Salt, Bone, Breath, and Fire
Salt, Bone, Breath, and Fire was born as a gift, a Soul Sketch written for a friend, meant to see them, honor them, and hold a mirror to their light. It has become one of the most intimate parts of my work, blending my love for writing, my background in psychology, my intuitive connection to energy, and my years guiding vision board retreats, Yoga Nidra, and mantra practice.
I have loved words for as long as I can remember.
In school, I never got in trouble for writing too little. Only for writing too much. It was hard to stay within the parameters when there was so much in me that wanted to come out.
Long before I was a yoga teacher or a retreat leader, I was a child with a pen, pouring out stories and reflections I did not have the language to fully understand. The intuitive part of me was shaped by a childhood that required constant awareness. I learned to read a room before I knew how to read a book. To take the temperature of the air, to sense the unspoken currents.
Trauma is not something I would wish on anyone, but I have learned that it can leave us with unexpected gifts. A sharper understanding of people. A deeper compassion. The ability to see what is not being said.
The Observer
In the book Good Morning, I Love You, Dr. Shauna Shapiro writes about the three components that shape how we meet life: intention, attention, and attitude. I have found that when you learn to truly observe yourself, you naturally become a better observer of everything.
The cracks let the light in, yes, but it is up to us what we do with that light once it is there.
My fascination with the unseen deepened over the years. I earned a degree in psychology and worked in behavioral therapy, often with nonverbal patients. That work taught me to tune into energy in a way words cannot capture. To notice the smallest shifts in expression, posture, and presence. To see a person beyond what they say.
I have studied animal archetypes in Animal Power by Alyson Charles. I have explored dream interpretation, life path numerology, and the patterns that echo through the natural world and through us.
The Evolution of the Work
For years, I have led vision board retreats, helping people see their desires on paper. I have guided yoga nidra sessions, planting sankalpa, seeds of intention, into the fertile soil of the subconscious. I have written meditations, mantras, and guided visualizations that invite people to strip back the noise and meet themselves at the bones of who they are.
The Soul Sketches began as a simple gift for friends. A way to put into words the essence I saw in them, their fire, their grounding, their strength, their softness.
What I did not expect was how much they would hold onto them. How they would return to the words in moments of doubt. How they would tell me that being seen and named in this way shifted something inside of them.
It became a catalyst.
To be seen. To be heard. To be felt.
It does something for the soul. It is a balm. A nourishment.
Salt, Bone, Breath, and Fire
This chapter of my work is named for the elements that run through it:
Salt for the grit and the grounding, the way we weather storms and rise from them.
Bone for the structure, the truth that remains when everything else has been stripped away.
Breath for the life force that moves through us, the connection between body and spirit.
Fire for the light, the transformation, the spark that keeps us moving toward what matters.
Each Soul Sketch begins with stillness, an observation, a listening. Then the words arrive like tidewater, shaping the shoreline of a life in language.
The Gift of Being Seen
What I have learned is this: when people feel truly seen, something in them softens. They stand taller. They recognize themselves in a new way.
The Soul Sketches are my way of holding up a mirror, not to show someone who I think they should be, but to reflect back the beauty, resilience, and truth that are already there.
And just like salt, bone, breath, and fire, they are not static. They are alive. They move with you. They evolve as you do.
