Dear One, I am really here for you.

Week One - Sacred Ache: A Becoming Real Workshop

It may feel strange—even counterintuitive—to embark on a spiritual journey while the world is in such turmoil. Yet, there is nothing more essential.

When we pause to notice the ache of disconnection, we find it isn’t a void—it’s an invitation. A quiet, persistent call from the deepest part of ourselves asking us to come closer, to listen, and to reconnect with what truly matters.

This week, we begin by listening to this Sacred Ache, meeting it not as a problem to solve, but as a guide to walk with.

This Week’s Focus:
Dear One, I am really here for you.
Establishing The Ground of Belonging, Presencing the one true love.

What does it mean - and how does it feel - to be at home, truly at home with yourself? To open a door within yourself and invite yourself inside?

This week, we ask: If the ache - in my heart, in my belly - this longing, could speak, what might it say? In this six week workshop, we discover and deepen what we sense is true: the ache has wisdom to share about who we are, and what this world is.

What’s Inside Week One:

• A reflective introduction:
  What does it mean to feel welcome in your own presence?

• A guided meditation, audio recording.
  Meeting the Sacred Ache

• A reflection walk to do on your own:
  Listening for symbols of connection

• Journaling prompts:
  Naming the ache and its quiet call

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

I invite you to join me as we step into the tender, transformative work of listening to the Sacred Ache—and through it, reconnecting with the Divine Feminine presence that lives within and all around you.

Subscribe now to access the full workshop content, including this week’s materials, guided meditations, and journaling prompts.

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Paid All subscribers: your Week One materials are below.

Yay! Hooray! You’re Here.
Happy Dance. (I can’t help it! I’m over the moon you decided to join me!)

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Welcome Reflection
You Are Welcome Here – The Ground of Belonging

We often think of loneliness as a longing for others, but beneath that ache lies a deeper truth: we are lonely for ourselves. This week, we gently reintroduce ourselves to the companionable presence of our own deep self.

Let me share a story to begin.

A few years ago, in high summer, I found myself standing on a hill between two worlds. To my right, the remnants of an apple orchard stretched toward the horizon. To my left, the hum of a hidden beehive pulsed with quiet life. The sun warmed my shoulders as I stood still, noticing an ache rising within me—a feeling of longing that I’d carried for so long that it had become familiar.

Something is missing. This wasn’t a new thought but that day, as it rang through me, I found myself remembering a student. The only one who’d asked for a refund after completing my Soul Caller Training. “I was hoping for something more essential,” she had written.

So was I, I sighed, remembering her words. In her letter, I’d sensed the same quietly aching please I was feeling. Her ache was my ache, too—a longing for a truth so deep and undeniable that it would quiet the restless hum inside me. And then, as I stood there, allowing the ache to really speak to me - something happened.

I began to see things differently. I began to feel things differently - things I’d forgotten.

I looked at the orchard and saw the beauty in its devastation, the wildflower carpet at the base of the trees, the vines, already taking over the bare branches. There was a hum in the air. It’s the hives! I realized. The unseen work of life buzzing toward something sweet.

Oh my! I realized. The ache I had been feeling as emptiness was actually its invitation—not its opposite, but its calling. Its invitation. A longing for fullness.

It was the pulsation of life itself, inside my own belly, and it was calling me home.

What was missing wasn’t out there—in some theory or philosophical truth.

It was me. I was missing from my own life. The world had been laid at my feet in all its splendor, and all my life, I had been missing it.

I wrote the full experience here, as a chapter in a book that I’m working on - and we’ll be revisiting its themes throughout our time together.

For now, this week, I invite you to begin listening to your Sacred Ache as I did that day. What if your ache is not a deficiency but a guide? What if it’s a doorway to belonging—to yourself, to beauty, to love?

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As Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us:
“Dear one, I am really here for you.”

You are not alone in your longing. This ache is the thread that connects you to the truth of who you are. It connects you, also, to yourself.

Let us begin the work of listening, welcoming, and belonging—together. Turning our attention inward to explore what it means to feel welcome in our own presence….

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Lesson One: Belonging to Yourself

What does it mean to feel welcome in your own presence? What would it mean to be really here for yourself?

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Open Eyes Exercise: Look Around The Room
The Ground Beneath Your Feet
What is already here?

This exercise is designed to gently anchor you in the present moment and help you cultivate a sense of belonging within your environment. Through this practice, you’ll begin to notice the small, ordinary moments that offer calm, safety, and connection.

1. Look Around Your Space. Look around the room or space you’re in. Notice the objects around you. Is there something in your environment that brings you a sense of calm, safety, or joy? It could be anything—a favorite book, a plant, a cozy blanket, a mug, or even the view from your window.

2. Focus Your Attention. Choose your object and bring it close if you can, or move to where it is. Take a moment to hold it or simply observe it closely. Notice its texture, color, and shape. Let yourself remember why it is in your life. Does it carry a memory or evoke a feeling of connection?

3. Extend a Welcome. Imagine yourself extending a sense of invitation - a gentle, generous welcome - to this object. Silently say to it, “You are welcome here.” Notice how it feels to give your full attention to something so ordinary yet meaningful.

4. Reflect on the Experience. As you sit with it, reflect on how this small act of presence changes your experience. What does this object reveal about what matters to you? How does it feel to give your full attention to something without rushing or multitasking? Did this practice evoke any emotions, memories, or sensations?

5. Write it down. If you feel called to, record some of your observations, feelings and experience in your journal. You may be surprised, later, to see how evocative this exercise can be. In days to come, notice if (and how) your relationship to this object has changed.

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Even in the ordinary, there is meaning. By extending a sense of welcome to what surrounds us, we create a foundation of belonging that we can carry into our relationship with ourselves.

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(Pictured: The altar that my husband built, out of found materials, my mother’s brass bowl and my shell collection. So many objects, imfused with meaning, surround us all. What is here to see, to touch, to engage with in a deeper way? What might these seeming inanimate objects have to tell us?)

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Guided Meditation:
Meeting the Sacred Ache

In this guided meditation, I’ll lead you through a gentle grounding exercise. You’ll imagine your sacred ache as a living, feeling being — and connect and communicate with them in sacred interior space. (Note: After introductory comments, the meditation begins at 6:35.)

After completing the meditation, take some time to reflect on what surfaced.
Write freely, without judgement of yourself or your experience, holding the intention to really be here for yourself. Use these prompts as guidelines, not rules. Let your pen flow over the page, listening and feeling within.

• What seems to be missing in my life, and how does it feel to acknowledge this?

• When my longing spoke, what did I hear or sense?

• If this longing could speak, what would it say it’s searching for?

• What did you sense was waiting on the other side of this door?

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During the Week: An invitation

There is no ‘homework’ in Becoming Real Workshops but there is always invitation - between the sessions, I invite you to try things on your own. The more you participate, the more you engage the work, the more the work can engage with you.

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This week’s invitation:
Take a Reflection Walk: Listening for Symbols

This walk is an opportunity to connect with the Sacred Ache through nature, movement, and quiet reflection. By intentionally noticing what catches your attention, you open yourself to the gentle guidance of your inner world.

1. Set an Intention. Before you begin, take a moment to close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Place your hand over your heart or belly, and silently set the intention to listen deeply during your walk. You might say to yourself: “I am open to noticing what the world wants to show me.”

2. Choose Your Path. Find a path where you can walk undisturbed for 15–30 minutes. It could be a quiet street, a park, a forest trail, or even a backyard. The location doesn’t matter as much as your intention to notice.

3. Walk Slowly and Notice. As you walk, let your gaze soften and notice what draws your attention. It might be something small: A flower or leaf, a sound, like birdsong or the wind, a feeling in your body as you move. Pause when something catches your attention. Spend a moment observing it. What draws you to this particular object, sound, or sensation?

4. Reflect on Symbols.As you continue walking, let your intuition guide you as you reflect on the things that have caught your attention. Could they be symbols, carrying messages for you? Might that flower symbolize growth or beauty? Is that bird a symbol of freedom? Notice the breeze against your face. Is that a reminder to breathe and let go?

5. Return and Journal. Recording your reflections anchors them and makes them more real to you. When your walk is complete, take a moment to sit quietly and reflect. Here are some prompts to support your journaling:

   1. What caught my attention during the walk, and what did it mean to me?

   2. How did I respond - what did I feel or understand?

   3. If the Sacred Ache were speaking in symbol-language, what might it want me to see or understand?

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The Sacred Ache is not separate from the world around us—it speaks to us through everything - the objects on our desk, in our home. The sounds of nature and the man-made world, the sensations in our body - even the touch of the breeze against our skin. Each time we pause to notice, we acknowledge - what if this is real? This opens the channel for the quiet wisdom of the world to reach us.

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Come to the comments!
I’d love to hear about your experience this week

What did you notice? What called to you from the world? What surprised you? Intrigued you? Share your reflections and experiences in the comments section. You’ll find it at the bottom of this post, on the host site, Becoming Real. I’ll be there to read and respond to your thoughts as we walk this path together.

With warmth and welcome,
I’ll see you in the comments!

Amy
xxoo

One last note: If you like Zooming . .

There are no Zoom calls with the Becoming Real Workshops, but I do offer a Zoom circle in the Soul Caller Sanctuary and School of Magic.

We meet monthly for a two-hour call with: guided New Moon ritual, plenty of time for flow journaling, sharing and discussion, Q&A and gentle group Soul Coaxing from me.

Our next gathering is Sunday, January 26th - and you are warmly welcome to join. It’s a beautiful way to deepen the work of this workshop while connecting with others in a sacred, shared space. Cost: $28/month Learn more here.