After working on my chapter for weeks, I was still stuck at the same place...the section about my marriage. For weeks, I tried to distill down our love story so that it could fit into the required word count for my chapter in the second book in The New Feminine Evolutionary series called, The New Feminine Evolutionary: Pioneering Paths to Prosperity.

Our fairy-tale-love-story turned to marriage and was celebrated with our marriage sermon entitled, "Prince Pu and Princess Flutterbye's Seach For Happily Ever After". I was so close to finishing my chapter but I was stuck...and the problem really wasn't the word count. It was authenticity.

In the chapter I share our magical love story and how our marriage has faced challenges, but bounced back again after almost heading down the path of divorce. As we recreated our marriage, we based it on values and not just relationship skills. I tried to end the chapter with that story of "happily ever after", but I couldn't...because on the day of submission, my husband and I had an argument.

That argument led me to recognize and admit that even with our family values and our skills as Relationship Educators, there is no "happily ever after". Marriage is challenging, and so many of us have been fed the illusion of living "happily ever after" as a goal. That awareness led me to remember something that I had known all along, and helped me rewrite my ending...

"Today, we have yet to discover our “happily ever after”. Instead we live moment to moment, sometimes finding challenge, sometimes joy.  At each moment we dance in the darkness of uncertainty…together.  Each judgement or projection, a mirror reflecting back our hunger for love. Each trial, an opportunity to choose to be like a beautiful lotus and rise from the muck. In those moments we know that the true richness of relationships is the ability turn our shadows into light, to alchemize the baseness of life into the precious gold of love."

-From my chapter in the upcoming book, The New Feminine Evolutionary: Pioneering Paths to Prosperity

I'm grateful for the many ways relationships teach me, wake me up, and challenge my assumptions and long held beliefs. Whether it's my marriage, my relationships with our children, extended family or friends, they are all mirrors of this "hunger for love".

We all desire to be seen, known and loved.

We all want to know that we matter.

That's the gift of relationship...knowing that we are held and we are not alone.

And the first place to start is the relationship to self. Seeing, knowing and mattering to ourselves.

That's the heart of my work in the world...helping women discover their own inner truth by honoring their relationship to themselves. That's where love begins, and I feel blessed to do this work and help women ignite their own inner flame of love so that they can carry the torch of love to themselves and to those they love.

If you feel the call to be seen, known and loved, I would be honor to witness you. Now that I'm finished writing, I'm opening up space for complimentary Feminine Fire Discovery Sessions which you can book here.

During these sessions we get to the heart of your desire for relationship, creativity, success, or whatever you feel called to share, as we unravel the blocks that keep you from creating the life of your dreams.

On this full moon, dare to claim your heart's desire and create a sacred space for your mythic essence and soul desire.

What needs to be recognized or released by you in to create harmonious relationships?