The Power Within ~ Field Journal

A Moment of Recognition Sometimes a lesson arrives when we're not looking for one. It isn't spoken. It isn't written in a book. It simply appears, and something inside us whispers, Pay attention. That happened to me standing on the Oregon Coast, watching a lighthouse do exactly what it was built to do. In that moment, I realized something I had somehow overlooked my entire life. A lighthouse never chases ships. It doesn't scan the horizon wondering who's coming. It doesn't le

An Unexpected Morning Some of life's most meaningful conversations are the ones we never see coming. Doug and I had pulled Carl into a quiet turnout along the Oregon Coast for the night. A few other travelers had done the same, each of us finding our own little corner of earth beneath an incredible blanket of stars. Before turning in for the night, Doug stepped outside with his camera. When he came back, he showed me photographs that took my breath away. Millions of stars str

I thought I knew the story. I was wrong. Or maybe... I only knew my story. A few days ago I published a Field Journal called Why I Dance. It was deeply personal. I wrote about discovering dance in college... falling in love... putting my dance in my pocket... and finally taking it back out again. Then my husband read it. He looked at me and quietly said, "That's not how I remember it." I just stared at him. "What do you mean?" Then he told me his story. He remembered somethin

People ask me all the time why I dance. The answer isn't what most people expect. I don't dance because I'm trying to burn calories. I don't dance because I think I'm good at it. I don't dance because I'm trying to entertain anyone. I dance because... for the very first time in my life... dance introduced me to me. Growing up, I became really good at hiding. Hiding felt safe. Drawing attention to myself didn't. I wasn't the kid who danced in the living room. I wasn't asking m

It all started with one thought. Just one. Not a fact. Not a conversation. Not something that had actually happened. Just... a thought. A quiet little whisper that slipped into my mind. "Maybe we're not on the same page anymore." That one thought created a feeling. The feeling grew stronger. And then my mind did what all of our minds do. It went looking for evidence. It connected dots. It filled in blanks. It tried to explain the feeling by creating a story. Before I knew it,

There was a moment this week when I realized something. I had quietly started believing that the facts of my life were the whole story. Have you ever done that? Maybe the facts sound familiar... The number on the scale. The diagnosis. The relationship that's struggling. The dream that feels farther away than ever. The bank account. The circumstances. The facts are real. I'm not pretending they aren't. But somewhere along the way, I realized I'd given those facts more authorit