Welcome Back

It’s been awhile since I shared my writing here.

I have certainly been consistent over on instagram, but the last couple years have been tumultuous to say the least.

As a collective, with everything that has transpired, I think that’s likely an understatement and a truth we can all relate to.

As I sit in an entirely new location, ready to write on this medium again, I wonder if anyone even reads blogs anymore?

Someone asked me recently when I started storytelling…I thought about that for a minute and attempted to follow the thread back to the beginning.

I have likely always been a storyteller. When I was younger, I did this through movement on a pair of figure skates. The ice was a place where I could express pieces of myself that were too big or too sad for the “real world.” A piece of music could transport me into an emotion and the ice was my canvas to move and express, a place to tell my story.

I started telling stories here when my Dad became ill and I was wrapped in the isolation of motherhood and living somewhere new. It was a way for me to express what was within me. It was a way for me to cope with the immense grief and sorrow that I experienced.

And I am so thankful for that.

Along the way, each time I wrote, someone would reach out and say something like “me too.” It was encouraging to know that in sharing my own experience, I was able to bring some kind of validation or witnessing to someone else’s experience.

I haven’t stopped writing, but I have stopped sharing here, and I believe it’s time to change that.

Part of my vision for “What Would Cavewoman Do” involved community. When I think about our ancient ancestors, and use this question to guide me on my journey, I think about the four pillars: movement, nourishment, spirituality, and community. Of these pillars, I find that community is the one I often lack the most. Especially over the last two years, whether due to isolation, or physically moving.

When everything shutdown in 2020, I remember hearing people talk, or seeing memes about how hard the experience of isolation was. Hearing other’s struggles with isolation was incredibly validating, as I find that modern day motherhood can be incredibly isolating.

While in Florida, I did many things to build community, including multiple monthly gatherings on the full and new moon. I cherished these spaces and the people that helped co-create them. After being ousted off Facebook (for reasons still unknown to me), I lost a large part of that community along with my Facebook profile. The pandemic and the following departure from Florida also cleaved this piece of community from my life.

This led me to think a lot about how to create community, meaning, and joy together. Although I love virtual spaces, it isn’t the same as holding each other in person. So I sit with swirling ideas on what’s next for my local community. What events do I want to go to? What events do I want to facilitate? What does my heart long for? The answer is many things, and I have many ideas.

I will keep you up to date on what I find, and what I decide.

Additionally, I have created an online space on Mighty Networks called The Cave. For me, The Cave is where Cavewoman would have found community, warmth, and safety. Around the fire is where she would have told stories, shared wisdom, danced, and sang.

I want to grow The Cave into this same place. A multigenerational meeting and gathering space, where we support, witness, and hold each other’s hands through the muck and the joy.

As with any community, it takes more than one person. To truly create the community I desire, as well as the one I think the world needs, we each need to show up, contribute, and share what we have, and who we are – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Who you are matters.
What you desire matters.
Community is a co-creation.

Maybe this is something you want to?

If it is, I urge you to join us in The Cave.

We are just getting started. As we grow together, I envision community events, weekly offerings, authentic connections, vulnerable shares, and healing and inspiration abound.

If you’re anything like me, and you feel like you’re missing community, please come build one with me.

I excite for the future, and I excite to see the community we create together.

See you in The Cave!

Before you go…. What do you look for in a community?