Pull up a chair, pour yourself something warm, and ignore the dog hair.
You have landed at Glimmers in Chaos, a cozy little corner of the internet for women who are trying to live with more intention, more honesty, and a whole lot less pretending. I’m Shelah. Writer, gardener, yoga instructor, book lover, coffee devotee, stained glass artist, chicken wrangler, and collector of far too many seed packets. I live on a small farm in North Florida with my husband, whom I lovingly call The Hot Hub, our dogs, cats, chickens, two big gardens, and enough ongoing projects to keep life permanently hovering somewhere between magical and mildly unhinged.
This space is where I write about all of it.
The beauty. The mess. The healing. The hard seasons. The ridiculous moments. The tiny sparks of joy that keep showing up, even when life feels loud.
Those are the glimmers.
And this is where I gather them.
So, What Exactly Is a Glimmer?
A glimmer is a tiny moment that reminds you life is still good. It is the first dahlia opening in the garden. A dog asleep at your feet. A book so good you forget to check your phone. The smell of coffee before the rest of the house wakes up. Sunlight slipping through a stained glass window. A quiet breath in the middle of a difficult day.
Glimmers do not require a perfect life. In fact, they usually show up right in the middle of the chaos.
I have learned that life rarely becomes completely calm. There is always something growing, breaking, barking, blooming, needing attention, or wandering into the kitchen covered in mud. The goal is not to eliminate the chaos. The goal is to notice the beauty living inside it.
A Little About Me
I am a woman in my fifties, still figuring out who I am becoming. I have worn a lot of titles over the years. Certified nutritionist. Yoga instructor. Writer. Wife. Mom. Grandmother. Gardener. Caregiver. Creative soul. Professional overthinker. Some of those identities still fit comfortably. Others have stretched, softened, or fallen away. These days, I am less interested in creating a perfectly polished life and more interested in building one that feels true.
I am learning to slow down after spending years as the person who handled everything. I am practicing boundaries. I am trying to move my body because I love it, not because I am punishing it. I am working on my health without turning my entire existence into a before-and-after photograph. I am growing food, flowers, and patience, although the patience crop remains a little unreliable. I am reading more books, scrolling less, and trying to make peace with the fact that becoming yourself is not a project you ever completely finish.
How Yoga Found Me
Yoga came into my life when I was in the middle of a health crisis. I was severely overweight and living with severe anxiety. I did not feel comfortable in my body, and I certainly did not feel comfortable walking into a room full of people who looked as though they already knew what they were doing.
Still, I went to my first yoga class….And I hid in the back of the room.
I stayed as quiet and invisible as possible. I watched everyone else. I tried to follow along. I worried about how I looked, whether I was doing the poses correctly, and whether everyone could hear me breathing like I had just climbed a mountain. But something about that class reached me.
So I went back.
Twice a week, every week, I returned to the back of that room. I kept hiding, but I also kept showing up. Little by little, yoga helped me reconnect with a body I had spent years criticizing. It taught me how to breathe through discomfort, how to stay present, and how to meet myself where I was instead of constantly demanding that I become someone else first.
During that time, I also lost 100 pounds.
That transformation mattered, but yoga gave me something deeper than weight loss. It gave me a relationship with myself. Eventually, the woman hiding in the back of the room became a certified yoga instructor. And because I remember exactly what it felt like to walk into that first class, I became passionate about making yoga accessible for real people in real bodies. No performance. No flexibility contest. No requirement to look like a person from a yoga clothing advertisement. Just movement, breath, strength, healing, and the radical idea that you do not have to earn the right to take up space.
What You Will Find Here
Glimmers in Chaos is not built around one narrow topic because my life has never behaved itself well enough to fit into one neat category. Here, you will find stories about gardening in North Florida, including experiments that thrive, experiments that fail spectacularly, and plants that apparently never read the instructions on the seed packet.
You will find honest conversations about aging, health, body image, anxiety, healing, and learning how to live more gently. There will be books. Lots of books. I believe reading is one of the best ways to disappear for a while without actually abandoning your responsibilities. You will also find creative projects, stained glass, yoga, family stories, reflections on marriage, life on our little farm, and the occasional moment when I have had enough of someone’s nonsense and feel compelled to write about it.
Some posts will be soft and thoughtful. Some will be funny. Some may involve chickens making poor decisions. That is the general rhythm around here.
This Is Not a Perfect-Life Blog
I am not here to convince you that I wake up at sunrise every morning, drink green juice, meditate for an hour, tend a flawless garden, and float serenely through my day. Some mornings are peaceful. Some mornings involve cold coffee, barking dogs, unanswered emails, weeds the size of small trees, and discovering that a chicken has once again escaped into an area where no chicken has any legitimate business being.
News Flash: I do not have everything figured out.
I am simply paying attention. I write from the middle of the process, not from some imaginary finish line. That means you may find me celebrating growth one week and questioning every decision I have ever made the next.
Both are real. Both belong here.
Who This Space Is For
This space is for you if you are in a season of becoming. Maybe your children are grown and you are trying to remember who you were before everyone needed something from you. Maybe your body is changing and the old rules no longer work. Maybe you are tired of being told that reinvention must be dramatic, profitable, photogenic, or completed in thirty days. Maybe you want a slower life, but you are not entirely sure how to create one. Maybe you love gardens, books, coffee, creativity, and conversations that wander into deeper territory. Maybe you are simply looking for a place that feels welcoming.
You do not need to arrive here with a plan. You can come exactly as you are.
Where Should You Begin?
Start with whatever feels most like the conversation you need today.
If you are craving a slower, more intentional life, explore the essays on boundaries, simplicity, and finding your way back to yourself. The section titled “Inner Garden” will feel like the perfect place.
If you need encouragement in your health journey, begin with the stories about yoga, body acceptance, and learning to move without shame. Check out my section titled “Rooted Living“.
If you want a break from the heavier parts of life, wander into the garden posts, book reviews, creative projects, and farm stories. The lighter stuff is living in the section titled “Creative Joy“.
There is no official route through Glimmers in Chaos.
Think of it less like a tidy library and more like visiting a friend’s house. You may come in for coffee, notice a book on the table, wander out to the garden, meet the dogs, and somehow end up discussing the meaning of life beside a basket of freshly collected eggs.
That is more or less the experience.
A Note About Growing Older
One of the biggest themes here is what it means to grow older without disappearing. I do not believe women become less interesting with age. I think we become less willing to waste time.
We begin questioning the rules we followed without ever agreeing to them. We become more protective of our peace. We learn that being kind does not mean being endlessly available. We become softer in some places and sharper in others. And perhaps, somewhere along the way, we stop asking for permission to become who we were meant to be.
I am still learning this.
I suspect I will be learning it for the rest of my life.
You are welcome to learn beside me.
Come Sit With Me
Glimmers in Chaos is my invitation to slow down long enough to notice your own life. Not the polished version. Not the life you think you should have. The one you are living right now.
The one with the laundry, the grief, the blooming flowers, the aging parents, the big dreams, the sore knees, the unread books, the full coffee cup, and the moments of unexpected joy. I hope something here makes you laugh. I hope something makes you feel understood. I hope you discover a story that feels as though it was written beside you at the kitchen table. Most of all, I hope this space reminds you that beauty does not wait for life to become orderly. It grows through the cracks.
It flickers at the edges.
It glimmers in the chaos.
Welcome. I’m truly glad you are here.
