Anna Kaehler

writer. beachcomber. dreamer

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An Authentic Life

The Thing About My Feet

An Authentic Life, Self-discovery By annakaehler June 10, 2024 No Comments

The thing about my feet is that I love them. They are the most capable feet I have ever possessed, and they’re a part of me I thought I rather shamelessly admired.

My feet do not conform to any western beauty standards. I don’t apply nail polish to them and only sometimes do I shave off the four to five dark hairs that sprout from my big toes after a good night’s sleep. I tend toward an inherited pair of bunions, and my left little toenail doesn’t really grow in at all, appearing as a Plutonian crescent orbiting the outskirts of my lower cosmos.

Please Show Me

An Authentic Life, Change By annakaehler September 11, 2022 No Comments

I just got off the phone with a friend who is going through an Enormous Life Event. It’s one of those rites of passage most of us will experience—the passing of a parent—with all its attendant emotions, requirements, and mind-splattering world alterations. In short, it’s an effing lot.

Ahimsa and the Tale of the Trees

An Authentic Life, Self-discovery By annakaehler September 29, 2020 No Comments

The first time I heard the word Ahimsa—the yogic principle that translates to absence of injury or non-violence—my body was torqued into a position of considerable pain.

I stood on one leg, the other bent with foot placed on my supporting inner thigh. Arms aloft, standing ankle in a chronic wobble, whole body alternately swaying and clenching to hold the position. Sweat bled from my hairline. I hung on each second, begging it to end.

What We Open Up

An Authentic Life, Change, Self-discovery By annakaehler May 3, 2020 No Comments

The world of woo has changed pretty radically in the past 10-20 years. Slowly, surely the occult has become less other, and today we have influencers and celebrities freely endorsing their preferred mediums and shamans. CEOs now take vision quests and share these experiences with their leadership teams. Certain astrologers and their kin have even become celebrities themselves. Practices that were once strictly supernatural have become… well, kinda super regular.

Transformation

An Authentic Life, Change, Coming out, Divorce, Self-discovery By annakaehler April 11, 2020 No Comments

A little over four years ago I went through the biggest transformation of my life. It happened fast, yet was a long time in the making. Difficult and complex. And as simple as an exhale once I allowed it to happen.

Care

An Authentic Life, Change, Communication, Self-discovery By annakaehler April 1, 2020 No Comments

There’s a big movement happening, and it seems to me it is coming from the earth up. I can feel it under my feet on my daily walks, which I now commit to in taking care of myself. It’s been a long time since I regularly walked for my health. I’ve got a little more time for it now with work going remote, a little more flexibility. But that isn’t the real reason.

Distance, Desire, and a New Sensing

An Authentic Life, Change, Self-discovery, Writing By annakaehler March 19, 2020 3 Comments

These are early days, still. This fact, if nothing else, seems clear.

We are “social distancing” and this is wise. We are trying to shop generously by leaving something on the shelves for our neighbor. Netflix hasn’t crashed (yet), which would undoubtedly send the quarantined over the edge.

We are witnessing the changing trajectory of our world in real time.

Balancing Act

An Authentic Life, Mountains, Self-discovery By annakaehler March 14, 2020 No Comments

Last week a friend asked me to attend a sobriety meeting with her. As it turned out, she had to bring a friend or family member to this one as part of the program’s exit process. We don’t talk often enough, and this friend of mine rarely asks for help, so I said yes right away.

Dear Miss Perfection

An Authentic Life, Coming out, Self-discovery, Writing By annakaehler February 27, 2020 No Comments

I have an absurd confession. Ready for it? Okay, here goes:

I do not consider myself a perfectionist because I have never created anything perfect.

See, I told you it was absurd. My lifelong battle with perfectionism and disappointment and hiding and isolation summed up in one blurt.

Fearless

An Authentic Life, Self-discovery, Writing By annakaehler February 15, 2020 No Comments

I am reading a memoir right now with that all-too-familiar blurb on the front: “Fearless” the blurber cries. I didn’t notice this until after I had taken the book home, begun it, and learned a little bit about what was inside. And I can tell you that if the book was truly fearless, I would have zero interest in it.

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