Trusting The Guts :: There are people in this world who make it through their days via their intuition and there are others who take in the facts and logistics and make sense of things that way. I suppose in the end we all use a combination of both of those things, but most of us (I think), tend to lean more on one or the other. For better or worse I am the first. My guts and intuition get me through this life.

When I think about that too hard it freaks me out. How on earth can I trust that something just feels right (when it may or may not be based on much of anything)?  Weird, right? And so, I must develop a keen sense of when (and when not) to trust these guts of mine. It takes a giant amount of honesty and self awareness to lean in and trust yourself in this way – especially for the big things. To really discern vs wanting something to feel right can be the hardest. Ya know, those moments when some piece of you knows intuitively that something’s not quite right, even though you really want it to be? Listening to that little piece can be so hard, so disappointing.

I took a little leap last week, work was slow and I knew it would be kicking in in full force this week. So, on I whim I decided to take Thursday and Friday off and give myself a mini vacation.

It was glorious.

In the days of being alone I felt more connected to my guts, my intuition, my dreams and more confident in my ability to discern and make it through. I can’t think of a better way to feel about myself.

Thanks to the wonder that is Airbnb, for one of my nights away I stayed on a ranch in Ellensburg, WA (thus, these photos). I want to go back, I will go back. The woman who runs the ranch is just the loveliest woman. She made me breakfast and apple crisp and shared pieces of her life with me, but also let me have all the space and quiet I needed. She let me stroll around her property, feed the goldfish in the pond and even pick some apples from her trees to take home with me.

Something about those big skies and wide, windy open spaces (and the willow trees!)  made it easier to breathe. While on walks around the ranch I caught myself without thinking taking these big, deep, giant audible breaths and sometimes a breath would bring tears to my eyes and others would just make me smile and almost laugh.

It felt so good to breathe, so good to believe that I can trust these guts of mine.