Everyone has a story....
This is mine.
There are hundreds of things I could tell you about myself.
That I am a writer, teacher, mother, wife, massage therapist, dog mom, healer, nature-lover, subpar knitter and car karaoke singer. That I’m both super outgoing and deeply introverted. That I parallel park for fun, never memorized the twelve multiplication table, rarely follow a recipe as it’s written and accidentally injure small children when I play with them.
But these don’t tell you WHO I am.
They don’t tell you that I am a trauma survivor. That I once lost myself so completely, I thought I was gone for good. I was drowning in conditioning and believed nearly all of it.
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That what I'm most proud of in my life is my own reclamation.
I almost gave up, but some deep part of me refused to surrender. Some part of me believed. And I wanted to know that version of me.
So began the path within.
It hasn't been an easy, straight road. I've gotten lost time and again. I am often terrified of the shadows along the way.
But here’s what I've found: so much of what lived in me, what frightened and destabilized me, wasn’t me. My insides were clogged with false beliefs, unhealed trauma, carried shame and other people’s distortions and projections.
And beneath all of it was my whole, true self. It had been with me all along. There, in that sacred, private space was the untouched me. My soul force. My light.
This is what authenticity is. It's all parts of us, allowed and fully owned. It's a process and a practice, one that deserves our deepest compassion. One that allows us possibility for profound freedom, fulfillment, connection and joy.
Within each of us lives our most true and precious selves. Even if we’ve forgotten. Even if we feel utterly lost. Even if we have been trained to believe otherwise.
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I have a vision of all of us as free, alive and awake, contributing our unique gifts and essence to the world.
Because most of what I’d been taught about myself was spectacularly wrong. I am so much more than I could have imagined.
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And so are you.
BIO
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I’m far more interested in who someone is than in what they do, but of course we are shaped by our experiences and exposures.
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Here are a few of mine:
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- B.A. in psychology from Occidental College.
- Worked as a social worker in inpatient psychiatry.
- Licensed massage therapist and Reiki Master for 24 years.
- I've written two novels, a short-film screenplay and blogged for 17 years.
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