Transformation often happens when we cannot see the path ahead, and when uncertainty demands something of us that was not there before. There is a power in white space, the margins. It is the power of possibility.
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A frigid morning revealed the intricate patterns of ice crystals upon the ground. Fractals are patterns that perpetuate ourselves… as can be behaviors, desires, thoughts and other patterns that govern our daily lives.
Frozen Fractals: How Patterns Teach Us About Ourselves
I can see my breath as clouds in an unnamed place on the Applegate Emigrant Trail, somewhere between the Nevada Ghost town Vya and distant Denio. These are the spaces that I have come to love— not only because they are vast and mysterious in their silent histories, or loud with spaces in the histories they omit, but because they ask silent questions of us when we are fully present within them.
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Marlette Lake 50K: Power of Embodied Metaphors
How I got to the starting line of an ultramarathon—my first 50k— wasn’t exactly a straight line.
In a lot of ways, it reminds me of how I became an athlete to begin with— through happenstance that included an eating disorder, getting over that, freelancing for local newsweeklies and then a lot of Master’s degrees. It was a journey one of my thesis advisors asked, after reading my thesis, which turned into my first book: “Do you think this would be in the self-help section of the bookstore? Like, as a how-to for other people who want to get into long-distance running?”
“Good God, I hope not,” I said….
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Why Soul-Based Coaching is NOT Counseling
in Write
Once again, I set myself up for a “big” Saturday. The plan? Wake up at 4 a.m. to hit the Emigrant Trail outside of Truckee for my longest run to date since 2015 or so (15 miles) where I’d meet my friend for a mountain bike ride on that same trail (17.82 miles total) to help break in her new mountain bike and to introduce her to the world of single-track trails. So, I started running on a trail blazed in orange light and another topic came to mnd that is relevant to this long day of mine insofar as it relates to how I understand the world, and how I want to go about facing the challenges that come up in life from time to time.
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Certification: Complete!
A bit over a year ago today I started a journey down a path I never really envisioned myself walking. For over a decade, I’ve been a professional writer, a co-author, a product reviewer, a technical writer, a blogger, a literary essayist and an elite endurance athlete. Never-ever in that map of my own identity did I—or could I— see myself as an entrepreneur, a business owner and/or a coach, but somehow, that’s where I’ve arrived.
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The Life I Love
It only goes so far to define your life by what has happened before. I realized this week that I’m much more interested in where my life is going than where it has been. Granted, where it has been is what my book is about, and sending that out opens another can of worms that typically results in me having the worst anxiety attacks ever… which has led me to wanting a new beginning, a new start.
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Revising Expectations, Revise Your Life
I went on the prescribed ten-mile “easy” run this morning anyway, hitting the trail around 6 a.m. and watching distant storm clouds cast God rays on mountains across the valley. In a way, I am grateful I have a bit extra time to train (I can really pick how much extra time I have), and to really settle into running a lot more miles (and see if this is even something I can do, given how much I’ve been injured before.)
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Discovering New Possibilities on Old Trails
in Write
Like a lot of us, I’ve been stuck in the house for basically a year, and so when a friend of mine who had never been hiking before asked me if we could go hiking together, I decided I needed to close the front door of the house behind me and step into the world I knew and loved so much before life got complicated, and I forgot this essential part of myself.
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Something Didn't Happen
Last year, I thought that this week I would be going on a new adventure: I’d be riding my pink Felt road bike from San Francisco to L.A. on the 8-day, 525-mile epic journey called the California Coast Classic, which is a major fundraiser for the Arthritis Foundation. Then, COVID-19 happened, and the official event was canceled, and I ended up with an 8-day staycation. I used the time to discover something about myself.
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Write, Embody, Heal: Thoughts on Community
I am participating in a monthly creative/therapeutic and regenerative For Women Unfolding: The Write, Embody, Heal! workshop group led by my creative colleague and friend Kelsay Myers. I appreciate the group not only for its ability to remind me to slow down, to breathe, and to embody (myself in) the moment, but it also inspires me to have creative-play when it comes to my writing, something that hasn’t happened for years.
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