New chapters call for so much transition and unpacking. We leave the familiar behind to set the stage for what we are becoming and it can be truly exhausting...

...but one piece at a time, we go through everything we've carried with us...

...and in those moments we are connecting to that playful child inside, it can even be fun and exciting...

...and in other moments, there just isn't enough coffee in the world to keep us going...

...and we have to take a break to receive some love and nurturing from those we love...

...and in those loving arms we regain the strength to venture alone down dark hallways...

...in order to find new undiscovered sources of light...

Birth is a beautiful teacher. Like a true pioneer, a birthing woman travels into the unknown to bring her baby home to her arms. Each birth takes it's own unique twists and turns which unfold and blossom into a magnificent story to be told of a one of a kind human being. Childbirth holds our hands and walks us into the depths of our capability into the rawest love we have ever known.

Sometimes bringing our babies earthside happens so quickly and smoothly that all we can see is the support and miracle that is existence...and it's breathtaking.

We find ourselves fully immersed in the moment...feeling the pure joy that only new life can bring.

I know a faerie.  She sprinkles her magic everywhere she goes. With her profound ability to see, she will wrap you up in her nurturing heart and keep you warm in your coldest of winters.

As she draws you in with her truly magnetic energy, she will deliver the pieces of truth you've been resisting without hesitation.

As she digs into the depths of your soul, she uncovers the emotion you've kept hidden in your shadowy corners and sets it free as she cries with you. Her vulnerable moments are a gift to those she shares them with.

Like the rains that fall from the dark gray sky, her tears cleanse and wash away the dirt and allow spirituality to shine as bright as the sun.

Her fierce expression of self reminds that anything goes and the only rules that exist are the ones we enforce upon ourselves.  Like a wild mama bear, she will protect herself and hers with the sting of her wild heart.

I'm eternally grateful for her compassion and blunt honesty alike. 

Her sensual expression, the community she creates, her willingness to explore the dark to find light, and her ability to be simply present all make the world better. ​

What a magical piece of humanity.

Why are there no emotional emergency responders?  When tragedies occur, people rush to the scene to ensure that your physical body stays alive at all costs. Others will ensure that no messes are left behind and no hazardous threats remain and law enforcement will arrive to ensure that any who have broken laws will be held responsible.

A young woman with a lot on her mind is distracted. She runs a red light and her car smashes into another. Her head has hit the windshield and broken glass has cut her skin. She is in shock. She's struggling to steady her breath, looking down at her body, holding her head, grasping at her cell phone to connect to someone who cares. Her eyes are darting all over the place. The horn of her car is still blaring in the background and she is in chaos alone, despite the fact that she is surrounded by many. The cars are irritably attempting to get through the intersection, unaware of a woman in vulnerable need. All they see is an obstruction in their path as they aim for their various destinations.  The firemen and police have their jobs to do, so they don't even notice as she stumbles into traffic to take a picture of the wreckage in her fogged state of mind.

This young woman has a mother, but she is too panicked to be able to make contact with her. So there she cries on the side of the road, sad for the mess she's made. The busy city around her is blind to the emotional distress she is in. Are they too busy to notice? Is aiding a stranger in need not on their list of priorities? Maybe they just have no idea of how to even start such an action. So again I ask, why are there no emotional emergency responders?

She allows her beautiful colors to show. She is one who acknowledges and appreciates all life and brings balance to the world with her desire to understand and learn. To ensure that all beings can be heard, she holds space in the face of discomfort and disagreement because she knows that all people are deserving of respect and acknowledgement. Her warmth shines upon any stranger whose path crosses hers and she will shares these moments as if she had run into an old friend.

She also knows when to say "No!" She is always becoming familiar with her boundaries and will stand up for her life. For those whose voices are being silenced, she will speak up  and share love. In her desire to see the truth, she shares perspective. When she takes a stand and claims her boundaries, she lights the path for others to find their way.

When she facilitates difficult conversations, she ignites growth. Through her love and acceptance, she creates commUNITY. She shines. Her power shows. She is making a change.

​We live in a society imposing its routines of normalcy upon our infinitely boundless spirits. From a very young age we are taught to not take risks, to find comfort in the expected, to behave in a way that is acceptable to those around us, and to color within the lines. Our chains are invisible, we perceive that we have the freedom to do as we wish, however many of us remain in a state of tug of war. We become the metaphorical rope being pulled between the passion of our fiery heART’s need for authentic self-expression and our brain’s logical presumption of what will bring us success and collective approval. Unknowingly driven by its past experiences and conditioning, our brains often come to overshadow the inherent freedom of our perceptive heARTs. Because of our true nature, to maintain such an existence is out of alignment with the core of who we are.
            So, I invite you to ask yourself these questions now. Take the time you need to ponder each one thoroughly. What does my heART want to create? What thoughts do I have daily that are being translated through my emotions? Which emotions are my thoughts trying to communicate to me? What dreams did I give up on? What are my fears showing me to be of great importance? What can I do to stand up to and move past those fears? What gifts of productivity can I give my mind to allow it to feel a sense of healthy control that makes room for my soul’s desire for expression?
            Balance is the key to overall emotional and mental health and we are whole as we come. Our orderly minds are not an enemy trying to sabotage our lives and, likewise, our hearts are not meant to run the show single handedly. These seemingly opposite contributors are harmonious pieces of the same beautiful puzzle. Without either dimension of our being, we wouldn’t be the amazing creatures we are. These two halves of our whole keep one another in check and allow us to grow and learn. The intuition revealed through our emotions gives us direction and ambition. It shows us what is most important to us and what we desire to bring into our experience. The translation introduced by our logical minds allows us to manifest these abstract creations into reality. Wildly free, our heARTs could never be tamed or controlled by logic…the whisper of our inner voice can always be felt like a seismic wave, even when it cannot be heard. Rationality gives us an opportunity to attempt to understand that which is not fathomable or of this world. It gives us the ability to expand and prove ourselves wrong time and time again until we become nothing but energy once more.
            Within all of this lies the mystery of our nature. Who are we? Why are we here? Where does this puzzle end? The answers to my deepest ponderings are rooted in the core of the layers that I pull back daily to reveal my purpose. The more layers I shed, the more love and endless acceptance I uncover. I don’t know the answers to these questions and I’m okay with forever asking them with the very likely possibility that I will never know. I’m okay with not knowing…in fact, I’m excited about not knowing. This means there is a whole world of adventure at my disposal and paths untraveled that will each bring me closer to the unfathomable. Every moment and every breath will continue to reintroduce me to myself continually. What a beautiful gift this life is with so much to love and so much to learn. It was Frank Herbert who said, “Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.” How fascinating it is to even exist at all.

​Dear 2016,
 
You’ve been deep to say the least. You held our hands and intentionally walked us down a path of experiencing our core nature. Like the sun breaking through the clouds, you cracked through our rough and tough exteriors from the inside out, showing us what being human is really all about. Some got to experience love and emotion in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways, awakening long forgotten warmth that had been hibernating through a long winter of darkness. Many feel that you have dished them a heavy helping of loss that they once dreamed unfathomable or never considered would be a part of their lives. With the constant pulse of nature, you’ve given and taken, pushed and pulled, and revealed the light and dark that is the truth of life.
 
As for me, I’m immeasurably grateful for your honest and outright raw authenticity. Without hesitation, you exposed me to my mortal state of existence so that I might hold in my heart the priority of truly living each moment to its fullest. By threatening what I hold most dear, you showed me the importance of releasing control, sacrifice, and compromise. The relentless force of this experience revealed my unknown power and required that I exercise my voice that I had muffled for as long as I can remember. Right on queue, you dispatched the necessary characters who said exactly what I needed to hear, even when I didn’t want to hear it. With your help, I shifted massively toward acceptance and learned to flow with life rather than straining upstream.
 
Although I will forever be reaching and climbing for the stars, you have graced my pallet with some sweet and savory flavors. I’ve nibbled at the nectar of prosperity, tasted the bittersweet of the quickening of time, savored the sweetness of loves commitment, begun learning the recipe for self love, integrated allowing my spicy self expression to grace my own lips, and to breathe in all of the aromas that life has to offer so that they can all be experienced to their fullest. With your medicine 2016, I have achieved the understanding and value of truly dancing…rain or shine, happy or sad, ease or strain. I am grateful for every little moment and I will carry these lessons and realizations with me evermore. From this point forward, I promise to channel this energy into all of the action and movement I can muster.
 
All my love and gratitude,
Whitney Wilda
 
To my readers! Please join me on this journey as I embrace living each moment to my fullest ability and pouring my heART and soul into my creations and interactions with other human spirits. I know that it’s not an arbitrary period of time that I have to thank for all of my growth and learning that has occurred during this thing we call “2016,” but rather each person who has been a part of my experience and the mysterious forces behind it all. Call it the universe, god, spirit, intuition, or whatever you’d like….I prefer to call it life. Thanks for sharing mine with me. <3