Hi friends,
I just wanted to introduce myself and tell you a little about me and how I got started.
I am a mother of three wonderful handsome sons, step mother to three lovely daughters and the wife of a very lucky husband. I am from Oklahoma originally, but my Gypsy soul was handed down to me naturally. I grew up between Spearfish South Dakota and Cody Wyoming. I am a writer, professional photographer, outdoor enthusiast and self taught botanist. I’m a lover of plants, music, cooking, gardening and jeeps.
Most of my adult life consisted of accepting the fact that I was a vagabond, my gypsy soul couldn’t decide where I belonged. While I grew up between South Dakota and Wyoming, my gypsy soul still had strong roots in Oklahoma. My nomad genes had to decide where to put down roots. Just like that my life took a different path. My youngest son was born with a rare disease seventeen years ago. Having a critically ill child changed my life in some ways I can’t explain, yet in others, it opened me up to being more aware of my surroundings and the beauty that life has to offer. What I get from Mother Nature and this beautiful thing called life is beyond amazing. I have learned so many things about what Mother Nature has to offer us when it comes to the natural way of living. I thrive on what she has to offer me and the little messages that I receive from her and our beautiful planet. I think we can all relate to wondering what it is we're supposed to do. Do we just figure it out along our journey or is it instilled in us?
I knew from a very young age that I had a love for nature and plants. I had no idea that I would fall in love with researching and educating myself on plants to the point that it's insane how much knowledge I have acquired in this field. I never pictured myself as a young woman being a self taught botanist.
Ten years ago my young son and I moved to Utah to continue our journey, fighting a rare syndrome. Then in 2018 I found myself and my health jumping on this crazy health train and not understanding why my health was failing. It's taken me six years to finally start getting some answers but yet not quite all the right answers. When you have chronic health issues it’s a rollercoaster trying to navigate the medical appointments and just trying to get a diagnosis that sometimes doesn’t come. It took me seventeen and a half years to finally get a diagnosis for my son and for myself unfortunately. I’m still fighting.
I worked for a nursery in Wyoming and continued that journey while in Utah for several years. I have a medical degree in Phlebotomy and am an EKG technician but decided to not work in that field as we've spent lots of time in hospitals over the last seventeen and a half years. My love for plants is pretty intense, my knowledge in the plant field is insane. I find myself constantly studying this field and can tell you just about anything about any plant. I’ve always loved the holistic approach to living but hadn’t ever thought about just jumping into it.
A couple months ago I was diagnosed with an amino acid deficiency and have had severe health issues and allergies from a Systemic Mast Cell disease that plagues my life. During this journey I started developing nerve pain. While weaning myself off of a medicine to treat my nerve pain I decided that I was going to jump into my books and educate myself more on the beauty of natural healing with herbs. While doing so, I created my own Proprietary nerve tonic. I realized that I had this wasted talent, the knowledge of so many plants and their medicinal purposes just hanging out in my mind. And going through this journey with not only my health but my son’s and knowing that he’s defied the odds and soon he will be 18 and will be living on his own caring for his own health needs. I often wondered over the years what I would do with myself once he is able to care for his own health needs. I suspected I'd have a mental breakdown. Then one day I found myself formulating all of these wonderful teas and throwing myself into this amazing thing that has lingered in my brain. The knowledge that I have for plants was being wasted. Why not start making my own herbal teas and sharing them with the world. My signature attributes depend on my origin and where I’m from and who I’ve become. Very similar to a tea’s signature attributes, depending upon its origin as well, determines the variety and the taste. Why not make that my vision, the purity of flavor, the lasting taste of my awakening self, to throw myself into this expedition per say. To allow myself to focus on this instead of having to focus on a critically ill child. And here I am and just like that it’s my time.
It’s tea time. -Gypsy Hollar