Over three years ago, this blog began from a fast-growing seed nourished by deep inspiration, a spiritual awakening, and newfound hope in humanity. After a very long period of intense anxiety and very little faith in a sustainable, worthwhile future, I was beginning to remember a truth that had been buried deep in the undergrowth of my inner landscape for many years: that once we are able to find a purpose for living (even if that purpose is not our "true calling"), everything becomes possible again. To put it more simply: when we connect with a reason to live, we believe in our innate ability to live a full, abundant life. Maybe not every day, and surely not without obstacles, but even those obstacles begin to feel like a part of the mission. We see their purpose in our path. We see their lessons.
Lead to Gold has always been a platform to help us see those obstacles, the hard days, the hard months or years, as lessons. As this passion project has expanded beyond the blog space and into an additional podcast, the core message is that we all have the innate power and potential to create something meaningful out of a really hard time. And, no, I have never been the person to preach that every bad thing that could happen to us is "working for us." I am not here to encourage bypassing or making light of our own pain. Sometimes there is no purpose to the pain. Sometimes there is no lesson other than finding the strength within to live with it, and that often takes much more professional and long-term guidance than I am able to offer as a wellness blogger.
But here is my offering, as it has always been: To provide a space for alchemizing obstacles, difficulty, and even deep pain, into golden teachers if that feels like the right path. This is where we begin the conversation. This is where we figure out how to do the work. And most importantly, this is where we do it alongside one another.
So this is how it has always been (since early 2021), but there are some themes I've been craving to get clearer on in my work. If you've been here for a while, you may have been introduced to Lead to Gold as a place to celebrate all that brings us joy. While this is still true as a core concept, my personal musings about my individual hobbies don't seem productive on a collective level. My very first blog post was about skateboarding - and while there was a wonderfully poetic attempt to use the "drop in" as a metaphor for doing the hard inner work and fully committing to it - I now see the necessity for making this conversation more universal. Together, we routinely answer the call to nourish ourselves in whatever ways we know will work for us, be it skateboarding, painting, gardening, reading fantasy novels, or even taking frequent intentional rest days. We fully participate in self-nourishment so that we can then give it to others.
So this work is not about me or my growth. It's about all of us growing together.
Lead to Gold is not a business. It is not a masterclass or a membership. It is not something you have to purchase, routinely refresh, or keep up with. I do not get paid for content creation nor do I get ad revenue from the blog page or its sister podcast. Maybe I will someday, but that isn't really the goal - because I still profit. Knowing that this work has made a difference in someone's day, or allowed someone to imagine a new possibility, sparked inspiration, spread any ounce of wisdom that was needed...that's payment enough.
Do I want this work to spread further? Absolutely. But what I'm much more interested in is hearing from you, and people like you. What is becoming more clear to me is that if this is to be a true community space, it needs to look and function like one. If Lead to Gold is a space for alchemizing the pain of the collective into something potent and powerful and beautiful, then we need to be able to speak to one another - not just me to you. If we could weave a gorgeous little web of ideas together as a foundation, then the work and wisdom will spread organically. That sounds like authentic community care to me.
So here's what I've been working on...
A communal space to share. From here on, when you subscribe to Lead to Gold or sign up right away as a community member, you are automatically able to publish and share your own blog posts, stories, poems, ideas and whatever else your heart yearns to reveal to the "Community" page. Though this new corner of the site is in its earliest stages and there will be more options for customizing and sharing coming very soon, the ability to draft and publish your own posts is ready to use whenever you'd like to. If you know you have a deep message to share with the world, you will be able to publish it and share it just the same as any post already on Lead to Gold. If it needs to get off your heart and into writing, but you're not quite ready for the world to see it, there are private settings as well. Sometimes it helps just to let the truth of your soul rest somewhere more concrete than the notes app.
I can't quite reach the depth of how excited I am to share this with you. I hope that in a time where we need community and open-minded conversation more than ever, it seems, that this will serve as a safe place to contribute. Even if writing and publishing doesn't call to you, I believe having new voices in this space aside from my own will aid in our larger understanding of what realistic wellness and healing actually look like, especially against the backdrop of social media highlight reels and rampant misinformation in our online landscapes.
So let this be a quiet, calm, and centered place to gather our thoughts and lift one another to higher places. May our voices reach the people who need them most. May you feel so beautifully empowered to get vulnerable (or silly, or excited, or whatever you need) in your writing here. And if that isn't for you, may you feel the flicker of inspiration from someone else.
I cannot WAIT to see what you all create. 🤍
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