Woven Wonder: Following the Pattern of Aliveness

I feel it again—a new becoming.

A quiet stirring. A sense that a new thread is tugging at the edges of the life I’ve been living.

Looking back, I can see how certain moments—certain encounters—have acted as golden threads in the tapestry of my life. They arrive quietly, yet carry the power to reweave everything.

Thirteen years ago, I stood at a similar threshold—successful in my career, yet restless. I was a director of product development and operations at a small software company. I had built a solid foundation in tech, but something inside me had started to shift. My curiosity was no longer sparked by the latest in software engineering—it was drawn instead to the messier, more meaningful realm of people, organizations, and leadership. I was especially intrigued by Agile—not just as a framework, but as a doorway to more collaborative, innovative, and just workplaces.

That summer, while attending a family church camp, I wandered into the pop-up bookstore. Among the theology, philosophy, and personal development titles, a single book with the word Agile on the spine caught my eye: Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins. I picked it up and started reading the foreword… then the introduction… and I was captivated. Lyssa wrote with clarity, joy, and conviction—the same energy I’d longingly admired in a colleague who seemed to be doing exactly what he was born to do. I wanted to feel that same kind of aliveness again.

Later that evening, during the camp’s entertainment hour, I noticed someone sitting two rows in front of me. My brain did a double take. Could it be? She looked exactly like the author photo on the back cover of the book. I gathered my courage, walked up to her, and asked, “Are you Lyssa Adkins?”

With a warm smile and a twinkle in her eye, she replied (in her customary Lyssa way), “Yes, honey. And you are…?”

It was a serendipitous moment. My next teacher had appeared—just as I was ready. That brief exchange marked the beginning of my journey into Agile coaching. Her work inspired me and I knew I was on my way to something that stirred in me the feeling of being fully alive-doing work that mattered.

Over the next decade, I lived that calling. I became an Agile coach and trainer, helping teams and leaders transform how they worked together. I loved it—and yet, recently, I’ve felt another stirring. A familiar restlessness.

This time, it wasn’t about teams or frameworks. It was more elemental. I began to feel that something vital was missing—not just in the world of work, but in the world at large. I was drawn toward questions of sustainability: not just ecological, but personal, relational, and societal. I sensed that we have lost our connection—to ourselves and to each other. And it was only in finding our way back, that we could truly meet the complex challenges of our time.

In my own way, I started exploring. I co-created HitRefresh, a community focused on workplace well-being and resilience. I collaborated on a talk titled Sustainable Organizations Need Sustainable People. I started hosting TheWeek, a climate awareness to action program and holding space for authentic sharing and deep listening through HeartStorming.

I began forming an idea called Eco-Vitalize—a framework for thriving inspired by nature itself:

🌱 E for Energize—activating our renewable sources of energy

🌿 C for Connect—nurturing connectedness within our ecosystem

🌻 O for Optimize—designing life for optimum wisdom and wellbeing

But the ideas were swirling. They were alive and important, but also big, messy, and hard to articulate. I struggled to find coherence. I questioned my legitimacy. I wanted so badly to shape a new path forward—but I didn’t yet have the language, the grounding, or the clarity.

And just like before, when I was ready, a teacher appeared.

Her name is Rachel Musson, founder of ThoughtBox Education—a regenerative education enterprise supporting schools around the world with learning programs that help children care for themselves, each other, and the Earth. A former teacher who had spent years researching regenerative education across the global North and South, Rachel had created a framework that stopped me in my tracks: Triple Wellbeing—a head, heart, and hands approach to reconnecting with ourselves, each other, and the natural world.

I joined a free webinar to learn more, and what I heard landed with astonishing clarity. Rachel spoke of the polycrisis of our time—and its root cause: a crisis of connection.

BOOM. That was it. The golden thread. The language I had been searching for. The center of everything I’d been circling around.

Since then, I’ve joined ThoughtBox’s one-day practitioner program, their Transforming Leadership course, and now their year-long fellowship. I’m learning, reconnecting, and beginning to see the shape of something new.

I don’t yet know exactly where it will lead—but I feel it in my bones: another transformation is underway. Another becoming.

When the student is ready, the teacher appears.

Thirteen years ago, that teacher was Lyssa Adkins, and the path was Agile coaching.

Today, that teacher is Rachel Musson and her colleague Holly Everett, and the path is still unfolding—but it is rooted in the same truth that has guided me all along:

👉 Seek what makes you come alive.

In times of uncertainty, that aliveness becomes the compass. And perhaps, just perhaps, the world doesn’t need us to have it all figured out—it just needs more of us to follow what lights us up.

Because when we do, we don’t just change direction. We weave new threads into the fabric of what’s possible—for ourselves, and for the world.

✨ This is my Woven Wonder. ✨