Journey through the Heartland

Reframe The Story: A New Chapter

My Dad the Healing Angel

Today is the start of my new way of being with my dad.

Here’s the old story:

I’m 24. I’m the program director at Woodland Altars Outdoor Education Center. I love my job! Every day I walk the trails. I’m connecting children and teachers with nature, helping them experience Nature as a nourishing and vibrant sensory exploration. I’m recruiting a record number of schools, welcoming teachers and chaperones, and training my own staff of teacher-naturalists. I love my job!

My dad, however, wants me to be an engineer. He asks, “When will you get a real job?”

At that moment he had cast a spell of doubt on my life. A veil dropped over my soul and I wandered, unsinging, searching for that other self that would please my dad, trying to discover my “real job” and not finding it. I had believed his view that enticing others to come outside and experience wonder and fulfillment in Nature was not a real job.

Until today.

Until today.

Today, a New Story begins. And my dad literally blazed the trail on which this story unfolds.

My dad helped blaze the Buckeye Trail in Dayton, OH decades ago. Today, the city of Dayton is being officially dedicated as a “Trail Town” on the Buckeye Trail. And it just so happens that I will be welcomed in the ceremony as one of the hikers who are currently walking this trail because it just so happens that I chose this trail for my next long walk.  While I walk the Buckeye Trail’s 1200 mile circuit around the State of Ohio, I will be coaching women to walk into their own dreams. I will be creating Fulfillment through Forgiveness ceremonies in towns along the trail. I’ll be guiding women on short ForgivenessWalks on certain sections of the trail. That’s my “real” job.

The spell is broken. My dad cleared the path and welcomes me back today into his Trail Town, my hometown, which I left decades ago to seek my “real” job.

Let the New Story and this new journey begin. I think I’ll call this walk my Journey through my Heartland as I explore the art of living with a singing heart while walking through my homeland.