weaving our way to Texas one connection at a time

Hello, Love :)

I apologize for my absence.

When I started this blog, I had intentions of posting every day. I look forward to when I do.

I shared recently that my mission and vision was too big to share from the small screen of an old iphone. Well, I am uber excited to announce that I finally have my laptop back!

So, now, I am going to send out rockets of desire for mobile wifi. Having to travel to a McDonalds, a Starbucks, or a library to connect online has been my next level of challenge that I am ready to alleviate :)

So, having said all of that...

We had a huge shift in our journey.

After 3 weeks of free roaming Oregon, connecting with people, places, and experiences, we got called to speak at Rethinking Everything (a huge alternative life conference) in Texas.

I am going to speak on living nomadically, the internal journey and the physical specifics.

I know that this is an incredible opportunity to connect with my people, to reach further. But, like BurntWoodsStock, I have no idea the depths and breadths this experience will reach.

I just know I need to get there.

So, this has taken my trust journey to a whole new level.

In retrospect, I am seeing how taking off for Oregon was kinda easy. We had the gas money. We just had to show up.

This has been a different experience altogether. We didn't have the gas. We had no idea the exact "hows" to this experience, just that we were going to continue to do hair ropes wherever we could to fund our gas and conference stay (hotel room share stay).

So, so far we have made it from Newport, Oregon back down the coast to San Diego. We left there yesterday and are currently in Arizona, with enough gas to get to the Texas border.

So many times, I have felt the panic start to rise. Once or twice, I even had to accept the fact that maybe getting to the conference might not be the end result.

And then the next thing unfolded before us, paving the way.

We are almost there, and I know we will make it. However it will happen, it will.

This has been a HUGE journey of expansion. I felt it when we entered Encinitas again, and I noticed how much I had grown in our journey.

I feel deeper connected than ever.

You know what else I have been really realizing recently?

I am my hero.

All those people I looked up to for living so deeply, so authentically, so connected, so sacred. The wise women, the shamans, the earth people.

I am one of them.

This is deeply fulfilling for me.

Everywhere I go, I am reminded of this.

Everywhere we go, I speak with people. I connect deeply with people. I find my people.

And that is incredible.

But a part of my journey recently has been really being aware of how much I love myself.

I have been flushing out some bits still. There is a Pink song where she talks about feeling

Mistreated, misplaced, misunderstood
Miss "no way, it's all good", It didn't slow me down
Mistaken, Always second guessing
Under estimated, Look, I'm still around

Pretty, pretty please
Don't you ever, ever feel
Like your less than, less than perfect.
Pretty, pretty please
If you ever, ever feel
Like your nothing
You are perfect to me.

Wow, it triggers me every time, even just sharing the lyrics with you here.

Underestimated is the gut kicker.

I never really believed in my self, in the deeper part of me that I longed to embody but was afraid to do so and fail.

Now, I am so deeply connected, and it allows me unfold so deeply and simply with the people I connect with in our journeys.

My people. They are everywhere.

Community builders. Authentic livers. Creatives. Sacreds. Soul sisters and soul brothers.

Be still my heart.

I feel so acutely aware of the web of us that I am a part of.

I am overjoyed to travel and connect personally with people, to have new connections in communities around the country.

I feel this global community unfolding one pocket at a time. I feel myself heading in a direction to impact the world.

I feel myself being capable of this huge epic calling in life. To gather people and create spaces that reach to heal and nourish the world.

I am not longer afraid. I am not afraid of the fire. I know that I am the embodiment of the phoenix. I am that which I was afraid of.

Now, I am not afraid.

And my whole life and world (my little family, my bigger family, my tribe) are all a reflection of this.

We are all stepping into our power, more deeply connected and loving, more an expression of abundance.


So, here I am. In Sedona, Arizona. A beautiful, incredible little artsy community (like none I have ever seen!) with massive red rock plateau backdrops, inviting the mysterious, opening up the space in my life to accept the abundance that is swirling all around and accessible if we can be open enough.

That is what this journey is all about for me. Opening up. Expanding. Trusting. Connecting to Source.

I want to invite you to step into this giant hug. I want to find new ways to connect with you. I am on Facebook, and I am here, and I have a few e-mails.

How best do I connect with you, beloved reader?

How best do I enfold you in this massive, and yet deeply personal project and vision?

To what depths do you want to be involved?

I have been feeling drawn toward business. But it has not unfolded the way I was previously attempting. I think I am meant to find the ways to make this my life's work.

I know that finding ways to gather us together and stay connected feels like the best first step.

And I am craving dialogue from you. I have a lot to say, and I have replayed and refined my ideas for years. I want to hear you, often, constantly. I would love to create a space that makes symbiotic dialogue easy.

That is what I was hoping for with this blog space. I wanted people to be able to comment. I am worried that the comment-ability is not easy. I want to adjust that.

Also, I have a Facebook group that has been as neglected as this blog, unfortunately. But it is chocked full of soulful community deliciousness. It is called Being Tribe. Please feel free to come find it if you want to be a part of community dialogue.

In addition to sharing my big heart journey here and connecting with beloveds on Facebook, my other big internet experience has been requesting donations to fund our journeys.

It has been that the big heart donations people have gifted us have catapulted us into a much further trajectory than it seemed possible.

My wish list manifestation list is shared in the sidebar, and all donations go toward whatever is most salient at the time of receiving.

I have been spending some depth time wondering over requesting donations. I have been loving weaving hair ropes for people along our journey.

And I am feeling drawn toward wanting to offer my e-book "Whole Family Learning" to people who donate.

Once I get Microsoft Office Student again, I have a plethora of e-book and e-course ideas I would love to share.

Please, please, let me know what you are interested in hearing more about from me. I would love to share more about it. I would love to offer a fair energy exchange for donations - whatever you feel called toward, be it my most sincere gratitude, an e-book, some time to connect, some listening while you process, a personalized e-mail to you about some subject you want to know more about.

Please be in touch with me if you feel inclined to donate monetarily and have room for me to connect in your life.

All my love,
V

Oregon, we have arrived

We did it. 

We totally did it. 

Right before we crossed the state line, we pulled over to use the restroom and the wifi, and suddenly it all hit me. 

What I had done. 

I had left my fears and my excuses, and ventured outside of my comfort and familiarity. I had left the people and place I had called home for the past 20 years. 

I was going somewhere (I didn't even know where!) where I knew like 2 people in the whole state. 

I can't believe how brave I was. 

And all it took was some expired tags to momentum us out of there as planned this time :) There was no waiting this time, no changing our minds. We just had to go. Or pay for registration twice. 

I will be honest. The journey up here was incredible. The driving, the people, the views, the fun, the music, the views :)) Not the heat. Lol

I look forward to more travel. 

We do plan to travel around Oregon and decide where we want to grow home, and I look forward to a more slow paced kind of travel, an ease that opens us up to the kind of movement that is based on what interests us in the moment. 

I look forward to pausing at rest stops and view sites, and partaking in town cultures and quirky shops and exploring a beautiful lake we saw from the road. 

I am grateful to set the blinders aside. We made it. We are in Oregon. 

Besides oohing and ahhhhing over all the green and soul-delicious details here in Ashland, we headed straight over to a locally-owned and operated storage unit facility and found the perfect unit for us at an incredible price! 

We unloaded the van, and it gave a giant sigh, as did we when the back looked more like home than like a moving truck. 

And we set out in search of wifi. 

We stopped at a gas station to ask for directions, and I decided it was a good time to ask about customary tipping to the gas pumping attendants - it is illegal in Oregon to pump your own gas. The usual tip is a buck or two, I was told. But you can tip more if they clean your windows or check your oil, etc. Or you can not tip, I was told, and it's not going to ruin their day (lol - that is what he said :)) So sweet. 

At Starbucks I learned that although there is no sales tax in the state of Oregon, there is a prepared food and beverage tax in the city/town of Ashland, and it is only a hair less than the sales tax in California. 

I was really looking forward to buying something with no sales tax. So, I guess that is my next mission. 

Wait! I bought incense at the grocery store, and it WAS $4.99. Wow. I did it :))

Haha, and I love that the first no-tax-item I bought in Oregon was a big box of Nag Champa :))

So, we located a few stops (like the DMV) and bought some groceries, and then we headed off for the lake, to meet up with an incredible fulltime family who travel in the Ecowomb and happened to be in Ashland, too. 

As soon as we got to the lake, we knew we were going to need a day to just ground ourselves, before we were going to be ready to start diving into our Ashland to do list. 

Even just thinking those last 4 words were exhausting. So, I was on strike from anything that did not make me feel peace and grounded deeply. 

That meant sushi, kombucha, and chocolate for dinner, a lake to awe over the beauty of and imagine swimming in on the hot next day, and soul-nourishing togetherness with a kindred family. 

Life feels so much less like you are alone when you have a life learning family to connect with and enjoy life with :) 

I soaked and basked in our shared values and the beauty of their family in motion. Interactions in connected, compassionate, loving, life learning families always captivates me. It's so seductive. I just soak it in and find myself BEing the mama I love most to be. 

We talked about the deliciousness of a gypsy tribe (they were one of the families in the Conscious Caravan) and of the usefulness of non-profit status for donations, sponsorship, and funding. 

It sure was getting me thinking about this tribe I am growing <3

Our children had a blast and quite adored each other last night, and even more so this morning. 

We spent the day at the lake, swimming for like 5 hours. It was incredible. 

And just what we needed. 

Now, we are back in town running a few errands (like getting more food and using the wifi to locate more services). 

Until tomorrow, Loves <3

V