On my 34th Birthday…

Today is my 34th birthday.  Always a day of reflection for me and a day of trying to organize my thoughts and intentions for the next year. I’ve been thinking about faith and what it looks like in practice.

When I was in high school, the first leading role I was ever cast was the role of Doris in Miracle on 34th street.  The mantra of that show and one of the most famous lines in it is “Faith is believing in things when commons sense tells you not to.”

It sounds a bit trite but my whole life has become a living breathing expression of that one line over the past two years.

I’ve needed so much faith in myself and in God, the universe, source…whatever you prefer to call it.  Trust is hard for me like it is for a lot of people.

So often for me that lack of faith is just a lack of belief in my own ability and worth and it’s a sentiment I hear echoed by almost every client I have.

I am a planner and I like to plan everything out.  Jumping into this business was taking a true Fool-card like leap of faith.  

It’s an important lesson for all of us that control is just an illusion.  None of us can plan so well that we can control the outcome of any situation.  When I did event planning I saw it all the time. No matter how much you plan there will always be something you could never anticipate in a million years.  An award presenter gets too drunk to present. A sponsor brings 30 extra people with them. A wedding officiant doesn’t show.

The fact remains.  Sometimes you have to just jump before you can see where you will land. Sometimes you just have to have the faith that you can do it.

This month I did my first ever spiritual expo.  I was very nervous about putting myself out there with so many experienced readers but as the event founder, Theresa says, God brings us to these things for a reason.  It was also my first time speaking in front of people about my story.  

It went very well.  I had to have a lot of faith to do both things.  While I am very comfortable with public speaking (thank you theater experience).  I still get pretty nervous opening up about my own life.

Overall I was very busy and very happy with the event and all the ticket proceeds were donated to Philadelphia area food banks.  I honestly saw the whole event as a win/win.

I’m happy I did it and I’m looking forward to doing it again in October.

As I move into the fall season, which is my favorite, I have so many new things coming in for me.  My faith has opened me up to so many new and exciting experiences.

I am co-teaching a yoga teacher training for the first time ever.  It’s something that I’ve considered helping with for a long time but always talked myself out of.  Quitting my corporate job and really evaluating what I wanted to do has opened me up to some of these ideas that seemed so impossible before.

I’m also doing a whole series of classes and several local studios talking about the archetypes of the tarot and how we can use them to inspire growth and change in our lives.  These will be a launch point for a lot of future work for me. I can feel the ideas expanding even as I finalize my plans for these current workshops.

For right now I am so excited to facilitate these groups and to introduce people to some of the more practical ways to embody tarot archetypes in everyday life. You can find all the current fall events here.  They will be updated as the booking links go live for each event.

On a more personal level, it has been an incredible year for travel.  I’ve gone to Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Italy, Germany, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Colorado. 

On top of all of that, Mike and I just returned from a trip to Ireland.  I still have a lot of family there and it always feels like a homecoming to me so it was wonderful to be back again.  We would both like to make those trips more regular but it was a beautiful time and we had a lot of fun.

Despite spraining my ankle on the first day of our trip, we did a lot of hiking, and adventuring all over the country from Northern Ireland, all the way down to Kerry in the south. We saw concerts, ate oysters, and hiked both urban and rural settings. It was a beautiful trip.

Here we are outside of Kenmare in County Kerry.

To assist me in maintaining my energy, I have also finally purchased booking software so people can take care of making their own appointments and I can let go of some of the administrative work I didn’t enjoy.  You can now book and appointment here.

You can also find up to date posts on events and random musings on my instagram including a birthday tarot reading I did for myself here.

Overall I am so incredibly excited for the fall.  I hope to see some familiar faces at some of my upcoming workshops.