From the Waiting Room to Finding a Sense of Home in South Africa
These beautiful landscapes of South Africa lured me back as a potential home base for this next chapter. The nature-lover in me is over the moon.
Waiting. Interesting as I write that word, I think of how it actually has the word “weight” in it. I imagine those x-ray jackets that they put on you at the dentist, that literally feel like they are holding you down. This past four months has had a lot of that energy, and as someone who likes to be on the move, it is not my favorite posture.
My last newsletter was written as I prepared to depart for my Dad’s 80th birthday trip to Australia and New Zealand at the end of 2024. I was full of gusto, inspired by my recent work travels to East Africa, and fully prepared to carry forward a renewed vision when I returned to the States in February.
And yet, upon my return, I was exhausted, with just enough energy to write up my trip reflections, and then collapse. Maybe it was the jet lag from flying half way around the world, or the fatigue from 4.5 weeks of whirlwind travels with my Dad, or perhaps the compounding effect of the diverse array of work commitments and travel activities from the year prior. Regardless of what caused it, I was definitely grounded and even when I tried to pick up some momentum around my YouTube channel, there was no flow.
My Mom pulled together a “Oh, the Places You Will Go” themed celebration for my Dad’s 80th, which was a delightful gathering of family and friends.
So I accepted my defeat, and with inspiration from Joseph Campbell, took to modern and ancient myths to see what glimmers of guidance I might find among unsuspecting heroes and heroines. This felt especially salient as I watched my own country be thrown into complete turmoil under new political leadership, and wondered if my best use of energy was to prepare to lead a revolution, build a bunker, or create plans for the next utopian society once ours collapsed. I must say, The Hunger Games was excellent fodder for this line of thinking, as I watched Katniss Everdeen reluctantly rise to leadership, giving hope to the disenfranchised with her bow and arrow, the perfect tip of the hat to her archetype inspiration, Artemis.
The metaphor of the bow needing to be pulled back before it is released with precision and a clear target continued to stir in my consciousness. My energy and attention has been directed across many projects, places, and people in recent years, and I could tell it was time to retrieve it, in order to give it more strategic focus for my next chapter. I also understood that with the chaos of the external world, it was not the time to build in 3D, but build from the inside, so that when the time was right, I could confidently move forward with clarity of vision. So I accepted the call to stillness, surrender, and trust.
While I have had the joy of being “full of myself” in certain chapters - full of ideas, inspiration, energy. This was a season of emptying myself - reviewing whether there were still any emotional skeletons in my closet - past hurts, disappointments, or discouragements that needed to be released at a new level, so I could be a clear and clean vessel for what wanted to flow through me next.
A New York stopover on my way to South Africa proved to be such a sweet touch point with a few close friends, including Ren & Will, who are two of my favorite humans on the planet.
After a year of allowing myself to be more visible and “seen” across social media channels for my efforts around coaching, international partnerships, and travel, with hopes of inspiring others to pursue their own curiosities and calls to expansion, I also knew it was time to close down the amusement park of my life.
And as I shut down the personal brand roller coaster ride for maintenance, the renewed internal world took a simpler shape. I kept imagining a rose garden that I was feeding the soil with self-love, self-respect, self-trust, and self-care, believing that anything that resonates with that frequency would come to me and anything that was not, would find itself elsewhere, personally and professionally.
And by mid-April, I was ready to make a move - which led to a return to South Africa. In my intention to focus my energy, I had a sense that it was time to ground, and to choose to do that internationally. And more than any other country I have visited, this place resonates with me on a mental, physical, and spiritual level.
An invitation to join a Wellness Theme Camp at Afrikaburn in South Africa was well received, as it satisfied my curiosity around community experiments, especially ones that lead with creativity and human potential.
So here I am, continuing to listen to a deeper sense of what is calling me forward. Purpose, Precision, and Presence. In my early-career, my professional power felt deeply rooted in my productivity, enthusiasm, and my agile mind. And as I embrace the gifts of my professional power in the middle of my career it feels deeply rooted in an inner knowing, depth of relationships, and a growing ability to see the full landscape - past, present, and future; local and global; inner and outer.
While I said that I was prepared to design my own platform at the intersection of workforce development + global engagement + and sustainable development at the end of 2024, the shake-up of the global political climate has me re-evaluating the best path forward.
One of my favorite things about the location I landed outside of Cape Town is that there is rich spiritual community and support, including a recent Cacao Ceremony I had the pleasure of joining.
There are a few key topics that are emerging. How can we prepare the next generation of leaders to be globally engaged, successful at navigating complexity, and connected to the right networks? How can we equip and engage Africa’s youth to contribute meaningful to the future of work? How can we discover and co-create new funding models that empower and enable social innovation, locally and globally?
It feels like the next iteration of my “vision activation” theme. After hosting intimate circles of women bringing their visions to life, building relationships with entrepreneurs and leaders across the globe in education, conservation, sustainable development, and tourism, I see my next phase will deepen my understanding of how to mobilize resources around a vision - both capital and talent.
The word I am meditating on for this next season is “devotion,” and seeing where that might take me. And as I put myself out there for my next work assignment, I pray I might find the right leader or organization with whom to share my power, peace, and presence.
