Episode 8: Summer Solstice with Katie May

Welcome in, friends. This episode drops right on the summer solstice, and Dorsey is joined by longtime friend Katie, a soul and sacred feminine guide for women and mothers, for a deep, heart-led conversation about what it means to live aligned.

Together they explore sacred motherhood as a spiritual practice, the death-and-rebirth nature of becoming a mom, and how to break generational patterns instead of repeating them. Katie, who has also spent 20 years as a nurse, much of it in palliative and end-of-life care, shares the powerful parallels she's drawn between birth and death, and how living fully now is the key to a peaceful end of life.

The conversation moves through grounding practices for staying centered in the body, the importance of community for women (especially mothers), and how feng shui and sacred space-making mirror our inner state. Katie closes with a beautiful solstice love note on the power of play, especially in motherhood.

In this episode:

• What "sacred motherhood" really means, and why it doesn't have to follow anyone else's paradigm
• Breaking inherited patterns and honoring the women who came before us
• Grounding through the body: breath, movement, nature, and basic self-care
• Why community, in person or online, is medicine for women
• Lessons on living fully from 20 years in palliative and end-of-life nursing
• A summer solstice invitation to bring more play into motherhood and daily life

Connect with Katie and learn more about her Sacred Year Project and Summer Month of Mystery via the following links:

The Month of Mystery
Join The Sacred Year Project — embrace yourself whole

Have questions or want personalized support? Email Dorsey at dorseybeckman@gmail.com, or find links below for a personalized & foundational Feng Shui Element Reading and home Feng Shui Consultations.

go BE YOU.  love, Dorsey

Girl Nature Podcast.

https://stan.store/girlnatureliving

dorseybeckman@gmail.com

Transcript

Dorsey 0:00

I'm Dorsey and welcome to Girl Nature. The name Girl Nature began back in college. My roommate started calling me that almost from day one. It's a reminder that nature has always been my compass. My classroom and my way home each month. I'll meet you here around the time of the Full Moon to explore how the rhythms of the natural world can shape the way we live, create, and connect. Before we dive in, take a moment with me to arrive. Place your hands crossed across your chest, over your heart. Keep your palms anchored into your heart space while gently tapping your fingertips. Unclench your jaw, soften your shoulders and take one. So breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Let this breath mark your intention for today. Something simple like, "I'm here.", or "I'm open.", or "I am okay". That's all you need. Let's begin.

Dorsey 2:40

Welcome in everyone. This episode is dropping on this summer solstice, and it's a time of light, of fullness, of pausing to honor how far we've come, and we invite you to step into this conversation with that same spirit and. There are people who come into your life and just make it better, and today's guest is one of those people. For me, Katie and I go way back. We're high school friends, we played volleyball together, and I have always admired her for her integrity. Her humor and her genuine kindness. She's the real deal. Katie is a soul and sacred feminine guide for women and mothers. She creates safe, sacred space for women to reconnect with themselves, reclaim their truest expression. And step into a life that feels deeply aligned with who they really are. She believes, and I love this, that our journey doesn't have to define our confine us. It can expand us. Katie works through the Akashic frequency and leads with her whole heart holding space for women and mothers. To be revered, honored, and nurtured in a world that doesn't always offer that. If you're someone who likes to go deep and lead with vulnerability, she's absolutely your person. And I have to say, if you haven't been to our website yet. Just to hear her voice. It is beautiful and it perfectly matches the warmth and wisdom she brings to everything she does. Katie, welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here. It's a dream come true and I'm so grateful to be sharing this space with you.

Katie 4:34

Oh, thank you so much. That was just so lovely. Thank you. I was like, is she talking about me? Of course I am. I love it. Thank you so much. I'm so honored to be here and yes, we go so far back. It's so funny, like how life weaves, you know, and, and you find people and reconnect again. So, so good to connect with you.

Dorsey 4:55

Absolutely. It's been wonderful and to be sharing this online. Space together and this journey of motherhood. And that's where I wanna start is we're both mothers and it feels to me being a mother in today's culture, can feel very lonely and isolating and feels like we're lacking a bit of that community that we used to have in, maybe older culture times. And I would just love for you to expand a little bit on sacred motherhood. And what it means to you.

Katie 5:27

Yeah, so I mean, I always say that motherhood was my first awakening. When I became a mom about 13 years ago, a little over 13 years ago now, I had no idea like. I mean, you see, you watch your mom and, and obviously like other women in your life, mother and I feel like it's not something we really talk about, like how hard motherhood is. Like it's so disruptive, right? So uprooting for a time and really, I. I would just say like it's a, it's a death and rebirth situation like, you know. Yeah. We're really asked to die to self and be emerged as this new woman, and I think the term sacred motherhood really came through to me probably about six or seven years ago when I was really sitting with this journey of motherhood and like, what does it mean to. Be a mother, hold the energy of creation and then birth these beings, and then love and nurture and care for these beings while also not completely losing yourself in the process of it all. And like you said, we don't, we don't have the same setup that, generationally our ancestors did, where we lived in tribes and we could share responsibilities, you know, and, and we've sort of individuated, which is good I guess, but it's left us feeling very lonely because we're asked to do all of these things on our own. And it's exhausting.

Dorsey 7:01

It's exhausting. Is totally exhausting and it feels as though, I remember for me, we had the first two kiddos right in a row, and I'm thinking this is impossible. Like my whole being felt. Cooking dinner, getting up to cook dinner was impossible. There's no way around it. And I feel, I have felt oftentimes I'm getting up to do the impossible over and over again, which can be so hard.

Katie 7:31

Oh my gosh. So hard. So hard. Yeah. And I think to me, sacred motherhood really called me into a deepening with the devotion. Of that, and I really like to look at motherhood as a spiritual practice because it requires a devotion from you, like you said, to get up and do the impossible or what feels impossible day in and day out. Even when you don't have what you think is the energy you need to do it, you do it and somehow you look back and you're like, how did I do that right? Like, how did I make it through that? There was this really interesting dance in motherhood that I started to move into with martyrdom too. And do I have to do all these things or do I have to continue this pace? Do I have to sacrifice myself for the sake of this? And the answer is no, you don't. Yep. And so that's also part of the sacredness of motherhood is getting to redefine. What your own motherhood looks like. It doesn't need to follow a paradigm. It doesn't need to look like how your mom did it or how your best friend is doing it. You have to decide for you what works for you and your family and your children. And for me, that looked like really a reclamation. Of deeper parts of myself, parts that I had sort of put away and thought would never return again, but allowing all of me to be at the table with my kids, not just the mom part, but like the human part. Because that's essentially like I was slipping into this stage of like, oh, I need it to look, motherhood needs to look perfect to them. I need them to see me in a certain light. It's like, no, you're a human. Human first, mother, second period.

Dorsey 9:22

Yeah, totally. And it feels like. Being able to hold yourself in this safe space so that you can bloom and know that you're exactly at the right place at the right time. We all make mistakes, but that's like kind of besides the point. It's just knowing that you're being held and that you can blossom and bloom and feel confident and have boundaries and, Really have fun too.

Katie 9:53

Absolutely. It's so much fun if you let it be, but in my experience, I had to really surrender to a lot of the way I thought it was should be or was going to be, and just accept it for what it is. And also realize for me, you know, I have two daughters and so. I don't know if it's different or the same for a mom of sons, but you could speak to this for you. But I felt like at every stage and age, my kids were actually was a mirror back to my own inner child. And the more I resisted. Looking at that and healing that for myself, the more discord we would have, because there was just like this part of me that wanted to lash out at them because they were being human, they were being children. And maybe it was a part of me that I didn't get to claim when I was that age. Right. Maybe there was a totally part of me that got silenced or. Got told like, this was too much or you were too emotional, or you were too this or that. And it was the more I looked at that, I was like, oh, this is my shit. This is not them. Totally. This is mine.

Dorsey 11:00

Yes. And claiming that and taking responsibility for it, which can also be really tough. So what are some of your practices in becoming this. Mother and becoming this whole person that you show up for your kids. What, what have you done? What are some of your practices?

Katie 11:20

I think the first thing I encourage women to do is look at their own story and hold reverence for that. Because we all have history, we all have experiences, we all have different, I personally believe we have different soul contracts with ourselves and with our partners and with our children, and so there's a lot at play. With the dynamics of a family and and your relationships. And so I think the more you can sit with your own story, your own history, what you've been through, what your own parents were like, what your own relationship to parenting was like. That's where you really start to see some of those unconscious beliefs and things that come in and impact how you can show up to your own motherhood. So we have to bring those to light in order to really start to see, okay, well this is a pattern. I've gotten stuck in this pattern because that's how I was raised, or that's how I was taught to be around X, Y, Z, right? And when we can start to hold reverence for that, and we can say like. That's how it was. But it doesn't have to stay that way. I don't have to repeat that pattern. I can break a cycle. I can shift out of a cycle. And in fact, if you are feeling the call of this, you're meant to break that cycle in your, in your life. Because some of these patterns have gone on for generations, you know?

Dorsey 12:42

Yes. Yeah.

Katie 12:43

And I think, I actually think about, and I hold a lot of reverence for even my own ancestors. If you think about, like my grandmother, she grew up during the Great Depression. Yep. She was just trying to survive survival mode. Yeah. There was no emotional support No. Like that, that wasn't even talked about. Yeah, it was like you just be a mother and you get through it, right? Yep. And even my own mom, she was a working mom. She was in the trenches. She was, trying to do her best. But I have so much grace and so much reverence for how, they pushed through. But that survival also lives in my nervous system.

Dorsey 13:28

It totally does, and it can be passed on to even our children. And the key that I hear there too, and what I really agree with is honoring who came before us. And I think that provides us a safe space to move forward into how we want to become. It feels like a good way, like a graceful way to move forward. Yeah. Moving on. I saw this sentence from your website and I'm gonna read it 'cause I think it's amazing. It's imagine coming home to a sanctuary of tranquility where you can unwind, release stress, and recharge your inner battery. Sacred living will transform your living environment into a sacred temple that radiates positive energy from the inside out. I love this, and especially with regard to feng shui, it's. Totally. That that is feng shui. Exactly. It's creating environment that you feed off of, that you interact with to make your dreams come true. And bringing it back to feng shui. The, center of a home is the earth space. It's the health and overall wellness of your home. And I'm wondering, how do you stay grounded in your center and how does that ground your clients?

Katie 14:49

Hmm. So I always bring it back to the body actually, because yes, I, I love feng shui and our space is an external projection of our internal state a lot of times. And so I do believe there's such a dance with that and. To me, the body is the home like the bo. So if we could take care of all of our space around us, but if we aren't taking care of our vessel, our body. We are not going to find peace and tranquility. Right? Totally. Because we are ma, we are such divine beings too. We're made up with such a network of cells and blood vessels and nerves and there's just so much to our physical body and. I believe we're also divine souls, right? Our, body is a vessel for our soul. So to me, what I love to ground with is a lot of soul work, a lot of connection to the ether and other rounds and working with spirits. But also I'm in the 3D and I'm very 3D and I'm a human. So bringing it into the body. So for me, that looks like a lot of movement. A lot of barefoot walking on the earth, a lot of touching nature, picking up flowers and sticks and leaves and creating little mini altars sometimes wherever I go, just something that says, you know what? You're part of a whole. Yeah, you're part of a whole. And reminding myself that and reminding myself that my body gets to anchor me. Into this earth right now. That's where I'm meant to be. That's where I'm supposed to be. So even just, if I'm starting to work with someone and they're like, I don't even know where to start. It's like, okay, let's look at are you sleeping? Are you getting good nutrition? Are you drinking enough water? Are you moving your body? Like basic things, basics. If people are doing those things and they're still I don't know, then we go deeper. Into the soul piece, into the work, but in my experience, in order to stay really grounded. Those physical pieces have to be practiced because otherwise you're gonna get so dysregulated, so easily, especially in our current world because there's so many things that can pull us away. But reminding yourself even just coming back to your breath is such an important act. Like taking a few intentional breaths. Feeling your body, noticing how you're feeling, and then allowing yourself to move with that energy. That's one of the main things that I do almost multiple times a day actually. It's not even a once a day thing. Yeah, it's multiple times a day.

Dorsey 17:28

Yeah, totally. Yeah. What we've learned also in feng shui, she compares it to the Maslow's pyramid. So if this bottom foundational layer, if you're not getting this proper sleep, like you were saying, if you're not feeling safe in your home, all those needs have to be met before we start to move upward and self-actualize. So I totally agree with that. Yes. So let's move on to our next question, and it was for us, we live on complete opposite sides of the country, and you're in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I'm in the Willamette Valley of the Pacific Northwest. So how can we show up in community to support one another? Across fast spaces across the world to one another and to support one another. And perhaps to us specifically, but to everyone listening, what feels alive and important for women during this time and connection?

Katie 18:33

Mm. So I think finding spaces, whether that be in person or. Online. I mean, we're so lucky to now have so many online connections and the ability to even have this conversation across the country is amazing and. I have made so many connections with women across the country, across the world, over the last few years. And I think one thing that I've noticed as we sit with each other and as we share and we hold reverence again, back to the reverence of each of our stories, and we witness each other and we learn from each other, that is the medicine. Yeah. When women, gather, no matter if it's in person or online. There's just immediate magic in medicine because that's how we were created to be in community. And so I think we're really moving out of, we're still in a lot of learning of how to, but we're moving out of this space of lone wolf in back into, I need people, I need support, I need community. And I think the first step is just admitting I need community. And wanting that and finding your people. Mm-hmm. And so, I created an online community called The Sacred Year Project, in 2023 for this very reason. One because I was interested in learning more about Sacred Living and how to make that a part of our day-to-day and. And then I wanted to invite other people in, other women in to join and learn with me. And from that, we've really birthed such a beautiful communal space where we meet at least once a month, sometimes more often, and connect on different themes. We work with the seasons, we talk about, different archetypes and different things that are going on For us as women coming back to the body, we do a lot of embodiment work, a lot of activation. So I think. If it's not the sacred of your project, find your space. Find where you can connect with other women and make an intention to just show up. Half the battle sometimes is just showing up. Show up, keep showing up. And even if you don't speak at first, you just sit and you observe and you listen. You're going to get so much out of that. Yep. And just being in community again and feeling the aliveness within yourself, and then you can bring that back to your family. Absolutely. Yes. Because, when we are well watered women and we're resourced, our family only benefits from that.

Dorsey 21:04

Yeah, I've noticed that firsthand when I let go of self-care practices, it's when. My attitude towards my kids is terrible. Yeah. I get frustrated. I get mad and it's like, wait a minute. It's just because I'm very dysregulated within myself, or I haven't been with community to. Feel a part of the whole

Katie 21:32

Yes. Yeah. So because it's so easy to slip into that lone wolf, I'm the only one struggling or nobody else is going through this mentality. And then when you sit with other people and you hear. Oh, we're all going through it differently. Yeah. But we're all going through our own version of this, and I'm not alone. And I do have people that can support me and at least listen and be a resource and can give me encouragement, and I think that's so important.

Dorsey 22:02

Mm-hmm. Katie, so you're also a nurse. How long have you been a nurse?

Katie 22:07

20 years. 20 years.

Dorsey 22:10

That's amazing. What an accomplishment. Yeah, it's crazy to feel like I've been old enough to be anything for that long, but yeah, that's the reality. I'm curious, just real quick, this wasn't in our notes pre-planned, but like being a nurse, and you'll have to explain what kind of nurse you are too, but you're in end of life care. Mm-hmm. Aren't you? And then how that. And interrelates with your work I think there's a huge connection there and it explains so much of your being and what you're bringing to this world, and it's amazing.

Katie 22:48

Mm. Thank you for witnessing that. Yeah. So I've worked in palliative and end of life care for the last 15 years or so, and, um, you know, uh. I started to really draw some parallels with death and birth. First of all, how we enter the world, how we exit the world, and then it's like looking at this time in between birth and death and what do we do with it, right? Like, because so many people I would take care of at the end of life, some of them had no regrets and they had lived a full life and they were like, I'm okay and ready to go. But then a lot of people were like. I wish I would have X, Y, Z. Mm-hmm. Right. And I kept running up to this edge of like, how, how do we help people feel at peace with their experience on earth in this lifetime? And I would see all these unresolved issues and things that they had carried with them for decades. Right? And it really sparked my curiosity in how could I help support people upstream to live the most full experience? And, there's no guarantees of not having regrets at the end of life, but In my experience, the more fully we live now, the more fully we take charge of how we want to live our life. Leads to a better end of life experience because you're not gonna arrive with all these wish I could have, should have. Or injured relationships. Right. That you Yeah. Went through. So not that it's perfect, but I think helping, especially women and mothers, because I believe personally, we as women and mothers are, we hold. Creation energy, we birth life. We are the ones that are here to continue life. And we've been really suppressed and stifled in our own expression of that and in what that looks like and means for us. And so that's what really started my journey into coaching because I wanted to help people really connect with those parts of themselves that they had cut off, eliminated. You know, thought weren't good enough or whatever the stories are that we tell ourselves and bring people back to their wholeness so that they can live from that place instead of living from a very fragmented, disjointed place.

Dorsey 25:07

Wow. I'm just so amazed at the work that you've done and what an opportunity to be able to see though. Holistic point of view of this life and death because it is so interconnected and related and what an opportunity to dive into our life right now. So what, if you have any, a love note that you would like to give our listeners right now? In this moment of time during the summer solstice. And given everything that we've talked about being aligned within our body and then then expanding into our whole creation of self and, yeah. What, what love note might you have?

Katie 25:53

Well, the summer solstice always. Such a beautiful time of returning to the light. And it's also the season of the mother energy. So, and we could talk about that all day. With each season there's a different feminine archetype, but the summer is the mother. And so for me that's a very nurturing, loving, tender energy, but also like so much play. And that's a message I've really been getting a lot lately is. But how much can you play though? Like that's the message that like, can you really let yourself, and especially as mothers, I think we have an invitation to play with our kids, to let them lead us, to let them bring us back to that playful, creative spirit. You know, whether it be like. Making friendship bracelets or painting or dancing in the kitchen or whatever, but can you be expressive and creative and playful? Because the more you can connect with that, the more you are going to feel alive, because that's just how it is. That's just how it works. Especially this time of the season, we can be outside and the invitation is open for all sorts of play and.

Dorsey 27:04

You have the summer month of mystery coming up, and then you're opening the doors for your Sacred Year project again. Do you wanna expand on that just a little bit before we sign off?

Katie 27:18

Yes. So the doors for our summer month of mystery are open 'cause they'll be opening in June. So, um, they'll be open and that's gonna be a month container to join, to get a taste of what we work with in the Sacred Year project throughout the year. But it's a way for you to dip into the month of mystery. We talk a lot about masculine and feminine energetics. We talk a lot about this. Soul. We talk a lot about the soma, the body and how to really integrate all of it so that you can come back into an alignment with yourself and with the earth and with what you're moving through in your own journey. My co creatrix Shay and I, lead temples every week in the month of mystery. We also have a private group chat and we share activations and resources. Throughout the week as well. Mm-hmm. So it's a really good way if you're curious about our community. Wanna see what it's like? You can dip into the month of mystery and then if you like it, you wanna join us. The Sacred Year project is a continual month to month, container that we hold for the whole year. And so the doors will be open to join in for that for the rest of 20 26, 20 27. So.

Dorsey 28:25

I will make sure it's all linked. And what an opportunity for everyone to experience your work and your being. Katie is nothing short of amazing and, really knows how to hold space and And I'm so grateful that we were able to do this today. Thank you.

Katie 28:46

Thank you so much for having me. It's been such a pleasure and I just love all that you're putting out and all the work you're doing to really speak to the integration of this too. 'cause Feng shui is such an, I feel like integrative way to embody this as well. So you're doing great work and I'm so honored.

Dorsey 29:03

Thank you. Okay, that's a wrap. The links for both Katie's Summer Month of Mystery School, which is open now starting July 7th, and for her year-long sacred project are linked below. And her Summer Month of Mystery looks amazing. It starts out as it's for the women ready to lead in this time, and I believe it's only, like, $44 to join the month. So I think I'm gonna join if you wanna join with me. And then bringing it back to the summer solstice, welcome in. I'm so glad we have made it, the longest day of the year. It is our time to shine, and, um, it's a time to making our inner light shine. And one of the fun ways that I like to do this is really concentrating on the transitions in your home. So when you see, like, for example, going maybe from carpet to hard floor, those transitions and what might be stuck in there, and what maybe we can shine up in those transitions to truly let our inner light shine during this season. And I will definitely be back soon. And in the meantime, I am going to be doing undertaking, um, another decluttering course with my feng shui teacher, Dana Claudette. Our interview is episode number two on this show. So if you wanna listen to her, please feel free to jump back to number two. Otherwise, join along with me, during this summer month of radical decluttering, and it's a really good starting point if you feel stuck, don't know which direction to go, um, things feel a little sticky. It's time to start decluttering. So join me there. And then also, as always, if you want further support, please email me at dorseybeckman@gmail.com. And I'll also link below the links to get a personalized element reading done, a feng shui element reading where you'll get personalized lifestyle recommendations to start moving more in flow and more in balance, all based on your intentions and goals. And then also, my second offering is a full home feng shui consultation. It can be all your entire home, or we can concentrate on, for example, your home office or your bedroom. So everything's linked below. I will be back with you guys soon. Until then, go be you.