The Shadow Hunter

I'm a huge advocate of getting out into nature to decompress and relax.  But after renting a cabin in the middle of the the Wisconsin countryside for a few days, I had a moment that was literally the exact opposite of relaxing. It was terrifying.  My friend and I were out walking our dogs on a country road near our beautiful Airbnb cabin. Upon crossing a street near some farm fields, we saw a small white dog in a yard on a tie-out, barking furiously and running back and forth restlessly while jumping and barking loudly.  We crossed the street as quickly as possible, but the tie-out that the dog was being pulled so intensely that it snapped and the small dog made a rapid beeline for me and Sage. And in one swift, horrifying moment - this dog jumped at her and started clawing at her.  Sage tried to leap away, barking and whimpering loudly, but the dog wouldn't let up. I told myself — don’t panic. Stay calm. You got this.   I picked Sage up quickly and tried to run away from the s

συγχώρεση   Any guesses to what this word is?  (If you read or know Greek, I am super impressed...as this came from the power of Google)  This is  aphesis , which is Greek for  forgiveness.   But here it means something a little different than what you traditionally may think about the word.  Here it literally means: to let go.  To set free.  To liberate. You may be thinking -- um, this all sounds good in theory, but. Let's be serious. Why is it SO freaking hard to let go of something or someone that hurt us?  Often we keep that hurt buried for years and years and every time we think of that person or situation, the only thing we can think of is the hurt they caused us.  It's like an old wound, and the memory of that person scratches it a bit and that pain comes up again, and sometimes you think -- UGH will this never go away?!!  I get it, I truly do. I've been there! Here's the good news.  It can, and will, go away.  And you're left with something new and so much

Over the last several years, I went on a quest to really get to know myself.  And I wrote this particular blog post to let you in on the biggest "secret" I stumbled upon that really has made all the difference.  Want to know what it is? In order to know you, you have to UN-become you first.  Unraveling the old stories.  Taking a deep look at yourself and seeing — wait, is this REALLY me? Or is this just an old story I keep replaying? What do I actually want? You may be wondering — so how do I do THAT?  How do I un-become me? Step one : notice all the things in your life that don’t fit anymore . Like a pair of shoes you once loved, you can step right out of those and into something more comfortable. (But you have to become aware of how much they don’t fit — first!) For me, my first realization was that I was never meant to work in a traditional corporate structure. I never understood performance reviews and wasn’t truly motivated by promotions. Sure, getting a nice title or a