Celebrating 10 Years of Healing Springs Ranch — A Decade of Transforming Lives Meet Anna Mae, the Resident Ranch Chicken at Healing Springs Ranch — and Her Top 10 Lessons Learned
Anna Mae is the resident chicken at Healing Springs Ranch, a residential addiction and trauma treatment center on 80 acres of ranch land in Tioga, Texas. To mark our tenth year, we are counting down her Top 10 Lessons Learned at the ranch — ten lessons on belonging, resilience, and coming exactly as you are, revealed one at a time.
Anna Mae arrived at Healing Springs Ranch the way healing so often does — unannounced, one small brave step at a time, and entirely on her own schedule.
She has a foot that turns in a little. It has never slowed her down, and it has never been the most interesting thing about her. What matters is that she went looking for a place where she could be fully, unmistakably herself — and she kept going until she found it.
She found us. That feels exactly right, because connection is essential for all of us. None of us heal alone. We are built to be known, to belong somewhere, and to be met warmly exactly as we are — and that is every bit as true for one determined little hen as it is for every person who walks through our doors.
She has flourished here. She leaves the gift of an egg most days. She keeps company with the cat. And if you leave a car door open, she will hop in and settle down for the ride — because she is, as far as anyone here can tell, entirely convinced that she is a dog. Nobody has had the heart to correct her, and honestly, why would we? She is exactly who she means to be.
That is rather the whole idea. Come as you are. You will be welcome here, and you will be in very good company.
This page is hers. Welcome to The sCOOP.
The Countdown: Ten to One
The countdown is complete: all ten of Anna Mae’s lessons are below, from ten all the way down to one.
