When Life Interrupts, Let It Redirect You: A Love Letter to Boundaries, Values & Energy Recalibration
You didn’t plan for it.
That text.
That diagnosis.
That one situation that brings you to your knees.
For me, it was watching my father’s health decline… rapidly and unexpectedly. Our whole family was cracked open. Everything stopped: my schedule, my business goals, the momentum I thought I was riding. Suddenly, I was knee-deep in triage, medical advocacy, and logistical orchestration that would’ve overwhelmed any calendar block or color-coded to-do list.
AND I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.
There’s no place I’d rather be than in the sacred trenches with my parents and siblings while our children, jobs and everyday responsibilities required our time too. Caring for one another through the unknown is NOT something that is overlooked as a given in life, so that privilege and honor became my anchor to gratitude. And it was in that unexpected wilderness that something else emerged.
During the unfolding, I had “pinch me” moment of realization… i wasn’t living out of alignment prior to this upheaval! This wasn’t the beginning of a transformation, it was a recalibration.
I wasn’t off-track.
I was already living in integrity.
But this? This refined my awareness. Nothing is permanent, we can’t control the outside world and adaptability depends on our confidence in our discernment abilities.
The Reclamation Begins Quietly
In the thick of the unknown, what emerged was unmistakable:
A clarifying of my values.
A fierce, almost primal, inventory of how I spend my time, energy, and presence.
A gentle, but firm, realignment of what I would protect at all costs.
When Boundaries Are Born and then Reassessed as we Live On…
I’ve come to understand that boundaries are the distance needed for us to love others and ourselves simultaneously and with integrity.
I had to draw new limits and boundaries. With my work. With people who may have had more access to me previously. Even with parts of myself that were tempted to over extend and may have felt selfish to make space and time for my self care in the midst of all of this.
It wasn’t dramatic. It was quiet. Clear. Nonnegotiable.
Looking back I can see how I handled myself in it all:
I am in charge of how I handle this, what I make of it and how show up.
It wasn’t a well refined and demure experience; it was lonely and scary at times but it just brought me back to the stillness, knowing and willingness to have faith and trust the process.
The awkward part is that when we shift from appeasing to aligning, people get uncomfortable. Some might even feel “unsafe,” not because you’ve harmed them, but because you’re no longer reassuring their egos or offering yourself on tap. You’ve disrupted the dynamic, but you’re not a jerk. You're just… sovereign. Here is my two cents: please start living like this without it having to be the result of illness, your own or a loved ones.
Your ‘no’ becomes a sacred responsibility.
Your presence is enough.
And their anxiety? Disappointment? Projection? Misunderstanding?
Not. Your. Problem. Not . Your. Fault.
Reclaiming Your Tempo
This is where the Soul Tempo comes in.
It’s a remembering. A responsibility. And a wise choice.
The unpredictable chaos of life invites you back to your own pace.
To our values.
To our breath.
To the soul partnerships that can hold the real us… not just the giving, fixing, achieving version.
And when you start honoring that tempo, not mimicking another’s or pretending to be something you’re not, something magical happens:
You confuse the system.
People don’t know how to respond when you set boundaries from love.
When you stop pouring from an empty cup, but still radiate compassion.When you stay soft and self-respecting at the same time.
You become unhookable.
And that scares people who were used to having hooks in your attention.
The Wilderness is an Initiation
No, I didn’t know how my dad’s illness would unfold.
We didn’t know if he would make it.
But I did know where I needed to be.
I knew what I could offer. And what I was good at.
And I recalibrated what I had to prioritize, mentally, spiritually, and physically, to show up with integrity.
So I listened.
To the nudges.
To the inner compass I thought I had lost.
Communication is a requirement. Have the difficult conversations. Be clear about what you need and call out what needs to confronted, from your heart to theirs. This season of life required clear communication… I had no time for anything less than truth. Sometimes it took a few conversations and mirroring back to others to be heard and be taken seriously as the youngest (by many years… but I can be quite relentless.)
Gratitude breeds hope and light in the darkest of hours. Thank those who show up, the random miracle workers, the guides, those who understand, give you grace and patience, who can tolerate disappointment, who believe you and in you.
And from here, healing, slowly, subtly, begins.
So if you’re in the wilderness right now…
If something cracked open your calendar, your heart, your illusion of control… Let it.
Take inventory.
Feel the ache.
Say no more than you explain.
Let your intuition chill your spine and say, This way, love.
That’s your tempo calling.
And it always knows the way through.