The photo above was taken at age four on a sweltering summer’s day at an outdoor community function. Despite my parent’s pleas to wear seersucker and sandals, I got all gussied up in my favorite frilly dress, petticoat, handbag and white patent shoes. When all the Big People asked why I was ‘all dressed up', I emphatically (if not dismissively) replied, “Because I’m going around the world”.

At that time, such prophetic statements were simply considered the winsome antics of a precocious child. But some twenty years and countless National Geographics later, I would embark upon a journey that would ultimately epitomize my spirit, psyche and life. I do not advocate the meandering roads I have taken, for they have been decidedly my own. As an acorn knows to be an Oak tree and a caterpillar innately morphs into a butterfly, we are each encoded with a unique predilection; a deep yearning, an ache, a must that aspires to organic and authentic self expression. 

Every courageous road we take brings us more deeply into our authentic being. And, paradoxically, every road we avoid teaches us, too. Some are intoxicatingly blissful, others... unspeakably painful. But there are no ‘wrong’ roads, not if we approach every path with wonderment and curiosity -- a call to service, to self, adventure and discovery.    

In wonderment,

Robyn Lark Wakefield

“In any culture, subculture, or family in which belief is valued

above thought, self-surrender is valued above self-expression,

and conformity is valued above integrity, those who preserve

their self-esteem are likely to be heroic exceptions.” 

~ Nathaniel Branden

what is YOUR must?