Episode #211 Tracy Searight; How surgery Reframed My Reiki Path

Tracy Searight shares her journey with a recent Hip replacement surgery. Years of Yoga and not listening to the whispers of her  body 

Someone told my daughter, “I heard your mother is falling apart,” and it hit me in a place I didn’t expect. Six weeks after a right hip replacement, I can finally name what’s really happening: I’m not falling apart, I’m being put back together. This is a solo, deeply personal Ready Set Reiki story about what it looks like when your body forces a pause and your spirit has to catch up.

I walk you through the long arc, from a passionate yoga practice and the ways I didn’t listen to my body, to the grief that cracked my life open after losing my sister and later my father. Reiki energy healing, prayer, and a steady relationship with God become daily tools for stress relief, emotional regulation, and trust, especially when life requires big pivots like moving, starting over at 50, and letting go of opportunities I’d been manifesting for years.

We also get real about a question many people whisper: if you “do Reiki,” should you ever need surgery, medication, or physical therapy? I share why ethical Reiki never replaces medical care, why practitioners don’t diagnose, and how energy work can support recovery without magical thinking. Finally, I break down how to navigate the growing world of Reiki systems and Reiki training with research, transparency, and respect for lineage so you can choose what fits your healing journey.

Tracy Searight At the age 5 knew she had the heart of a teacher and a mother. These two passions were her driving force through majority of her life. In 2006 she connected with Yoga and it became a beautiful love affair. Pushing her body and not listening to the whispers of her body Tracy  used Yoga to move through the most challenging and painful parts of her life. Genetics, life and wear and tear she found herself four years ago with a tear as she was a student in a yoga class. The x-ray in the Surgeon’s office told of two decades worth of damage. At the top of her game, she had to make a decision. Do I pause to heal or do I push through and keep going? Wife, mother, fur mom, teacher, yoga teacher, Reiku master, author, podcast, and host of the TV show Laughing light Worker Tracy shares her journey what may look like falling apart to others was just a matter of her finally coming together.

If this podcast resonates with you  subscribe, share it with a friend who’s recovering or rebuilding, and leave a review so more people can find a grounded, hopeful view of Reiki and healing. What are you being asked to release so you can heal?

Transcript

Welcome To Ready Set Reiki

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This is Ready Set Reiki, a podcast about Reiki and all energy work, from the curious beginner to the seasoned master teacher, welcoming all systems, all lines, all levels. Reiki is a journey and not a destination. And on this Ready Set Reiki journey, I refer to myself as a guide rather than host, as I too am traveling, learning, and supporting others on this Reiki journey as well. And with that said, I am your guide, Tracy C. Wright, and this is Ready Set Reiki. Hello, welcome. Reiki, blessings to you, one and all, my Reiki

A Community So You’re Not Alone

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family. Thank you for joining me on this journey. I'm Tracy C. Wright. But before we begin, I always like to give a shout out to the Reiki Business Collective. Here is where you're sharing, supporting, and serving. Christian Stone is our fearless leader here as he helps support and share and rise up other practitioners, master teachers, wherever you are on your Reiki journey. Don't let that business name fool you. Maybe you're not even thinking of that of a business. You're just so excited to connect with this beautiful stress-reducing modality. This is a place where you do not ever have to feel alone. When I began my Reiki journey, it was a search online. And I really only knew one person that did Reiki. And what a blessing to know that there is a safe place to land. I really would have appreciated something like this in the beginning of my journey, but nevertheless, I have found it and I am sharing it with

Why I’m Sharing This Story

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you. Well, this episode is a very special episode because you see on Ready Set Reiki that I normally have a guest, but this one, it's me, Tracy C. Wright. If you don't know me, hello, welcome. My name is Tracy C. Wright, Feather Sister, and a few other things. And some of those few other things are wife, mom, fur mom of Five Cavalier King Charles. I teach many different styles of Reiki or systems, rather, many different styles of yoga. I'm an author, uh podcaster, and I'm a host of a TV show. Prior to that, uh I studied to be a teacher, an elementary teacher, worked in schools. I've done everything from work at uh churches to daycares. I even worked as a special education aide uh for a season in my life when my husband had an opportunity to uh leave Pittsburgh and go to El Paso, Texas for work. So, what are we meeting here for today? Well, I wanted to share something with you. Uh, someone recently told uh my daughter, now my children are adults now, and uh what a blessing because they're able to help me uh through this season where I am able to do kind of all the things that I've dreamed of doing. And someone told my daughter recently that I heard your mother is falling

The Hip Replacement Reality

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apart. About six weeks ago, I had surgery. And it's something that I've been putting off for about four years. So it was um a right hip replacement surgery. Now it's a common yoga injury. I have met uh a few yoga teachers uh around similar to my age range, give or take, 10 years in direction, uh, that have this injury. You may or may not know that in yoga we often start, not always, depends on the teacher, uh, going with the right uh leg, uh right foot. And this has been brewing for about four years. So let me tell you

Yoga, Ego, And Not Listening

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my story. So in 2006, I connected with uh yoga. It was a beautiful love affair. It I was so passionate about it. There were times I would go to class two times a day. I studied it, uh, didn't really teach it too much, uh, you know, to my kids through schools, things like that. Didn't want to venture into the adults because in that time I was raising my children. By then I had four little ones. I had four kids under seven years old. I was living in a place called Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. And this was really instrumental in me gaining my strength. And I had decided that I no longer wanted to be married to my children's father. We had been together for 14 years uh right out of college. If you have followed me and heard me on different podcasts, I share about how the pressure was in college to get that degree and get married. And I probably rushed into uh marriage. So within six months of meeting someone, I was engaged within that year, married, uh, moved to from Pennsylvania to Maryland, then within a year, Maryland to South Carolina, and then very quickly started our family. And it was the bold decision to just leave. And I had been uh, you know, a housewife, but I also went out of the home to work at different daycare schools, work at the church, uh, that I could bring our children. And so it was kind of a big bold move for me. And I went back home to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and there started back teaching again, and yoga was always this instrumental part. Well, I didn't really listen to my body. Uh the ego was there where I wouldn't use props. Uh, I was really into Iangar yoga, which is more alignment-based. And I think for myself, it's not really ideal for my particular body, but I didn't know that at the time. I just was loved it so much and felt that this was something that calmed my mind. Now, all while this is happening, uh, I have shared a few times that my mother is uh a Christian, very Bible-based. And my mother was completely against uh yoga. She thought it was uh the devil. Uh, and there are a couple of yoga asanas uh poses that do celebrate a deity. And uh so that's kind of where she did not feel comfortable. I even modified my practice to do uh restorative and yin, where you weren't doing those particular types of asana uh in the practice. I even studied uh Christian yoga and she still was not impressed. So studied all these different modalities,

Grief, Faith, And A Wake Up

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and then around 2020, where obviously everyone's life changed, uh in January of 20, uh January 21st, 2000, 2020, uh my sister had passed and it was a, you know, she had the new flu and went into the hospital, and then the very next morning she went to get up to leave, she went to go take a shower, and she dropped and we lost her. And that was the catalyst for change. So I really upped my um yoga at this point because this is the only tool other than prayer. So throughout my whole life, prayer has been instrumental. I do believe in God, Jesus. Uh, I call all the things in. So prayer is weaved in through my day and Bible verses and et cetera. So a lot of people, because they hear you do yoga and you do Reiki, you must not have that relationship with God. I do. I don't push it on anyone else because I grew up with someone that did push that judgment on people. So there were times, twice a week, every day, this was common and uh this was kind of like uh a jolt to our system. And I always say that she was the good sister, she always, you know, she she never left home, she took care of her parents. We have the same dad, different moms, and uh, you know, she would give you the shirt off of her back. And I was uh considered not wild wild, but the wild one, right? And kind of did my own thing. And when I was able to help our father uh after she had passed, uh, help clean out her home. She had a very large three-story home. She was also the caretaker of her 60-year-old uh Down syndrome aunt, and she had been taking care of her for quite some time. And this aunt was uh bedridden. And I began to notice things that my sister didn't get to do, that she didn't get to finish. There were a lot of unfinished things in that home. She was never able to marry uh for whatever reason, never had that opportunity to have children. And I know she wanted that so badly. And um something just changed and shifted within me that I don't know if I want to be doing what I'm doing now. It was a wake-up call. I felt like I was on autopilot and it was an invitation to say, you know what, let's let's follow the dreams here, let's take an opportunity and honor her. And so it was then that I created a feather sister because um, and this is a common sign, right? Feathers and ladybugs and birds. And the feathers were in these amazing and magical places. And when I was doing all of these yoga trainings because uh COVID had happened, I took an opportunity to go all in and take everything. I was like a sponge soaking everything up. And it was during that time that a friend of mine, a very best friend of mine, uh, reminded me about uh Reiki. I had gone with her to a Reiki session back in 2006, around that time. And that was my year of finding different modalities because that's the year I really got into yoga as well. And she reminded me, maybe you should do this. And that mentor teacher said, Why don't you you name your business feather sister? And I said, Okay. And meanwhile,

Finding Reiki And Feather Sister

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I was taking these yoga trainings and um never thought ever I would be teaching or having a podcast or writing about it. I was just trying to feel better and help my family, help my dad. My dad was so broken. I mean, no matter what age that adult is or that child is, whether they're infant to you know, 43 like my sister, that is absolute heartbreak for a parent. And it really broke my father. And I was just trying to help him feel better. So I began studying these different modalities. I started with Azui Rahijo and then continued on to holy fire and then animal. And uh prior to my sister passing, my husband had an opportunity to go to El Paso, Texas. It was an offer he could not refuse. And um, you know, I had to let him follow his dream with this. And so the understanding that I would eventually get there. And so I was staying back with the kids. I had a few in college. I had uh my daughter and a foster daughter, I call her my bonus daughter, that um were still in high school. And uh, wanted to finish that out. Well, in that 2020, in the Christmas Eve, my father collapsed and he went to the hospital. Now we were still doing COVID and Pennsylvania was one of the stricter uh states there. So we couldn't go into the hospital to see him, or uh and then he went into rehabilitation, couldn't see him. He was out for a week and then back into the hospital. And when he went into that hospital, unfortunately, uh he never came out other to go to hospice. And we lost him in uh January of uh or uh June of 2021. And during this time, I was doing yoga, I was doing Reiki and all of these things, and I really upped it. I was just I'm an Aries energy. If anybody knows about that, it's go, go, go. That's how my family was always. My dad was always go, go, go, my sister was always go, go, go, uh, my mother always going as well. And so with this, I needed a little bit more time. And as time followed, I was getting very angry and frustrated about the idea of coming to El Paso. Even though my children are either finished with college or in college, I still feel this was another loss, leaving our home, leaving them, going there with our dogs and my husband, and my kids didn't want to go. So I started to get really angry and frustrated. And I used all of these things: prayer, um, the yoga, the Reiki. Um, I really leaned on my faith to help me through this. And it came to the point in um 2022 that it was time, it was time for me to go. There were many, many signs, and one particular sign, I gotta, I gotta go. I gotta go be with my husband. It's time. And uh it was in June of uh 2022. So this is why I'm uh sharing this this month with this, that um I went out. And the night before my husband's

El Paso, Anger, And A New Start

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uh had an RV that he rented, it broke down. And uh he brought the Jeep that he bought me and came out, and we had six dogs at the time, and me and the six dogs and him got in the jeep and we drove, and it was three days and 30 hours and a fun thing to do once in a lifetime. Uh and we made it to El Paso, Texas. So here I was at this point in time. I was 50 years old. I was rebuilding my life, I was a little bit angry about it because I had always made friends either through the work that I did or through my children. And it was kind of uh overwhelming that I was out here starting over. And I had a bit of anger in me. I began right away uh going to a yoga studio and I went there. I continued to learn and grow in Reiki and yoga. In July at a studio here, I went to a class of a new teacher and she said a cue, and my yoga teacher brain said, huh. And I went anyway, and I caused a tear. And when I got to a surgeon, an orthopedic surgeon, he took an x-ray. And oh my goodness, so many things going on. And this is years, years of things happening. And there was probably something genetic, of course. My mom had knee and hip issues as well. And my oldest daughter had some challenges with her hip as well. And here it was, he was quite surprised, the surgeon, that I was able to touch my toes the way that I looked like I had a 90-year-old hip. And he said, Well, you know, if you're not in any pain or discomfort, you know, push it as long as you can, but you're definitely going to be a candidate for a new hip. And so I went even harder into the Reiki and the yoga and uh the prayer. And uh through this time, it wasn't pain. I didn't feel any pain or discomfort. I could still go down and get pretty close to my toes as best as I could. And um then it finally hit. I was able to, in 2025, to go to the International Center of Reiki's uh Reiki retreat in Sedona. And uh long, not a long flight, it was an hour flight. However, the shuttle bus was a couple of hours and there was a lot of traffic and

The Tear That Changed Everything

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it was a little longer to get there. And by the time I had checked in uh and I had met someone on the shuttle, we became like instant friends and we met to go walk to the welcome ceremony. And she's like, Oh, are you okay? Like you're limping. And then it was the realization, oh, I think I'm running out of time here and I need to get this looked at. So when I came back uh to El Paso, I decided to um see my surgeon. We took an X-ray of it and he said, Yeah, it's looking in this direction. Um, let me know when you're ready. What we'll do is uh we you can meet again, and then I'll give you the information to move forward. So I hyped it up again and it was prayer, it was Reiki, it was modifying my practice. And I this time I was teaching 11 times a week, 11 times a week, my goodness. And that's not even the Reiki, this was just the yoga. So um here I was doing all of this, and I was feeling fantastic and everything, but I began to notice when I would model shavasna, when your feet kind of go out, my one leg started to get stuck. And then I began to notice when I would drive. So if you look at a clock and you know, your foot is straight at 12 o'clock, my foot would go between two, two and three. Like, huh, this isn't looking so good. And I made an appointment and I thought, for sure, for sure, you know, um he's gonna look at this and it's gonna be healed. It's going to be healed because you hear these stories and miraculous stories that things are healed. And he's like, Yeah, you know, I'm amazed you're able to walk in here and things, but this needs to get done. So I made the decision um to get this finished and get this uh taken care of and went and took the blood work in April. Everything went really well and had the surgery May 6th. Now, prior to the surgery, I did have a very good friend give me a Reiki session. I had people giving me Reiki prayers. Uh, if you're familiar with the Azui holy fire reiki, there is a world peace grid. Uh, many of uh those who are practitioners and that or masters have that grid there that they use uh for things that are on people's grids. And I had the surgery. And uh, interesting enough, a little story about a couple days before surgery when I saw this friend who gave me a Reiki session, she's also a massage therapist here in El Paso, Texas, and she did sacro on me. And while she was working on me, and I had shared that my sister had passed, one of my abilities is that I see things in dreams, and I have to see, in order for me to see things, my eyes have to be closed. I'm I'm not able to open them and see something in front of me. But if I close and go within, I can see it. So as I was laying on the table, um my sister was next to me and she

When Reiki Doesn’t “Fix” Mechanics

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was showing me the surgery. And uh I was on the table, and the surgeon was going very fast, very fast. And he was transparent, you could see through him. And then my sister uh pushed me and I went back in my body, and I was laying on the table and I looked and saw her, and she was waving, and then she disappeared, and it was like this um bullet train, like from Japan, and I began to see different scenes of different places that maybe I'm going to visit. And it was just the understanding that everything was going to be okay. And when I went on that May 6th in the morning and connected with my surgeon, he is this fantastic, calming, peaceful energy, amazing bedside. I knew everything was going to be okay. Now, the surgery should have been about about maybe about an hour, 15 minutes, hour, 50 minutes. And my husband's in medicine. And when I came out of surgery and my husband was able to come back, he's like, wow, he was fast. Like he did your surgery in 45 minutes. Makes you think of my little vision where he was like that. Healing went really well. Um, I could not have done this without my husband. I was at the top of my game with things. I cannot tell you the opportunities that were coming that I had to let go and say no to. You know, it'll come around. But things that I had been praying and manifesting, I journal were coming right at this time. And I could not do yoga for 12 weeks. I am six weeks into this now, so I still have six more weeks to go. I had to get subs for my online. These were opportunities I prayed for, like working with animals and children and just falling out of the sky. And here they were. And I had to say no. I could I could not physically do them because I had a restriction. And, you know, the Reiki was very instrumental the prayer, the trusting that what's going on here to be at the top of your game and then to have an injury. So it's Like the football player or the baseball player or the hockey player that it's at the top of their game and they get this injury that takes them out for the season. And this is kind of where I was with this things that I had dreamed about, hoped about, and here it here they are. And I had to say no. So when that person said, your mother's falling apart, I really believe that I'm being put back together. I was able to take some time off. I was always go, go, go, especially here when I got to El Paso. I had this kind of energy that I had to get things done. I was able just to give

Choosing Surgery With Support

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myself some time and really decide really what I want to do with my time. So it's really been a true blessing to allow me really to rest, to calm my mind, to figure out what do you want to do? Like what life do you want here? How do you want your life to move in the direction that you want? Now, I do, I did have a couple people who are in the healing business that will say, well, you are doing Reiki. You should not have any issues with an injury or blood pressure or anything like that. I did have somebody tell me, like, oh, they healed theirs and they went off and they did this, or they went to a shaman. Let me let me just address this. So in healing and in specifically Reiki, there's no, unless you are a doctor and nurse, there's no diagnosis, never going against a doctor. And I truly believe that God or the God of your understanding places doctors and the medical staff, nurses, all of those medications, things like that on this earth for a reason to help other people. And the thing of this is that the body wears out. Let's go back to the Bible. How many miracles that God or Jesus did with people? Okay, that he cured. Are these people still alive today? No. Well, we look at Noah, how long did Noah live, right? Into the 900s. And this was after uh after the flood. So the body's going to wear out. We're not here forever. We know that. So the body, no matter what I'm doing to it, you know, I can have be the most positive. I can do these things. And just with my dad, I gave him all the Reiki in the world and prayed and asked God and begged God. But it was my dad's time to go. That's my dad's journey. And this was a journey for me. And there was a reason why. Yeah, the Reiki helped and the prayer helped. So I wasn't in pain, but mechanically, my leg wasn't moving in the right direction. I had to kind of use my hand to put my foot straight. And it was the understanding that, yeah, this needs to be done and having faith that it's going to be

A Vision Of My Sister’s Reassurance

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okay. And um, knowing that it's my journey, that I did need to rest, that I did need to take care of a few things and to really decide what the purpose is. So it is a tool to help you, but also the realization that sometimes things break and some and they need to be fixed and to clear the fear and use those uh principles. I'm not going to worry today. I'm I'm gonna put this in God's hands, or I'm, you know, and the Reiki help with this healing and it the positive attitude help with the healing. And it was a collaboration uh with those people around me that will be praying for you, we'll be sending Reiki for you. And it's just like, wow, like, okay, I I got this. I I really got this. And I think this is instrumental in how my healing has happened, how I'm able to, you know, get up after a couple of weeks and do well in physical therapy and be on the mend, but not only physically, but emotionally and mentally. And this is where the tool comes in. Now you're going to find many different systems of Reiki right now. Oh my goodness, there's so many. And there's an interesting thing happening where people are, you have these traditionalists that are not open to the new things and it can't be done online, it can't be done in person. You're going to find um Reiki that, like, oh, okay, I only think that there's one Reiki. Well, do your research. There is different Reikis out there. Lots of them are complementary, lots of them are specialty. Many people

Recovery, Rest, And Saying No

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become a master and decide or feel called or channeled to create their own system. So do your research when you do this. Uh, there's everything from rainbow to renegade to mermaid to dolphin, but it all stems up from the Azui Rahijo. But know this, there were other systems prior to the Azui Rahiho. There was actually a book in 1919 prior to Azui Sensei connecting with the energy. And also, it's really up to you what you feel comfortable with. You're going to see so many different things out there. But realize there's always been a lot of healing modalities throughout history and time. But it was underground. People were quiet about it. We're loud about it now because of social media. This is why you're hearing about this. You know, what happened when people were accused of witches, right? Set on fire, right? Drowned, you know, you name it. And so it was silenced. And now we're at a time where we can get on social media and proudly say, I'm this and this and this, and be your unique self. So this is why you're hearing a lot of this. The Reiki, you're hearing a lot of different systems because people are like, okay, well, I'm going to make my own and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do my own way. Research, take your time. You have the greatest tool here on your phone, on your laptop. Check it out. Try to find something international that's known. A Zoe Rahihos known. Azui holy fire is as international as well. That's known. And if there's a specialty one that's only say special to Texas, then hopefully your master teacher will say that to you. Say, I just want to let you know that this is a system that I created. You're probably going to travel the world and they're not going to know what this is in Japan or Germany. Transparency is important. And what your master teacher has studied as well. If they, oh, I watched a YouTube video, oh, I went on the line and I learned this. You want somebody who's been guided by a teacher. So we want to respect all lineages, all levels, all schools of Reiki. And so do your homework, do your research because you're spending money. You're spending a couple hundred dollars. If you're spending $9 or $14,

Reiki And Medicine Can Coexist

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this is, don't take the cheap way. If you're going to go out, if you're going to go out and you're going to teach others and you're going to be a service to others, put the investment in, put the time in, right? You don't want to go to a dentist or a doctor that spent $9.99 on their training, right? So this is energy work. It's important who lays hands on you as well. So this is the understanding that all of these things working together to bring healing into my journey. And maybe you'll explore Reiki and it may not be for you. And that's okay. I've had people on the show that it's not for them. That's all right. There are a lot of different things. Like I got trained in Zumba. Zumba's not my thing. I just can't get into it. It's not my thing. Growing up as a child, my mom put me in ballet classes. It wasn't my thing. It was my sister's thing. I just could not get into it. And that's okay. If Reiki is a reason why you're like, okay, this isn't working. Let me try something else. It's a stepping stool, and that's all right as well. There's no judgment with this. It is a part of your healing journey, and that is to be respected. So this is my journey of letting you know that I'm not falling apart, that I'm being put back together. As a young girl, I always wanted to be like the bionic woman. So I got a little piece, a little bit closer to being her. So keep exploring, keep learning. And whatever struggles you're going through, find your just right. I call it the Goldilocks. Find what works for you. If you need that medication and you're in communication with your doctor and it's

How To Choose Reiki Training Wisely

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a decision between you and your doctor, fantastic. If you need talk therapy, perfect. Prayer works for you, great. Yoga, great. Um, Pilates, you name it. Uh, there's so many different fitness uh things out there. If Azui Rahiho isn't working for you, no, there's other systems as well. Give it a try, right? You're learning, you're growing. These are your teachers. You can learn, and it can be a teachable moment that, yeah, I don't like that. Like, hmm, just like you have different ice creams. You may, you know, not like pistachio, you might not like cashew, you might not like chocolate, but ooh, do you love strawberry, right? You're exploring. And, you know, Tony Bennett said that if you live long enough, life will teach you how to live. And we have these beautiful opportunities, we have these beautiful modalities that you can pick and choose. So that way, when you get triggered, when you get angry, instead of going nuts on someone, you can place your hands and say, just for today, I will not get angry, I will not knock somebody out, and go from there. So that is my story in my journey. And I hope that I've inspired you, encouraged you. You've got this, and I'm so proud of you for taking the step in any direction that you go. Remember, Reiki is a journey, it's

Goldilocks Healing And Final Encouragement

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not a destination. Because sometimes in the journey, you'll have to stop, you'll have to pivot, you'll have to completely change directions, and sometimes you'll have to take a few steps back, or sometimes you'll have to turn around and go all the way back and start over. But either way, you got this, and I'm very proud of you. I hope that I have helped you in your journey of life, and thank you for being a part of mine. Love, light, and feathers.