, psychic, gardener and all-around spiritual seeker, and Welcome to the Garden, and it’s companion newsletter Notes from the Garden, are the places where I share what I’m learning and how I’m growing. You can find both at jodiefletcher.substack.com.

✨ If you’re interested in booking a reading with me or purchasing one of my books, you can find both those things on my website at www.thedevicconnection.com.

Thank you so much for listening, and I’m so glad you’re here!

Hello Friends,

This is a bit of a different episode of Welcome to the Garden, as you'll hear when you listen, because this story includes A LOT of photos. They're not necessary, but I do think they're incredibly adorable, so if you'd like to experience the full joy of Ginger's Gotcha Day, click through to Substack here: jodiefletcher.substack.com, and click on the post "How Ginger found her way home."

Hope this finds you all well!

Sending love and light from here, Jodie

Hello Friends,

I had a completely different episode planned, and had a really good start on writing it. And then I got pulled in a completely different direction. My inner guidance led me into an old journal entry from about six years ago, when I was getting ready to launch the earliest version of The Devic Connection website, and I was so comforted and encouraged by the words of advice I received when I tuned in and asked for guidance that I wanted to share a bit of it with you today.

I’m feeling more and more called back into some of the fundamentals of what I was learning back then, when I was first training to do psychic readings. The practices — and holy mackerel, did I practice — were so grounded, and so healing for me. Lately, I’ve been guided to share more of the messages I received at that time, and I’m looking forward to revisiting them, and seeing what I’m meant to learn from them now.

I’ll be sharing these with paying readers on Substack, once a week, with exercises and visualizations from the Light to help us all access our inner guidance with more clarity. If you’d like to come along on that journey, go to jodiefletcher.substack.com and click the subscribe button at the top of the page.

I hope this episode finds you well! I’m sending lots of love and light from here,

Jodie

p.s. Here’s the links I mentioned in the episode:

To book a 1:1 reading, visit https://www.thedevicconnection.com/schedule-a-reading-calendar.

To get a copy of my book, The Journal of a Spiritual Seeker, visit https://www.thedevicconnection.com/shop/the-journal-of-a-spiritual-seeker

And also, my newest book, Beautiful Death is available too, so here’s that link, if you’re interested: https://www.thedevicconnection.com/shop/beautiful-death 

Hello Friends,

I say everything is a past-life thing, but perhaps past lives aren’t your thing and, if so, feel free to skip this one and come back next week for more photos of flowers, and maybe a bit of news about how smart our dog is. But for many of us, this idea that we’ve lived many, many lives throughout many, many times resonates deeply as truth.

And while there are so very many things we experience and feel through the course of our lives that have nothing to do with lives we might’ve lived another time, I so regularly come across these “past-life things” that I felt it might be useful to chat about it here.

In this week’s episode, I share some of the things I’ve learned in my exploration of spirituality about past lives and karma and why these energies feel so compelling, even — or maybe especially — if we have no memories of the lives we’re feeling the feelings from and no context for understanding why we’re feeling the way we do.

When I tune in to do a reading, there’s an energetic signature to some things that I have just come to understand as a “past-life thing,” and for me personally, it’s always helped to know that. When it’s something we’re experiencing because we’ve stored these energies in our systems from various other existences and lifetimes, sometimes we can address them and heal them more quickly just by knowing that’s what’s happening. And sometimes these things take years to unravel and unfold, and they continue to come up in layers over our lifetime. I find reminding myself what the root of these feelings and issues is helps me keep perspective, and not get too overwhelmed by the energies when they appear. They always come up because they’re ready to heal and, as intense as that might be, it’s also a really good thing.

I hope this episode helps if you’ve been experiencing some of these things coming up, and feeling all the intensity that comes along with it!

Thanks so much for listening!

Sending love and light,

Jodie

To book a 1:1 reading, visit https://www.thedevicconnection.com/schedule-a-reading-calendar.

To get a copy of my book, The Journal of a Spiritual Seeker, visit https://www.thedevicconnection.com/shop/the-journal-of-a-spiritual-seeker

And also, my newest book, Beautiful Death is available too, so here’s that link, if you’re interested: https://www.thedevicconnection.com/shop/beautiful-death 

Hello Friends,

Last week, in my Notes from the Garden post, I talked about how joy expands our capacity to hold grief. And this week, as I started thinking about all the many things I’m deeply grateful for, I realized that grief also expands our capacity for joy.

I think we can be enormously grateful for things, even without our hardest experiences. But I thing that our hardest experiences expand the space we have within for gratitude. At least that’s how it’s worked for me.

Here’s a little ramble through what I’m grateful for as I prepare for a little midsummer reset. There are things I’ve let slip — like my morning routine — that I really feel better when I hold sacred. So tomorrow, because it didn’t happen today, I’m going to get going on that reset!

I hope this finds you all well, and I’m sending so much love from here,

Jodie

p.s. Here’s the link I mentioned for my book, Beautiful Death, too. https://www.thedevicconnection.com/shop/beautiful-death

And the link to the Notes from the Garden post with pictures and videos from our walks: https://jodiefletcher.substack.com/p/a-couple-of-really-great-walks

Hello Friends,

This week, as I was thinking about what I’m learning, my thoughts were full of moments I’ve shared with our dog, Ginger. She’s wonderful, and adorable, and has helped me learn so much more about considering others and communicating, and I thought you guys might enjoy hearing about it.

I hope you enjoy this episode! If you’d like to see photos of our walks together, I share lots of them in my stories on Instagram, where my handle is thedevicconnection.

I also mentioned in the episode that I’m packing up the first of the pre-orders of my new book, Beautiful Death, and sending them out into the world. It’s so exciting for it to feel real, and truly done. If you’d like to order a copy now that it’s out, here’s the link: https://www.thedevicconnection.com/shop/beautiful-death

I hope this finds you all well! Things here are settling into a mid-summer flow of tending and maintaining, and I’m looking forward to sharing some more garden love with you all soon!

Sending lots of love and light,

Jodie

Hello Friends,

Last week, I was writing this podcast episode all about blockages because I’d run into so many blocks within as I tried desperately to finish my book. And then, almost miraculously, I stopped writing the podcast and instead finished the book! Except it wasn’t a miracle at all, it was just doing the work of dismantling the walls that were in my way, one brick and one stone at a time.

I thought it might be useful to share this story with you, in case you’re working through some of your own energetic blockages. I’ve done a lot of this work over the years, and employed a lot of different tools. And along the way, it’s gotten easier to recognize the blockages, at least, even if they’re still somewhat tricky to dismantle at times.

So today, I’m happy to talk about some of my favorite of those tools, and I’m also incredibly happy to tell you that copies of my book, Beautiful Death, will be arriving here this week and I will then begin packing them up and sending them out. If you’d like a copy, here’s the link: https://www.thedevicconnection.com/shop/beautiful-death

I hope this finds you all well, and that things in your neck of the woods are progressing swimmingly!

Sending lots of love and light from here,

Jodie

Hello Friends,

I’ve just been so mean to myself lately! And I’m becoming aware of how much my self-criticism and, actually, my cruelty to myself is affecting everything. It’s like a slime over everything.

My awareness of a thing that needs a bit of healing attention is usually enough to shift the energies, but this time, it doesn’t seem to be doing the trick. I can recognize these thoughts as I’m having them, but they continue to play in a loop even after I think, “that’s not very nice.” So I asked within what I could do, and received this simple exercise from my inner guidance. Every night, before bed, I’m to list five nice things about myself.

The exercise is brand new, I’ve only done it for two nights so far, but I think it’s already beginning to shift something because I’ve woken up feeling better these last couple of mornings.

I wanted to share this with you, in case you’re being super mean to yourself too. I am really looking forward to this next layer of healing, because it feels long overdue. And also because I think it will really make a big difference.

I hope this finds you well!

Sending lots of love and light,

Jodie

p.s. Here’s the link I mentioned to the pre-order page for my book, Beautiful Death, which is coming out really soon! https://www.thedevicconnection.com/shop/beautiful-death