Wander Free Wellness

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Oh oak tree
Ground me free
Let me be
The truth of me
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How free are you?
How free do you want to be?

We are all products of conditioning, programming, and indoctrination when you get right down to it. And I consider freedom a spectrum...not a black or white, "this or that," "free or not free," kind of thing.

How free are you?
How free do you want to be?

This quote by The Eagles has always stood out to me, every time the song is on the radio or my Spotify shuffle.

"So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key."

We have the keys to our own freedom, at least in the sense of our state of mind. We have the ability to free ourselves, bit by bit, from the chains of society's conditioned status quo and social constructs.

We have the ability of acknowledging where we are being controlled or manipulated, and we have the ability to take our power back through recognition, through de-programming, and through deep, true, heartfelt connection with self. We connect back with the truth inside of us.

This is why I have created my online course Return to the Wilds. It's an exploration of some of the chains that bind us here in this Western society, and it's a dive into practices of connection -- with Self, with the Earth, and with the Sacred.

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Will you join us? Our next LIVE journey of the course is from Spring Equinox (3.21.22) to Autumn Equinox (9.21.22).

Monthly live calls are accompanied by dozens of audio and video recordings, including both lecture-style and meditations, a 100+ page guidebook of poetry, journal prompts, rituals, and practices, and a private online community with weekly written check-ins and interaction.

20% off until this Friday 2.18.22 with code WANDERWILD20. Return to the Wilds link in bio/comments.

Do you nurture your fire? How hot does it burn? Is it a tiny spark, a candle flame, a campfire, a blazing inferno?

What ignites it?
What extinguishes it?

Do you realize your power as creator, maker, portal-dweller, keeper of this sacred fire?

As we've just journeyed past Imbolc, the cross-quarter day between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, the seeds are sparking under the ground.

Do you feel their shoots making their way skyward through the darkness?

It's time to awaken the fire-keeper.

We head toward spring and potential energy is ripe.

What is within you longing to be set free?

How are you tending your own creative hearthfire?

Join us in communal ritual to tend our flame within, to spark new creative action, and to ignite all possibilities.

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These circles are open to all women and femmes. You can drop-in or become a member. Deadline to enroll is Thursday, February 17th.

Friday, February 18, 2022
6-9pm
Private Residence in the Golden Gate Estates
Naples, FL

Wish you could come to these circles but don't live in Naples? We do New Moon Circles online every month via zoom. See link in bio for Temple of the Wild Wanderer.

Society and all of the influences that are external to our own being, our own inner knowing, are shaping us all the time. From birth, we are molded and shaped by what is around us. The first seven to eight years of our life is the time when our entire "operating system" and subconscious world is formed. You can say that these crucial early years of our life are when we are "programmed".

It happens through patterns we observe, our parents, our teachers, our friends and peers, and the media, including news, television shows and movies, magazines, and now, of course, everything on the internet.

But the programming doesn't stop at age eight.

Every single day we are bombarded with information and ideas about what is true, right, or acceptable and what is false, wrong, and unacceptable to the rest of society.

Better do it like everyone else!
Better fit in!
Don't rock the boat.
Don't draw too much attention to yourself.
Don't be too much. Too weird. Too wild.

Fitting in is a matter of survival. Most of us depend on it, on some level.

But the problem is our need to belong has become so warped that we have lost touch with the truth within ourselves.

There are other ways of being inside of us that we don't even know exist!

The tricky part about this programming, is that we often don't even know it's happening.
We think we have chosen everything in our life.

The desires we think are our own...
The choices we think are our own...

Are actually handed to us from a silver platter of fixed options...

So...

What if there was another way?

What if your soul was calling you to do something different?

By doing the work of shedding the programming, the conditioning, and the heavy layers that have been piled upon us from birth we start to free ourselves. Little by little, inch by inch, layer by layer...

We shed our skin to reveal our own truth.
We become acquainted with the undomesticated, untamed one within.
We return to the wilds of our own soul.

If this speaks to you, please join us tonight at 7pm EST for a free online class (recording available).

Register at the link in comments.

What do you have to lose, except for a few old shackles and heavy cloaks of illusion?

For women & femmes...
I hope to see you all tonight at 6:30pm EST (ONLINE VIA ZOOM) to celebrate Imbolc and the New Moon in Aquarius.

Imbolc is a day to celebrate the return of the light. The seeds spark and quicken under the soil. We celebrate with the Goddess Brigid who is the flame-tender of our creativity, inspiration, hearth, and healing.

We will connect with the energy of Imbolc and Brigid, as well as the energy of the Willow which rules this lunation. We'll also do some manifestation artwork (and will continue this throughout the month of February, if you'd like to join).

What to bring:
:: A journal and writing utensil
:: Art supplies of your choosing
:: An unlit candle (brand new if you have one, but doesn't have to be)
:: A place where you can be quiet and undisturbed for two hours
:: An object that represents creativity, fire, or healing to you for your own personal altar.

Links in comments. Zoom link will be sent out upon enrollment and posted inside the Mighty Networks group for members.

On this new moon in Aquarius, lunar new year, and Imbolc holiday, I’ve been reflecting about presence.

This is a photo I took this summer when I was road tripping cross-country. This was a stop somewhere in Big Sur down highway one in CA. It was a rest stop and inn. While most people were just snapping photos of this gorgeous view, these older and wiser humans had set up camping chairs and were just gazing out at the beauty with their own two eyes.

Not a brief snapshot for their social media distractions and dopamine hits.

They were taking it all in. Fully present (or sometimes napping). Time slowed down. Not in a rush to get back on the road to nowhere. Just being.

After a health scare in my family this weekend, I’m realizing even more how important it is to be fully present.

We can talk about this all we want as a mindfulness cliché, but when push comes to shove we must embody it.

Our time here, in these bodies, in this way, is finite. The people we love won’t be around forever and can be snatched from us in an instant. When all is said and done, we will almost always wish we had more time with the people and places we loved.

So let’s stop wasting it behind screens and distractions and cheap dopamine hits. Let’s remember that goals and jobs are not priorities over REAL WORLD CONNECTION.

Put the phone down more.
Look up.
Hug someone.
F*CKING HUG SOMEONE.
(STOP FEARING IT.)
Watch a sunset.
Make art.
Tend a garden.
Make love.

And will you just, really and truly,
despite all the drama of the world,
despite all the reasons not to,

start to LIVE?

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Check my stories for upcoming events on 2.1.22 and 2.2.22.