Hello. Thanks for being here.
I’m Lisa, a corporate PR + social media expat and former city girl who, after burning out, left it all to rewild, reconnect to myself, and build a healthier and balanced life. Today, I’m a communications strategy consultant and executive + personal development coach living the small-town homestead life in Northern California. I am from Minneapolis, Minnesota which will forever be my homeland, but home is also wherever I am.
I’m many other things. Notably and in no particular order, a lover of popcorn, chocolate, dogs, nourishing food, specialty grocery stores, my family, friends, travel, being in communion with Wild places (the Forest, Rivers, Trees, LEAVES), learning more about the wild places in myself, connection, the occult, adventures in homesteading and life with my love, and the Minnesota State Fair IYKYK. I’m also a woman in long-term recovery from substance use disorder (sober date 11/6/2000).
What’s Coming to Be?
Reflections on the journey of meeting, receiving, and accepting ourselves as we are and the practice of listening to and honoring ourselves as best we can along the way. I’m really amazing at this and also terrible at it. It helps me to talk about it. It helps US to talk about it.
Why Coming to Be?
In 2018 I was dis-eased in my life. I had a lot of the things that should have made me happy—dream job, success, money, marriage, home, health, and a magical dog—but despite all of my achievements, a persistent voice inside yearned for something more. Who was I to want more? I should be grateful and do all I could to give back the gifts I’d been given—I was and I did. Years of not listening to these whispers resulted in them gaining greater presence. Truth has a way of doing that. I ignored them pouring myself deeper into work and other ways of numbing to avoid it.
That Spring my dog died suddenly. I was profoundly grief-stricken while shouldering the demands of my evolving job and relationship with my then-husband as he took a leadership role in another city. Instead of asking for help and calling on the many resources I’d come to know through my recovery community and journey, I began to unravel in the forms of anxiety and physical illness, but it was nearly undetectable (even to me) because I had dipped into my well of armor to project a put-together exterior and conceal my pain.
Fall arrived and I set off on a service trip to India through one of the foundations tied to my workplace. Thousands of miles from home without my Western clothes, accessories, and identity labels, connecting and working amidst a community and culture of people so stunning and multifaceted that it took my breath away, I began to come to. In the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, I connected with women and girls who, despite facing deeply oppressive water security and empowerment issues give and lead with love in a way that blew my heart wide open. While in Varanasi, one of the most spiritual places in the world where they cremate their dead publicly on the Holy Ganges river to break the cycle of rebirth (Moksha), I watched several families lay their loved ones over cremation pyres and was reminded that we’re all just coming to be and we eventually become death so what I choose today and each day I’m granted between now and then best not be lived in vain.
Upon returning to the U.S., I began listening to and honoring that inner voice with the support of mentors, family, friends, and a therapist (thank you!). What changed? Pretty much a complete dismantling: divorce, leaving my job, home, community, and country, returning to the U.S., moving to the Sierra Foothills where I lived alone and off-grid for 2+ years, and starting my own business.
In my 40 years of living and relating, one of the few things I know for sure is this: I’m not unique in my struggles. We all have them. Our conditioning, circumstances, and cultural norms often discourage open discussions about these challenges, make them hard to identify in the first place, or shame us for having them. Instead, it's more common to project a facade of well-being. And despite the many inspirational people who’ve bravely embraced speaking truth to the beautiful mess of being human, we still suffer in mass because telling the truth to ourselves and each other remains a rarity.
My experience and this reality bring us to Coming to Be. It is with humility and great hope that in sharing reflections from my journey and those that unfold as I continue it, you will feel support in your struggle, learn how to listen to yourself and honor what comes with greater ease, and ultimately do the damn thing your spirit needs from you. I also view this as a conversation and collaboration so please share/request topics/talk to me about how this hits or doesn’t.
I have no idea what this newsletter is going to look like yet because it’s still coming to be and I’m finding my way in a new expression of self which is equal parts terrifying and exciting. I view your reading and/or subscribing as a huge vote of confidence. Thank YOU.
Subscribe to Coming to Be if you want …
Reflections, stories, and resources on the journey of meeting, receiving and accepting ourselves as we are
Frequently asked questions about how to make big changes or life transitions in career and life.
Conversations with folks who’ve navigated their inflection points in entirely different situations and circumstances from my own.
Potential posts about who knows what because this is a new expression and you’re going to help shape it.
