Here’s what showed up for me this year, and in true Lian-style, it turned out to be all about myth and archetypes…

THE CHILD

I devoted to knowing, loving and listening to my inner child more deeply than ever.

I haven’t chosen a ‘word for the year’ for many years since I realised that I’d reached a point on the path where letting go of that form of (perceived) control of my experience was necessary to go further, and yet, this week little Li asked for 2023 to be the year of the Child: the archetypes of the Child, my inner girl, my actual children, and the inner child of everyone who I’m in connection with.

For most of us, learning the language of the soul is in part relapsing into a guilty pleasure we attempted to give up in order to grow up.

For those who…

believe they haven’t done enough.

know they’ve done too much (and are now paying the price.)

are alone.

wish they were alone.

For those whose childhood taught them to be…

A dear friend sent this to me yesterday - it makes ALL the sense to me. 🥰

I’m told on a very regular basis that I’m in my own world or that I exist in my own bubble, and we don’t even need to get into my ‘creative’ relationship to time.

TLDR: we’re closed for business - ish.

As we approach a million downloads of the podcast, our offerings filling up before we’ve barely had the chance to open them for enrollment (sometimes before they’ve even been created) and having to turn people away on an increasingly regular basis… we’ve reached a point in our evolution that is a death and rebirth, beyond what we foresaw.

At any one time, the good ship Waking The Wild carries between twenty and thirty souls, depending on the crucibles that are in play, with thirty being the absolute maximum.

The upper limit is fully intentional, based on how many people Waking The Wild can hold so that every person, passenger and crew, can be met in the moAs much as I’m a huge advocate, teacher and practitioner of doing the deep inner work, sometimes the answer we’re so desperately searching for in the next coach, teacher, or method that’s promising to be the magic bullet, is as simple as: Keep going.

I’ve spoken about the Japanese concept of Ikigai before, beautifully distilled into this Venn (gotta love a Venn!) several times in fact, and each time I realise I’m somehow even deeper into that sweet spot right in the middle, than I was the last time.

Ikigai is the union of two Japanese words: iki (生き, meaning 'life’ or ‘alive') and kai (甲斐, meaning ‘use’ or ‘value’), so it can be seen as: a reason for being.

(I could have waited until it’s 10 years to write this but it felt right to do it now - see #8)

1. Creating a successful business takes time. I remember being about 2 years into running my own business and sharing the challenges with a close friend, she recalled that her father said it typically takes 3 years for a business to become successful, that was so helpful to hear back then. And…

Growing up with a father with a genius IQ who lived and breathed numbers (he taught maths and physics), when despite my perfectly fine intellect, I struggled with telling the time, telling left from right, or the most basic mental arithmetic (I often use my fingers to count beyond 5 even now), I knew there was something at play.

I saw it was International Son’s Day yesterday and didn’t feel moved to take notice of it.

Then this morning a friend posted some photos of her sons and I noticed how my heart glowed upon feeling her unreserved, unconditional love for her grown-up boys, a.k.a. men.

The 10 year anniversary of my father’s death, the 3rd September, found me being the truth of my soul to a depth I’d never before experienced.

It wasn't a coincidence.

It was his legacy.

We’re just entering Money month (one of my fave topics but then I often seem to find myself saying that!) in Waking The Wild Medicine, which is the crucible devoted to supporting magical people to discover and become their medicine and create enchanted, heart-centred businesses serving their soul clients.

Today is the first day of my month-long sacred pause… no teaching, no podcasting, no guiding… instead I will be devoted to my family, my home life and my own shamanic practice.

I’m beginning the month by re-reading my teacher, Jez Hughes’ first book.

I’m *barely* back from the woods so please don’t expect any sense from me but I’ve just discovered it was 8 years TODAY that the podcast was born and it feels right to celebrate…

My daughter and I went for a walk today. I suggested she sit quietly a little way away from me so we could both be with nature.

After a while, I called her back to me and she came over excited and amazed at what happened.

A new, previously unconscious, shadow part of me has been speaking recently.

It tells me “I’m too good for this!” when I’m choosing into doing certain things I have resistance to.

It showed up clearly and unexpectedly, for the first time a few weeks ago in the woods, when I was helping to build a sweat lodge from the land up.

To these three men… so different, and yet each of them have provided me with so much.

Chris Brook, I really couldn’t have wished for a more wonderful father for my children…

Rob Tyler, you’re in my heart and mind every day. Last night we went for a Southern Indian meal…

Chris Tyler-Humm, Sandy chose well when she chose you, not just a husband but a man who became so much part of…

I first noticed myself disappear in a coaching session 9 years ago.

I was sitting with a client and realised I hadn’t been there for most of the session - which of course means I’d come back to be able to notice the absence.

This week has been one of the most intense I’ve experienced for a long time… we’re in the final (final, final!) stages of rebirthing as Waking The Wild, inside and out, as well as every part of our ongoing business needing attention. As Jonathan described it: it feels like we’re surrounded by hungry mouths that need feeding.

I see an Italian tree in front of me. I thought it was a cypress but Google says no.

It calls to mind a summer spent sleeping under a fig tree in Ibiza. A summer of sun, sand, nudity, and living hand to mouth via the medium of art, graft and ingenuity. I was 7.