October 23, 2019
I wrote this in response to a post by Kelly Joy Simmons as she explored and explained her identity.
Thanks for inviting me to look at my own relationship with identity. Mine has been a sort of opposite from yours, Kelly. 40 years ago, I quit my budding career enticing people to connect with Nature at an outdoor education center to be married. My husband “had a better job” I told everyone, “so we’ll live where he works.” For 35 years I was constantly creating my identity while I lavished my three sons with my presence in their lives. I loved being their mom, and learned to take a stand for my value as a mom, a house remodeler, teacher, budget keeper, and even a Nature interpreter sometimes! I had plenty of opportunities to claim my identity, my value, when responding to the usual reactions to my “Mom at home” introduction of “Oh, so you’re not working!”
For me, getting to have the job title Park Interpretive Specialist at the age of 60 and starting my first full-time position at a visitor center, has been a delightful claim to an identity I honor! I’m doing the “real job” I set out to do at 25. Getting here has been a journey of discovering and claiming my value as a woman without a job title. Instead, I defined something more useful – my life’s purpose. That, I realize, has been a consistent thread in everything I have done! It turns out that my first job title as Teacher-Naturalist in my latent career represents my life purpose quite well. My purpose has always been the same:
to entice others to come outside
where they can connect with Nature,
rediscovering their joyful humanity
and experiencing their vibrant fullness
between Earth and Heaven.
As I reflect on this now, I see that my journey of identity has been a blessing rather than a failure to have a real job or a late blooming or any of the other perceptions of unworthiness I have entertained in the past. My life’s journey has been exactly what my soul needed for me to claim my identity and love myself and my life just as I am and it is.
I’m grateful to the many teachers along the way who have given me tools to grapple with my identity and purpose. I now see that I have always had my purpose and when I am expressing that I am joyful and prosperous, no matter what my title is.
And that’s how I can now expand on that purpose by teaching others what I learned about how to create your own fulfilling life. I invite you to walk with me a bit, either in person or virtually, and assemble your personalized toolbox of ways to do any or all of the following:
Love yourself and your life just as it is
Use your Feelings as gateways to self-acceptance
Discover your purpose
Transform Fears into Action
Turn your Troubles into Blessings
Walk in Nature to evoke and support your Joyful Prosperity
When you work with me I listen to your story, then guide you in a step-by-step personalized journey to fulfill your purpose. I’ll entice you to
come outside
where you can connect with Nature,
rediscovering your joyful humanity
and experiencing your vibrant fullness
between Earth and Heaven.
Get started right now by sending me an email at regina@forgivenesswalks.com with a simple message saying that you resonate with my message and you want to explore your radiant fulfillment. Together, we’ll create the best way to do that! I have courses, playlists, books, group and private mentoring. I can even be your personal guide on the Appalachian Trail!
You deserve a radiantly fulfilling life!
Begin a journey today! Send your email right now!