My great-grandmother was thirteen years old when she stepped off of the boat from Eastern Europe and onto the shores of New York City. She had one bag in her hand and a note pinned to her chest that read “My name is Anna and I am going to 25th Street in New York, NY.” She did not speak a word of English and her parents had sent her to America so that she could have a better life, free from the poverty, violence and political uncertainty of her homeland.
After her came four generations of lives filled with love, struggle, hope, despair and infinite dreams that I could not possibly capture with words. Today, I sit here in the quietude of my home, and am surrounded by a relative abundance, peace, love, freedom and a gratitude so great that my heart swells in awe.
For me, the good fortune to live without war, hunger or the countless other strives that so many people face in this very moment means that I feel a sense of responsibility to awaken and to uplift.
The last ten years of my life have been a beautiful and trying time of exploration into the truth of who I am and what I am here to contribute.
I am not a proponent of empty obligations, but rather an advocate for the undeniable responsibilities that beckon to each one of us from the depth’s our soul.
Through a lot of hard work, deep digging and invaluable support along the way, I am finally ready to whole-heartedly announce that I am here. Not only am I here, I am also carrying a torch of LOVE and riding the waves of this radical feminine uprising that is taking our world by storm.
As I write this today, the earth is ripe with the last fruits of Autumn, sunlight sparkles across rich golden leaves, the geese are flying South and I am giving birth to a dream that has been dancing in my heart for a decade.
This dream is about freedom for women and girls. It is about the unabashed liberation of the feminine spirit and all of the power, vulnerability, beauty, wisdom, intelligence and brilliance that wants to burst out and envelope the world with love.
This website, claiming my true seat in the world, and allowing myself to finally step up to my calling and step out of hiding in order to be seen, heard and felt are all miracles on my personal path of liberation as a woman.
I have trembled in fear to tell you who I am, what I think and what I stand for. But today I am radically letting go of making choices from this fear. I will be silent no longer because the stakes are too high and my personal freedom depends on it.
The work I am offering to the world and this website are a place where women and girls can come and breathe a long, deep exhale. Here, there is enough time, enough space and enough love for it all. I will not ask you to be different—in fact I will ask you to come just as you are. Perhaps you are feeling magnificent or maybe you are in a profound struggle…whatever your unique story might be, I know that you are whole. Join me here and together we will learn, grow, heal and transform.
I am a psychotherapist, a coach and a women’s group facilitator. I am also a human, a woman and a deeply sensitive soul. I contemplate the unanswerable questions of life seriously and prioritize my awakening each day. I am devoted to caring for women and girls as they learn to beautifully and unapologetically care for themselves.
Recently, I spent a couple of weeks visiting with my 92 year-old grandparents, one of them the child of Anna. They were in their home where they have spent every summer of the last 60 years by each other’s side. We sat together and they recalled of their early years. As I listened intently, I couldn’t help but feel the miracle of it all—how hard they fought and how tirelessly they worked to create opportunity for the next generations…and so that I can be who I am today.
What is your story?
How did you arrive to this moment in your life right now?
Who’s shoulder’s do you stand on?
So as I press publish on this new chapter of my life and the honoring of my soul’s true calling, I give thanks to the shoulders that I stand on: Laura, Lee, Beatrice, Norman, Rosalind, David, Maime, Wolf, Lillian, Isidor, Anna, Isadore, Eva and Hyman. Without the sacrifices, choices, hard work, vision and love that each one of these people lived and still live by I would not be writing this today. Perhaps I would not even be here or the circumstances of my life would be completely different.
Instead, I am living a miracle and one that is completely interdependent with so many others.
I give thanks to the creative pulse that has chosen to move me and I bow to the next iteration of my work, my vision and my life.
In service and with gratitude,
Emma
