Month: September 2025

9/22/25

Hello, and happy equinox to all! Autumn here in the northern hemisphere (though it doesn’t feel like it to me here in California’s central valley, where the mercury is set to hit 94F/34C today) and of course spring for those of you south of the equator. It’s time for a new season.

This new season coincides—not by accident!—with the beginning of my rail journey around the country. I arrived here in Roseville a week ago Sunday, and I’m really enjoying the change of scenery and the beginning of my new adventure.

I was met by my wonderful hosts Nancy and Kirk at the Sacramento train station very early in the morning last Sunday. They are off on a month-long camino journey in Europe, but we overlapped for a few days before they left, and they got me well situated in their lovely home.

It’s such a testament to rainbow-network magic and manifestation that we found each other! You may recall that during my May California Rail Adventure, I made a post in the Sacramento Vegans Facebook group looking for dining company on the single day I was to spend in Sacramento. I wanted to enjoy the splendiferous vegan Mexican restaurant El Cantaro, and I posted a little about myself in the Facebook group to see if anyone might want to join me for lunch. Nancy saw my post and immediately reached out because she and Kirk love that restaurant, and they had also been dreaming up another camino trip (Nancy had completed five or six different routes already!) and were looking for a cat sitter. None of us were sure at the time whether we would be able to make it work, but we both held the vision for it to happen, and we stayed in contact… and now here I am!

The temperatures have been a bit warm for my outdoor-activity comfort, so I’ve done very little hiking or biking so far. But as we get into October, I suspect I’ll get out and explore Folsom Lake, Lake Natoma, and other nearby natural spots.

So what I’m mostly focusing on is spending time with the six kitties in my care, as well as reaching out to many folks—local and otherwise—for magical meetings. I really want to devote most of my energy, both on this journey and in general in my life, to connecting with members of the rainbow network. I love connecting with other heart-centered people who are focused on making the world a better place. I love energizing each other, supporting each other in celebrations as well as mournings and struggles during this moment in time, holding space for people as they unpack trauma (so many amazing and powerful people carry such heavy traumas) and introducing these folks to each other, as I feel guided by my intuition to do so.

I’ve had half a dozen of these connections since I’ve been here, both in person with local folks and by video chat with others. I’ve got several more lined up.

And today, my Facebook Memories showed me something really cool! Apparently, on this day in 2018, my friend Todd shared the following post, which I then re-posted because I loved it:

“[Buckminster Fuller decided to] devote himself to asking, ‘What is it on this planet that needs doing that I know something about, that probably won’t happen unless I take responsibility for it?’ He decided he would just ask that question continuously and do what came to him, following his nose. In this way, working for humanity as an employee of the universe at large, you get to modify and contribute to your locale by who you are, how you are, and what you do. But it’s no longer personal. It’s just part of the totality of the universe expressing itself.”

(Quote by Jon Kabat-Zinn)

I love how perfectly this encapsulates my own current approach to life… and it seems that I encountered this quote just a few months before my own “rainbow network epiphany” in San Diego, in January of 2019.

Synchronicities.

Also this morning, I saw an ad by someone I follow on Instagram, David Bedrick. A self-described “psychological activist,” he is the founder of the Santa Fe Institute for Shame-Based Studies, and has developed a process he calls the UnShaming way.

For the past ten years or so, I have been fascinated and drawn by the topic of shame, and learning how it works in our individual lives and culture(s) at large, creating untold ripples and ramifications on virtually every level of human life.

I’ve also been fascinated and deeply compassionately curious about trauma, and the myriad ways it also permeates human existence.

Of course, trauma and shame are often thickly intertwined.

As I have held space for people in my listening and life coaching practices these past 15+ years, I have wanted to be careful in how I am able to interface with some of the traumatic experiences and ongoing psychological aftermath people have shared with me. Since I do not have an advanced degree in psychology or a related field—just my bachelor of arts—I have not taken professional trainings on this topic, but I have felt drawn to do something like that.

The ad I saw this morning was for a 7-week online course for “coaches, therapists, and healers” called The Trauma Clinic.

It begins in two days, on September 24th. It’s not cheap—$765—but I’m thinking it might be something I should prioritize. So, I’m going to hold a vision that if it is right for me, the money will find me to do it. (I’m also noticing, as I look at his site now, that he has some much more affordable recordings on similar topics, so I might start there.)

If not now, I’m trusting that at some point the timing will be right for me to take this course or a similar one. Becoming more trauma-informed feels extremely relevant to me.

I don’t know if I’ve written about it here in the blog before, but in the past few years I’ve been noticing a few trends in my life, as a healer and connector, and in the world at large. I notice that I very frequently find myself drawn to—or already connected with—people who identify as neurodivergent, often on the autism spectrum. I also notice that I am often drawn to people who have experienced horrific abuse or other childhood (and subsequent adulthood) traumas, including a high percentage of people who have experienced narcissistic abuse.

I also notice a significant overlap in these two groups of people.

The way I have visualized my role in the rainbow network, given these trends, is that I find myself often connecting with amazing, brilliant, creative, loving people, who sadly find themselves constricted—sometimes to the point of near-immobility—by chronic illnesses (which I believe both autistic masking and trauma often contribute to); current abusive relationships; extreme financial hardship (often intertwined with these issues, since well paid work can be hard to find and keep under these conditions); and overall depression and lack of hope for themselves and for the world.

Within the rainbow-network framework, I visualize these folks as Christmas-light bulbs whose exterior has been coated in such layers of dinge and tarnish that they often don’t even recognize that their true essence is that of a glowing light, immensely powerful in their own right as well as a crucial part of the healing-and-inspirational “grid” that is the rainbow network.

I visualize my own role in the network as 1) identifying these folks in the world, via my own intuition and my connections with others; 2) holding space as a witness for them to share both their traumas and their dreams and visions for helping the world; and 3) helping them to see their own power, and to clear away the dinge and tarnish so that they can shine brightly, for their own benefit and thriving as well as that of the larger collective.

So… learning more about trauma and how to “work with it” is foundational for me. I will find ways to do so.

Wow.

I had not planned to write about all of this today. But it feels very right to do so, so if you’ve read this far, thank you for witnessing me and holding space for me to share it.

I’ll leave you with some photos of five of the six kitties (Tessa is extremely camera-shy, so you may not get to see her) as well as the beautiful garden where I can enjoy tomatoes and other tasty treats… and even a pic of some goats who were “landscaping” a nearby park while I strolled there the other night. What interesting creatures.

But before I sign off, I’d like to ask your help in manifesting magical cat sits in three upcoming cities! You don’t have to know anyone there looking for a sitter, but if you happen to know cool people who might be aligned with my vision and way of life in any of these places, perhaps you could connect us for a magical meeting (video chat)? Then they might be able to keep their ears open to see if anyone in their area could use a cat sitter during the times I’ll be there.

*Denver/Boulder: October 19 to 26 (give or take a day or two on the later end)

*Charleston, South Carolina: Roughly November 10 to 17 (flexible on either end)

*Savannah, Georgia: Roughly November 17 to 23 (again, flexible)

Thank you! Thank you all so much for witnessing me, following along, and being awesome!

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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a free, no-strings one-hour phone or video call with me!

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Want to support my vision financially? I am in a continual process of manifesting $50,000 per year in lieu of a “salary” for the unconventional work I do in the world. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons, contributors, and godfunders!)

9/17/25

Hello from Roseville, California! My seven-month rail journey began a few days ago, on the 13th, when I departed my SE Portland cat sit with the lovely Sabrina (last kitty pictured) and pedaled down to Union Station to board my overnight train to Sacramento. I’m still settling into my new sit now, so any California adventures I am yet to have will be covered in future posts. I’m nervous but excited to be embarking on this new journey!

But several weeks have passed since my last post, so I wanted to share some of my favorite memories from these last few weeks in Portland. It is so beautiful in the summer.

When I returned from my last Olympia sit for the season, I had one night in Portland that I needed to stay in a hotel. I lucked into the only streamline moderne hotel I’d ever seen, let alone stayed in! The room was unfortunately rather musty, but the architecture—inside and out—was a fun throwback to midcentury times.

Then the marathon of Portland-area sits began. In order of appearance, I cared for Bowie (and his camera-shy brother Max, and outdoor brother Darryl); Tom Tom; Quinny; Zazzi; Rocket; Einstein; and the aforementioned Sabrina.

At Zazzi’s place, I experienced a retreat-like setting, all the way out on Larch Mountain, near the town of Corbett in the Columbia River Gorge. The setting was serene, and the views were spectacular.

Then, at Rocket & Einstein’s place in Happy Valley, I was startled one day to see a guinea pig running through the back garden! I wasn’t sure what to do, but it seemed clear that a guinea pig should not be on its own in a suburban neighborhood with dogs and coyotes nearby. I knocked on five or six doors of neighbors, none of whom said they had a guinea pig. But at the last door—the house on the other side of the fence from the back yard—the woman said she had seen it in her own back yard, a couple days earlier. She had fed it some carrots, but had not been able to capture the piggy to try to take it to a shelter. She had also canvassed the neighborhood—amazingly, knocking only on all the doors I hadn’t—and hadn’t found anyone to claim it. We decided to collaborate, and within the next 24 hours, she had captured the piggy (and named her Charlotte!) and I had identified an adopter from the Portland Vegans Facebook group, after also receiving various helpful advice from my Facebook friends all over. Charlotte is now happily enjoying her new home.

And I enjoyed the Oregon late-summer nature! I got to cross the beautiful Clackamas River on my tried-and-true bike-and-pedestrian bridge, on my way to catch the train in Oregon City to visit Johnny in Salem for the last time in a long while.

Later, I used my generous hosts’ guest passes to visit both the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden and the Portland Japanese Garden.

My sister even came down on the train from Seattle to visit me once more before my travels, and she accompanied me to the Japanese garden, and then to the Hoyt Arboretum, where we stopped to marvel at the magical redwood grove.

Despite the constant undercurrent of endless unimaginable horrors unfolding both domestically and around the world—which I’m sure disturbs all of your minds and hearts as much as it does mine—my last month in Portland was beautiful, and I savored every day. Now, the season is changing, and it’s time for new experiences.

Thanks, as always, for following along with me.

—

Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a free, no-strings one-hour phone or video call with me!

Want to be notified of future blog posts? Use the green “sign up” button to subscribe!

Want to support my vision financially? I am in a continual process of manifesting $50,000 per year in lieu of a “salary” for the unconventional work I do in the world. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons, contributors, and godfunders!)