Signs & Symbols Everywhere!

Signs, Symbols & the Soft Magic of Shedding

This past week, I was at the local school parking lot with Paul and my son’s family. They invited us over to be with the boys; the older one learning to ride his bike without the training wheels and the little guy flying (literally) on his scooter. Everything was paused when the blackberries were discovered on the backside of the lot. After a few scrumptious berries were consumed by all with most of them on their clothes, I glanced down at the scooter. On the front was a molting praying mantis.

I stood there longer than I meant to, watching this ancient little being do the most ordinary-and-miraculous thing: quietly outgrowing its own skin.

After showing the family, I put him/her back into the bushes where it could be safe as he came into his next skin.

Nature has a way of sending the exact message we need, right when we’re ready to hear it. And this one felt like a love note from the universe, arriving just as I prepare to step more fully into the world with my book, *The Power of AND: A Path to Unity and Awareness in a Complex World*.

The Medicine of the Molt

A praying mantis only sheds its old exoskeleton when the current one has become too tight. It isn’t dramatic. It isn’t rushed. It simply happens when growth can no longer be contained.

Writing a memoir, especially one that weaves personal story with spiritual insight and the messy, beautiful work of integration requires a similar shedding. We unpack the past. We sit with what once felt too tender to name. We let the old versions of ourselves loosen their grip so something truer can emerge.

That process is rarely tidy. It asks for vulnerability. It asks us to stay present while the new skin is still soft.

And yet… look at the timing. The book launches next month. The private season of creating is giving way to a larger container: published author, shared story, open invitation.

The mantis doesn’t chase what it wants. It aligns. It becomes still. It trusts precise timing. Then it receives.

That feels like the quiet heart of *The Power of AND*—holding the opposites without forcing them to cancel each other out. Strength AND softness. Stillness AND expansion. The private cave AND the public offering.

A Gentle Invitation

If you’ve been noticing signs lately any feathers, repeating numbers, a particular animal crossing your path, a sentence that lands like it was written just for you, pause with them. They don’t have to be loud to be true.

Sometimes the most powerful confirmations arrive on six delicate legs, mid-molt, reminding us that we are already becoming what we once only imagined.

I’m including a photo of the mantis I found. May it serve as a small, living reminder that growth often looks like this: tender, precise, and perfectly timed.

Thank you for walking this path with me. Thank you for holding space for the AND.

With fierce compassion and a full heart,