Wednesdays on Whidbey: Your Who Before Your Why with Josette Diaz host of a A Soulful Pause podcast

     Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground.    Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with Story Prompt Friday and your host, Diane Wyzga.    Question: What have we been searching for in the unrecorded stories of our lives? Perhaps we are on a quest for lived experience memory moments that uncover the meaning of who we are at our deepest level.      Women arriving in the unfamiliar landscape of midlife—however they define that passage—face a true reckoning: Where am I in all of this? How have I lived my life? Why is so much unrecorded? Do I have what it takes to speak my truth, for myself, to say what I mean and mean what I say.... come what may?    Eckhart Tolle offers one insight: “Many things matter but only one thing matters absolutely: you find peace, not by rearranging the circumstances of your life but by realizing and acting on who you are at your deepest level.”    How do you begin to get to your deepest level? Let’s call it an archeological dig. As you sift through the sands of your past ages and stages, what are the artifacts that show up? What memory moments cause you pain, delight, regret, satisfaction, and so on? The more you work on your story, the deeper you dig.    The deeper you dig—the “depth of inquiry”—you leave behind a surface-level understanding of what you do and move toward the personal reflection that seeks to uncover deeper meanings and truths. You unearth who you are; not just what you offer or do.    Now, imagine that in 15 minutes’ time you would lose all your lived experience memory moments except those that you capture right here, right now. Which would you keep and why? Set the timer for 15 minutes, and don’t think! Just set down all the memories you want to hold onto in as much sensory detail as you can.    Story Prompt: When the 15 minutes are up, playfully, with curiosity revisit the memory moments you captured. What’s confirmed for you? What surprised you? Where do you want to go next? Write that story and share it out loud!    CTA: As always, “Come for the stories—stay for the magic!” And if my work matters to you, please let me know, subscribe and share it.    YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on Apple podcast—it helps us all—& join us next time!STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE ----> a no-obligation Discovery CallSubscribe to My Substack to stay current with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts    Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

     Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground.      Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga.    Question: How is our midlife journey toward true identity like a pilgrimage? On pilgrimage we walk until there is nothing left but our heartbeat, our footsteps, our breathing, and the clarity that arises when all the noise drops away. When we navigate our midlife pilgrimage story we are seeking clarity of true self, who we are.    Recently I had the opportunity to share the mic with my friend and fellow podcast host, Josette Diaz of A Soulful Pause podcast and Seasons of the Soul, a signature system for women curious to break patterns and awaken true identity.    Josette and I explored the concept of our Origin Story— the Who before the Why. As a story doula I believe that until you get clear on WHO you are, you won’t necessarily be content with what you do or why you do it. That’s at the heart of my Origin Story work, and what I have learned by listening to Middle-Earth-Age women who are navigating their very real midlife pilgrimage stories. What they carry. What they’re ready to set down. And what becomes possible once someone finally sees them clearly. That someone is them.        In this episode, Josette and I talk about:   What the Origin Story is, and why the Who has to come before the Why   What happens most often when midlife women begin telling a truer version of their story   How being seen, not for what she does but for who she is, changes the story a woman tells about herself   What a woman goes on to create once she has been seen: in her relationships, her work, and her next chapter   Why midlife looks so much like a pilgrimage, and what’s worth letting go of along the way    If you’re a Middle-Earth-Age woman who feels stuck mid-trail as you navigate your midlife pilgrimage story, I hope this conversation keeps you in good company.    30-second clip tip     Listen on Substack     Watch on YouTube     Contact Josette Diaz    Substack: Seasons of the Soul     Apple Podcasts: A Soulful Pause     LinkedIn     Instagram     Guidance to Wellness     CTA: As always, thank you for listening to “the music of the spoken word.” And if my work matters to you, please let me know, subscribe and share it.  YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on Apple podcast—it helps us all—& join us next time!STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE ----> a no-obligation Discovery CallSubscribe to My Substack to stay current with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts    Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

     Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground!    Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with Story Prompt Friday and your host, Diane Wyzga.    Maybe like me your formative years were governed by Big Humans who believed they knew better and best. I was always running afoul of them. Like my 3rd grade teacher who wrote to my parents asking, “What will it take for Diane to do and behave as she is told?” Sound familiar?    A 6th grade grammar school homework assignment comes to mind. We were told to write a story for composition class. I did. Here’s what I wrote: “Once upon a time long ago and far away they all lived happily every after. The end.”    Problem was my teacher didn’t see it that way. “Miss Wyzga, apparently you didn’t understand the assignment.” And from out of my very deep growing knowing came my reply: “Yes. I did. You didn’t understand my answer.”    Maybe I was just being a cheeky kid. Or maybe the devil got a’holt of me early that morning. Needless to say I ended up where all the back-talking girls find themselves more often than not: in the principal’s office.    But something had shifted in me as a result of that inciting incident. I knew then that they didn’t know everything and, more importantly, I did know something—about me! Not enough, but a beginning.    Did that awareness start me on a life of criminal independence? No. But it sure did fuel the fire of my storytelling wit and wisdom that burns even hotter today. Today I work with Middle-Earth-Age woman who are navigating their midlife pilgrimage story. No matter where you are on the journey, you have a place with us. God forbid women should know their own voices!      Story Prompt: The Big Humans never did know everything. In fact, they probably didn’t know most things. Here’s your chance to have your say. When did your bold and daring Self unexpectedly step up and surprise you by saying what she meant and meaning what she said? Write that story and share it out loud!CTA: As always, “Come for the stories—stay for the magic!” And if my work matters to you, please let me know, subscribe and share it.    YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on Apple podcast—it helps us all—& join us next time!STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE ----> a no-obligation Discovery CallSUBSCRIBE to SUBSTACK to stay current  with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts    Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

    Hello to you listening wherever your feet touch the ground.    Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga.    You may be wondering what a No Kings rally announcement might have to do with Middle-Earth-Age women who are navigating their midlife pilgrimage story. One thing I’ve learned is how often we concede our voices, ideas and positions as a result of not having been seen, heard, understood, or listened to. Shifting that habit and learning to stand up to “say what we mean and mean what we say” takes time, a sense of safety, and being in a cohort of like-valued women.    If sharing in a celebratory nonpartisan event designed to encourage increased participation from all eligible voters is something you’d like to do, join us for the upcoming No Kings: Vote Early rally on Whidbey Island on Saturday October 17th or at local events across the country wherever your feet touch the ground!    For more than a year, millions of Americans have come together to reject the idea that power belongs to kings, billionaires, or politicians who believe they are above the people and the law. We say: No Thrones! No Crowns! No Kings! Can you hear us now? No Thrones! No Crowns! No Kings!    Now, we are turning people power into voter power. Unlike previous No Kings gatherings, No Kings: Vote Early, on Saturday October 17th is not just a protest. It's a day of volunteer-organized, nonpartisan voter participation. Together with Indivisible Whidbey, SOS Whidbey, and Whidbey Island League of Women Voters we will be showing up with our Whidbey community so that all eligible voters understand their options for how to vote and how to make their vote heard by voting early.    In these United States of America no one gets to decide our leaders before We the People have voted our choice!    All the details for No Kings: Vote Early rally on Whidbey Island on Saturday October 17th are in the Episode Notes. Let’s show up Whidbey Strong!Details for Whidbey Island, WA October 17th rallyTitle:     No Kings: Vote Early Whidbey Island WashingtonLocation: Coupeville Overpass, State Route 20 & North Main Street, Coupeville, WA, 98239When:     Saturday, October 17, 2026, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PMLINK for more information & to RSVP for the Whidbey Island No Kings: Vote Early Rally More No Kings: Vote Early information Find a No Kings: Vote Early event where your feet touch the ground Click the LINK to update your voter registration or confirm that you are registered to vote Remember to vote early and vote the whole ballot! Use a ballot drop box to return your ballot.Engage friends & family in our neighborhood and communities where voting happens. YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on Apple podcast—it helps us all—& join us next time! STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts websiteARRANGE ----> a no-obligation Discovery Call SUBSCRIBE on Substack to STAY CURRENT with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts     Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

    Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground!    Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with the occasional Time Out Tuesday episode and your host, Diane Wyzga.    We certainly do live in interesting times; but they can prove to be trying if not downright exhausting. Maybe like me you find the simple practice of breathing in and out while you take a moment to be part of Nature balances and restores you to a sense of calm, maybe even flourishing.      Here on Whidbey Island grey smoke from warming wood fires escapes stone chimneys, the winds are cooler, the sky is bluer, and the leaves on the trees—letting go in a riot of autumn colors—are called home to the damp earth.    Breathing deep to settle my worries I was drawn inside a favorite poem by David Ignatow. He wrote:"I wish I knew the beauty of leaves falling. To whom, to whom are we beautiful as we go.To whom are we beautiful as we go." ~ David Ignatow     As we live our precious and precarious lives, take a moment to behold yourself, your loved ones, friends, and  colleagues. Breathe in and deeply appreciate how much beauty has been granted to you, to us, and to them as we come and go in each others’ lives.    CTA: As always, thank you for listening to “the music of the spoken word.” And if my work matters to you, please let me know, subscribe and share it.  YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on Apple podcast—it helps us all—& join us next time!STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE ----> a no-obligation Discovery CallSUBSCRIBE to SUBSTACK to stay current  with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts    Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.  Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

    Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground.    Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with Story Prompt Friday and your host, Diane Wyzga.    What is a treasure trove? A place that is full of something good and worthwhile. It might be a collection of valuables with historical or cultural significance that have been hidden or buried and long forgotten. Today our treasure trove will be stories claimed from memory moment experiences we’ve lived.      How does it work? Find yourself a quiet, comfortable space where you won’t be interrupted. Gently close your eyes. Breathe in and out slowly repeating 4 lines out loud:      Breathe in and say: I am safe. Breathe out.    Breathe in and say: I have enough. Breathe out.    Breathe in and say: I have done enough. Breathe out.    Breathe in and say: I am enough. Breathe out.    With your eyes still closed relax even further into your body and your imagination.    In your imagination picture a lovely sheltering space. Can you see it? Can you hear it? Can you feel it?    On the door to that space read these words: Welcome, story traveler. You are expected.    Before you enter your very own Memory Moment Treasure Trove, pause and summon the magic words that will open the door just for you.    Now, step inside. Gaze around with wonder and curiosity as you take in all the time you’ve lived so far. You might feel a wee bit uncertain or vulnerable. That’s okay. This space might be unfamiliar. For now, choose a single Memory Moment of lived experience—one that hovers there asking to be remembered, not to fix or judge but to relish, to linger in, to reflect on with a sense of delight.    Story Prompt: When you have your Memory Moment, gently open your eyes and settle in to write that story and maybe share it out loud.    As always, thank you for listening to “the music of the spoken word.”    YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on Apple podcast—it helps us all—& join us next time! STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts websiteARRANGE ----> a no-obligation Discovery Call SUBSCRIBE on Substack to STAY CURRENT with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts     Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

    Hello to you listening wherever your feet touch the ground.    Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga.    You may be wondering what a No Kings rally announcement might have to do with Middle-Earth-Age women who are navigating their midlife pilgrimage story. One thing I’ve learned is how often we concede our voices, ideas and positions as a result of not having been seen, heard, understood, or listened to. Shifting that habit and learning to stand up to “say what we mean and mean what we say” takes time, a sense of safety, and being in a cohort of like-valued women.    If sharing in a celebratory nonpartisan event designed to encourage increased participation from all eligible voters is something you’d like to do, join us for the upcoming No Kings: Vote Early rally on Whidbey Island on Saturday October 17th or at local events across the country wherever your feet touch the ground!    For more than a year, millions of Americans have come together to reject the idea that power belongs to kings, billionaires, or politicians who believe they are above the people and the law. We say: No Thrones! No Crowns! No Kings! Can you hear us now? No Thrones! No Crowns! No Kings!    Now, we are turning people power into voter power. Unlike previous No Kings gatherings, No Kings: Vote Early, on Saturday October 17th is not just a protest. It's a day of volunteer-organized, nonpartisan voter participation. Together with Indivisible Whidbey, SOS Whidbey, and Whidbey Island League of Women Voters we will be showing up with our Whidbey community so that all eligible voters understand their options for how to vote and how to make their vote heard by voting early.    In these United States of America no one gets to decide our leaders before We the People have voted our choice!    All the details for No Kings: Vote Early rally on Whidbey Island on Saturday October 17th are in the Episode Notes. Let’s show up Whidbey Strong!Details for Whidbey Island, WA October 17th rallyTitle:     No Kings: Vote Early Whidbey Island WashingtonLocation: Coupeville Overpass, State Route 20 & North Main Street, Coupeville, WA, 98239When:     Saturday, October 17, 2026, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PMLINK for more information & to RSVP for the Whidbey Island No Kings: Vote Early Rally More No Kings: Vote Early information Find a No Kings: Vote Early event where your feet touch the ground Click the LINK to update your voter registration or confirm that you are registered to vote Remember to vote early and vote the whole ballot! Use a ballot drop box to return your ballot.Engage friends & family in our neighborhood and communities where voting happens. YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on Apple podcast—it helps us all—& join us next time! STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts websiteARRANGE ----> a no-obligation Discovery Call SUBSCRIBE on Substack to STAY CURRENT with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts     Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.

    Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground.    Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with Story Prompt Friday and your host, Diane Wyzga.    Revisiting Camino experiences. I‘ve been virtually retracing my Camino de Santiago pilgrimage steps—5 weeks, 500 miles across Spain—revisiting lived experiences and all those memory moments—as I do every year on the anniversary.                                             Struggles. By this time back then I’d been on the road almost 2 weeks. I was slowly gaining strength, endurance, and confidence in meeting what would happen next. I didn’t always know where I was headed or what challenges I’d meet. Would I get lost? Would the albergue (the pilgrim hostel) be full and no beds available; and, if so, where would I sleep for the night? Where would I find food and clean drinking water? Would I be able to cover the miles I needed to?        On this day I planned to trek 18 miles—mostly back roads and fields. The weather was good. The scorching heat of summer had begin to melt away leaving yellowing leaves on trees, harvested furrows and cooler days. But I was tiring after such a long day carrying my 15-pound pack. Was I going to make it?        Precious rest. My sights were set on arriving at Casa de Magica, an albergue in Lorca. A break from the usual overflowing dorm rooms with tripled stacked beds, plastic-covered mattresses and snoring, lots of snoring. This beautifully restored stone house with it’s inviting name, only 11 beds, and sheltered in a small village promised peace, quiet, rest! And, paella!    Food on the Camino. Good food does more than fuel the body. Shared meals—a signature part of the pilgrim journey—fortify the heart. Albergue meals could be hit or miss. Some albergues offered a small bowl of pasta with pesto and a green salad. In others you might get soup and bread, green beans with garlic, fried trout, and maybe yogurt for dessert. On occasion those meals became family dinners when we pilgrims were welcomed into the family kitchen. Casa de Magica promised such a welcome and homemade traditional paella!  If only I could make it before my stumbling feet gave out.    Casa de Magica. After another six miles I staggered in the front door. I had arrived at Casa de Magica. Leaving my boots and trekking poles in a box for that purpose I padded in my socks behind the hospitelero as he showed me to the last open bed in a small room with 5 other women pilgrims. I checked for bedbugs, spread out my sleeping bag, put my pack on the floor and headed downstairs, across an old stone courtyard and into a small stone building where clean plastic bins were stacked on the floor alongside a large jug of red wine vinegar and a box of coarse salt. When mixed with ice cold water the solution became a refreshing soak for tired feet and shins. Try it sometime. It’s like magica!        I dried my feet, slipped on my sandals and snugged down into a hammock hanging from old crossbeams in the building. It was time to rest.    No paella for us.  But then the hospitelero knelt by my side and said that he was very sorry but he could not make the paella as promised. Someone in the family was sick and he had to leave. Now what? This was a small village with no cafes. It was getting late.    I joined a few pilgrims in the courtyard and we set out to see what we could find. Like magica we spotted a mercado but the shopkeeper was closing up ready to head home to his own supper. Unlike our 24/7 grocery stores, a mercado is a small shop with local foods, fresh produce and vino tinto (good red wine). Having patiently listened while we explained our plight, the shopkeeper unlocked the door and welcomed us inside so we could shop for what we needed.      The albergue kitchen. Bustling back to the albergue kitchen with our supplies we worked together to prepare an elegant meal: sliced tomatoes, potatoes boiled in their jackets, diced bacon with wilted spinach, and huevos fritos: eggs basted in copious amounts of virgin olive oil. Bringing our plates to the old wooden table we took our seats, sat and ate relishing the nourishing food, the collective effort, and the profound sense of Camino magic. In the morning we would likely go our separate ways making and collecting more memory moments. For me, all these years later, this meal is still magica.    Story Prompt: What has made a meal memorable, even magical, for you? Write that story! Share it out loud.    As always, thank you for listening to “the music of the spoken word!”   YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on APPLE Podcast—it helps us all—& join us next time!STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE a no-obligation Discovery CallSUBSCRIBE to STAY CURRENT with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source. 

     Hello to you listening wherever your feet touch the ground.    Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga.      Everywhere in the world women are living their lives unrecorded. What’s up with that? What’s the use of  unrecorded lives? What are we afraid will happen if we put pen to paper to set down one memory moment of our lived experience? If we had the courage to venture into the depth of inquiry that guides a nice essay to a memorable story, what unexpected magic, freedom, or self-understanding might happen next?      The depth of inquiry into our personal narratives moves even the best essays away from a nice recounting of facts and events and what happened to what did it all mean?  There’s more to your story than facts and events. Our stories become memorable when we deeply explore our lived experience, become curious about our motivations, what was at stake, the choices we made, the risks we took, and then reflect on how those experiences earned us a hard-won lesson.    To get started recording a lived memory moment experience you recall—maybe the first job you ever had or the first time you stood up for yourself—set down the time, place and setting of the facts and events as you remember them. Next, capture highlights of the character (that would be you), who she was, how she was living her life, and why we might care about her. What was the event that upended her daily routine and set her up to want something different for herself? What was the problem that got in the way of what she wanted and how did she overcome it?    Now we’re embarking on the depth of inquiry. We focus our attention on the character’s underlying emotions, feelings, fears, doubts, struggles, and values. These personal truths help us understand the meaning of what has happened when her routine was upended, what was at stake for her, and why she chooses to do what she does to get what she so keenly desires, come what may.    When we dig deep into our lived experiences by asking  difficult questions, refusing to accept our initial reactions, and allowing the story to lead us, we transform surface answers into self-awareness, self-understanding, and self-affirmation.    With this first step we have begun to live a recorded life. What was the experience like for you? What is your next story?    If you could use a little help from a story doula who could listen your personal story out of you, click HERE to schedule time for a brief Discovery Call. What happens next ...?        As always, thank you for listening to “the music of the spoken word!”   YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star review & comment on APPLE Podcast—it helps us all—& join us next time!STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE a no-obligation Discovery CallSUBSCRIBE to STAY CURRENT with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack. Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source. 

      Hello to you listening from wherever your feet touch the ground. And, Happy Birthday, Patrice from wherever your feet are touching our Jersey Girl ground!      As I have done at this time every year I retrieve a cardboard box from a shelf in my closet, set it on the diningroom table, open the top, and take out a spiral notebook, a guidebook, and a few tokens. The notebook is the journal I kept as I walked 500 miles across Spain on the Camino de Santiago. I was a pilgrim. The guidebook helped to shepherd me from place to place, score a clean albergue for the night, and find a low-cost pilgrim meal. The tokens remind me of who I met or something very special I stumbled upon.    From now until the 1st of November I’ll be rereading my words jotted at the end of a long day of walking, maybe 15, 20 or 25 miles. Hot sun or cold rain, flat concrete sidewalks or rocky mountain passes. The walk is the path. The walk is the journey. The walk is the destination back home to self.    But I had to learn this truth. It took long days before my head and heart and feet began to harmonize. I had to stop myself in the middle of the path because I was running ahead, chasing my shadow. I wanted to be there first, wherever there was.    The cost of the chase was high. All around me was beauty, people, landscapes, animals, vistas, grapes ripening on vines, men harvesting in fields, and old ladies clustered together shelling peas into bowls and trading gossip. My mind was miles ahead of my body.    l had to stop, intentionally and practice something my teacher Thich Nhat Hanh always preached: mindful walking. Take a step and breathe in. Take a step and breathe out. Keep going. Mindfully. In this way I got where I needed to get. I slept where I needed to sleep. I met who I needed to meet. Because I had arrived in each moment of walking.          I chose this podcast image from Deer Park Monastery where I often went on retreat. It’s my cell phone shot of the sign I anticipated seeing as I drove down a narrow road to the parking lot below the hill where the monastery was situated. As soon as I saw the words, I Have Arrived, my breathing slowed, my shoulders relaxed, and everything about me seemed to melt. Arrived. Arrived. At home, I am at home.    We clamor to know what’s next and what if and how soon and when will we arrive. We chase the future in the hope that we will arrive at happiness. Here’s the thing about chasing arrival: When we get what we have been racing toward it rarely feels the way we expected. An inner voice whispers, “Somehow I imagined this experience would be more rewarding.”      Story Prompt: If you stopped right now, stopped chasing your life, and imagined yourself being present right inside your life, right where you belong, what might happen next? Write that story and share it out loud.                            And, as always, thank you for listening to “the music of the spoken word.” YOU'RE INVITED: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, subscribe & spread this episode  with a generous 5-star Apple podcast review & comment—it helps us all—& join us next time!STOP BY my newly re-imagined Quarter Moon Story Arts website     ARRANGE ----> a no-obligation Discovery Call STAY CURRENT with me as Diane Wyzga / Quarter Moon Story Arts on Substack Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Entering Erdenheim by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicALL content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved. Enjoy my work? Share & attribute it to Diane Wyzga of Stories From Women Who Walk podcast with a link back to the original source.