One of the aspects that I needed to experience with this mostly online community and its founders was an in person visceral exchange so that I felt grounded and connected to the human qualities of us all here in this group. This experience that I needed was fullfilled by my attendance at the latest Sedona retreat and some of it went like this: And so I arrived in Sedona at long last, after the name has been a resonating echo in the back of my minds eye for years. I drove down into the deep Sedona red rock canyon from the north. I am a mountain woman so I went straight to the Bell Rock TH (TrailHead) after driving a "car hot" 8hrs to respectfully perceive if the hype was real and to look at the physical kiosk forest service map to give me an expansive feel for the lands trail system. It was dusk. I found the hype to be more than real as I looked at the beauty upon beauty before me from the Bell Rock TH. In this moment, I remembered what it was like to be a "gaper" and proceeded on to my exploration for a campsite. On the kiosk map, I had found a road on the outskirts of all the popular spots and drove out of town on that road and then onto a dirt road then onto a 4x4 off road to my TH camp spot. I fell asleep with my hatch open before I set up my suv extension tent. I woke up in the middle of the night with a ringing in my ear to what was unexpected wild bugs flying around my head. I put my headlamp on and set up the back end extension of my mostly metal tent in about 3 minutes. I looked up, took a deep breath, and felt a new sensation of the sun's energy still emanating from the land and rocks where I was in the middle of a starlit Sedona night sky. Back to bed. I curled up and was awake and on trail by 530am. I was trail running free in Sedona on red rocky dirt with cathedral spires all around. Happy. I then jumped in the creek. Somewhere in there was mediation/prayer. I then would show up at the retreat mostly fasted, ready to respectfully give and receive. This would be my routine for the next three days.

Have you noticed how easy it is to lose your center when someone else loses theirs? Someone raises their voice… and suddenly your nervous system joins the drama club. 🎭Someone brings chaos… and your mind starts accessing memories, stories you heard, media posts, opinions, unconscious reactions, etc... etc... etc... But what if the real power move is different? What if you become the calm in the storm? Not because you don’t care. Not because you are ignoring what is happening. But because you remember that your energy is yours to protect. When someone reacts → you pause. When someone attacks → you choose awareness. When the world gets loud → you come back to your breath. A calm person in chaos is not someone who feels nothing. It is someone who has learned not to let every outside wave create an internal tsunami. 🌊 Your peace is not weakness. Your softness is not surrender. Your calm is the result of inner work. The next time life tries to pull you into a storm, remember: You don’t have to become the weather. You can simply be the sky. ☁️✨

'Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know' Pema Chodron

I went for a walk this morning down a path I have not been down in awhile and I had FTP/CBA on my mind as I had just commented on the CBA group and I looked down and in red spray paint on the pavement were the letters: FTP Isn't that something?! I am not certain if the letters were painted to honor Full Time Purpose or not, however....it was really cool to see 😉

Most relationship arguments are not about what happened today. They're about old wounds wearing new clothes. A delayed message becomes abandonment. A disagreement feels like rejection. A boundary sounds like criticism. A silence echoes a memory from years ago. The fascinating part is that your mind may explain it away, but your body often reacts first. A tight chest. A knot in the stomach. Restless thoughts. The nervous system remembers stories that words have long forgotten. Healing isn't about finding the perfect partner. It's about recognizing when the past has quietly taken the driver's seat and gently bringing yourself back to the present. The moment you stop asking "What's wrong with this relationship?" and start asking "What inside me is asking to be seen, heard, or healed?" everything begins to change. And sometimes, the first step isn't another conversation. It's a breath. 🌿 Breathe.🌿 Notice.🌿 Feel. 🌿 Respond from who you are today, not from who you had to be back then.