Tag: power of story

Identity – Reconnecting to Who We at our Core

Leave a comment

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about identity lately – sparked, in part, to recently having a First Person Account published by CBC titled “I had a loving family. My life changed at 46 when my birth sister revealed I was adopted. My parents hid my adoption. But somehow, the truth brought us closer.”

I’ve been doing a series of videos over at the Inner Wisdom Lab Youtube channel where I speak to various aspects of identity and offer a few guided visualizations for anyone looking to connect more deeply to their own core essence. And there are more to come.

I have now known about being adopted for 17 years, which seems a bit incredulous. Finding out sparked an identity expansion in some ways. In a moment, everything changed, yet nothing changed – with respect to my life, my immediate family and my sense of identity.

Identity and Core Essence

In thinking about identity, I am curious about what is underneath personality traits, skills, abilities, life events … and, I have arrived at core essence. The most basic and important attribute of self that provides a sense of who we are, the inner foundation of being. This essence is constant. In this 7 minute video, I speak about core essence or identity and, in this 10 minute one, I offer a guided visualization for anyone wishing to connect with their own sense of identity or core essence.

Identity and Roles

Sometimes we know and sense our core essence with absolute clarity. Other times it is obscured by layers and layers of roles, expectations – our own and others, doubt, hubris, the minutia of life, disappointments and external successes collected over the course of a life journey. We learn to not trust ourselves, our own inner knowing or wisdom or what our highest self whispers to us along the way. I speak about identity and roles in this 12 minute video and offer a 20 minute guided visualization for any wishing to review the timeline of their life, the roles they took on or were thrust upon them, the gifts in the roles and the opportunity to choose to more fully inhabit some roles and shed others that no longer serve.

DNA and Chosen Family Lineages

Perhaps not surprisingly, over the last 17 years I have also thought about lineage – a lot. DNA and chosen family lineage. DNA does not necessarily a family make. As someone who has been adopted, I feel both of these lineages strongly. I imagine there might be others who feel this way – rooted in at least 2 lineages, if not more.

I have felt most closely connected to my chosen family lineage. One could argue that they chose me since I was a baby at the time. But, if you believe in soul choices and choices made before incarnating, then we chose each other. This is the lineage I grew up with and claimed as my own, since I knew no other until I found out I was adopted. It is very much a part of my sense of self. For a long time, my biological lineage felt abstract.

In more recent times, having connected with a biological cousin who shared the gift of all the genealogical research she has done on my birth mother’s side of the family, something shifted. My sister and I knew that our birth mother’s mother (our grandmother) had had multiple children with different fathers. Our understanding was she had given all the babies up.

I had no idea how many blanks were actually there until that knowledge was shared with me. My birth grandmother had eight children with five different fathers and had not, in fact, given them all up – only the first two, one of which was my birth mother, the second child, raised by an aunt and uncle. Now I have my birth grandmother’s name, and the names of her parents, children, and their fathers, as well as information about the relationships. Having knowledge of my genealogy brings a sense of balance and wholeness I did not expect even as I do not feel a need to connect with all the names that are now etched in my birth lineage.

Identity and Place or Geography

Place and geography influence and shape our sense of identity – where we grew up, where we live, other places that have had a significant influence on our own sense of self. Interestingly, this can expand beyond our own experience to include places that family members are from. I very much have a sense of French Quebec heritage through my dad and of Newfoundland heritage through my mother’s mother (yes I mean the family I grew up in for any who wonder).

My partner, Jerry, is strongly influenced by growing up in the US mid-west. He refers to himself as a flatlander who does not like edges. I, on the other hand, grew up on the coast in a fishing town. People in my family were said to have had the “sea in their blood”. I muse on the influence of place and geography in this 9 minute video and invite people who listen to reflect on what parts of their identity have been shaped by where they grew up or where they live.

Is Finding Your Birth Family a Good Idea?

I am sometimes asked, is searching for your birth family a good idea? One the one hand, it is hard for me to say since this decision was not in my hands. But it reminds me of the famous quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet – “to be or not to be” – although I am not entirely sure way. Searching for birth family is very much an individual choice. Not everyone wants to search, not everyone wants to be found, not everyone connects in relationship and not every story has a happy ending.

Having said that, if you are someone who knows you have biological family out there and are wondering whether it is a good idea, be aware of the expectations and hopes that you carry, and know that for some, it does not or will not answer the questions they are carrying. This can be hugely disappointing.

On the other hand, actually meeting people may not even be necessary to receive answers – like having my birth family tree suddenly fleshed out. And, for many, there are solid relationships that emerge and evolve over time. For my full sister and I, it is almost as if the 40 year gap did not exist.

My sister and me as children.
Me and my sister in Mexico - a year after we reconnected.

On the whole though, there is an invitation to embrace your identity – all of it. And in so doing, remembering what was here before the physical body and after it is gone. It is all essence.

Inner Wisdom Activation – Step Boldly into Who You were Born to Be!

Leave a comment

There is a momentous shift occurring and with this shift is an invitation into expansion and expression of your full self. Many people are experiencing relief, a sense of being re-energized and even joy.

Is it possible that we are in a moment of significant sea tide of change taking root? For people who follow astrology or energy guides, all indications point to this time as sparking new, long-term cycles. As with any cycle, it means some things are ready to die and new things are birthed. The death throes can be loud, frightening and possibly even feel a bit dangerous. I feel some of this when I look at current political scenarios in both the US and Canada as I work to intentionally stay facing a future of optimism and hope.

Dana Pearlman and I are creating a space for a community of wisdom seekers: The Inner Wisdom Lab. We have created a Facebook Group as a starting place for this community and you can go there to join us. We are also offering a 4-week Inner Wisdom Activation Program beginning with the first 2 hour session on September 26 at 1:00 pm EST. Registration is $125 US for all 4 although the first session is free.

This program is for those of us wanting to step more completely into the gifts and talents we know we have yet have not yet fully accessed. The type of gifts and talents that arise from inner wisdom and knowing that we may have ignored, hidden or believed we didn’t have. This is an invitation to rise, both individually and collectively, to meet the moment, renewed, resourced and ready.

Inner Wisdom Activation Information

You find out more at the Inner Wisdom webpage where you can also find a registration link. During the 4 weeks we will cover:

  1. Inner Wisdom Activation: connecting to hidden or forgotten gifts and talents.
  2. Intuitive Triads Community Call: honing intuition to discern and act on synchronicities.
  3. Identifying and Releasing Limiting Beliefs: getting out of your own way – releasing fear, anxiety, shame and doubt to expand access to your inner wisdom.
  4. Sacred Inner Wisdom Creations: what sacred creation do you want to give life to now?

There will be other guided visualizations provided in advance of each week to support you in the journey and you will be invited into reflection exercises to see what arises for you from week to week and note any discoveries that emerge.

An Inner Wisdom Lab Video Series

Dana and I are having a lot of fun in creating this offering. We have been recording some videos to describe what it is, why we have felt called to do this, what’s involved, what guided visualizations are and we share some stories from our own experiences to give people a sense of who we are as well as a sense of what might be experienced. You can find the Inner Wisdom Play List here. Individual videos created so far are listed below.

  1. Inner Wisdom Activation Introduction.
  2. Guided Visualizations: What they are and how they work.
  3. Kathy’s Drumming Circle Story – an early experience.
  4. Dana’s Story of Reiki and Healing.
  5. Dana’s Story – the call to paint.
  6. Kathy’s Story – The call to Gold Lake (and how it connects to the Drumming Circle story from a decade previous).

Community helps us grow. Together we amplify our experiences and our access to energy and intuition. It may be serious and profound work. It’s also fun and invites us to laugh with each other. Come join us and grow your own sense of community and connection.

What are Group Visualizations and How Do They Work?

Leave a comment

What are group visualizations and how do they work? Take a listen here or read below.

Group visualizations work pretty much the same way as the one-on-one visualizations with one key difference – the one-in-one visualizations offer more of a collaborative and tailored experience between you and me. With a group, the guided visualization is provided and the participants embark on their own individual journey without speaking during it. There is enough fluidity in the guidance offered that each person will have their own unique experience.

When the visualization is complete, there will be a few minutes for participants to silently journal their experience. If it is a small group, people will be invited to share what they wish of their experience with the group. If it is a larger group, break out rooms will be set up and participants can share with their smaller group.

The sharing is part of making sense of the experience as well as allowing the imagery and gifts to sink deeper into your consciousness. As with the one-on-one visualizations, many people find this informs their day-to-day experiences as well as their access to their own intuition and inner guidance on an on-going basis.

If you and a few friends would like to participate in a group guided visualization, send me a note and we’ll work out the details.

Maybe I’m a Queen

Leave a comment

In an Open Space zoom meeting this past week, I was named two things: change maker and courageous; and I’m not sure how I feel about either of them. I didn’t originally register for the event because I didn’t identify as a change maker. It was only after reconnecting with my dear friend who called the session that I decided to attend. Not because of being a change maker but because of friendship and colleagueship. The check-in question was what is your biggest challenge as a change maker now? I was stymied. For a minute.

What Does it Mean to be a Change Maker?

Even as I said out loud that I wasn’t sure I identified as a change maker, it seemed absurd. Perhaps I was imagining change makers as something else. Maybe social entrepreneurs, somehow doing different things within and at the edges of our systems – communities, organizations, networks – than what I am  doing? Doing something more substantive than what I do? I couldn’t even voice that out loud because of the absurdity of it. Talk about needing to own and embrace an identity. If what Jerry and I are doing with Worldview Intelligence and all its various applications is not change making, then I really don’t know what is.

So, what am I dealing with as a change maker? Within myself and those I work with or host: grief, overwhelm, guilt are just a few things. Grief for all that goes on in the world, overwhelm for the enormity and complexity of it all, both near and far, and guilt when life goes on in relative peace and comfort while so much else is in chaos and uncertainty.

It is important to remember where our spheres of influence are and focus attention there. It is also important to participate in things that nourish us. Which is why I joined a session during that call on ‘communing with more than the human world’. This is where someone said I was courageous and, interestingly, that carried back into the full plenary.

A Drumming Circle, Vision and Journey

I shared the story about the first drumming circle I ever participated in, talked about the vision with the shape shifting journey lion where we flew over fields of wild flowers, then trees, then mountains. On the other side of the mountains, there were people singing and dancing around a huge, celebratory bonfire. I shape shifted into the lion as we landed and joined in the celebration, welcomed home by the ancestors.

Home Base in Gold Lake – 2009

A decade later, I was in Gold Lake, Colorado, inexplicably drawn there to be with friends who were hosting an Art of Hosting training for financial planners. One of my friends said she was going to do a day long vision quest on the land following the training and the reason I felt called to Gold Lake was to do it with her. (I did, and that is a whole other story.) When I arrived at the Gold Lake Resort and started walking the dirt roadways and pathways, I could hear, in my mind, body and soul, a drum beat. It got louder with each passing hour and suddenly I realized, this land I was walking on was the land I had flown over in my vision a decade earlier and I never even knew it existed. I still get goosebumps thinking and writing about it.

This spiritual part of my identity I do own and embrace. I have pretty consistent meditation and “magic” practices. I don’t know how I would have gotten through the last four years without them. They support me in being a conscious, active participant in my own life. But courage is another thing. Is it courageous to share this part of my life with others? In this case, I was in the safest kind of space possible.

Of course, I did write and publish my memoir, Embracing the Stranger in Me: A Journey to Openheartedness. Ironically, when I describe the book to people, I almost forget to mention it is about my spiritual journey. I talk about finding out I was adopted, marriage and divorce times two, job loss and starting a consulting business, my mother’s journey with dementia, long-term care and her death, and my father’s health challenges, particularly not waking up for almost 2 weeks after his second open heart surgery. All of these things are indicators and part of my spiritual journey.

What Does it Mean to be Courageous?

So, what does courage mean? What does it mean to be courageous? Definitions of courage describe it as “facing danger”. There is perhaps a perception of facing danger by sharing stories, deemed deeply personal. But danger to what? Reputation? Professionalism? Career?

The word courage is derived from the old French word corage, meaning heart and innermost feelings. I can identify with that more than with facing danger. I can and do bring heart to everything I do, whether writing, hosting or being in relationship with others. I can accept that as an identity. Heart changes spaces, dynamics and energy fields. It welcomes people, contributes to safe spaces and can positively impact someone’s day, sometimes just by being in the same space and sometimes just in passing by another person.

Everyone can be Courageous, Have Heart

Everyone can be courageous, can have heart. It doesn’t have to be loudly proclaimed, it can just be what we embody. I think it takes a pretty special person to be able to do this all the time. I know I can’t. Some days the stress of things, of worry or concern, in my life is too great. Those days I have to dig deep, sometimes just to get through them. Other days I can radiate heart. This is why practices are so important. They help tether us to what is most important in our lives.

In some ways, the terms are irrelevant. What does it take to show up fully and to embrace all that we are? Being present. Communing with nature. Seeing the beauty all around us. Allowing ourselves to feel. Giving permission to self to live into the things that bring joy, even with all that goes on the world, near and far.

Embracing My Power, Brazil, circa 2012

“Maybe I’m a Queen”

I am reminded of this William Stafford poem that a dear friend shared with me in the months after finding out I was adopted, as the question flowed into my mind: Who are you, really? Maybe, I’m a Queen. It spoke to me then, it speaks to me now. Enjoy.

A Story That Could be True

By William Stafford

If you were exchanged in the cradle and
your real mother died
without ever telling the story
then no one knows your name,
and somewhere in the world
your father is lost and needs you
but you are far away.

He can never find
how true you are, how ready.


When the great wind comes
and the robberies of the rain
you stand on the corner shivering.

The people who go by —
you wonder at their calm.

They miss the whisper that runs
any day in your mind,
“Who are you really, wanderer?” —
and the answer you have to give
no matter how dark and cold
the world around you is:
“Maybe I’m a queen.”

Dad Would Have Been 90 Today – A Goal He Could Not Achieve

Leave a comment

My father had 2 goals in the latter years of his life. Live to be 90 and live out his days on his own in his house. There was never any question that he would go anywhere else. Unfortunately, those 2 goals turned out to be mutually exclusive. His health and mobility deteriorated to the point where even he could see he would no longer be able to live in his house. He died January 16, 2020, with all his faculties still intact. He was in hospital and knew he was dying. At one point on that day he said, “I’m on my way out.” Today would have been his 90th birthday.

There is so much I could say about him, and have said about him in previous blog posts. Dad must have marvelled that he lived as long as he did, given the health issues he had for most of his life. He had a strong will to live and he was stubbornly determined. I love how he adjusted his expectations of what he could do to keep pace with the slow down of his body. He was resourceful and created many workarounds to be able to continue to do the things he wanted to do and loved to do.

It’s been 3 years and it feels like yesterday. I think about him and my mother almost every day and they both come to me regularly in my dreams. I am grateful for the deepening of our relationship over the last decade or two of dad’s life. I am grateful he got to know and become friends with my partner, Jerry. I am grateful he did not have to live through the chaos of the last three years. I think it would have devastated him.

Dad with Jacob in 1991
Dad with Spencer in 1992

I know how proud he was of me and I think about my own struggles in life and building a business, how challenging the last few years have been. I always I hope that I can live up to my father’s sense of pride in me, his hopes and expectations for me and my life. He continues to guide me and inspire me, both through what I have learned through his “mistakes” or struggles in life and what I have learned through his accomplishments. As my family constellations continue to expand in unexpected ways, I am grateful he and mom took me in as a baby and for his words, “It was love at first sight.”

He loved his grandchildren and always enjoyed spending time with them – even as he wished it was more time.

In the end there is only love, although in many ways, the story never ends.

Dad with Spencer and Jacob in 1993 on his prized Bluefin. Dad loved his grandsons.
Dad and Shasta – you can see the joy on his face
Dad with his grandsons – 2016
Dad, me and the grandsons
Dad also loved the loves of Jacob and Spencer’s lives – 2016

When the Story Becomes Hollow

Leave a comment

We use stories to make sense of our experiences. These stories shift and change over the course of our relationship with them. The way we speak of an experience that just happened is different than the way we speak of that same experience a few weeks, months or many years later.

Our relationship with our stories defines and shapes us to greater and lesser degrees. Sometimes we become very attached to the story we tell, to the version of ourselves we have lived out over time.

Some of these stories are truly defining moments of our lives. Some of them offer moments of journey we visit over and over again, looking for lessons learned, looking for healing, looking for moving on. When I wrote Embracing the Stranger in Me: A Journey to Openheartedness I described it as a process of peeling back the layers of the onion, only the onion seems to grow new layers even as we are shedding the outer ones. It can be annoying, frustrating and downright disheartening when we discover the story we thought we had outgrown still has life within us.

onion-276586_960_720These story themes are rooted deep within us. Depending on your beliefs, some of these patterns may have been carried into this life time from past lives (or future lives perhaps) and some of them may be within us as a result of being passed from one generation to another. We might not know or discover the root of the patterns we live out in life, relationship or typical conflicts we may find ourselves in.

IMG_4882So, when do you know the story is healed – finally, perhaps forever? I am sure there are many possible barometers but one of them (newly discovered in my awareness) is when the story begins to feel hollow. It has no substance, no catch, no grab, no hijack anymore. Like a quantum resonance you can see or sense it just within your field of awareness – like a ghost image asking to be let go. You could possibly put it on and wear it again, but like that comfortable old coat you use to wear seemingly forever, it no longer fits, no longer offers the protection or service it once did. It no longer defines you or your look – since your physical body often also changes noticeably when new levels of healing take shape.

I’m not sure it is something we achieve. I think it is something that graces our awareness in the moment it is revealed. Then we can acknowledge the journey, thank the story for all it has offered us over the time we have carried it and turn our awareness to the future and to the new story that is already emerging within the fabric of the old one that no longer defines us.

Gift of the Hit

Leave a comment

About three years ago, I sat down for a coffee with Peter Davison to get caught up and share a few stories about journeys – soul journeys – and he invited me to become a  contributing author to Gift of the Hit: Collected Stories Volume 1. Peter’s own story about being diagnosed with Parkinson’s in his 40’s and the openings that cracked through his veneer of a dedicated, world traveling bachelor and speaker to allow him to love and be loved is inspirational. As he shared his story with others, naturally others shared their stories with him and the inspiration for Gift of the Hit was born.

my-gift-of-the-hit-quote

The story I share is “Soul Journey Beyond Human Tragedy” – another articulation of my mother’s journey with dementia, her death and how that called me to ask myself did I truly believe what I said about my own beliefs – about consciousness traveling, about soul work and soul journey. The answer became a resounding yes, but it took a few years of traveling with my mother in her journey to fully understand what that meant.

“The human tragedy story is so apparent it can obliterate the soul journey perspective. It is often hard to see beyond the sights, sounds and smells assaulting your senses, such as those that would stun me as I walked the halls of the “home” (the long-term care facility that was home to my mother in her last years). It was all so blinding, making it almost impossible to see anything beyond the physical. It was nearly impossible to see the fullness and vibrancy that exists just beyond the veil.

“Now, I am aware of the bubble of light that surrounds the home. The beautiful souls who therein might be making contributions to the world that most of us cannot see or understand and that makes my own spirit more joyful. I now hold my mother’s journey with an added degree of lightness and delight, which i have no doubt she feels. I know she is a great teacher for me – a teacher of journey, a teacher of love and a teacher of dying and death.” p. 62, Gift of the Hit, Vol 1. Special thanks to Joscelyn Duffy , who is also a contributor, for editing.

gift-of-the-hit-book-photoThe stories contributed to Volume 1 speak about courage, perseverance, resiliency, hope and more. Check out the list of authors, some of whom are personal friends, and story titles.

Back to School – Markers of Life Journey

Leave a comment

“Whoever you’ve been and wherever you’ve been, it never leaves you,” Bruce Springsteen said, expanding upon this thought with the most Springsteen-esque metaphor possible: “I always picture it as a car. All your selves are in it. And a new self can get in, but the old selves can’t ever get out. The important thing is, who’s got their hands on the wheel at any given moment?”

– Vanity Fair, Oct 2016 interview with Bruce Springsteen on his soon to be released book, Born to Run

It is back to school day here in Nova Scotia where I live. My social media feed is full of back to school pictures and, yes, there is one of my son, taken by his father, who is now a fourteen year old Grade 9 student.

bus

I was out for a walk this afternoon at the time the buses were arriving home with their precious cargo, parents waiting at the bus stop or, if the school was close enough, walking their kids home from school.

I reminiscenced about those first days of school, as a mother of young children heading out into the world in their first real way – on the bus. My oldest child, who is now 25, had a spring practice run at going to school, an orientation day. He got on the wrong bus coming home. I waited and waited. It was before my cell phone days and his brother, who was a year and a half younger, was napping at the time. I was torn – not knowing if the bus was about to arrive or if I drove off to find him would I miss him and how would that be and do I wake my napping child or not. How far from the house could I reasonably venture. And not having had any experience as a parent of a school aged child. I finally tracked him down by calling the school. I don’t remember if I had to go pick him up at school. I’m sure I did. I do remember the emotions and uncertainty I experienced.

One kid off to school in 1996, one in 1997 and one in 2007. Precious memories, all of them. And, I am not nostalgic for those days, I do not wish to have them back. Not how small my kids were or what stage in life I was at. Lots of journey between now and then – for me and for each of my still precious children (with a couple more added thanks to engagements). I’m proud of each and every one of them and how they engage the world now from their current vantage points.

Springsteen’s quote really comes alive for me as I reflect on these many stages and phases of life. All those selves – my 1996, ’97, 2007 selves – they are all in the car with me. But none of those selves are driving in this time. They are all a part of who I am and who I am today is part of who I will be tomorrow. I might need a bigger car.

Listening Another Person Into Healing

10 Comments

Recently, I agreed to be interviewed for an academic research project about an intense period / experience of my life. A period that is years behind me, that I can now speak about in a much more detached way than when I was in it or immediately past it. The interviewer knows some of my story. In the role of interviewer, her job was to listen, not to interact with my story.

Listen into beingAfter she left, I found myself at times weeping for no explicable reason. The tears just flowed. Beautiful, gracious, glorious release.

I am reminded of the power of just listening, not interpreting, not trying to put words in someone’s mouth. It is a witnessing that can bring another person into being. Can surface what needs to be surfaced for healing.

I don’t know what was there that was surfaced. I don’t need to know specifics. I am aware that something I did not know was still there was released. I am shifting shape yet again as I lean even more fully into this journey to openheartedness. As I answer the call of what is before me.

And I am grateful.

When was the last time you listened to someone else’s story? Just listened. With curiositySlide1 and compassion, no judgment. When you waited to see if they were finished their thoughts – because more thoughts, more aspect of story arises in the silence – before you asked your next question? When the questions you ask are for the benefit of the story teller and not for your own?

When you listen well enough, you can listen another person into being. When you listen well enough, you can listen another person into healing. Try it. See what happens.

Are you holding your sadness as a treasured possession?

Leave a comment

 

5-of-cups-legacy-of-the-divine2Every now and then a question shows up that captures attention as if it was lit up in flashing lights. This happened to me the other morning as I pulled my usual three tarot cards from the Legacy of the Divine deck (my favourite) to help me imagine what the story of my day could be like. One of the cards I pulled was the 5 of cups. Not necessarily a favourite, I decided to open the interpretation book to see what jumped out at me.

Why do you sometimes cradle your sadness like treasured possessions? Are you afraid that the power of your heart will shatter it and force you to leave the safety of the shadowy misery you cling to?

Sadness as a treasured possession? Shadowy misery? Crap! And wham! Both at the same time.

A while ago I wrote about what is real and what is illusion. And I’ve written about my passive aggressive relationship with the law of attraction. And about limiting beliefs.

The journey of life has a way of dishing up illusion so we imagine we are in a different place than we are. It also has a way of waking us up to reality. Like these questions.

I feel the tremulousness of these moments in my life. Partner I love deeply who lives in another country. Re-imagining our work and our businesses. Feeling the pull of life, co-parenting, scheduling. Desiring ease and not always experiencing it. Am I cradling sadness as a treasured possession? Is it part of how I define my story? It is not what I want to hear, to believe is true in this moment but there it is right in front of me.

Am I clinging to shadowy misery? Am I allowing this to define and shape the story of my life in this present moment?

What to do about it?

  1. Allow the recognition of the response evoked by the questions. Yes, there is truth there. Still. After many years of journey.
  2. Invoke compassion for myself. It is a journey. It is not right or wrong or too long. No self-recrimination, just awareness.
  3. Journal to surface and release the patterns so deeply entrenched in my being that sometimes I fear they will never be fully released and most times now I can recognize as part of the unfolding journey – the journey to openheartedness.
  4. Meditate on the vibration I am aspiring to, to let it permeate my physical and soul essence to continue to attract my dreams.
  5. Take concrete steps, even if small, to show – myself, creator, the universe – that the dream I hold is the direction in which I am moving.

I share this because I know I am not the only one cradling sadness and clinging to shadowy misery. If this resonates, know you are not alone and follow the steps.