In keeping with my annual tradition (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008), this Samhain Eve I’m reflecting on everything that’s happened this year.

In 2013, I AAAed 18 more catas. We finished watching Midsomer Murders. The most beautiful video game I played was Fez and the most inspiring was Antichamber. My favorite book of 2013 was Finding Your Way in a Wild New World by Martha Beck, and my second favorite was Decisive by the Heath Brothers. I read everything by Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, and Charles Stross.

In November 2012, we lived (in our RV) in Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, and Florida. We celebrated our anniversary in Hot Springs, Arkansas, we celebrated Thanksgiving with my mom in Atlanta, and we visited Snowcrash (my dad) in Tampa. We saw serendipitous manatees! We had our massive Pay-Whatcha-Wanna sale on all our old stuff. And we went to Disney World with Lorena!


In December 2012, we made our epic 3,000-mile U-turn and narrowly avoided exploding poop. This was the beginning of the end for our RV adventures. We thought we’d be living in Philadelphia and New York with friends, but we ended up in North Carolina alone. We did get to see Kelly and Patti, though, and Kyeli got into birding and deeper into photography. (All these lovely photos are, of course, Kyeli’s.)


In January, we lived in Cedar Key, Florida and experienced oodles of glorious sunsets. And dolphins. We started taking vitamin B12, and it was like sunshine in pill form. Wowzers! We unveiled Edgewalker Academy, but had to re-rebrand to Pace and Kyeli only a month later. That, plus spending time with Chris & Cherie and our other NuRVer friends, took up most of our January.


In February, we left Cedar Key and lived in Austin most of the month. I remarried Kyeli with my eyes wide open. And I experienced my spiritual awakening.


In March, we lived in Austin. We decided to sell our RV and move to Portland. We created and launched a new course called The Upward Spiral. We hung out near SXSWi and reconnected with friends. Johnny stayed with us in our RV, and I said to him, “No, this switch is the light. That switch collapses our home.”


In April, we sold the RV. We purged an additional 50% of our physical possessions and jammed the remainder – plus our son, plus our two cats – into our Honda Fit. We were technically homeless; everything we owned was in our car, and we stayed in motels during our road trip to Portland. On our road trip, we stopped at Carlsbad Caverns, Zion National Park (where I climbed Angel’s Landing!), and Disneyland. We made a 500-mile U-turn to avoid a blizzard in Colorado, but it was no sweat because we had already practiced making much more epic U-turns.


In May, we moved to Portland! I assembled an Ikea HEMNES bed wholeheartedly. We went out to dinner one night and looked around the restaurant. I didn’t have the craziest hair and Kyeli didn’t have the most tattoos – and we knew we had found our new home. Kyeli went on sabbatical, which turned out to be a permanent sabbatical. And we started our first podcast, Wild Crazy Meaningful Life.


In June, I soft-launched Spiritual Rollercoaster Academy and we taught at App Camp for Girls.


In July, Kyeli released her first fiction book, Time & Again, co-authored with Ellie. We attended WDS and had our hearts blown wide open by Indie Kindred and much more. Dyana stayed with us, and it was awesome. Kyeli got her nose pierced and had her first photography gig – shooting Jonathan Mead’s Paid to Exist meetup. I hiked Cascade Head with Jen Hofmann, and Kyeli made an emergency trip to Texas to visit her mom in the hospital. (She’s okay now.) And I opened Spiritual Rollercoaster Academy to the public, with my first course being Peaceful Productivity. It was a big hit!


In August, I took lots of pictures of myself for Viv‘s Be Your Own Beloved course. Kyeli attempted to get a puppy but it didn’t work out. I began my Five Weeks of Super Busyness Experiment. And Kyeli and I broke up. (only business-wise, of course.) Now I focus on helping spiritual entrepreneurs, and Kyeli is an indie photographer.


In September, I started my own podcast, The Spiritual Entrepreneur. I launched the 4th Annual World-Changing Writing Workshop. We went to Canada to visit Viv and attend her talk on self-portraiture. And last but not least, I shook Jonathan Blow‘s hand. (Pardon me, I’m having a fangirl moment.)


In October, Kyeli traveled to Georgia to photograph Patti Digh’s Design Your Life Camp. Then our son came to visit for two weeks, so I took a mostly-vacation and we did lots of fun and geeky things together. After that, Kyeli hurt her hip and was laid up for two weeks.


2013 was a year of following our dreams, and getting clear on the truth behind our dreams.

We started out living our nomadic RV dream and had lots of great adventures… then we realized it wasn’t what we truly wanted. So we sold the RV.

We moved to Portland and continued living our self-employment dream… then we realized that having one business with the two of us mushed together wasn’t what we truly wanted. So we forked the business.

2013 was a year of letting go of the old to make room for the new.

Thank you, 2013. Thank you for surprising me. Thank you for taking me to my destination the long way around.

It was exactly what I needed.

Feel clear and confident about your direction in life!

Do you wish you could follow your heart, but it seems impossible? I can help you find the clarity and courage you need.

In other words, I can help you find your path.