Bumper Sticker Values

For the first time ever, I bought and actually adhered a bumper sticker to my car.

It's green, features a simple hand-drawn bus, and carries the Paul Wellstone quote: "We all do better when we all do better."

I've been reflecting on the past six months, and I think that early June purchase is actually the perfect capstone and motivator.

These past six months have been... a doozy? Dynamic? Tragic? Empowering? Unmoored?

All of this and more.

I started the year launching my new Sparks of Change blog with a burst of hope and vision. It had become clear that I needed to pivot my focus, and I was all in.

And then I found myself amidst the hardest physical and emotional winter we've had in years.

I grieved as my sense of national identity eroded, an assumed sense of security fell out from under me, and I felt a vulnerability for myself and my neighbors that was nearly overpowering. Bedtime dance parties became obligatory and were a saving grace, helping get the trauma out of my little family's bodies but we were all “in” something else entirely.

At the same time, friends and block groups led with courage, brilliance, and so much heart to build safety networks and defend human rights.

The both-and of it all was beautiful and hard.

In navigating this tumultuous context, my life purpose became even clearer to me.

The name Sparks of Change came to me years ago when I was in coach training. I just knew that my role would be to, well, spark change. To help others move through the muck, the shift, or the complexity and into greater alignment with themselves and their purpose.

I don't want to be the leader of the movement. I want to help you be the leader in your life.

And while that has always been internally clear, I've struggled with how to communicate it and connect with the right clients.

I actively practice holding paradox, so while I was applying for salaried positions that met strict criteria, I always knew Sparks of Change would live on. For a while, though, I wondered what form it would take.

Knowing that I needed to lean in and step into greater clarity with my work, I enrolled in an Akashic Records Business Mastery course from February through May. It helped me make some decisions and hone my messaging.

Months of work later, I've got an entirely redesigned website and full permission to myself to stake my claim:

Sparks of Change helps people move through high-stakes decisions, transitions, conflict, and growth with greater self-awareness, resilience, and connection. My group work is customized, highly experiential skill building. Individually, I help women wrestling with complex, life-changing decisions—like solo parenthood, taking a professional leap, or navigating major transitions such as divorce, dating again, or caring for aging parents. Through customized 1:1 coaching, group trainings or facilitation, you will develop the skillset and mindset to move forward with clarity, confidence and purpose.

THIS.

This is the biggest shift of the past six months.

It's feeling rooted in a solid knowing that all the skills and experiences I've acquired can be blended in service of your growth and freedom and our collective good.

While it's uncomfortable and scary to have institutions crumbling and established ways of being disrupted, there is also tremendous opportunity to do things differently right now. To create lives, relationships, organizations, and communities that work better for more people.

We start with ourselves.

We take that into our relationships, our families, our workplaces, and our communities.

And slowly, together, we lift the collective.

"We all do better when we all do better."

Thanks, Paul.

I'm all in.