A couple of months ago, I was speaking with my good friend Marie on the phone, when she said to me “Jen, it’s like you took a year sabbatical and that is awesome, but it’s time to get a real job now.” In just one month, on June 29th, Half of Me: An Inward Journey Back Home to Wholeness turns one years old. At the time of its release, I made a pretty spontaneous choice to travel without a definitive plan and go share my story, poetry, heart, on a self-made book tour - and I took all of you along the ride with me as I shared with you here week by week. One of the first posts that I made last year was “lost in the right direction” and it’s been one whole year of surrendering control and trusting the path of my Soul.
If you are newer here and want to go back and catch-up on some of the fun, I had a series called “Update on My Self-Made Book Tour”that I wrote for every month. I also tried series called ‘Sunday Scaries and ‘Throwback Thursdays’ which didn’t quite stick as well. But that’s what this year was for me.
It was a whole year of setting free, trying new things, succeeding, failing, and betting on myself to figure it out.
To you, the reader on the other end, thank you for being on this journey with me over the last year. You might not know it, but your eyes and ears tuning in each week helped me show-up to process the journey I have been on. You have laughed with me when I watched seven dogs in North Carolina on my book tour, cried with me as I figured it all out, and I truly hope you left each week with your own new contemplation of where life is pulling you towards.
If I am being honest, I am still working on figuring out the whole entrepreneurship thing. The recovering perfectionist in me is still trying to allow that to be okay. There were many times over the last year that I did not know where I was going to lay my head down at night and had to reassure worried family members that I’m going to be okay. It has been years of working with my mind, body, and heart to get me to this point of trust to follow my most authentic path. A few of the practices I engage with daily are subconscious reprogramming meditations, breathwork, prayer, creative writing/poetry, restorative body work practices. These practices are what I help my one-on-one clients integrate into their everyday life.
Over the last year, I have continued to develop myself as a poet/writer/speaker while simultaneously creating resources for Inward Athlete. In this phase of development, it has sometimes felt like I have been spinning my wheels with no traction and throwing spaghetti against a wall. My mind has always had the vision of where it wants to go and sometimes it has been more difficult to put all of the pieces together. However, my trust in the greatest plan has always been there and listening to guidance of a Higher Power pulling me forward has been what has kept me going where once anxiety would have once stopped me. I believe in this last year; I have built a foundation to help me fly with open wings into the next one.
So, here we are again, one year later, ready to surrender to another adventure.
I shared last week, that this summer, I will be taking a course at Tampa General Hospital called Clinical Pastoral Education and serving on the Spiritual Care Team full-time in an unpaid role. A few weeks ago, I felt this deeper call to move into a path of ministry. You can learn more about this in last week’s post. So, I had a clear “yes” in my body and chose to move forward into the unknown once again.
This summer, as I serve others on the emotional and spiritual plane more deeply than I ever have, I feel called to deepen back into my own spiritual practice and refocus my energy. I know this summer is going to require a lot of me because not only am I serving at TGH, but I also have big goals like writing another book the audience of Inward Athlete and another collection of poetry. For this reason, I will not be writing a weekly Substack post, and I am choosing to take a little summer vacation from this outlet.
As my mom always says, “this is not goodbye, it’s I’ll see you later.”
I do plan to pop into your inbox every once in a while, when I feel called to. Because I can’t quite possibly pass up sharing my annual “35 things I know to be true” for my birthday post that’s coming up. So, I hope you will stick around for when lessons from the hospital are ready to be shared here with you all in the future.
Thank you again from the bottom of my heart.
You are here for a reason.
You are here to have real impact on Earth during this time.
Ask for reassurance you are on the right path, and you will be shown the way.
If you are looking for deeper support on your journey, I have just two one-on-one mentorship coaching spots open this summer. Email me at jennifergellock@gmail.com to learn more.
And if you would like to support me on this next journey of my heart this summer, below are a few ways you can support me
Pick-up the phone to send a text/phone to send an uplifting message of support.
Support me with a financial gift as I continue to build my entrepreneurial ventures (writing/speaking/workshops).
Send a prayer of support from your heart after you read this post
Sending you much love and light along your journey ! “Lost in the right direction” is so real. But we continue to move forward, trusting in the unknown….and with each little journey the puzzle puts itself together. So blessed to have been able to meet you ! You definitely give me that extra reassurance in my own journey. One that can’t be explained, only felt, and that in itself can be a bit challenging in this world when it comes to having others understand but that’s okay because WE understand. Keep going !!