40 Minutes

Life is filled with many twists and turns, but eventually, if you follow your heart, you find yourself exactly where you are meant to be. This week we spoke with someone who is exactly where she is meant to be; Rebecca Dudley, Children’s Book Author, Architect, and Activist. 

When Rebecca and her husband moved to Chicago from Seattle, they missed going to see the North West Ballet production of The Nutcracker with costumes by the late Maurice Sendak. As a gift for her husband, Rebecca decided to re-enact the ballet using stuffed animals. Inspired by the experience, Rebecca began making elaborate diorama’s that she photographed and posted as a blog called Storywoods. This led to two whimsical, creative, and beautifully conceived books; Hank Finds an Egg and Hank Has a Dream. 

Rebecca talks with us about how her experience in the theater, studying dance in college, a degree in economics, her work as an architect and activist have all played a role in her current work as a children’s book author. Listen as Rebecca explains how she uses her camera to explore the worlds she creates and discovers the story waiting to be told. 

Check out Rebecca’s blog Storywoods

Buy ‘Hank Finds an Egg’ and ‘Hank Has a Dream’ on Amazon.com

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54 Minutes

The soul is not something outside of us. We carry it within and it is ours to interact with and shape and dance with.

– Theresa C. Dintino in Membranes of Hope

Theresa Dintino has made several plot twists throughout her adult years. A writer, she studied goddess culture and wrote books about matriarchal societies. Eventually she was drawn to study her own ancestral lineage and wrote a book about her great-grandmother who was an Italian strega. Her journey to connect with her Strega ancestry led her to an introduction to the West African Dagara tradition of stick divination. In a plot twist, Theresa pursued divination, a calling that has further deepened her connection to nature, elemental beings, and her ancestral past.

As a stick diviner, she listens, is advised by the elements, and prescribes rituals and actions to those seeking answers or healing. It is an intuitive ritual involving deep focus and play.

Theresa’s explorations next turned to life-systems and their membranes. In her latest book, Membranes of Hope, she considers how everything, even the smallest of molecules is “ensouled” in a membrane. Everything that is a life source is protected by a membrane that lets in, and keeps out, what it needs in order to thrive. As therapists, we refer to these as boundaries. But we like the idea of membrane. It’s more dynamic and porous, less static.

Along with the eight books that she has written, she is also the co-founder of the Weekly Newsletter Nasty Women Writers, and the founder of the Strega Tree Apothecary, an online store offering products for spiritual care needs.

Take a listen to Theresa’s story.   

Learn more about Theresa’s work at ritualgoddess.com

Check out the Strega Tree Apothecary at stregatree.com

Check out nastywomenwriters.com

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43 Minutes

Valerie Albarda suggests we enjoy the midlife and skip the crisis.  

She has a podcast she calls Midlife-A-Go-Go, filled with interviews, stories and testaments of mid-lifers exploring their worlds, enjoying their lives and making changes that matter to us all.

Valerie recently gave a TEDxCharlotte talk titled The Invisibility Trifecta: Coming Out of the Shadows. In this talk, she discusses midlife invisibility and the intersection with aging, sexism and racism. She asks us to consider how the experience of being a black woman in midlife is different and challenging: I want people to be more aware of black and other midlife women of color in society; to make room for us at the table; to show us respect; to acknowledge the value of our life experience.

Now, Valerie faces another challenge, a diagnosis of Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.

Through it all she is a storyteller, an advisor and an activist. We experienced her as both playful and formidable, a very potent mix.

Take a Listen

Check out https://www.midlifeagogo.com/

Check out Midlife-A-Go-Go on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.

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36 Minutes

How do you bloom? Are you an annual or a perennial? Do you bloom late? Are you still sprouting? Or are you waiting, held inside some bulb that is planted deep within the earth, for your time?

Today we talk to Yvonne Marchese, host of Late Bloomer Living Podcast.

Yvonne believes midlife can be a time to step into a new experience, learn new things and, well, bloom again.

She calls herself a “serial pivoter.” She is an actress, storyteller, photographer, wife and mother.

We are so happy to connect with Yvonne. She is a part of the cultural web of women who support others in embracing life, rebooting desire and re-finding purpose in midlife and beyond.

Take a Listen.

Check out Yvonne’s websites latebloomerliving.com and yvonnemarchesephotography.com

Check out Yvonne’s free workbook 5 Steps to Your Midlife Reboot

Check out Yvonne’s Instagram, Facebook page, and Linkedin

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43 Minutes

Sometimes, it’s important to seek the bigger picture in order to understand ourselves. In times like these, we need to go beyond our noses to find solace and wisdom in larger patterns. But how do we do this? One way is to start by looking at life from a decidedly different perspective.

Today, we talk with Dianna Mahiques, a Western Astrologer and certified BTB Feng Shui Master. She offers us some alternative ways to know and experience ourselves in this multidimensional world.

Since she was a child, Diana was attracted to the metaphysical aspects of our existence. She was attracted to a career in music and was successful as a rock band manager. But her love of astrology and her capacity for the intuitive eventually lead her in a different direction. She twisted her plot and stepped further and wider into her life-long passions.

Diana’s energy is captivating and wide-reaching. She’s got a lot to offer. We admit, we don’t know much about astrology or Feng Shui. But we did learn something about Saturn returning for the third time in our lives.

Find out more. Let’s explore it all.

Twisting our plots is a big job.

Diana’s Instagram

Check out integrativeastrologyandfengshui.com

Email Diana at dianamahiques@gmail.com

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54 Minutes

Who we are and what we know about ourselves can turn on a dime.

On today’s Twisting the Plot Podcast, we talk to Kathleen Shea Kirstein who shares a personal plot twist.

At the age of 49, Kathleen makes a startling discovery. She learns, in accidental and unexpected fashion, that she was not actually born to her beloved parents.

She was adopted.

This changes everything.

Now, at 63, Kathleen continues to discover more of who she really is, and was, all along.

What is it like to realize the story you believe about you is riddled with secrets and lies? What is the experience of learning that the things that you thought were “off” about you, turn out to be exactly right.   

We are the magical alchemy of nature and nurture. And when we have access to our whole story, much about us begins to make sense.

Recommended Facebook Groups:

NPE Only after the Discovery

Hiraeth Hope and Healing

Adoptees Only

Check out The Write Journey at thewritejourneyworkshop.com

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23 Minutes

Cecilia loves a good New Year’s resolution or twenty. She starts her new year off with several notebooks and charts, making vows and setting plans.

Hannah’s given up resolutions since most of hers have historically been linked to self-improvement with a negative underlying theme of “not good enough.” But she still expects to grow, and she does have goals.

What’s the difference between a resolution and a goal?

Resolution has a firmness, an all or nothing, do or don’t do, a command. A goal suggests a process, a direction with intention. Resolutions are often about stopping something that is wrong with us, whereas goals are more aligned with our sense of purpose. Resolutions replay the past, and goals direct the future.

What if the new year with all its promise was about becoming, an unfolding of our identity and experience? And what if, as we age, we could package our goals into practices that invoke pleasure, ease and play?   

Join us in this week’s Twisting the Plot podcast as we ponder these questions.

As a bonus, Hannah reads an essay from her Dad, Donald Murray’s column from the Boston Globe in 1995.

Don Murray always had goals. He was a striver and a doer until his last day. But along the way, he also savored the passage.

It’s a beautiful piece.

Change is hard. Resolutions fail, goals recede. And yet, we grow.

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