the path
Towards the end of 2022, I was really struggling with feeling disconnected from my path.
When I decided to leave Chicago and move across the country to Colorado in May of 2020, it had been so obvious that it was the exact right thing and the exact right time. Everything fell into place within a few days. Found a place for my practice, rented an apartment, bought a car, got my CO acupuncture license in 2 hours rather than the 2-3 weeks they promised. All green lights. Colorado, here I come. Once I got there, things continued to flow. Setting up my apartment was fun and easy. I got to spend time with my friends who live there. In September of 2021, my dad left this world, and in December, the Marshall Fire devastated my little Colorado town. 2022 was one of the most challenging years of my life.
By late 2022, I was working at Fox Acupuncture and knew without any doubt that it was exactly where I was supposed to be. I was happy at Fox and the relationships I was developing were really special. Still, I didn’t have any sense of connection to my path the way that I had so clearly felt it in Colorado. Everything seemed so much harder than it did in Colorado. There was one green light and all the others were yellow. I think it was in November or December of 2022 when I was talking with a very wise, very good friend about this disconnection and he said something that totally reframed everything for me. He said, “Joni. You are not off your path. Your path just led you into the wilderness. You’re just in the wilderness, right now. But you’re still on your path.” Boom.
That reframe changed everything for me. I began to see that Colorado was a wonderful gift that the universe had in store for me. It gave me a place to ride out the pandemic surrounded by beauty. It gave me the opportunity for reflection and was a wide open space for unfinished healing. Colorado was on my path but it was not my destination.
Reframing Colorado gave me permission to love where I am today, surrounded by a different type of beauty. I am daily surprised by the natural beauty on this island. And I am falling more and more in love with it with each passing weelk. Here I am finding a new way to Be, a part of this journey that I did not expect. Moving to Kent Island has given me a new kind of freedom. A freedom that feels very natural, very organic. From time to time I am reminded of something I read in the Dan Millman book, The Life You Were Born to Live. Our path is always here. We are always on it. It can lead us through the wilderness, across mountains, and oceans and bays and lakes. And sometimes it appears only just before we take the next step.