Laughter and Lessons:
4 Years of Anahata’s Purpose
What if a podcast about witches could lead to a new life? Join us as we recount the whimsical and transformative tales from four years of attending Anahata's Purpose, a journey that began with fear and bloomed into a cherished annual tradition. Discover how unexpected friendships with people like Charlye, Macy, and Lera turned anxiety into laughter and joy, enriched by moments like humorous hornet invasions and impromptu singalongs at the festival. From the delightful discovery of Wawa and pita day to the heartwarming games at Hive House, these adventures have become a tapestry of growth, connection, and community.
Laugh alongside us as we share the quirky episode of mistaken identity at the Philadelphia airport, where confusion led to a delightful lunch with Leah, a newfound friend. Navigate the challenges of vending in sweltering conditions that sparked newfound confidence, and witness the courage it took to overcome imposter syndrome and teach a first class, encouraged by the bees' unwavering support. Each story, from waking up a friend in a bunk bed to sharing the family farm with chosen family, is woven with warmth, humor, and the magic of connection. These aren't just tales of a festival; they're stories of personal transformation and the creation of a chosen family that feels like home.
Grandpa Kimothy: 0:04
Welcome back to your Average Witch, where, every Tuesday, we talk about witch life, witch stories and sometimes a little witchcraft. Your Average Witch is brought to you by Crepuscular Conjuration. I’ve got a little news before I get started with this week’s episode. Thing number one is: remember that I have a jewelry business? I make jewelry and altar tools for witches in my shop, Clever Kim’s Curios. I also have had several pieces used on TV shows like Charmed and The Young and the Restless because I belong to an artist co-op called The Artisan Group (theartisangroup.org if you want to look into joining). We also send gift bags to celebrities, and one of the celebrities we gifted was Her Highness, Stevie Nicks. You may have seen her latest music video for her new song called The Lighthouse. If you did, then you have seen the necklace that I sent her, because she’s wearing it in the video! Stevie Nicks wore jewelry that I made in her latest music video! And it’s a badass song about women’s rights, too, which makes it even more cool. You can buy the necklace from my website if you’re interested, just go to cleverkimscurios.com and look for the Full Moon and Stars necklace. Speaking of my jewelry business, thing number two is that I’m going to be vending at a local event called The Witches’ Bazaar here in Tucson. It’s on Saturday October 12 from noon to 6, at 1674 Research Loop, Suite 430. Come see what cool stuff I have for sale, and there will be a bunch of other vendors. There will be divination, different kinds of readers you can come visit and shop with. So come check us out.
So now for this week’s episode! It’s just going to be me this week, telling you how I can track how I’ve grown over the past 4 years based on the number of hugs I get at Anahata’s Purpose. That said- now let’s get to the stories!
So in 2021, just, we were still in COVID, let's not pretend Still COVID.
Grandpa Kimothy: 1:34
I wrote post-COVID, but you know what? It was still COVID. I was still afraid, but for some reason I just decided this was the year and Charlye and Macy were talking about it and I don't have a memory of this. But I know. What happened was I just, spur of the moment, went and bought a ticket so I wouldn't have a choice. It's kind of like how I trick myself into leaving the house. If I can get my shoes on and get into the car, then I'll go. If I can get my shoes on and get into the car, then I'll go. But I have to trick my brain into not realizing I'm putting my shoes on. It's dumb. The same thing happened here. So I get there. I'm terrified. I cried the entire first day, didn't go to any classes. I cried so much that I made myself physically ill. Didn't go to any classes. I cried so much that I made myself physically ill and that introduced me to some people because I had to ask for help. So yay for my anxiety. I guess because it let me open up enough that I had to ask for help and they stepped up the people there. Thank you, melanie, for that, the pill that you gave me. That meant I could leave the bathroom vicinity. I appreciate that a lot.
Grandpa Kimothy: 3:00
I mainly stayed on the outskirts. That year I did manage to interview several people. So if you go back to I think it was season one, 15 Witches and my First Time, that is my favorite Anahata's episode you can see what it was like for me and for the other people. After that I introduced Rachel to Marco Polo, and then it became A Thing. The Marco Polo group has played a huge part of the way Anahatas has grown, at least in my community, and it's helped us get really close when we're not at Anahata's. So, marco polo is great if you're looking away to build community. That is one way to keep in touch because it gives you that face-to-face contact that email and facebook just don't give you. So before I went, and actually up until about the second day, I heard people talking about how this is a thing they do every year and I thought who, who can, who, who can do, who can travel across the country every year? Who does that? By the end of the weekend it was me. I am coming back every year.
Grandpa Kimothy: 4:28
So some key memories. One of the first big memories I have was meeting Charlye and Macy for the first time outside Bethany and it was dark and it was very odd. We were all exhausted, even them. Everybody was exhausted and just sort of already taken over by the strange magic that Innabah set us while we were there. I went to the cabin and that night we had a hornet invasion because the, I don't know, the hornets were really into lights and we had lights on. The cabin filled with hornets. I ended up just putting up sheets. I was on a lower bank bunk so I put sheets around, build myself a little thing and went to sleep because I felt terrible, because I've been crying the whole day. I just didn't feel good. That was in Friend ship cabin and friendship is what grew and I am very thankful for the people in that cabin for accepting me. It was great.
Grandpa Kimothy: 5:38
Another thing I really loved was pita day. I was introduced to the most beautiful soft, pillowy pita with delicious hummus and I think it had falafel. Thank you, John, for making that happen in my life. It's one of my favorite parts of Anahata's. When I was doing interviews, I was in Charlye's room interviewing her and Lera burst in. That is one of my favorite memories of life and nobody knows why except me and Lera and Charlye, and it's going to stay that. I remember crying in the river.. I, oh gosh, the fire, the epic rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, where everyone just organically started singing the song. It was wonderful, and the moment when I accidentally almost killed Charlye with a TastyK ake coffee cake during that event. I remember being introduced to Wawa. Thank you, Amberleigh, for stopping there and letting me experience the joy and glory of Wawa.
Grandpa Kimothy: 7:05
I didn't buy a festival knife that year, so for the entire rest of that year, up until I got back to Anahata's, I regretted not buying a festival knife from Warpath. I didn't go to any classes, but I did go to the WBAH Live and it was really fun. I did not accept or ask for hugs, because I don't really like being touched, and so that was my first Anahata's and it was great and I couldn't wait to go back. So the entire rest of the next year I spent obsessing over Anahata's Purpose and trying to figure out how to get people there who were important to me. So 2022.
Grandpa Kimothy: 7:58
By this point, Hive House, my own marco group, Hive House had gotten really close. We were a family and I was really excited to meet my Crow sisters, Jayne and Sarah, and hang out with them. I met Corey in person-b ecause Corey and I had not met in person until 2022, which is wild to think about, because it really feels like we are cousins. And that I've known Corey forever. We have not. The giant hugs that I got from Corey made my life better, and that year I roomed with Corey, Charlye and one other person who was new to us.
Grandpa Kimothy: 8:43
We were lucky and had a very small room. We stayed in Bethany. It had beautiful air conditioning and a more private bathroom. That was only for the people in the room, it was not the entire campground. I think I took a couple of classes because Corey brought me a chair. Oh, the light situation. I remember that the lights in Bethany are giant fluorescent lights and they're so bright and just lean on you, and so I said, hey, Corey, can you please bring a small lamp? And that was apparently funny, but it's important. Oh, and as soon as I saw Warpath was open, I went and bought my knife. I don't even think the festival, I don't even think Anahata's had officially started yet, but I was like I need to do this now. Please can I have this? Some key memories for 2022.
Grandpa Kimothy: 9:48
I have since had both my hips replaced, but at this point my hip was terrible and it was very hard for me to leave the room because it was, it's pretty hilly at Innabah and it was hard for me to get around without severe pain and I just I didn't. I mostly stayed in the room and stayed very close to the main buildings. I tried edibles for the first time. I got too high. I was, and I did the thing where you're like, oh, I'm going to have this and I ate one and waited for an hour and a half and nothing happened, and so I was like whatever. And then I ate like another. And then I went to the Two Geminis and a Leo live and halfway through that I got tunnel vision and thought the world was coming to an end and I thought, am I time traveling? And then remembered that I took an edible, loudly whispered to Corey "I accidentally got really high and then I went and laid in bed for like three hours. I don't recommend that. Don't get really high, it's a misery, it's not fun.
Grandpa Kimothy: 11:10
I remember seeing Sarah two separate occasions. I have Sarah memories. Actually, on one I was sitting in the swings just chilling by myself because I was tired and Sarah came over and sat in a swing and they're not close, they're like between five and 10 feet apart and I could tell she was going through some shit and I said you went to one of those inner child classes, huh? And she said yes, and so I left her alone and she worked through her feelings and I thought good for you. And another one I was sitting in the field, I think before the WBAH live, Corey had brought me the chair and I saw Sarah and I yelled Sarah and her face lit up when someone recognized her from across the lawn. And I hold that in my heart, Sarah, I love you.
Grandpa Kimothy: 12:10
There was a band called Snack Time and you know I'm a Taurus, I love some snacks, and somehow we decided that we were going to all bring regional snacks and the one that I brought was mango suckers, except, surprise, I think they had Tajin on the outside and so no one expected that and they were kind of... I accidentally pranked everyone with hot candy. There was an entity that harassed people that year on the hill up in the camping ground and in our room, in my room... rude. I remember smoke cleansing... Corey got his mouth harp and and a smoke bundle and he smoke cleansed everyone after the insanity that happened in our room that night, and Lera was there and I got to witness some really interesting magical things with them. L ots more hugs, lots more classes.
Grandpa Kimothy: 13:17
My favorite memory of 2022 is accidentally scaring Charlye awake. Because was, I, I sleep very poorly and so the slightest sound wakes me up, even though we had a giant fan in the room. Thank you, Thank you, Corey, also, for pointing out this year that the reason every small sound wakes me up is because I'm hypervigilant, because of trauma. How fun is that to find out? Thanks, military.
Grandpa Kimothy: 13:48
Anyway, Charlye was snoring a little bit and she said before, she said hey, if I snore, just call my name and I usually will roll over. So I did. I sat up and I said Charlye, and she did not wake up and so I crawled to the end of... So the setup was, Charlye was in a bunk bed with her head facing the north wall. I don't know if it was whatever, I'm just going to use it so you can tell directions. I was in the bed with my head facing the south wall, so our feet, if we had been close enough, would have touched, but that's, our feet were facing one another. So I crawled to the end of my bed, closer to her, and said Charlye. She still didn't wake up. And I crept to the foot of her bed and I said Charlye, and by this point the neighbor, the other person who was in our room, had woken up and was watching this happen. Charlye still didn't wake up. So I walked to the head of her bed and, because I don't know if Charlye swings when you wake her up suddenly, I hid sort of behind the head of the bed, because it's a bunk bed. Like if she was going to swing, she was going to clock the headboard first. And I peeked my head around the headboard where my head was right in front of hers, and I said Charlye, at which point she screamed WHAT!? Because she was, she was woken up by a terrifying figure looming over her in the dark in a strange room, and so that was scary for her, and we both profusely apologized for like three minutes to each other. Her for screaming and for snoring, and me for waking her up in a terrifying fashion. I heard the person who was rooming with us giggle the entire time. Corey said later on that he heard the scream. It woke him up. He was awake for a fraction of a second, didn't hear any more screaming, so he just went back to sleep. Favorite 22, maybe... that might be my favorite Anahata's memory period.
Grandpa Kimothy: 16:27
So 2023, last year, Hive House was definitely a thing. There was actually an entire cabin for Hive House. I stayed in Covenant with no air conditioning, which made me want to die because 2023 was the year that it was in the nineties and raining the whole time. It was so hot. I was vending. It was the first time I decided to vend. We were vending out of the shop, which was kind of like a little oven because it was made of cinder block and all the heat just absorbed all day and then, towards the afternoon, would just radiate heat on us like a little oven. It was so hot. It was so hot that I gave up on wearing normal clothes and just wore shorts and a sports bra the entire weekend, which is not something I do. I am thankful for that misery because it helped me give less of a shit about what you think about my body, because, bitch, I'm hot.
Grandpa Kimothy: 17:24
It's also the first year that some part of my actual family came. M y niece, Simone, came, and she roomed with me, and it was Kat, Andrea, Corey, Simone and myself in this room and it was wonderful. It was a very small room, very small, but it was so... I really enjoyed hanging out with them in that room. It was really fun. So key memories from 2023. Laying in bed the night that it rained the concert out and basically everybody came back and we were just having a good time chilling out and talking crap in the room and it was just so great. We just laid there and giggled the whole time and it was just so great. We just laid there and giggled the whole time. Another favorite memory is the entire table full of Bees at the WBAH Live. We packed it. Lots of wonderful moments from the road trip up with Sarah and Jayne. My graaaaaaaaaapes!
Grandpa Kimothy: 18:36
The way my heart rate was unbelievably high after just going into Buc-cee's and then coming back out because it was so frenetic and insane in there. The way all three of us at Sarah's house woke up at like four in the morning, excited to go, and we just in our individual rooms because we weren't rooming together. We all just played on instagram until we noticed the other two people were awake and we would send each other funny reels and then we finally just said let's get up and go because we're awake and ready. I remember the way the sunlight shone through the jewels hanging in the window of my bedroom at the farm and getting to share my family farm, which is a heart place for me, one of my heart stones, touchstone place with my chosen family, and I'm really glad they get to experience that. Another favorite memory is playing Is it Porn? on the porch of Hive House that night. I remember seeing Jayne almost explode with frustration and excitement when she realized she is able to hear her intuition and, over the past year, watching her work on that and learn to trust it. And the very hard and tearful goodbye at the end, when I thought I wasn't going to get to say goodbye to Rachel because I had to leave to catch my plane and she was getting ready for something, but Corey found her for me and I got to get a good hug and cry all over her. And then we come to this year.
Grandpa Kimothy: 20:33
I taught my first class. I was supposed to teach a class last year, but my imposter syndrome constantly tells me that I do not have anything to contribute or anything worth sharing, and it went out last year, but this year I did it. Charlye suggested that I teach a class in 2021. As we were getting ready to leave and we were in front of Webster, she said you should run a class called Intuition with Kim. This is before, it was, when I was Mama Kim and not Grandpa, but I did it this year. I taught a class on what I thought was intuition, but it turned out no, it's about creating your own correspondences. I have since fixed that. By the way, if you took the class, I'm sorry if you expected more intuition work. I did too, but it's correspondence, sorry.
Grandpa Kimothy: 21:28
I got to watch my little family of bees grow in numbers and in confidence and in their magical practices. I love the way we all congregated around the Hive House tent because Sarah and I vended together and that just became where everybody hung out. It was really lovely to have people I care about stop by just to say hi, whether it was Rachel or the Queen Beans or Corey or quiet people who don't tell me what their names are, but they say they love this podcast and then it gives them hope that they're doing it right after all. I love you and thank you for coming to tell me that. I remember Hug Granddad Day because I made, I'm wearing it right now actually, it says get a hug from grandpa. I volunteered to hug people this year, which never in a million years did I think that would happen in 2021. I ran all over the place. Now that I have two robot hips, I was able to literally run up the hill. I got to introduce an old friend to my new friends. Darlina, who a lot of you met and hopefully all of you love now. I'm so glad that you trusted me enough to number one, join Marco and jump into our Hive headfirst, and number two, you trusted me enough to come all the way across the country to a campground in the woods with people you’ve never met before. I love you and I’m thankful that you’re back in my life.
Grandpa Kimothy: 22:57
And some key memories… and some key memories. Some key memories of 2024, getting off the plane in Denver and seeing Darlina, after more than 10 years apart, and it felt like no time had passed. We just immediately fell back into talking and hanging out. And watching Darlena get teary-eyed because Andrea's house welcomed her in a way that she could feel. The exhilaration I felt, because the house welcomed me too. I remember how amazingly good the breakfast was that Andrea cooked for us, and feeling and seeing Andrea's joy at getting to share her home with us. And thank you again, andrea. It was lovely and it felt wonderful. Thank you for that.
Grandpa Kimothy: 24:07
One of my very favorite things that makes me cry constantly was being at the Holy River concert and watching all the Bees get up separately, but they danced together. They all joined hands and started dancing together. My family just danced together unplanned and I sat back with Corey and I was so proud of you all, and I cried a lot, just like now. And I was super proud of us for being the cool place to hang out, because Jess from Warpath came to hang out with us in Hive House tent. I think Jess is really cool so- way cooler than I am, so it was gratifying that she thought we were fun enough to want to hang out with. I really enjoyed wading with Darlina and Andrea in the creek, and catching crawdads and talking to the fish I love- every time I see a large bird, now, Darlina, I think of you yelling “Big bird, big bird!” which brings me to the bird war with Charlye that is still going on. So, Charlye, be on alert, I'm coming for you. I'm thankful for being introduced to Rocky Horror because I had never seen it before this year, and I am very touched that Rachel and Corey and everyone else decided to make it a special treat for my first time.
Grandpa Kimothy: 25:54
I loved screamlaughing in our room so much that people outside the room texted to ask if we're the ones making all the noise. It was us, it was. We were. All the Walmart trips. Why do we need to go to Walmart so often? I don't know, but it was really fun. Does it have a flared base? If you know, you know. Hanging out with that super famous podcaster, CharlYe of the Witch Bitch Amateur Hour before her class on Sunday. It was very peaceful and I needed that. So thank you for helping me create that peace and sharing it with me. Sitting in Andrea's class and being both incredibly proud of her and incredibly impressed that she was teaching this class so well. I really enjoyed myself in that. Thank you, Andrea.
Grandpa Kimothy: 26:59
I finally made it to my first closing circle. It was very nice and I accidentally initiated a huge group hug by asking my Bees to squish me and pile on and love me, because we were getting ready to leave and it started out with Bees and then everyone who was there decided to also pile on and then we went down to the creek and I instigated a hug chain and then a swoop hug and I was, it was interesting to say, hey, let's do this thing, and everybody says OK and did it. That was wild. I remember screaming goodbye at the top of my lungs when I left Innabah for the last time. And hugging Corey goodbye at the airport. And this year was filled with so many hugs, which- that in itself is huge growth for me, and I’m very thankful, and I’m proud myself for the way I've learned and grown over the past four years. I'm thankful to Rae for creating Anahata’s Purpose, to Charlye and Macy for talking me into it, even if you didn't know that's what you were doing, and for everyone there who showed up for yourself and for me and helped me and everybody else there grow. I'm thankful to Camp Innabah for being the magical place that it is, even if not everybody wanted it to be, which is part of the reason we moved.
Grandpa Kimothy: 28:41
And now the last two things that I ask of my guests, even when it's just me. Thing number one is recommend something to the listeners. I hope it's obvious to you that I'm going to recommend you come to Anahata's. Tickets are going to go on sale very soon, probably before this year is out. Make a savings account and auto deposit 20 bucks every paycheck. Tell your family and friends that you want to come and, if they really want to give you a gift that you will love, to buy gift certificates towards Anahata's Purpose. Or buy credit cards, prepaid credit cards so you can use them for Anahata's Purpose. Anahata's Purpose will help you become the person you're meant to be, so hopefully I'll see you next year.
Grandpa Kimothy: 29:35
And finally, it is time for a story, and I'm going to tell you the story of mistaken identity. It's a story of how I bought lunch for a stranger at the Philadelphia airport because I thought that I met them at Anahata's. Now I have a lot of travel anxiety and I'm one of those people- and I know there's a billion of us, but we feel anxious up until the point that we feel the plane lift off, because up until that point we kind of have control over things, over possibly fucking things up. So once the plane lifts off we can relax, because pressure's off. I can't fuck this up now. It's up to that guy flying the plane. It's almost always a guy. It's up to that person flying the plane. I can relax, but before then I still have to get to the airport, I have to get through tsa, I have to check my bags, I have to get on the plane, which means I have to get to the gate on time, and for all of that to happen, I have to be on my shit for all that to happen.
Grandpa Kimothy: 30:42
So that morning Cousin Corey, famous for Corey's Cauldron, gave me a ride to the airport Monday morning and I got a great big hug goodbye. It was wonderful. It was not enough to last me until next Anahatas, but it was a good hug. Corey, I will… we're going to hug again before Anahata's. So I went in and I was going to check my bag so I could maybe go sightsee a little, and it turns out that you can't check your bags more than four hours before your flight, so I got to just sit in the airport lobby for over an hour just making sure nobody stole my luggage. They didn't have chairs, by the way, it was just a windowsill. Finally, though, I was able to check my bags, and since I am a Taurus and I was in a food city, I decided to try and find a cheesesteak. I asked the TSA guys if there was a halfway decent place in the airport to get a cheesesteak, and they looked dubious and one of them said Lady, you're in the airport, with the same energy that the cashier pointed out Sir, this is a Wendy's. And I said well, I said half decent, I understand I'm in the airport. And the guy said okay, I guess half decent would be Chickie and Pete's. So I went to this place called Chickie & Pete's. So there's a brief pre-story. While I was on the porch at Hive House, one of the Bees had an extra Anahata's ticket and she was trying to find someone to buy it, and found someone last minute.
Grandpa Kimothy: 32:28
The person who bought it ended up staying in Hive House cabin and I met them on the porch just briefly that evening and I said, oh, you're that girl, meaning you're the one that I don't know. And the girl said, yeah, I've been getting a lot of that every time somebody meets me here. And I remember this person had long, straight blonde hair and glasses. That was also kind of dark in my defense, and also I'm terrible with remembering faces and names. But I saw that person several times throughout the weekend hanging out with Hive House. They even cried with us at the hug fest down at the creek where we were doing all the swoop hugs and everything. Okay.
Grandpa Kimothy: 33:16
So back to the airport, I found Chickie & Pete's and sat down. I was kind of sad because it's over, so I'm feeling pretty melancholy. And as I pulled my chair out, this person popped up. This new Hive House person popped up next to me and I said, hey, sit down and hang out with me, my flight isn't for a long time. And so we chatted and we got to know each other and they are from Canada and that was really fun because I like that people from other countries are coming to Anahata’s. And I mentioned that
Grandpa Kimothy: 33:51
the moment on the porch made me really laugh that they said, yeah, I've been getting a lot of that. When I said that I didn't, oh, you're that girl. And they said I don't remember that happening at all, and I thought that's really weird. You must have been high, because there's a lot of stuff that happens at Anahata’s that you just roll with it. So I blew it off.
Grandpa Kimothy: 34:17
I ended up buying their lunch because why not? As a nice goodbye before they went back to Canada. We never actually exchanged names. I did Marco HiveHouse, though, to say hey, look what I met, who I met, and we were both in the Marco and said hi, and then I think we hugged and said goodbye and we went to our gates, because my gate was pretty far away from where theirs was.
Grandpa Kimothy: 34:50
When I got home, I asked Hive House for contact info for the person who had bought the ticket, because I liked them and I wanted to get to know them better and I wanted to be friends because I really enjoyed our conversation at the airport. It turns out that the person who had the ticket shares my maiden name, so I talked to them for a few minutes and that person does not live in Canada, and is not the person that I ate with and bought lunch for at the airport. I didn't know who I bought lunch for at the airport. I had no idea who that person was. I'm very glad that I did that marco, from the airport, though, because it turns out that that is Leah, who has since become an official Hive House member. But it's hilarious to me that I bought a random stranger lunch at the Philadelphia airport because I can't remember what people look like or how to ask what their name is. So thank you, Leah, for being entertaining for me personally and for being part of Hive House.
Grandpa Kimothy: 35:51
I'm glad you're here. And that's it, everybody. Thanks for listening. If you've listened this far, I salute you. That's it for this week and I hope to see you at Anahata's next year. Thanks for listening to this episode of your Average Witch. You can find us all around the internet on Instagram @youraveragewitchpodcast, facebook.com/groups/hivehouse, at www.youraveragewitch.com and at your favorite podcast service. If you'd like to recommend someone for the podcast, like to be on it yourself, or if you'd like to advertise on the podcast, send an email to youraveragewitchpodcast at gmailcom. Thanks for listening and I'll see you next Tuesday.