In this episode, author, poet, and activist Natalie Bryant joins Vanya for an in-depth conversation on leaving the obedient life and moving toward wildness and sovereignty.   We discuss the unwritten contracts— the shoulds and external expectations —that we were devoted to when we met in our late teens.  Our conversation includes topics like the work of discerning between external expectations for our lives and what we really want, the sorrow and joy of leaving the known for the unknown over and over again, and the idea of safety within and without the approved paths in our lives.  In this honest conversation, we talk about our experiences, insights, struggles, and questions as we continually learn to move toward the center of our own lives. 

This episode is about seeds.  It is about what has been buried in our lives and what awakening right now.   Seeds are a humble magic.  Inside their tiny walls they hold the potentialities for a whole life.  Seeds show us a burial that is for preservation and safe keeping until the time is right, until the conditions are favorable for new life to grow.  And then, when the air and wind and sun and soil reach their tenuous agreement, the walls of the seed break open and new life pushes through the dark and into the light.      Sometimes what is most precious and true in us goes to seed.  We can imagine our wildest and wisest self, gathering what is too tender for the current environment and burying it deep in the soils of our own hearts and bodies.  And when it is time, the containers ~ ideas, identities, attitudes, values, relationships, religions, vocations ~ that have kept us safe need to break open and release what has been kept in these secret vaults.       In this episode, I invite you to be curious about what has been buried in your life and what is awakening right now.  As we enter into spring and watch all the hidden life that was kept safe from the harsh environs of winter break loose, we can ask ourselves: what wants to break free in my own life right now? 

The first episode of Belonging to the Wild is coming soon! For more info on Vanya & her offerings go to www.drvanyaleilani.com