Codi VanAtta & Kathy Benson

These 2 women are so much fun and full of life. We ate lunch at Cantaberry Restaurant & Catering and then took a walk down River Street as they shared with me. It was such a pleasure getting to know them a little better. This is what I found out:

Codi VanAtta…

Codi moved here from Florida 25 years ago. She earned her BS in Criminology with a Psychology minor and worked as a parole officer in Florida. When she moved here the rules were different and the system said she would have to work as a prison guard for a while before she could be a parole officer and well, she decided that was not what she had envisioned herself doing when she went to school. Instead, she went into the landscaping business, creating a business named Brooks Greenhouse which specialized in growing culinary herbs for Atlanta Culinary who distributed their herbs to high-end restaurants all over the Atlanta area. The business closed upon her divorce.

Today Codi works as an Agriculture Inspector and, get this, her title is “the Grower”. She checks out the health of local plants and also checks in on our sweet friends the honeybees. Thanks Codi!  Codi has studied herbs and is pursuing more coursework in the field to become an herbalist. She intends to make this her career in the not too distant future. How fortunate for us and the whole community! Codi lives in Jasper on 20 wooded acres and is currently building a mini barn for her 2 horses.

Here’s what Codi says about her experience of yoga: Yoga challenges me to really be in the moment. When I am focused on what we are doing, I can’t get into negative self talk. Yoga has helped me with my body image and taught me to respect my body. I feel more like my body is part of me and I’m not looking at it as if it were a separate entity. I feel good about what I can do.