Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve sat down to write a blog. In a way, I get it: this year has been transformational: I completed the 9-month training program for Soul-Based Coaching, and am currently finishing up the final details of the certification process. I wrote a book, my memoir, “All That Circles and Shines” with the wonderful support of my editor Megan Febuary and her “Your Book Year” program. I launched my LLC, With Wings, in March 2021, exactly a year after the shutdowns in 2020 that felt like the world is ending. So much has changed!
I’ve decided to share this journey with you. My entire life I told myself I wanted to be a writer. I was ready for it, I thought, since day 1: sharing my story seemed as easy as the flicker of my hands on a keyboard. What could be more natural than turning my memories and thoughts into a narrative? It turns out, it’s not easy, but easy when I compare it to the work of actually putting it out into the world. And that’s funny to me, because I have been “putting myself out there” for a long time.
For those of you who don’t know, I started my writing journey in 2006. I wanted to get an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) degree in writing, and my life wasn’t going so great, so I used the last of my savings to pay for twelve applications to MFA programs around the country. I was working at a ski shop and living in someone else’s basement. It was not the best time in my life. Anyway, I received twelve rejections in reply, and I really thought my life, at that point, was over.
I won’t go into the details, but I did end up going to graduate school—not in writing, but in French— where I remained for one, two and three (an MFA at long last) graduate degrees. In the midst of all of that, I started running. Inspired by the 2009 film Julie and Julia I started a blog I called “The Miles and Pages Project” where I documented my journey to run a marathon fast enough to get me to the 2012 Olympic Trials. I didn’t run fast enough (I missed the mark by 48 seconds), but the blog won an award and was the reason why I landed a spot in an MFA program, which then inspired me to write my first memoir, to land an agent and then, oddly enough, to gain experience as both a ghost-writer and coauthor.
And so, ten years later, here I am: I know the power of embodied metaphors because, as an endurance athlete I have lived them. I know the power of stories because I have written my own and others’. So here I am: diving deep into my metaphors, my life, this journey, while simultaneously facilitating my clients to do the same.
If you’ve never experienced Soul-Based Coaching, it’s hard to describe. I can say “metaphor” until I’m blue in the face and most people go back to their high school English class when metaphor was like this dead fish you had to dredge out of the river of some gawd-awful old reading that had nothing to do with your life. The thing is: we’re all ways speaking in metaphors (I’m against a wall, it feels like I’m pulling dead weight, I’m so dog tired, I’m underwater….) have you ever taken the time to really, truly, think about what those images mean for you?
That’s what I do as a coach who uses Soul-Based Coaching techniques. Interestingly enough, that’s what I do when writing about my life, too. What does it mean that I felt alone? What kind of alone was that alone? Where was that alone, and where did it come from?
I’m no expert, and I still have so much to learn, but this work has enabled me to really re-frame and find my voice—my soul, really— to this time in my life when it feels as though I’ve climbed a really high mountain, which was dangerous and scary—to reach a point where I can claim and make this story—this life—my own.
So… follow me! I’ve got a plan and I want to tell you all about what it’s like to write a really personal book and shop it around as I build my business and do all the other weird stuff I do (run, write, Orange Theory Fitness, raising baby ducks, knitting, photography, cycling, etc. Lots of etc.)
Check back here for coaching updates, writing updates— all the good stuff. <3 , loves.
