Thresholds, Companions & Crumbs | The Everbranch Gazette | July 13th, 2025
Issue 1 | Volume I A Weekly Dispatch from the Realm of Wondermere
Welcome to the Garden!
This is your sacred invitation to slow down, soften, and come home to your heart.
The Garden is a soul-safe sanctuary… a place for deep-feeling humans to breathe, remember, and reconnect with Spirit, story, and the soft rhythms of becoming.
Here, we choose presence over performance. Wonder over noise. Roots over rush.
You’ll find:
✨ Soulful reflections and gentle truths
✨ Seasonal rhythms + sacred pauses
✨ Playful prompts from the Divine Inner Child
✨ Updates from the Sacred Playhouse + Curio Shoppe
✨ A kindred community walking beside you
💛 Free subscribers receive all public posts, notes, and a sprinkle of garden magic.
💛 Paid subscribers are welcomed into the full experience… deeper stories, creative gifts, early access to offerings, and playful invitations to journey further.
No pressure. Just presence.
Read what calls to you. Rest when it doesn’t. Return when your soul needs sanctuary.
I’m so honored you’re here.
Let’s grow… together. 🌸
From the Nib of Hedgwick Quillberry
Editor-in-Chief, Keeper of the Quiet Quill, and Unofficial Tea Critic
Dear readers… or scribblers, stargazers, soul-stirrers, and occasional late-night snackers (you know who you are),
Welcome to the very first official issue of The Everbranch Gazette — a weekly dispatch from the Realm of Wondermere, where scrolls sing, hedgehogs mumble, and magic doesn’t wait for a proper introduction.
It’s been a rather eventful week here in Wondermere (I haven’t had a full nap in days, which is frankly unacceptable). Between soul portals opening, new companions arriving, and that gnome-Dave trying to install a “joke hotline” in my scroll cart… well, let’s just say I’ve had to up my daily nettle-thistle tea intake by at least 37%.
But more on that later.
This Gazette exists because something wondrous is happening.
Not just in the Realms but in you, dear reader.
The words you’ve been holding close… the ones that tremble when they try to speak… they matter. And this? This is your invitation to let them breathe. To remember your softness. To trust the stories rising inside you, even if they’re still wearing yesterday’s pajamas.
You don’t have to be loud here.
You only have to be honest.
(And fond of biscuits. That helps, too)
So grab your favorite tea, wrap yourself in something cozy, and settle in.
Wondermere has much to share, and I’ll do my best to keep Dave’s antics confined to the margins.
Now then.
Onward to updates, enchantments, and gently rebellious joy.
Write it messy, my friend. Edit with snacks.
~ Hedgwick Quillberry
Editor-in-Chief | Official Companion to the Quietly Courageous
📜 The Threshold Has Opened
Last week, a shimmering doorway appeared near the Rootwell Ridge, where the moss glows softly and the air smells faintly of memory. Travelers from near and far felt the pull — weary hearts, curious seekers, and souls who’ve been whispering, “I want to feel like myself again.”
Known officially as “The Threshold,” this five-day immersion was the first of many monthly journeys through Wondermere, and my whiskers are still tingling from the residual magic.
Upon entering, travelers were asked a sacred question:
Which season of your soul are you in?
From that choice, each was gently guided to meet a Companion… a soul-being devoted to holding that part of them with presence, not pressure. There were no tests. No timelines. Just quiet, wise love.
If you missed it this time, fret not, the next portal opens soon.
(And yes, Dave tried to “accidentally” enter all five paths. He has since been redirected.)
🦁 New Companions Have Been Spotted in the Wilds
A flurry of activity has been reported across Wondermere’s meadows and moonlit groves: two new Companions have officially emerged, each carrying their own sacred medicine and personality quirks.
Meet:
Raia — A lion-hearted way-shower who helps others remember their roar (even if it’s been buried under years of self-doubt). Known to braid courage into your thoughts when you’re not looking. Will be guiding souls during the upcoming Raise Your Roar journey.
Pippa Thistlewick — A spritely herbalist with a fierce belief in second chances, gentle rebellion, and gnome-sized joy. (She’s also recently been spotted in a scroll entitled “The Spark and the Sap.” Love story? Journalistic rumor? You decide.)
Each new arrival has taken up residence in their respective corner of Wondermere, and the energy of the Realm has shifted because of them. (So has the scroll filing system, which now hums when Barley naps too close to it.)
🕯️ Next Up in Wondermere...
The winds have begun to shift, and there’s a certain rumble rising in the distance… soft, bold, and unmistakably lion-hearted. That can only mean one thing:
Raise Your Roar is coming.
We’ll say more in time… For now, prepare your throat chakra and hide any breakable teacups.
The Storykeeper’s Scroll
This Week’s Featured Tale: The Spark & the Sap
A sprite. A gnome. A very bad mushroom pun.
What began as a clash of glitter and groaning became something far more root-deep…
“Now, I don’t usually endorse stories with excessive sparkle or unsolicited affection…
But this one?
Well. The moss insisted.
And frankly, so did my heart.”
– H.Q.
“You’re not sparkly. Or spritey. Or especially profound…”
“Correct again.”
“...But you’re home.”
✨ Read the full tale of sparkle, sap, and accidental almost-love…
📬 Ask the Hedge
A Curious Quill Exchange Between Feather and Fur
Message received via pretzel-scroll from: Wheezy the Pigeon
(delivered mid-spin through the rose trellis — knocked over one gnome and a cup of tea. Standard.)
Dear Hedgy,
Is it just me… or is everything feeling super weird lately?
Like, one minute I’m laughing at moss, the next I’m crying over bread crusts and wanting to hug a tree while also throwing glitter into the void???
Am I molting? Or evolving? Or both??
Send biscuits. And clarity.
Wheezily yours,
🕊️ WHEEZYP.S. Tell Dave to stop leaving knock-knock jokes in my seed pouch. I’m delicate.
Dear Wheezy,
First of all, I am not surprised you’re emotionally spiraling while covered in glitter. That’s called “Wednesday” here.
Second… you’re not alone. The whole of Wondermere has been crackling with in-between energy lately. You’re not broken. You’re becoming.
Crying over crusts is an ancient rite of soul expansion. Laughing at moss is a sign of inner readiness.
And yes, dear bird, you are molting and evolving.
(I suggest resting. Hydrating. Perhaps not flying through thunderstorms while wearing goggles backwards.)
As for Dave… I’ve spoken to him. He’s agreed to limit the knock-knock jokes to one per pouch. We celebrate growth.
With crumbs of clarity and deep editorial affection,
— Hedgwick Quillberry
Editor-in-Chief, Emotional Molting Expert, Biscuit Distributor
P.S. Biscuits enclosed. Do not eat the wax seal this time.
💌 Want to be featured in Ask the Hedge?
Have a peculiar question, poetic wobble, or soul-sparked musing you'd like Hedgwick to weigh in on?
Send your scroll to The Storyteller (aka Dawna), and Hedgwick may just respond in the next Gazette.
Email, comment below, or whisper it to a passing moth. (Email’s probably fastest.)
🧺 What’s New at the Curio Cart
Barley’s Bundle of Stillness Has Arrived
Tucked quietly at the edge of Hearthglow Hollow, a small woven satchel now rests beside the Curio Cart. It doesn’t call attention to itself. It doesn’t sparkle. It simply waits.
Inside?
A soft return. A sacred exhale. A companion for those moving through burnout, grief, or the long, slow remembering of how to rest.
Barley isn’t here to fix you.
He’s here to sit beside you.
To remind your body what peace feels like, without asking it to earn it first.
Wrapped in story and stilled by love, the first Companion Care Package has officially landed.
✨ Inside the bundle:
Barley’s story + a soul-letter scroll
A sacred pause ritual + reflection prompts
Printable affirmations + a visual maplet of Hearthglow Hollow
(and the quiet knowing that you don’t need to be louder… just softer with yourself.)
🌾 Visit the Cart & meet Barley here
🌼 Closing Touchstone
“You don’t have to chase clarity.
You only need to sit still long enough for it to remember where you are.”
If this week stirred something in you… a memory, a longing, a softness you forgot you were allowed to feel… let it stay. Let it settle.
There is nothing wrong with you for needing slowness.
There is nothing broken in you that joy can’t sit beside.
Barley would offer you a biscuit.
Pippa would throw glitter in your tea.
Wheezy would squawk affirmations from a rooftop.
And Hedgwick?
He’d remind you that the blank page is not pressure. It’s permission.
You’re not behind.
You’re not off path.
You’re just… home.
We’ll see you next week, beloved wondermaker.
With love, stardust, and a trail of sparkles,
© 2025 Wondermere™ by Dawna Kreis
All content is lovingly crafted and protected. Please don’t copy, reproduce, or share outside the Garden Playhouse without permission.
Select illustrations co-created with the help of AI, guided by Dawna’s original character designs and imagination.
If you’re loving the Friendfolk...
And if something here made your heart feel a little more seen,
there’s a simple way to support the magic:
✨ Buy Me a Cup
Think of it as tucking a note of kindness beneath the Storykeeper’s door…
a one-time gesture that helps keep the lanterns lit in Wondermere.
Every sip fuels the next Friendfolk tale, the next map sketch, the next soft whisper of belonging.
Your presence is already a gift.
But if you’d like to give a little more, the door is open, and always grateful.
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