I've wanted dreads for as long as I could remember. I never got them for one reason or another... I didn't know how, I was talked out of it, I didn't have time, which ever excuse you could think of is the one I would choose that day. I can't remember what finally made me decide to do it, but, a couple of days before my 37th birthday I was down on the floor with a good friend and my niece ripping and twisting away on my freshly cleansed hair.

So, I guess the first thing I should do is explain why I didn't just cleanse my hair and go all natural. Cause I didn't...that's it in a nut shell, I just didn't.

6 hours later I was beaming with happiness, I was playing with them, rubbing them, I was so happy. I began naming certain ones that were standing out amongst the crowd, (like Loki, my fav dread who likes being the ONLY one that hangs in my face) I had already done my research and knew that even with R/T this would be a journey and I was ready, let the journey begin. I was determined to look "cool"

It never dawned on me the true reason I began the journey.

To give a little history about me, I'm a practicing Witch since '92 and an Energy Healer since '03. This year, 2012, since January, I've taken some major steps of change in my life. I'm currently studying for my 3rd degree HPs in Eclectic Witchcraft, received my 1 & 2 degrees in Karuna/Karuna Ki Reiki and will be receiving my 3rd degree Master/Teacher in September. I've also gone from strictly vegan, to vegetarian, to organic omnivore, buying strictly seasonal, organic, grain/grass fed food to sustain my family. I already work with medicinal herbs and have for a long while. I teach classes, workshops, make organic incense, oils, and other items, and have used this year of study as inner reflection and growth.

Since I received my dreads and started that journey, my hermit days began to end. I had so many Seekers finding me at various places, Publix, the Nail saloon, Facebook, coming to be for teaching and spiritual guidance. My pain in my body began to heal, my temperament began to subside and I began to see my path so clearly. I was thinking things through, breathing, relaxing, and embracing the Goddess and God more closely then I ever have before. I don't think the dreads did it, but, I do feel so spiritually connected to them. Hair is a link to spiritual. The Native Americans wouldn't cut their hair because it cut their connection to Earth. Shamans of the European countries hair was long and neglected because it was their connection to the spirit realm and even traditional physics believe the hair is what gives them that connection. Anyone who has ever "smoked" knows that if they rip your hair by the root for a drug test, no matter how long it's been, the traces are still there. You hair is a sponge, it's a timeline for your life and all you come in contact with. It's your connection with.......

My mother died in '08, my father followed in '10. right before my father died, I cut all of my hair off, down to a very short pixie cut (12 in gone in a snip). My father died a month later. From that time, till I started my dreads, my hair never felt right. I kept cutting, making it worse. I put it in pony tails, bandanas, I hated it. Then, I started the dreads, and now, I'm in love. Why do I mention that you ask? My spiritual self was coping with the loose of my mother, and the quick decline of my father, and my timeline was done, over. I knew my father was going to die, and that was going to be my childhood dying with him. So, I cut my timeline, and began to grown a new one, I found in 5/28/2012.

37 years old, both parents passed away, a new spiritual journey, and a stronger dedication, my dreads are my new timeline, my new connection, my new life that has begun in 2012.

*Dedicated to my parents;

Thomas Lloyd Conwell - 1932-2010

Rebecca Ann Moseley-Conwell - 1946-2008