“Journeys”- Day Four… “Signs and Wonders”

I’m not a person of “routines”, yet every morning, I have a preferred “easing into my day” habit. 

I start with coffee and a devotion/meditation to help me get grounded and focused on the things that are truly important. I usually hop onto the Bible app and see the “verse of the day”, and quite often, I have a book or a plan that I’m going through or I find something random that energetically moves me. 
Yesterday’s verse of the day…

I mean! How about that for God speaking support into the journey?! 
I’ve had a passion for the “renewing of the mind” for many years…I have grown and evolved into the treatment modalities that I currently use based on how they resonated with me, then how I experienced them personally, and then I gained extensive training in them.
EMDR has been so incredibly life-changing for me personally, and I see clients gain so much freedom from the emotional bondage that held them before the treatment. 
It “renews the mind.” 
Yesterday marked the beginning of my training and experience with Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and EMDR integration. 
Most of the day, however, was travel to Mount Madonna Retreat Center. 
I started out on State Road 1 down the coast from San Francisco. (Remember, my childhood dream?! Just in “reverse!”) I hugged the shoreline for most of the route, and wound through the mountains and redwoods as they met the shore. Windows down…music blaring (without even knowing those details, a friend even sent me the Amos Lee “Windows are rolled down” song to listen to while I was driving!)

I kept thinking “I want to just stop and take this in!” 
There was not one part that wasn’t breathtaking. 

I stopped in Pacifica first and took photos of the most gorgeous cliff views of the ocean. 

I stopped again in Pigeon Point and walked out to take photos of the ocean and lighthouse, and I do believe that I captured the most beautiful landscape photo that I’ve ever taken!

While driving, I started thinking about the retreat center and how they recommended that we bring slip on shoes because shoes aren’t allowed in any of the buildings, so I thought about those cute little Ugg slip-ons that I’ve been wanting, and how I now had a great excuse to buy them! (Friends that know me well, stop laughing. IYKYK) 
So, I searched “Ugg” in my maps. 
Instead of an Uggs store, the Apple ID photo for one of my deceased friends showed up over and over all down the page as an “Unknown” location (with the Apple ID photo beside it.) 
Weird, right? 
So, I “X’ed” out of that search and typed it in again. 
Same thing. 
There’s the photo of my lifelong friend that passed away a couple of years ago with “Unknown” location beside it listed all down the search results page.
At that point, I just put my phone down and turned up my music and just drove. 
I stopped for lunch at a beautiful little beachside cafe in Santa Cruz. 
After lunch, I searched for “Ugg” and maps gave me a list of options for Ugg stores. 
I still have no explanation for the results earlier in the search. 
I just took it to mean that there was a bigger purpose to all of this and I’m not alone in it.

I went to the quaint downtown area of Santa Cruz and got lost in shops and wandering. 

Mount Madonna was about 35 minutes away, so I left in time to arrive for check-in. 

As I traveled up the windy, sometimes one-lane mountain road to the retreat center, my “favorite” Brandi Carlile song played…the one that I’ve always said resonated with me as “My Song” if I were ever able to choose favorites (which I cannot!)

Upon arrival, I thought about one of my “favorite” (I said “one of!”) movies (Eat, Pray, Love), and I realized that I’m living out a real life version of the “Pray” part! ❤️  

The retreat center itself is a holistic wellness/yoga center. The work that we are doing is healing, sacred, spiritual, and l am in awe that I have the opportunity to be here doing it. All day, it seemed that I was getting confirmation after confirmation that this was exactly what I was supposed to be doing.

Dinner at the retreat center was on a deck in the middle of 380 acres of redwoods and grasslands sitting on a mountain top overlooking the Monterey Bay. 
Breathtaking. 

Our first meeting together as a group was immediately after dinner, and we sat on the patio and watched the sun set together as we got to know each other. 

The passion for healing trauma is palpable within our group. 

My personal intention is even deeper healing of past traumas, the experience of nervous system regulation after being in “sprint” mode for so long, the ability to learn from professionals who are practicing this healing modality well, the knowledge of the experience prior to offering it to my clients (I won’t practice something that I haven’t experienced myself), and the ability to bring a deeply effective healing modality to my community. 

And so it begins…