Once upon a time, I followed my lifelong dream and moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. A friend asked me, "If you weren't an actor, what else would you want to be? " 

​My (immediate, as if it was a thing) answer: "A traveling philosopher."

Years later, while working on camera and venting to a colleague about how unfulfilled I was starting to feel in my chosen occupation, she asked,  "Well, what do you REALLY want to do? " ​

​My (surprising at the time) answer: "I want to inspire people. I want to wake them up and remind them of who they really are."

A couple of years after that, I had already fallen into a fun career in voiceover and was spending the majority of my free time exploring spirituality and deeper philosophical concepts when a first date inquired, "What do you do when you're not working?" 

​My (totally honest) answer: "I go on walks, take photos of flowers, and write down what comes to me." 

Let's just say a lot has happened since then. I went through what I lovingly refer to as my super-woo phase (more details about that below). Started coaching voice actors. Compiled my writing and photography into two books. And eventually relocated to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains where I continue to voice other people's projects while simultaneously creating my own.

And, in the several expansive years since the beginning of this story, I have learned that fulfillment is never found somewhere out there; it's never dependent on any one particular job or position. It’s a destination within – a feeling we can activate. And what we find fulfilling may change as we do.

If you'd have told me that following my intuition and true interests over a fifteen year span would take me from working on indie films, to voicing a slew of commercials and corporate videos, to teaching personal development workshops and intuitively coaching hundreds of people, to building an online directory of metaphysical shops and healing centers, to genuinely believing that the "spiritual" work I was doing just might be my primary path... only to one day find myself watching an episode of Magnum P.I. (the reboot – not that it matters, but it kinda does) and think, “Wow, I really miss being an actor” – I would NEVER have believed you. Especially about Magnum P.I. 

And yet, it's usually the surprising detours or random, seemingly nonsensical curiosities we follow that end up leading us somewhere we didn't realize we had to go. To integrate something essential that may have been missing. 

This, I think, is what it means to be human. To be curious. To be open to change. To live creatively. Artistically. Authentically. And, as an actor, a writer, or any creative person (which is pretty much everyone, essentially) – it's our varied life experiences that make our work rich and interesting and full. Or, at the very least, give us something to talk about at our small town's version of The Moth.

As it says in Wisdoms Of The Formerly Wilted:  
"Joy is the language of the soul. Lightness, ease, and freedom are its dialects. Living a soul-aligned life means following the joyful pull of your intuitive body and trusting it wherever it takes you."