A Hero's Journey of Yes & No

There are moments on a long journey when you realize that saying YES is not a single act, but an on-going rhythm you live into. Yes is the heartbeat of the Hero’s Journey. It's a steady vow that must be renewed again & again, especially when the path changes & the landscape becomes challenging.

Each of us encounters pivotal moments on our path when life asks for commitment, courage & a willingness to stay open, especially when it would be easier to turn away. Maybe you’ve felt it too: that quiet call to keep showing up for your own evolution, to trust the unfolding even when you can’t see where it leads.

Yes is a superpower we develop on our Hero's Journey. It’s the capacity to recommit, to choose Yes again & again with a sincerity from the deepest truth inside your soul. Each return to Yes strengthens devotion to your growth & lights the way forward on our heroic path.

MiddleWorld Reflections

As 2025 comes to an end, I am coming to the end of my eight-year MiddleWorld Apprenticeship. It's been quite the journey. Throughout this living curriculum, I've had to recommit to my Yes over & over again in so many ways. The vows & intentions I made for this program have been a steady source of guidance & encouragement for me through some challenging times, both on a personal and collective level.

Over the past eight years, there have been many moments when I struggled to meet the objectives of my Apprenticeship. However, I found ways to put one foot in front of the other and stay true to my soul’s calling. I stayed the course as I wove my way through the spiral of my Hero’s Journey. Year after year, month after month. and sometimes moment to moment, I had to find ways to recommit to my Yes, and continue to open my heart to love.

As I come to the completion of my Apprenticeship, I'm taking time to honor the many ways I said Yes, and how this act of recommitment has helped me grow towards being more awake to love.

I also share in this blog art that emerged through me along the way.

May you too be inspired to explore & honor the many Yes's you've lived into throughout your life, and see how these spirit callings support you with expanding into a wider experience of life, love and soulful authenticity.

YES's on the Journey  

1. Yes to MiddleWorld Apprenticeship

I started with a big YES that set everything into motion, the Yes of committing to this long-form curriculum of becoming. This eight-year MiddleWorld Apprenticeship has been a living laboratory for my transformation, designed to keep me in relationship with the wild animal of my species & deepen my capacity to love as I walk the MiddleWorld realm of humanity.

Year after year, I had to recommit to the practice of loving humanity, which has been challenging for me in many ways, especially during Covid which strained our collective fabric; and now during the Trump era which is testing the limits of our empathy, compassion & hope.

In the face of so much fear, volatility & fragmentation, choosing love has been a discipline I've had to continually recommit to. I've had to adapt, soften my standards & open my heart with bravery in new ways. Love is not a feeling; it's a stance, a daring devotion that requires a willingness to remember that every human, including me, is both hurting and holy.

My vows & intentions for this Apprenticeship have been a Lighthouse beacon for me, guiding me back to saying Yes to keeping my heart open in these challenging times. I am learning that a Yes to love is a daily practice of heroic commitment to staying in relationship with the world.

Staying the Course

My Apprenticeship has been teaching me that humanity is not something “out there” for me to heal or fix; it is something I belong to & something I am made of. I am part of the problem, and part of the solution. I'm grateful for the reminders of love that have shined their light on my path to remind me of why this is all worth it.

I am learning that I can best serve humanity when I meet it with connection instead of control, which can be challenging for me in many ways. I am still learning how to practice curiosity instead of certainty, and how to engage in relationship rather than managing. And while I still have much to learn about living with & loving humanity, I'm proud of myself for staying the course, and for saying Yes over & over again, even when it got hard. This program has helped me keep my heart open to loving the world, even when it breaks my heart on a regular basis.

2. Yes to Integration over Separation

One of the larger objectives of my Apprenticeship was to bring myself deeper into loving relationship with humans. When I started this program, I thought that objective would be met through my workshop offerings in the private sector, However, Covid shifted things & my immersion into humanity happened more profoundly through my corporate career.

During Year 2 of my Apprenticeship I got a job in New York City & that has a been a powerful springboard for me to bring my spiritual practice into corporate spaces. My expertise at leading workshops has translated well into leading corporate trainings. I interact with people all over the world, and have a high level of influence bringing heart centric presence into spaces where it is often missing.

In this way I've been able to build a bridge between my spiritual being & my professional life, offering a more integrated me into all the ways I serve. I've learned how to more fully let my inner wisdom, intuition, and heart-centered presence flow into my corporate work, and to let the real-world challenges of the MiddleWorld shape and refine my spiritual practice.

My career advancement was an unexpected aspect of my journey. I never imagined that my spiritual evolution would unfold so powerfully through my professional life, yet it turned out to be one of the clearest pathways for meeting my Apprenticeship objectives. I now see that part of my Hero’s Journey was learning how to carry my medicine into places that needed it most, and to become a bridge between worlds by living the paradox of being both mystical & grounded and poetic & practical. It was here, in this unexpected terrain, that my purpose found new shape and fuller expression.

Using Art to Connect

And while my corporate career grew during throughout my Apprenticeship, I still continued to cultivate my private practice. During Covid, I shifted from leading in-person workshops to taking my Wild Soul Wanderings workshops on-online. I learned how to use technology to create a container for intimacy, fun & creative connection.

By stepping into this new realm for my workshop offerings, I discovered that the digital world can hold just as much magic as an in-person circle. I've learned how to facilitate presence across screens, how to invite vulnerability through video cameras, and still have a sense of play and soulful connection even though we are not sharing the same physical space.

By going on-line, I've been able to share my workshops with people throughout the country, and bring together an amazing community of kindred spirits that bring their own courage and creativity into the circle. Through this process I cultivated heart-centric community during global crisis and this has been a wonderful way for me to connect with & serve humanity during these times.

Art Journaling

During Covid I discovered the practice of art journaling, which has been a game changer for me. Art Journaling has become an amazing practice for me to get to know myself better, allow my inner child to play, and to share parts of myself with others. Art journaling became a companion for me on my Hero’s Journey through the MiddleWorld, offering visual language for emotions, thresholds, and revelations that happened along the way.

During my Apprenticeship I created several amazing mixed media books, one around the story of Little Red, and others around the Medicine Wheel, the Chakras and the Hero's Journey. This passion expanded into my workshop offerings and inspired others to find their own creative expressions as well.

By dedicating myself to offering Creative Art Playshops throughout my Apprenticeship. I witnessed the magic that unfolds when people allow themselves to create without judgment. I've seen how art supports people to soften & open up to remembering who they truly are. In this way, my Yes to art journaling became not just a personal practice, but a communal practice that sparked creativity in others, inviting them into their own heroic expression.

No's on the Journey  

Not every call along the hero's path is met with a wholehearted Yes. Some calls to adventure are met with hesitation, partial steps, or quiet pauses. As I near the end of my program, I'm taking time to honor the No's that were part of my journey as well. The places where I hesitated, the thresholds I didn’t cross, the practices I let go of, the relational edges I didn’t fully soften into.

I'm striving to see these No's not as failures but as teachers that continue to call me forward on my path as I age into the next season of my life. These No's are guides showing me my limits, my patterns, my fears & my humanity. These No's remind me that growth isn't linear. Every hero has chapters they revisit along the spiral path of life that brings us back to unfinished lessons with new eyes & a cultivated heart.

1. Receiving from Humanity

One of the thresholds of relationship I did not fully cross during my Apprenticeship was around the art of receiving. My independence is a skill honed through years of self-reliance, leadership and survival. It's both a strength & a shield. It's carried me far, and it also guards me against letting others in.

A core intention of my Apprenticeship was to connect deeper with humanity, not only by giving & leading, but by allowing myself to receive & be held by others. True connection is reciprocal, a dance of holding & being held. I am much better at giving & still struggle to surrender into the grace of receiving.

Before Covid, I was beginning to soften my edges and let people in. However, the isolation of the pandemic interrupted that momentum. I slipped back into old patterns of self-sufficiency and solitude, and have stayed more alone than I intended throughout the rest of my Apprenticeship.

There's also a part of me that holds high standards for myself & others. I can be very exacting and precision driven, which can keep relationships at a distance & performance based. I sense that as I age, my next layer of mastery will include lessons in softening, and allowing forgiveness & imperfection to become holy ground for this human experience.

As I reflect on this “No” in my life, I am reminded that belonging is not earned through strength or self-reliance alone. It is revealed through shared vulnerability, a skill I am still learning, and one I hope to keep saying Yes to in the years ahead.

2. The Call to a Larger Stage

I have a wisdom, voice & soulful way of being that can influence an audience in inspiring ways. I’ve built the scaffolding for this transmission of soul through my Wild Soul Wanderings workshops and blogs. And yet, I’ve kept this flame small and protected, guarding it like an ember rather than letting it blaze into its full brilliance.

I hesitate to write the books inside me and I keep my workshop offerings limited. When I began my Apprenticeship I thought this part of my life would expand, but for many reasons that expansion didn’t fully take root. Much of this had to do with old wounds, old fears, and old survival strategies that kept me small, hidden, and protected for most of my adult life. I won't detail those out here, but I will say this: a major part of that old story died during my Apprenticeship.

That death created an opening inside me, a spaciousness I have not felt in decades. A possibility of living without the same fear of harm, annihilation, or punishment. A new doorway opened for me to step through.

Now, as I stand at this threshold, I feel the call to a larger stage, not for fame or recognition, but for service, expression & the fulfillment of my soul’s contract. My prayer is that I have the courage, strength & capacity to step into that wider realm before I leave this earth. To give what I came here to give. To let the ember become a flame. and trust that the fire will not destroy me, but liberate me.

YES to Integration 

Yes and No are both part of the Hero’s path. Yes calls us forward and No asks us to pause and listen more deeply. Together they shape the rhythm of an authentic life that honors timing, tenderness & truth.

As I come to the conclusion of my eight year MiddleWorld Apprenticeship, I am grateful for all the YES’s I recommitted to along the way. Every Yes has been a lesson in love; for myself, for others, and for the world in all its messiness & magnificence. 

I also honor the No’s still gestating their wisdom within me. As I sit with the teachings of these No’s, I see that they contain a seed for a future Yes waiting for the moment when my heart is both strong & soft enough to meet it.

This is the work of integration; to gather the treasure from my journey & live it in service to humanity, to this amazing planet I live on & into the ever-unfolding journey of my becoming.

Return to Community

As I bring this reflection to a close, I leave you with this contemplation: What Yes’s & No’s are part of your own Hero’s Journey? Where are you being asked to step forward with courage, and where is life asking you to pause, listen, or honor a boundary that carries its own wisdom?

And while the Hero’s Journey is deeply personal, it is never meant to be walked alone. The Hero eventually returns to the village, bringing their awakening, their wounds, and their wisdom back to community.

If you would like to return to community, I invite you to join me for the Hero’s Journey Initiation for 2026, a space to walk these thresholds together, with intention, creativity, and community. In this on-line adventure program, we’ll explore five stages of transformation along the archetypal map of the Hero’s Journey & you''ll have time to connect with the Yes that wants to lead you forward into the new year.

Event Date: January 17, 2026 (via zoom)

Click here for details and registration

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