Hello!!!   Thank you for looking at my fundraiser page!  This fundraiser is for a GREAT cause and I am VERY excited to be participating in it.  We all have our own talents and gifts and we are all artists and creatives in our own unique ways. The world needs entities to encourage people to develop and hone and share those talents and gifts, and that is exactly what the Marion Cultural Alliance is here for!

While the MCA is on its own enough to warrant a leap off a tall building, I also have a personal little story to tell about why I have decided to rappel off the edge of a 105 foot building! 

The timing of how things happened for me to do this is key. I signed up for this rappelling adventure on January 21, 2019. The day after an amazing full moon, blood moon and lunar eclipse event. Those who place belief that the moon holds power for our lives say that this moon event was a great time for resetting, evolving past old patterns, releasing toxicity and limiting beliefs, spiritual rebirth and growth and a slew of other neat changes that involve out with the old, in with the new. 

For the past year or so I have been really trying to push past some personal blocks I seem to have about my own worth and the ability to do some things I really want to do but am fearful to try. One of the goals I have is to be a sought after health and lifestyle coach, inspirational writer and motivational speaker. I want to help people create lives they love to wake up to every day!!!!

I have the training...I'm currently certified as a health coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and as of March 10, 2019 I will be certified as a DreamBuilder life coach through Mary Morrissey's Life Mastery Institute. 

I also have a lot of personal experience to share that could be inspirational to people. In 2011 I quit a safe, stable job with the State of Iowa because I couldn't stand one more moment of working in a cubicle. I didn't know what would make me happy, but I knew I had to make some changes or I would spend the next 20 years being miserable. So I turned my resignation letter in with a half formed plan.

Once I took that initiative, many things adjusted to make my decision to quit a positive thing. Within the year, my partner and I had moved from Iowa to Florida and started our own business. For the past 6 years, we have had our own pet services company, and I get to spend my time around animals and get paid for it!  If you had asked me at any time in my life “What would you do if money was no object and you could do anything you wanted,” I would have said “I would do something with animals.”

Guys, I never expected to actually be able to do anything that amazing, but here I am…living my dream life!!!  Taking one terrifying first step because I was unhappy in my current situation led to me accidentally creating my dream job, and I am currently making a living doing something I would happily do for free. 

So, yes, I have a personal story to tell to anybody who might be in the same situation. I know I’d be a good coach and mentor…but…I have a lot of imposter syndrome feelings, some "who am I to..." thoughts, and a lot of "I'm nobody to tell anybody else how to better themselves when I am such a hot mess myself." 

I’ve been struggling with these types of thoughts for about a year now, and spinning my wheels and dragging my feet about actually DOING anything really serious to put myself out there.

Enter last night’s blood moon…

As I mentioned before, the blood moon is said to hold power for releasing the old and welcoming in the new, shedding old habits and beliefs and embracing new ways of being and beliefs. Before I went to bed that night, I went out to stand in my yard and stare up at that awesome red moon and I said to myself

·         “I let go of limiting beliefs that have thus far kept me from reaching new goals and stopped me from going forward in my desires to create. I shed my fears of not being good enough. I shed the outdated visions I have of who I used to be. I embrace boldness, courage and learning to trust my intuition. I welcome clarity to bring the ideas I have into fruition so I can make an abundant living doing what I love while at the same time helping others come into their own abundant, joy filled lives.”

I stood for a moment and closed my eyes to feel those limitations leaving me, breathed deeply and then came in and went to bed. That night I had a strange, hyper detailed, extremely vivid, somewhat upsetting yet empowering dream.

·         The short version of the dream is this: I was at coaching training for my DreamBuilder coaching and it was my “turn” to prove myself. As I made the attempts to do the things to engage potential coaching customers (I was being tested), I was failing miserably and I knew it, but I courageously kept on. After each failure, I told myself I had learned something from the failure and went forward to the next “test” scared but determined to do better. I would fail again. After a couple of failures, the heads of the event came and told me I was NOT going to be good at this and that my testing was done and I had failed. Instead of agreeing and tiptoeing meekly into the sunset, I stood up for myself and told them in no uncertain terms (although in my dream, my dream-self’s heart was racing and she was terrified) that I COULD and WOULD do this in my own way and I would be a success at it. Sometime very soon after I put them all in their place, before I could see their reaction, I woke up and realized immediately that I MUST get up and type as fast as I could to get as many details as I could remember on paper. So I did, typing even as I could feel details fading. After I got everything out, I went back to sleep for about an hour.   

When I woke up I was really sure that this dream was a shift for me. It has stayed with me all day, and as I was scrolling through Facebook while working on some office things, this Over the Edge event was in my feed…without thinking twice I signed up, and here I am.

I really believe my dream was the playing out of the moon’s work in releasing all that I asked it to! When I am rappelling over the edge of the building on May 19, I can already see any remaining limiting beliefs and paradigms falling or jumping ship because they realize that I am not going to hold space for them anymore! There is a new level of knowing and awareness within me that I AM enough, and that I do have a story to tell and resources to use so I can help many other people come into that realization for themselves.

So…that’s my personal story. Thank you for sticking with me to the end and I hope you will consider donating to support the Marion Cultural Alliance so I can take that step off of that tall building and release any residual limiting beliefs that might still be hanging on by then!