The space between who we were and who we're becoming

What if the discomfort of not knowing is exactly where we need to be?

Today (I’m writing this on a Friday), I had two different calls with women who wanted support from me. One I knew, and the other reached out via a mentorship offering as part of the Tory Burch Fellowship alumni network, which I advise. They both felt the need to talk with me because they’re in a deep period of transition in their lives and are feeling stuck, as the clarity they once relied on to move forward is no longer showing up in the same way. They know they are in a liminal space of transition that will reveal something deeper for them, but they feel the discomfort of the unknown.

In a way, reaching out to me is part of grasping for understanding and seeking a blueprint.

Both women shared that they feel the need to return to their creative expressions through writing and using their voices. They each felt, like I had, that they had abandoned that in pursuit of what back then felt like success.

Just like me, they found that version of success. It felt good until it didn’t because they achieved it by taming and quieting the creative expression that had led them there.

In the last few months, I’ve been getting more and more of these type of calls and messages from women I know. These two calls happening an hour within each other helped me understand that there is such a profound need right now for companionship and support on this winding road of shifts so many of us are traveling this year. One where we’ve made big, bold, courageous moves to strip ourselves of the identities and responsibilities that no longer served us. The businesses we’ve sold or shuttered down, the jobs we’ve walked away from, the co-dependent relationships we finally stepped away from, the places we called home but now feel so misaligned from our truth.

I feel a calling. I’ve felt it for a long time. We are being called to create a new way forward.

Deep down, we know that the way we have been living, giving up so much of ourselves for promises of success, wealth, belonging, and visibility, is not delivering on making us feel good.

We’ve shown up all pretty and badass. We’ve made the money. Built the thing. Bought it all. And yet…you might be asking: Why don’t I feel fulfilled? What is actually missing? Why can’t I figure out what’s next when I’ve always been able to figure it all out?

Those questions are the calling. That’s what each of us is being asked to answer for ourselves. To dream for ourselves.

We can’t create the new way forward with the same tools and mindset we used to create the reality we’re letting go of.

The liminal space we are in right now is the divine feminine womb of creation. If you are in it, you are part of this force of creation. An essential one for the new world we are responsible for birthing.

Yes, you and I carry that responsibility together. And it’s a beautiful calling. This is not a “you are so special, my darling” type of calling. That’s the ego talking. This is an ancestral calling of the feminine energy in all of us. The creator energy that lives in our second heart, the womb.

The womb is a dark space of mystery. A powerful force that creates life in the darkness of its waters. Those of us who have felt life in our womb know that birthing is an act of faith. When I was pregnant, all I had to do was take care of myself. Sleep well, eat healthy, listen to my body, and surrender to the magic my body was performing without me controlling any of it.

That same act of faith is required in the threshold of transition. It’s a portal where we’re asked to shed, grieve, surrender, pause, witness, feel, get curious, daydream, imagine, play, pray, listen in solitude, trust and create.

We release control, hustle, planning, expectations, and power trips. We surrender to the magic of life, asking us to create in collaboration with it and not continue the patterns of domination, greed, and destruction that are exerting all their influence to remain relevant. The world can no longer exist this way.

You are not meant to carry the weight and the harm perpetrated in the world.

You do have the power to summon the creative life force within you to imagine a new way forward.

I wish I could tell you there’s a blueprint, a clear path forward, a way to skip the discomfort of this threshold. But that would be a lie, and we’ve been fed enough of those.

The truth is simpler and harder: The not knowing is the work.

The work is asking the difficult questions. Witnessing the oftentimes even more confronting answers that show up. The work is in declaring that we will no longer betray ourselves by ignoring the whispers of our soul guiding us towards revealing the ways we can be courageous to create a new life.

What I told both women on those calls, and what I’m learning to tell myself every single day, is that we don’t have to know what’s next to begin. We just have to show up differently. Listen when our bodies ask us to slow down. Honor the grief when it comes. Notice what brings us alive, even in small ways. Trust that something is forming, even when we can’t see its shape yet.

For me, that looks like daily free-flow writing where I can pay attention to the messages that need to get to me. It’s nature walks where I’m reminded of the abundance of creation that exists all around. It’s praying at my altar. It’s time with my daughter and friends, where I get to just be. It also looks like knowing what my non-negotiables are and saying no to opportunities that would have me betray those.

This liminal space asks everything of us and gives us one gift in return: the chance to create from a place of truth instead of illusion. That’s not nothing. That’s everything.

You’re not alone in the womb of darkness. We’re here together, learning to see by a different kind of light.

Thank you for being here with me. If these words resonated, please share them, leave a comment, or let me know with a like. Your engagement helps this message reach the women who need it most.

May these slow holiday days replenish your soul.

Con amor,

Ana 🌹