One of the participants in yesterday’s small group workshop and ceremony captured this photo of me.

I had been outside in the freezing weather all day. It had snowed, rained, and been sunny and windy. In this moment, I was barefoot, standing on one of the stones in the fire pit, letting my feet receive the warmth the fire was offering.

What I love so much about this photo is the truth it captured.

The openness. The availability. The groundedness and settledness in my body.

I wasn’t questioning my worth or making myself and the wisdom I hold small. I wasn’t performing. I was standing deeply in the truth of who I am, unapologetically.

She captured me being unafraid of who I am.

I was facilitating an experience that invited these individuals into a depth of energetic sovereignty they may never have experienced before. And I was standing in a quiet knowing of how powerful this work is. How transformative it can be when someone is truly available to meet it.

I could feel what was available without needing anyone to receive it in a particular way. Each person’s experience belonged to them. I trusted the work, and I trusted their relationship with it.

There is something deeply settling about allowing yourself to inhabit what you know. To hold your wisdom without diminishing it. To be fully present without needing to prove anything.

I didn’t know she had taken this photo. When she sent it to me this morning, I was overcome with gratitude.

I love it because I recognize myself in it. The truth of that moment. The truth of the experience. The truth of who I was being yesterday.

And the gratitude I felt reached far beyond the photograph.

It was gratitude for this life. For my life. For who I am, for the work I get to offer, and for the way I choose to meet and experience this life.

For being here, in my body, receiving the warmth of the fire and allowing myself to be fully who I am.